As always, we'll start with links from last night and this morning:
Video interviews with Odom, Heupel and Cross
Newcomer Q&A Kyle Mitchell
Fall Camp Photo Gallery
Notes from Practice
Fully updated roster/coaching staff
On that last link, let's expand a little bit. In there are eight freshmen we are hearing will play this season, plus Markell Utsey and Tre Williams who might. That's 10 out of 15 guys in this class who were high school signees who were on campus to start camp. That's a hell of a ratio. But what's it mean?
It could mean that this class is really, really good. Certainly far better than Rivals believed.
It could mean that the returning roster isn't very good.
It could mean that the younger guys--or the guys the new staff brought in--are getting the benefit of the doubt. I don't mean that in a negative way. I just mean that if there's a tie, this staff is going with the younger guy as a tiebreaker.
Realistically, it's probably a combo of all three. I've always said the best teams play the most freshmen. That's because they're bringing in guys that are ready to help immediately. Look around at Alabama, Ohio State, Florida when they were rolling, Texas when they were really good, Oklahoma, USC a few years ago. They play a TON of true freshmen. One reason is those guys are ready to go from day one (that's what being a four or five star recruit generally means). The other reason is that the coaching staffs at those places don't anticipate having guys for five years. If you're still on scholarship and haven't gone pro by year five in those programs, there's probably someone better than you that's been recruited since (maybe several someones).
At the same time, if Missouri had a ton of returning starters from a 9-3 team, some of these dudes would redshirt. Also realize, of all the freshmen we listed, the only one we'd expect to start against West Virginia is a kicker. So just because they're going to play doesn't mean Missouri is trotting out eight guys who have never been in a college football game for the first snap in Morgantown.
*A recruiting note: We're told DaRon Davis and Chester Graves are hoping to visit Missouri for the Georgia game on September 17th. That would be a good thing for the Tigers to get both of them on campus for the best home game of the year. Davis is also going to visit Nebraska. Last we knew, the Huskers haven't offered, but they certainly appear to be Missouri's toughest competition in hanging on to Davis if they do (and it's possible they have, but last we knew they hadn't).
*Later today, I'll do my game by game season prediction. As promised here it is.
*Four-star hooper CJ Roberts will visit Mizzou in early September as we reported. He's a story talking about his top schools.
*Today's non-Mizzou link(s) of the day are a couple of quick inspiring videos I saw this morning and the best catch I've seen this baseball season:
#Murica
Billy Hamilton goes and gets it
*We will update this post throughout the day
Video interviews with Odom, Heupel and Cross
Newcomer Q&A Kyle Mitchell
Fall Camp Photo Gallery
Notes from Practice
Fully updated roster/coaching staff
On that last link, let's expand a little bit. In there are eight freshmen we are hearing will play this season, plus Markell Utsey and Tre Williams who might. That's 10 out of 15 guys in this class who were high school signees who were on campus to start camp. That's a hell of a ratio. But what's it mean?
It could mean that this class is really, really good. Certainly far better than Rivals believed.
It could mean that the returning roster isn't very good.
It could mean that the younger guys--or the guys the new staff brought in--are getting the benefit of the doubt. I don't mean that in a negative way. I just mean that if there's a tie, this staff is going with the younger guy as a tiebreaker.
Realistically, it's probably a combo of all three. I've always said the best teams play the most freshmen. That's because they're bringing in guys that are ready to help immediately. Look around at Alabama, Ohio State, Florida when they were rolling, Texas when they were really good, Oklahoma, USC a few years ago. They play a TON of true freshmen. One reason is those guys are ready to go from day one (that's what being a four or five star recruit generally means). The other reason is that the coaching staffs at those places don't anticipate having guys for five years. If you're still on scholarship and haven't gone pro by year five in those programs, there's probably someone better than you that's been recruited since (maybe several someones).
At the same time, if Missouri had a ton of returning starters from a 9-3 team, some of these dudes would redshirt. Also realize, of all the freshmen we listed, the only one we'd expect to start against West Virginia is a kicker. So just because they're going to play doesn't mean Missouri is trotting out eight guys who have never been in a college football game for the first snap in Morgantown.
*A recruiting note: We're told DaRon Davis and Chester Graves are hoping to visit Missouri for the Georgia game on September 17th. That would be a good thing for the Tigers to get both of them on campus for the best home game of the year. Davis is also going to visit Nebraska. Last we knew, the Huskers haven't offered, but they certainly appear to be Missouri's toughest competition in hanging on to Davis if they do (and it's possible they have, but last we knew they hadn't).
*Later today, I'll do my game by game season prediction. As promised here it is.
*Four-star hooper CJ Roberts will visit Mizzou in early September as we reported. He's a story talking about his top schools.
*Today's non-Mizzou link(s) of the day are a couple of quick inspiring videos I saw this morning and the best catch I've seen this baseball season:
#Murica
Billy Hamilton goes and gets it
*We will update this post throughout the day
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