The team empties their notebooks on the Portal as well as both football and basketball recruiting in this week’s Friday File.

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The Unwritten Rule breaks down Missouri baseball's first SEC win and series sweep over Texas A&M. The guys talk hoops, including Dickey Nutt returning to an assistant role for the men’s basketball team and the Bowers vs. Carroll alumni game. The show finishes with Quick Hits: Luther Burden III already needs a new number and other NFL numbers for former Missouri players.

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It’s Monday morning, so it’s time for me to let you all know what’s been on my mind the past week. Graduation this week lined up pretty well with when I first started on the beat for the Jefferson City News Tribune, so I figured I would take a look at some of my favorite games to cover from the past four years that hopefully lines up pretty well with the graduating seniors’ memories.

And since average students don’t transfer as much as athletes, nor do they get COVID years and redshirts (though I did take a fifth year), we’re just looking at the past four.

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Missouri will begin its official visit season May 30, the first of three weekends it plans to host Class of 2026 recruits.

The Tigers will also begin camps at the beginning of June, but before that busy stretch starts, let's take a look at how the program might look to fill out its current class in Monday's mailbag.

@RockwallTiger: Care to predict what high school offensive tackles we might sign?​

Offensive line coach Brandon Jones currently has three offensive tackles set to officially visit in the coming weeks: Brandon Anderson, Bennett Fraser and Evan Goodwin. Yet although listed as a tackle, Anderson received interest from Jones on the interior.

Goodwin's relationship with head coach Eli Drinkwitz will go a long way in his recruitment, and as long as the Tigers want to take Fraser, he looks like a stronger lean for Missouri as Kansas State stands as the top competitor.

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Oklahoma State made a strong impression on Goodwin during his official visit earlier this month. The four-star also has his Mississippi State trip set for the final weekend of the official visit period, while Missouri got sandwiched in for June 6-8.

Prediction: Fraser and Goodwin both sign with Missouri.​

At one point in the 2025 class, Missouri held pledges from three offensive tackles, four total offensive linemen. The Tigers ended up signing two tackles, and it's likely Missouri targets the signatures of three or four linemen again as the recent high school classes border 17-20 signees.

Other names can emerge for visits in the coming weeks, but the emphasis appears to be on more interior linemen this cycle, with visits either set or in the works with Anderson, Noah Best, Tyreek Jemison and Khalief Canty Jr., who almost announced his commitment to Missouri this past month.

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@4formizzou: What are your thoughts on the shift in recruiting Eli has done from class of 25 to class of 26? Seems like we are going after lower ranked kids. Love to get your thoughts.​

This offseason was eye opening for Missouri. The Tigers lost eight players from their 2024 signing class, and with an attitude of finding production over potential, the program hasn't been shy about retooling more through the portal with experienced players rather than looking at mainly development from the prep ranks.

As Missouri missed on Jackson Cantwell, albeit on the outside looking in the past few months, and Sam Greer, the Tigers didn't make hard pivots to other top offensive linemen.

There were other recruits still available on their board like Goodwin, the No. 3 recruit in Arkansas. But if Missouri were to lose out on another target at a specific position, there's a better chance of finding a replacement in the portal rather than turning to its latter high school options.

Even though there's a sense of which transfers will be available as teams inch closer to December, it can still be a gamble on expecting to address every need through the portal.

High school recruiting won't die, but it's definitely taken more of a backseat to the transfer portal for the Tigers. Over the past few months, it's evident Missouri has become more safe in this process, too, using it resources on guys it knows will stick around and contribute.

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@4formizzou: Can you put together your best guess for a realistic 2026 recruiting class based on the number we project to take at each position and the ones you think we have a realistic chance to get? That's kind of da fun!​

Missouri hosted 10 Class of 2025 players for official visits after the start of the 2024 season and signed five of them in its 17-player class. More targets will emerge, but of the confirmed official visitors, here's a prediction snapshot of 15 guys Missouri could sign in December.

Wide receiver​

Missouri picked up a lot of ground with Brady this offseason. The four-star saw his continuous fall in the rankings come with a recent exit from the Rivals250, but he's still being pursued by Power Four schools, including Nebraska and Oklahoma. Interest has slowed from those two programs, though, leaving Missouri in a better spot for the Florida talent.

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Linebacker​

Listed as the lone linebacker on this prediction, Bush won't be the only player at his position to officially visit this summer. New linebackers coach Derek Nicholson has made quick work with other targets, looking to schedule visits with Jordan Campbell, Rodney Colton Jr. and Duyon Forkpa among others. Longtime in-state product Keenan Harris is also scheduled for an official visit.

Defensive end​

Campbell, a Miami (FL) commit, was recently switched from linebacker to edge defender on Rivals.com, and Missouri spoke with the four-star about being a pass-rusher when he visited in early May.

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But on the 2026 trail, there's not really a top defensive end target at the moment. The Tigers like Asharri Charles, who will officially visit June 6-8, but the national staff has an inkling he'll end up with the Hurricanes.

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@ibruce: I'm concerned about the punting situation. Are we still looking?​

There's no signs of Missouri still looking at another punter for the 2025 season. The Tigers landed Stanford backup Connor Weselman in the portal and received the commitment of junior college punter John Butcher in early April.

Special teams coordinator Erik Link saw a mass exodus of specialists this winter. His unit shrank, and without much success the past three seasons, not many top transfers flocked at an opportunity with the Tigers.

Missouri has two targets in the 2026 class in Mikey Bukauskas, who visited in January and March, and Jackson Shevin, who also visited in March. Bukauskas has started to garner more offers from nearby schools, which might point his attention elsewhere.

Missouri still has one scholarship and three roster spots remaining within the expected limits for 2025. It'll be another position worth addressing in the portal this winter.

At St. Louis (Mo.) De Smet this morning, Titan Davis mentioned he's still trying to fit Missouri into his official visit schedule, which only has Alabama, Michigan and Nebraska on it. Tigers defensive line coach Al Davis visited the Rivals250 four-star defensive end earlier this spring, but Alabama's Freddie Roach was in today to see Titan and his mother.

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Both Caleb Grill and Tamar Bates have done well for themselves at the G League Elite Camp.

Here is Grill’s performance from Sunday.

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Hey guys, as we hit the summer I know it's a going to be a little harder to keep people active and engaged without much stuff going on for a bit.

Do you guys have suggestions/things you're looking for that could keep the boards active outside of just me and Kenny continuing to post our stories?

The Tigers went into the ninth inning down 6-3, but came back to win 9-6. I’ll have a full recap in the morning.

Mizzou wins its first SEC game to move to 1-24 and avoid a winless season in conference play.

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If you have any Missouri football recruiting questions, please feel free to respond with those here or send them to me in a direct message.

Official visits begin the final weekend in May, and camps will kick off in early June.

I took a ton of photos I liked at the baseball game on Tuesday. Here is the first batch of them.

On the ride to an AAU tournament Friday, Brian Clark II picked up the phone to the news of his first football offer.

It came as a surprise, because Clark last played a refereed football game in fourth grade. Basketball was always his primary focus, but with changes on the Atlanta (Ga.) Pace Academy football staff, Clark received a push to switch his horizons to the sport more likely to get him to college.

"The way that I'm built in my physique and where I could use it and be the most effective on would be the football field," the 6-foot-4, 200-pounder said. "I've been doing a lot of DB training with one of our DB specialists at the school."

Missouri gave him a jumpstart in his recruitment, when Tigers defensive line coach Al Davis offered him and fellow Class of 2026 defensive back Jaydon Avery. The two friends -- not together at the time -- texted back and forth about their offers.

"It was a very nice surprise, probably the best one I could've ever received the other day," Clark said. "It just makes me want to push myself even harder. It's great motivation to continue to give it everything I have and just go out and be the best Brian that I can."

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Former Missouri linebacker Sean Weatherspoon was appointed the new head football coach at Pace Academy in February. Clark has gotten closer with the new coach in the past few months, feeding off his aggressiveness and energy in practice.

"It hasn't been as difficult as I had thought it would be," Clark said. "The conditioning and just movement on the basketball court made it a pretty easy physical transition in terms of the weight room and the work."

Clark accepted an invite to Georgia Tech's spring game in April, where he weighed in at 200 pounds. He's now scheduled camp trips to Florida Atlantic, Missouri and Virginia for this summer, with the plan of seeing the Tigers in person June 5.

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Davis also checked on Adryan Cole, a four-star safety in the 2027 class. Cole, the No. 61 recruit in the Rivals250, has garnered 37 total offers, with Missouri extending him a scholarship in July.

"They just want to be there for the end of my recruitment," Cole said, "and they're going to keep fighting."

Thank you to those who asked questions this week.

We talk about coming changes for baseball, more construction, teams wearing black on the road and a visitor center.

At the beginning of high school, Jack Lange didn't have everyone convinced.

Those around him saw his towering potential firsthand every day, but it was one instance his sophomore year that opened the eyes of one of the closest teachers in his life, Michael McDonald.

McDonald taught Lange geometry and more recently statistics his senior year. But during his sophomore year, Lange stepped into a starting role as an underclassman for the football team during the playoffs.

"(Justin Selbert) walked in, and he had a knee brace on because he tore his ACL, and he goes, 'Jack, come with me,'" Lange recounted sternly of the then senior offensive tackle. "And it was like I was being summoned."

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Lange was just getting fitted for a new helmet, but when he returned to class, McDonald realized all of Lange's football tales were real. The then sophomore was trusted to play a premier position in a postseason run.

"He's like, 'Alright, I won't make fun of you anymore,' and I'm like, 'Thank you,'" Lange laughed.

But at that time in high school, Lange was still gaining confidence in himself. His accounting teacher Tony LaRusso, who also serves as the defensive line coach for Eureka (Mo.) High, noticed the offensive tackle coming more out of his shell, knowing the now Missouri signee since middle school.

Yet it was a suggestion from Lange's girlfriend their junior year to branch out and take an elective together. The two settled on show choir, an almost Disney-like film idea for one of the school's largest sporting figures.

"Being athletic is really important to be in show choir," Eureka vocal music teacher Nathan Schaefferkoetter said. "It's fun to see kids be successful in every aspect of what they do, whether it's sports or music class or anything like that."

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Lange embraced the rhythm, similarly what he excelled at while playing offensive line, knowing the footwork and plays like the back of his hand. Though, choir offered Lange a distraction from football and especially recruiting.

"It was a good space to just breathe and just step back from all the recruiting," said Lange, who was pulled from class up to five times a day his junior year. "It was just so stressful, and just being in that space with a new set of people and just new friends, it was a good way to just disconnect from everything else.

"I never would have thought in a million years I would have done it."

The stigma that athletes don't partake in fine arts became even less true as Lange reignited interest from Eureka football players. He recruited three freshmen to join him this past year.

"All the guys were giving me crap," Lange laughed. "I never really saw myself as a singer per se, but my girlfriend wanted to do a couple duets. ... Being on a stage in front of a bunch of people, and it's just me and her, and we're singing, it's a little different. It did help improve my confidence, and that translates to many other things, too."

Lange never felt unconfident in himself, though. But after his sophomore year, he had doubts about the future at times and dealt with personal struggles outside of school, so an opportunity to spend time with his girlfriend and new people only put him back on track.

"I'm 6-foot-8, 300 pounds, and I'm up there singing and dancing," Lange said. "I look ridiculous, but it did help improve my confidence, just me being in that crowd and me sticking out like a sore thumb."

Schaefferkoetter's favorite part of teaching Lange was seeing his student's growing courage. From the first audition to the final performance, Lange not only improved his singing ability but also grew as a person on that stage and around new people, singing with his classmates and performing pop duets with his girlfriend.

"I was just like, 'Holy cow,'" Schaefferkoetter said. "Even my wife, who's also a music teacher, she's like, 'Man alive, he is a good singer.'"

Eureka has a long history of football players being involved in show choir, but that trend started to tail offer after the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and 2021, Lange's freshman year.

"You wouldn't necessarily expect a football player to sing and dance," LaRusso said, "especially when you got a kid that's 6-foot-8 and three bills doing it. That's really odd, but it's just the person he is."

Lange's football schedule at Missouri likely won't allow much time to join a choir group or use time to explore fine arts. But Schaefferkoetter still wants his former student to put himself out there with any opportunity outside of football.

"He's just a great example to everyone of just trying something different and being successful at it," Schaefferkoetter said. "He's really someone that I think a lot of kids in the school, look up to, literally and figuratively, but he's just a friend to everybody."



Lange wants to make the Tigers' depth chart as a freshman. He wants to make a career out of football, but he also recognizes that the game won't have him forever. He took LaRusso's year-long accounting class to give him a leg up in the business school, especially after deciding to forego early enrollment and arrive at Missouri this summer.

"Having him in class, he's not the standard dumb jock or whatever," LaRusso said. "I don't like that, because athletes are smart, too. ... He has a thirst for knowledge, and he wants to be the best, whether that's a left tackle or right tackle or accountant or marketing or finance or whatever it is."

During his sophomore year geometry class, Lange assisted in completing a tiny home. McDonald bought one-size-fits-most hardhats for his students, but that label did not factor in a 6-foot-8, 300-pound offensive lineman.

The helmet fell off anytime Lange reached down to work on parts of the interior to the point he had to toss it to the side. He didn't fit in parts of the home either, but he still exuded leadership and teamwork qualities to McDonald, who only ever wanted the best for Lange.

"This is a really cool opportunity, and he's like, 'Yeah, no, I know. I'm really lucky,'" McDonald recounted from a conversation about Lange's football future. "And then I looked him dead in the eye, and I said, 'You better not screw this up.' ... He's like, 'No, I know. I will not.' I'm like, 'Good, I know you won't, but I just had to say it.'"

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Thrusted into a starting role in the 2022 postseason, Lange never flinched. That opportunity only strengthened his trust in himself, as he realized he was transforming into a college talent.

"We always joke about the nuts dropping," LaRusso said. "You'd see him at those summer scrimmages leading up to his junior year. He would get on people and run them into the dirt, bury them, give them a little look and chirp a little bit. And it was like, 'Oh, here we go. We got something.'"

Lange committed to Missouri in April 2024 and signed his national letter of intent in December. Yet rather than getting ahead and joining the team for spring practices, he decided to spend his final months as a kid with the people that shaped his life the most.

"We're proud that he represents Eureka, the town, the school, the state of Missouri," LaRusso said. "He's going to give back to the community, and anytime they go to hospitals or do things with kids, I'm sure he's going to be there."

"He's definitely going to be a kid that I'd be like, 'Hey, I had him in class one day,' hopefully when we're watching him in the Draft," McDonald added. "He's not entitled. He just goes with the flow, and I'm just proud of him."

Growing up about an hour south of campus, Brock Lucas dreamed of playing either baseball or basketball for the Missouri Tigers. And for the past three years, that dream has come true.

“If you’d told me 15 years ago that I’d be playing baseball for Mizzou that little Brock would be jumping for joy.”

There’s a whole lot of former players coming back for an alumni game set for June 14 at noon.

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Missouri cornerbacks coach Al Pogue made a recent in-home visit to see three-star Nick Hankins Jr. ahead of his official visit in late May. Pogue offered Hankins after the Auburn game in October and got the Belleville (Ill.) West cornerback back on campus for Junior Day in March.

"Everything was good, great vibes from him," Hankins said. "I really appreciated him for coming."

Along with hanging out with Pogue earlier this spring, Hankins enjoyed his conversations with head coach Eli Drinkwitz, with it being their first time having a sit-down meeting. Drinkwitz impressed Nick Hankins Sr., too, showing a side of himself that's not as present in front of cameras.

"He was really chill," Hankins Jr. said in April. "When you watch TV, the head coaches look all serious and look like they don't smile a lot. But he was really chill. He joked with me, but he had a good vibe going on about him."

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After her best and final season, Mizzou softball's senior catcher has the first conference postseason award of her career.

Like Mason James, Oklahoma is easing off with Jabari Brady, another four-star wide receiver on Missouri's official visit list.

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Brady and James will both officially visit the Tigers the final weekend of May after also being together for a spring visit in March. Nebraska is another player for Brady right now.

More from Brady's first trip to Missouri:

Missouri lost two men's basketball assistants this offseason and replaced one spot with Steve Wright and other internally with Dickey Nutt, who served as an assistant to the head coach/senior advisor this past season during and after his bout with cancer. Nutt joined Dennis Gates' staff in April 2022 as an assistant.

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As a new NCAA Contact Period opened this past month, Brian Early had a player to see South Carolina. Early, Missouri's edges coach, traveled around the state Tuesday to offer a few players before stopping in at Irmo (S.C.) Dutch Fork to see Julian Walker.

Early offered Walker after an in-school visit in January. Early then hosted the three-star on campus in March for a two-day trip, and the Tigers now want to finalize an official visit date.

"I'm probably going to try and hit up a game during the season," Walker said. "Because I'm not making a commitment until after the season. It gave them a little more time to figure out times and not have to rush it."

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Staying for the entire practice Tuesday, Early watched Walker's individual drills. He admired the 6-foot-6, 250-pound edge defender's flash off the line and ability to end plays in the backfield.

"The fact that he's only stayed at two full practices was pretty big to me," Walker said.

The two also spent 40 minutes after the practice catching up about the defensive end development at Missouri. Walker saw the talent firsthand during a Tigers' spring practice two months ago, and Early wanted to update him on his unit.

Walker also plans to officially visit Michigan, North Carolina, North Carolina State and South Carolina, where his father, Jamil Walker, serves as the Gamecocks' assistant football strength and conditioning coach.

Four-star wide receiver Kohen Brown, who backed off his USC commitment Friday morning, is now looking to schedule an official visit with Missouri, a source told MizzouToday. At Rivals Camp Series Dallas on Sunday, Brown was set on only visiting the Trojans this summer, but less than a week later, he's fully open to his options. He, of course, is a fan of Luther Burden III and fellow Texas product Theo Wease Jr.

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Rock M Nation lead editor Karen Steger joins The Unwritten Rule to discuss the future of Missouri gymnastics after a third-place finish in the NCAA Tournament as well as analyzing what went wrong with the softball program in 2025. The show closes with Quick Hits: Ahmad Hardy wants to keep his jersey clean, a new Pope, the guys figure out what Faurot Field’s latest construction updates mean.

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Kerrick Jackson got right to the point after Tuesday’s loss. And now the Tigers have just six games left to keep from being the first SEC to ever lose 30 conference games (they are already tied for most SEC losses in a season with 24).

A January offer and visitor for Missouri, Monshun Sales saw the Tigers as an early standout program. In pursuit of more talent from Indiana, Missouri has stayed in that top group since.

"(Jacob Peeler) coached AJ Brown and DK Metcalf, and I know he's got a lot of guys right now he's getting to the league," Sales said. "And I know I'd love to be part of that."

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From On3's Steve Wiltfong:

Missouri never offered Rocco Marriott, but he's one a few mentioned on the board from either knowing of his father, Jeff, or watching him play this past year.

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Marriott talked about his Missouri connections this past fall: