UPDATED 8:47 PM
Just got off the phone with 2018 New Orleans (La.) DE Josh Smith. He spoke with Sam Carter, a defensive analyst today, about his commitment. Carter tried to get Smith in touch with DeMontie Cross, but couldn't today. Again, though, we know believe this commitment is official in both the eyes of Smith and Missouri's staff.
Carter asked Smith two questions -- Why Missouri and why this early? Smith said Missouri has been his dream school because Michael Sam was his favorite college player, and he's always liked the Tigers since then.
Smith said he is hearing from Tennessee, Arizona State and Kansas State at this point, but he didn't even start for most of last season. This sounds like a case where Missouri took a flyer on a guy with the frame to put it all together, and it certainly could pay off. Smith will be a starter this year, and a big year could put him more in the national spotlight.
I'll have a story up soon.
UPDATED 8:12 PM
Last (hopefully) update for the night. Just talked with Torrence Watson, who visited Mizzou yesterday. I'll have a bit more info tomorrow, but the 2018 4-star has been a popular guy this summer, adding offers from Marquette, DePaul, Iowa State, Texas A&M and Tulsa. He's a long way from a decision, but spoke highly of his trip to Columbia yesterday (again, more tomorrow morning on that).
UPDATED 6:27 PM
A new 2018 offer is out to Silsbee TX WR Kalon Barnes
UPDATED 4:30 PM
That's Larry Boyd. Shouldn't be groundbreaking news that Mizzou is in his top four, but still should be considered good and welcome news. Our colleagues at the Illinois site talked with him about it.
UPDATED 12:25 PM
Quick story about Josh Smith's (now-official) commitment.
More soon.
UPDATED 1214 PM
The NCAA Committe on Infractions released its report on Mizzou hoops. Here are the relevant links for you:
PowerMizzou story: https://missouri.rivals.com/news/ncaa-issues-report-on-mu-hoops
Full report from NCAA: http://www.ncaa.org/about/resources...-did-not-monitor-its-men-s-basketball-program
Statement from Mizzou: http://mutigers.com/news/2016/7/17/general-statement-from-the-university-of-missouri.aspx
UPDATED 12:05 PM
Recruiting coordinator AJ Ofodile retweeted 2018 New Orleans DE Josh Smith's commitment tweet, which looks to make this official. We've been told that there was some confusion at first, but the staff is accepting his commitment.
I'm trying to get in touch with Smith again now.
UPDATED 10:38 AM
A note I meant to post yesterday and forgot. It was widely reported a few weeks ago that Jakeenan Gant was transferring to Clemson. But Clemson hasn't released that and so far as I know, nobody has ever actually talked to Gant about it. I checked with a colleague that covers Clemson and he told me Gant has not been officially added to the roster there. According to him, Gant was told he has to finish his academic requirements before Clemson will take him and he is not finishing summer school until early August (I don't know if he's doing that at Mizzou or somewhere else). There is also some thought that Clemson is a little leery of Gant's involvement in the NCAA issues here (though they've known about that for a while, so I don't know why it would cause anything to slow down now). Upshot is, Gant may end up at Clemson, but that doesn't seem to be a done deal at this point. I know this isn't strictly about Mizzou, but figured some would have interest.
UPDATED 10:02 AM
I talked with SLUH athlete Tony Adams, who visited Missouri yesterday.
Adams told me "the best thing was the conversations I had with the coaches. They were sincere and I felt at home."
We've seen him at camp and he is very, very athletic. Easily could play on either side of the ball. In fact, he spent time talking with both Andy Hill and Greg Brown yesterday, so Mizzou is giving him the option of where he would want to start out.
"Right now, I feel I’m a better wide receiver than I am a DB, but after it’s all said and done when I start to put more work in at DB, once I learn it I feel I can be a better DB."
Missouri has a recruiter for Adams not just on its staff, but on the roster. Ray Wingo is a SLUH alum.
"Yes sir, that’s my big bro. He’s been talking to me about the recruiting process. Even when he was at SLUH, he talked to me about getting my confidence level up and keep working and then after that things kind of blew up," Adams said. "After listening to him He’s been talkng to me about Missouri and how it’s a good place to be. I really take his advice to heart."
Adams said he has "a couple of schools in my head, but I don't really want to put that out publicly yet." He did say he expects to be making a decision "real soon," quite likely before the start of his senior football season. Speaking of which, this is Gary Kornfeld's last year as the Bills' head coach and Adams said the team hopes to send him out on a high note.
"I think we can," he said. "We're not looking the best right now, but once we put the work in, I think we can compete to win the MCC."
He said he will not take any more visits as of now. We'll keep in touch with Adams as things develop.
*The first piece of news is the commitment (?) of 2018 defensive lineman Josh Smith. The New Orleans prospect tweeted out his commitment on Monday night, catching pretty much everyone by surprise. Pete followed up with Smith late last night and posted this update.
The situation is this: Until a player talks to the coaching staff, which is required for the staff to view him as a committed player, we aren't going to list him as a committed player. There could be a couple of things going on here. First, he could be committed and it will all be good as soon as he talks to the coaches. Second (and in our opinion more likely at this point) is that Smith committed to a situation he can't really commit.
People are going to say, "But if he has an offer, why can't he commit?" First, offers are "reported" by the kids. Some kids think they have an offer when they don't have one. It's generally (but not always) a misunderstanding, nothing intentionally misleading on the part of the prospect. In some cases, kids may have been told they have an offer. But not all offers are created equal. Look at the 2017 class. Missouri has offered somewhere between 250 and 300 kids. Obviously not every one of those kids can call the Missouri coaches and commit today. Some can. Others might be told they're in line behind some other prospects and have to wait. Yes, they've been told they have an offer, but that doesn't mean they can commit any time they want to. We understand it's kind of a murky process. People complain about the word "commitment" not meaning what kids think it means. Well, the same is true of the word "offer." There are offers, and then there are OFFERS. We hope to have an update on Smith from either him or his coaches later today. Right now, he's not on our commitment list.
*Speaking of murky situations, a few people indicated yesterday that Ehren Earleywine is coming back. While that's certainly the direction things seem to be trending, I was told by Mizzou personnel that there was no announcement planned, but "we expect to have a resolution soon." Current and former players are tweeting about Earleywine coming back, but it doesn't seem that has been expressly communicated even to the coach at this point in time. Stay tuned.
*On the investigation front, Chris Gervino tweeted yesterday that the NCAA basketball investigation was over. That, in and of itself, isn't really news. The investigation has likely been over for quite some time. What we're waiting on now is the report and the final sanctions decision from the NCAA. That won't come from Mizzou. The NCAA will release that. When it happens, we expect the media will get a 24-hour notice or so that it's on the way. We haven't yet gotten that. So don't expect a report on this Tuesday for certain.
*A couple links in case you missed them last night or this morning:
Double-digit newcomers have a chance to see the field this season
Top 100 guard will visit Mizzou
As I said, we'll update this post throughout the day as information becomes available.
Just got off the phone with 2018 New Orleans (La.) DE Josh Smith. He spoke with Sam Carter, a defensive analyst today, about his commitment. Carter tried to get Smith in touch with DeMontie Cross, but couldn't today. Again, though, we know believe this commitment is official in both the eyes of Smith and Missouri's staff.
Carter asked Smith two questions -- Why Missouri and why this early? Smith said Missouri has been his dream school because Michael Sam was his favorite college player, and he's always liked the Tigers since then.
Smith said he is hearing from Tennessee, Arizona State and Kansas State at this point, but he didn't even start for most of last season. This sounds like a case where Missouri took a flyer on a guy with the frame to put it all together, and it certainly could pay off. Smith will be a starter this year, and a big year could put him more in the national spotlight.
I'll have a story up soon.
UPDATED 8:12 PM
Last (hopefully) update for the night. Just talked with Torrence Watson, who visited Mizzou yesterday. I'll have a bit more info tomorrow, but the 2018 4-star has been a popular guy this summer, adding offers from Marquette, DePaul, Iowa State, Texas A&M and Tulsa. He's a long way from a decision, but spoke highly of his trip to Columbia yesterday (again, more tomorrow morning on that).
UPDATED 6:27 PM
A new 2018 offer is out to Silsbee TX WR Kalon Barnes
UPDATED 4:30 PM
That's Larry Boyd. Shouldn't be groundbreaking news that Mizzou is in his top four, but still should be considered good and welcome news. Our colleagues at the Illinois site talked with him about it.
UPDATED 12:25 PM
Quick story about Josh Smith's (now-official) commitment.
More soon.
UPDATED 1214 PM
The NCAA Committe on Infractions released its report on Mizzou hoops. Here are the relevant links for you:
PowerMizzou story: https://missouri.rivals.com/news/ncaa-issues-report-on-mu-hoops
Full report from NCAA: http://www.ncaa.org/about/resources...-did-not-monitor-its-men-s-basketball-program
Statement from Mizzou: http://mutigers.com/news/2016/7/17/general-statement-from-the-university-of-missouri.aspx
UPDATED 12:05 PM
Recruiting coordinator AJ Ofodile retweeted 2018 New Orleans DE Josh Smith's commitment tweet, which looks to make this official. We've been told that there was some confusion at first, but the staff is accepting his commitment.
I'm trying to get in touch with Smith again now.
UPDATED 10:38 AM
A note I meant to post yesterday and forgot. It was widely reported a few weeks ago that Jakeenan Gant was transferring to Clemson. But Clemson hasn't released that and so far as I know, nobody has ever actually talked to Gant about it. I checked with a colleague that covers Clemson and he told me Gant has not been officially added to the roster there. According to him, Gant was told he has to finish his academic requirements before Clemson will take him and he is not finishing summer school until early August (I don't know if he's doing that at Mizzou or somewhere else). There is also some thought that Clemson is a little leery of Gant's involvement in the NCAA issues here (though they've known about that for a while, so I don't know why it would cause anything to slow down now). Upshot is, Gant may end up at Clemson, but that doesn't seem to be a done deal at this point. I know this isn't strictly about Mizzou, but figured some would have interest.
UPDATED 10:02 AM
I talked with SLUH athlete Tony Adams, who visited Missouri yesterday.
Adams told me "the best thing was the conversations I had with the coaches. They were sincere and I felt at home."
We've seen him at camp and he is very, very athletic. Easily could play on either side of the ball. In fact, he spent time talking with both Andy Hill and Greg Brown yesterday, so Mizzou is giving him the option of where he would want to start out.
"Right now, I feel I’m a better wide receiver than I am a DB, but after it’s all said and done when I start to put more work in at DB, once I learn it I feel I can be a better DB."
Missouri has a recruiter for Adams not just on its staff, but on the roster. Ray Wingo is a SLUH alum.
"Yes sir, that’s my big bro. He’s been talking to me about the recruiting process. Even when he was at SLUH, he talked to me about getting my confidence level up and keep working and then after that things kind of blew up," Adams said. "After listening to him He’s been talkng to me about Missouri and how it’s a good place to be. I really take his advice to heart."
Adams said he has "a couple of schools in my head, but I don't really want to put that out publicly yet." He did say he expects to be making a decision "real soon," quite likely before the start of his senior football season. Speaking of which, this is Gary Kornfeld's last year as the Bills' head coach and Adams said the team hopes to send him out on a high note.
"I think we can," he said. "We're not looking the best right now, but once we put the work in, I think we can compete to win the MCC."
He said he will not take any more visits as of now. We'll keep in touch with Adams as things develop.
*The first piece of news is the commitment (?) of 2018 defensive lineman Josh Smith. The New Orleans prospect tweeted out his commitment on Monday night, catching pretty much everyone by surprise. Pete followed up with Smith late last night and posted this update.
The situation is this: Until a player talks to the coaching staff, which is required for the staff to view him as a committed player, we aren't going to list him as a committed player. There could be a couple of things going on here. First, he could be committed and it will all be good as soon as he talks to the coaches. Second (and in our opinion more likely at this point) is that Smith committed to a situation he can't really commit.
People are going to say, "But if he has an offer, why can't he commit?" First, offers are "reported" by the kids. Some kids think they have an offer when they don't have one. It's generally (but not always) a misunderstanding, nothing intentionally misleading on the part of the prospect. In some cases, kids may have been told they have an offer. But not all offers are created equal. Look at the 2017 class. Missouri has offered somewhere between 250 and 300 kids. Obviously not every one of those kids can call the Missouri coaches and commit today. Some can. Others might be told they're in line behind some other prospects and have to wait. Yes, they've been told they have an offer, but that doesn't mean they can commit any time they want to. We understand it's kind of a murky process. People complain about the word "commitment" not meaning what kids think it means. Well, the same is true of the word "offer." There are offers, and then there are OFFERS. We hope to have an update on Smith from either him or his coaches later today. Right now, he's not on our commitment list.
*Speaking of murky situations, a few people indicated yesterday that Ehren Earleywine is coming back. While that's certainly the direction things seem to be trending, I was told by Mizzou personnel that there was no announcement planned, but "we expect to have a resolution soon." Current and former players are tweeting about Earleywine coming back, but it doesn't seem that has been expressly communicated even to the coach at this point in time. Stay tuned.
*On the investigation front, Chris Gervino tweeted yesterday that the NCAA basketball investigation was over. That, in and of itself, isn't really news. The investigation has likely been over for quite some time. What we're waiting on now is the report and the final sanctions decision from the NCAA. That won't come from Mizzou. The NCAA will release that. When it happens, we expect the media will get a 24-hour notice or so that it's on the way. We haven't yet gotten that. So don't expect a report on this Tuesday for certain.
*A couple links in case you missed them last night or this morning:
Double-digit newcomers have a chance to see the field this season
Top 100 guard will visit Mizzou
As I said, we'll update this post throughout the day as information becomes available.
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