YOUR WEEKLY REMINDER: The Chamber is an exclusive, subscribers-only post. We ask that you keep all discussion and mentions of The Chamber to PowerMizzou.com only.
The Chamber’s components have been neck deep in fall camp coverage lately and high school kids across the country are practicing countless hours a week so it tends to be one of the slower periods for recruiting. For that reason, a lot of the recruiting info we have this week is going to be a bit of a recap, but that’s okay because we understand some of you have probably missed a few things here and there.
We’re going to start on the football side of things. Missouri currently has 12 commitments. By the time The Chamber returns next Friday, we expect that to be 13. That is due to the curious case of Darius Anderson. Just in case anyone missed it, here’s what happened:
News leaked by way of a cryptic tweet that Anderson had committed to Missouri. Anderson denied it, but his dad told us he committed and we could run the story. We did, Anderson was upset news got out and so we took him off the list as he continued to insist he was not committed to Missouri.
We will say this: Programs across the country have someone (whether it’s the head coach, recruiting coordinator, whatever) who do the same thing on Twitter every time there’s a commitment. Most of them have some sort of catch phrase where they can let the fans (and media) know through a loophole without mentioning a recruit by name that they just landed a commitment. This is important: COACHING STAFFS DON’T DO THAT IF A KID ISN’T COMMITTED. In other words, we’re comfortable saying that Darius Anderson most certainly told someone at Missouri he was committing to them. However, Anderson wants to have an announcement and have his 15 minutes in the spotlight. And you know what? Good for him. We have always said that. These kids get this chance one time. As soon as they get on campus, they’re not getting schmoozed and feeling the love all the time. Enjoy the recruiting process. If you want to have a ceremony, by all means do it and when we can we will protect the kid and keep that information to ourselves. What seems to have happened here is that this particular kid either wasn’t aware that his commitment would make big news or he simply didn’t communicate to everyone involved in the process that he wanted it kept quiet. Either way, we expect Anderson to be officially added to the 2016 commitment list probably by the end of the weekend.
That means the Tigers are at 13, and are also probably holding a spot for Butler County CC offensive lineman Tyler Howell, who signed last year but didn’t finish junior college and could get here in December. That’s 14. There are somewhere between four and eight spots left in the class in all likelihood. With two freshman running backs on the roster and everyone but Russell Hansbrough returning next season, we can’t see Mizzou taking another running back in this class.
The other football recruiting note is the top six of Kansas defensive end Amani Bledsoe. The four-star released it this week. The schools, in alphabetical order, are kansas, Missouri, NC State, Oklahoma, Oregon and UCLA. We’ll continue to follow that one. If you missed it, Randy Withers posted a note on Bledsoe and Isaiah Loudermilk prior to Bledsoe’s top six coming out.
-- 2016 Huntingdon (Tenn.) defensive lineman Sadarius Hutcherson has been trying to visit Mizzou for a while, but has had difficulties finding a date that he and the Tigers could agree on. Sounds like that has been worked out and he will now unofficially visit for the SEMO game on September 5. For those who might not remember, Hutcherson has told PowerMizzou there is serious interest from Missouri. He already holds offers from Louisville, Memphis and Middle Tennessee State. Hutcherson is hopeful that an offer from Mizzou will be extended on his unofficial. As he understands it the coaches just need to verify his size.
--As of now we are hearing the staff feels good about everyone and will allow some guys to take other official visits if they want. Ca’Ron Baham, Tobias Little and Trey Baldwin all mentioned visiting other schools was a possibility when they committed.
Six Top Tiger Targets as of right now.
1. Amani Bledsoe
2. Donte’ Vaughn
3. Boss Tagaloa
4. Darius Whitfield
5. Michael Divinity
6. Albert Okwuegbunam
-- PowerMizzou begins our high school coverage tonight. We will be at the Chaminade (Mo.) vs. Mehlville (Mo.) game tonight and at Mayhem at the Zou all day tomorrow. The headliner for Chaminade is 2018 defensive tackle Trevor Trout, but there are some other players we will be watching closely. 2017 wide receiver Reggie Crawford, 2017 linebacker Jamarion Johnson, and 2018 offensive lineman Marcus Greer (no profile, link is to HUDL page) are all on Mizzou’s radar and names to remember going forward.
Tomorrow at Mayhem we will be able to see how 2016 Mizzou defensive end commit Tre Williams has progressed over the summer. A player with a ton of potential, it will be very interesting to see how he plays against a good Rockhurst team. Additionally, we will be closely watching 2017 Columbia (Mo.) Battle wide receiver Jaevon McQuitty to see if he can build on strong summer showings at numerous camps. St. Louis (Mo.) CBC features 2018 prospects Kamryn Babb and Brett Gabbert (link to HUDL). Undoubtedly there will be some new names emerge from all the games we cover this weekend as well.
-- This should not be much of a surprise to anyone, but we a hearing that the two top targets for Mizzou next year are both from Illinois. That would be East St. Louis wide receiver Jeff Thomas and Edwardsville defensive lineman A.J. Epenesa. PowerMizzou will see both live later this season.
-- Hunter Johnson and Dylan McCaffrey will continue to be the primary targets for Mizzou at quarterback until the Tigers land a commitment from one or they tell Missouri that they are no longer in contention. Does not sound like there will be many other new quarterback targets emerging until then.
-- The 2017 Missouri class does not look to have many more offer kids then the 2016 kids at this time. That can always change as players develop though.
Part two of the Chamber comes in the next post (thanks new software character limit)
The Chamber’s components have been neck deep in fall camp coverage lately and high school kids across the country are practicing countless hours a week so it tends to be one of the slower periods for recruiting. For that reason, a lot of the recruiting info we have this week is going to be a bit of a recap, but that’s okay because we understand some of you have probably missed a few things here and there.
We’re going to start on the football side of things. Missouri currently has 12 commitments. By the time The Chamber returns next Friday, we expect that to be 13. That is due to the curious case of Darius Anderson. Just in case anyone missed it, here’s what happened:
News leaked by way of a cryptic tweet that Anderson had committed to Missouri. Anderson denied it, but his dad told us he committed and we could run the story. We did, Anderson was upset news got out and so we took him off the list as he continued to insist he was not committed to Missouri.
We will say this: Programs across the country have someone (whether it’s the head coach, recruiting coordinator, whatever) who do the same thing on Twitter every time there’s a commitment. Most of them have some sort of catch phrase where they can let the fans (and media) know through a loophole without mentioning a recruit by name that they just landed a commitment. This is important: COACHING STAFFS DON’T DO THAT IF A KID ISN’T COMMITTED. In other words, we’re comfortable saying that Darius Anderson most certainly told someone at Missouri he was committing to them. However, Anderson wants to have an announcement and have his 15 minutes in the spotlight. And you know what? Good for him. We have always said that. These kids get this chance one time. As soon as they get on campus, they’re not getting schmoozed and feeling the love all the time. Enjoy the recruiting process. If you want to have a ceremony, by all means do it and when we can we will protect the kid and keep that information to ourselves. What seems to have happened here is that this particular kid either wasn’t aware that his commitment would make big news or he simply didn’t communicate to everyone involved in the process that he wanted it kept quiet. Either way, we expect Anderson to be officially added to the 2016 commitment list probably by the end of the weekend.
That means the Tigers are at 13, and are also probably holding a spot for Butler County CC offensive lineman Tyler Howell, who signed last year but didn’t finish junior college and could get here in December. That’s 14. There are somewhere between four and eight spots left in the class in all likelihood. With two freshman running backs on the roster and everyone but Russell Hansbrough returning next season, we can’t see Mizzou taking another running back in this class.
The other football recruiting note is the top six of Kansas defensive end Amani Bledsoe. The four-star released it this week. The schools, in alphabetical order, are kansas, Missouri, NC State, Oklahoma, Oregon and UCLA. We’ll continue to follow that one. If you missed it, Randy Withers posted a note on Bledsoe and Isaiah Loudermilk prior to Bledsoe’s top six coming out.
-- 2016 Huntingdon (Tenn.) defensive lineman Sadarius Hutcherson has been trying to visit Mizzou for a while, but has had difficulties finding a date that he and the Tigers could agree on. Sounds like that has been worked out and he will now unofficially visit for the SEMO game on September 5. For those who might not remember, Hutcherson has told PowerMizzou there is serious interest from Missouri. He already holds offers from Louisville, Memphis and Middle Tennessee State. Hutcherson is hopeful that an offer from Mizzou will be extended on his unofficial. As he understands it the coaches just need to verify his size.
--As of now we are hearing the staff feels good about everyone and will allow some guys to take other official visits if they want. Ca’Ron Baham, Tobias Little and Trey Baldwin all mentioned visiting other schools was a possibility when they committed.
Six Top Tiger Targets as of right now.
1. Amani Bledsoe
2. Donte’ Vaughn
3. Boss Tagaloa
4. Darius Whitfield
5. Michael Divinity
6. Albert Okwuegbunam
-- PowerMizzou begins our high school coverage tonight. We will be at the Chaminade (Mo.) vs. Mehlville (Mo.) game tonight and at Mayhem at the Zou all day tomorrow. The headliner for Chaminade is 2018 defensive tackle Trevor Trout, but there are some other players we will be watching closely. 2017 wide receiver Reggie Crawford, 2017 linebacker Jamarion Johnson, and 2018 offensive lineman Marcus Greer (no profile, link is to HUDL page) are all on Mizzou’s radar and names to remember going forward.
Tomorrow at Mayhem we will be able to see how 2016 Mizzou defensive end commit Tre Williams has progressed over the summer. A player with a ton of potential, it will be very interesting to see how he plays against a good Rockhurst team. Additionally, we will be closely watching 2017 Columbia (Mo.) Battle wide receiver Jaevon McQuitty to see if he can build on strong summer showings at numerous camps. St. Louis (Mo.) CBC features 2018 prospects Kamryn Babb and Brett Gabbert (link to HUDL). Undoubtedly there will be some new names emerge from all the games we cover this weekend as well.
-- This should not be much of a surprise to anyone, but we a hearing that the two top targets for Mizzou next year are both from Illinois. That would be East St. Louis wide receiver Jeff Thomas and Edwardsville defensive lineman A.J. Epenesa. PowerMizzou will see both live later this season.
-- Hunter Johnson and Dylan McCaffrey will continue to be the primary targets for Mizzou at quarterback until the Tigers land a commitment from one or they tell Missouri that they are no longer in contention. Does not sound like there will be many other new quarterback targets emerging until then.
-- The 2017 Missouri class does not look to have many more offer kids then the 2016 kids at this time. That can always change as players develop though.
Part two of the Chamber comes in the next post (thanks new software character limit)
