The Chamber is back this week with news and notes on football, basketball and recruiting for both sports. As always, the Chamber is premium information for PowerMizzou.com subscribers, so please keep discussion confined to The Tigers' Lair.
Let's dive right in...
Let's start with a few notes on football.
Mike McHugh was mentioned on the board as the likely repalcement for Dan Hopkins as the Director of Football Operations.
My sources at the time said nothing was finalized and Missouri still hasn't made an announcement, but that's the direction everything is pointing.McHugh was the director of ops at Mizzou from 1993-98, and subsequently held the same position at Oregon, Cal, Fresno State and, most recently, Washington. The Huskies eliminated that position in December and it appears Barry Odom is going to pick him up.
Again, nothing official, but that's our expectation at this point. I also reached out to a team spokesperson to see if the system-wide hiring freeze would delay this potential hire. I was told that they did not believe it would have any effect on filling this spot.
Spring football began on Tuesday, and Missouri will wrap up its first week of practice on Sunday morning. With the new media availability schedule, we were only able to attend Tuesday's practice; Thursday's practice was closed. Saturday will again be open to the media -- or the first part of it anyway. Because of that, let's post a refresher on the injuries currently affecting the football team:
Tavon Ross (ACL) and Terry Beckner, Jr. (ACL) are both out until at least after spring break. A team spokesperson said that's the earliest they would be back; Barry Odom seemed to be more cautious in talking about their injuries, saying there's no reason to rush either guy back.
Walk-on OL Jonah Dubinsky (meniscus) and walk-on safety Isaiah Pierre (ACL) are also on that same time-table.
Two more minor injuries: Charles Harris is recovering from off-season shoulder surgery, and he was limited on Tuesday. Receiver Johnathon Johnson suffered an undisclosed injury on Tuesday and was limited. We have not received an injury update on him, but it is not expected to be anything serious that would cause Johnson to miss extended time. Odom said if Tuesday were a game, both players would have played.
In "possible" injury news, receiver Ray Wingo tweeted this on Friday:
I inquired about that tweet to team spokesperson Chad Moller, who said the media will receive a complete injury update on Saturday morning.
Defensive tackle Harold Brantley practiced on Tuesday, and during the open portion at least, was not limited by any red jersey. It's not known how much Brantley will practice once the team gets into full pads, but that was certainly an inspiring sign. Until early February, Odom was unsure when Brantley would return.
On Friday, the team announced that former four-star OL Andy Bauer is retiring from football due to on-going hip issues. Bauer went through the first day of practice on Tuesday, but a source told me he was in considerable pain afterward. The next day (Wednesday), the decision was made to retire. Bauer worked at center on Tuesday. His Missouri career ends without him seeing the field.
Moving on from the injuries, I found this quote from Donavin Newsom interesting. When asked about the differences in duties for the linebackers under DeMontie Cross, Newsom said there were "more responsibilities."
"You have to know different positions," Newsom said, "because for the inside linebackers, they’ve got to flop sometimes, SAM is considered a safety now so we’re mainly coverage, which I did a lot last year so that’s more comfortable for me."
A couple of things here. With the strong-side linebacker now being considered a safety, that would give some credence to Cross running a 4-2-5 defense in Columbia, much like TCU did. Of course, that's kind of semantics, because Newsom is 238 pounds -- he's still linebacker-sized, not safety.
But the other part that struck me as interesting is when he said the inside linebackers have to flop sometimes. If Newsom is a safety, that means the WILL and MIKE positions are considered the inside linebackers. Which, if they are, means there has to be another stand-up position outside of WILL to have that make sense. This is just speculation, but that would also show that there could be more three-man fronts this year, with a defensive end standing up as a rush linebacker.
Again, just speculation based on that quote -- but it's always fun to try to put the pieces together with a new coordinator.
On the basketball side, I don't think there's much left to be said. Missouri looked and decided the best option was to stand pat for now. People have asked if it's possible that Mack Rhoades would change his mind given that the statement he released never explicitly said that Kim Anderson would be back. I agree that it was hardly a ringing vote of confidence, but I don't see any way Rhoades would reverse field even if somebody became available. It would just be a terrible look and I don't think that's the route Rhoades would go.
So now we wait for staff changes and roster changes. And based on what I've heard, I think it's likely there will be some of both. I don't know specifics in either case at this point in time. I will say that the players that people have discussed potentially transferring are Tramaine Isabell, Namon Wright, Jakeenan Gant and Russell Woods. I've heard some people mention KJ Walton as a possibility, but I don't see that one. We don't speculate on individual kids who might go, but those four have been brought up by quite a few people and it's kind of silly to just bury our heads in the sand and pretend we don't hear the chatter. Understand, we're not saying any of those kids specifically is leaving. They're just the names that have been tossed out by people. So we wait. Anderson said he would meet with players individually next week, so I'm not really anticipating any news before then...and maybe not that soon either. We'll follow it.
To reset the situation, Missouri currently has one scholarships available. They have nine players scheduled to return (including Jordan Barnett) and three prospects signed. Obviously there's the one they have to forfeit out there. If it were me, I'd absolutely give up the scholarship this year. Get it over and done with as soon as possible. But it's really not up to me. So the Tigers have 0-1 available right now, plus whatever number of players might transfer out.
Stay tuned in a moment for the recruiting portion of the Chamber...
Let's dive right in...
Let's start with a few notes on football.
Mike McHugh was mentioned on the board as the likely repalcement for Dan Hopkins as the Director of Football Operations.
My sources at the time said nothing was finalized and Missouri still hasn't made an announcement, but that's the direction everything is pointing.McHugh was the director of ops at Mizzou from 1993-98, and subsequently held the same position at Oregon, Cal, Fresno State and, most recently, Washington. The Huskies eliminated that position in December and it appears Barry Odom is going to pick him up.
Again, nothing official, but that's our expectation at this point. I also reached out to a team spokesperson to see if the system-wide hiring freeze would delay this potential hire. I was told that they did not believe it would have any effect on filling this spot.
Spring football began on Tuesday, and Missouri will wrap up its first week of practice on Sunday morning. With the new media availability schedule, we were only able to attend Tuesday's practice; Thursday's practice was closed. Saturday will again be open to the media -- or the first part of it anyway. Because of that, let's post a refresher on the injuries currently affecting the football team:
Tavon Ross (ACL) and Terry Beckner, Jr. (ACL) are both out until at least after spring break. A team spokesperson said that's the earliest they would be back; Barry Odom seemed to be more cautious in talking about their injuries, saying there's no reason to rush either guy back.
Walk-on OL Jonah Dubinsky (meniscus) and walk-on safety Isaiah Pierre (ACL) are also on that same time-table.
Two more minor injuries: Charles Harris is recovering from off-season shoulder surgery, and he was limited on Tuesday. Receiver Johnathon Johnson suffered an undisclosed injury on Tuesday and was limited. We have not received an injury update on him, but it is not expected to be anything serious that would cause Johnson to miss extended time. Odom said if Tuesday were a game, both players would have played.
In "possible" injury news, receiver Ray Wingo tweeted this on Friday:
I inquired about that tweet to team spokesperson Chad Moller, who said the media will receive a complete injury update on Saturday morning.
Defensive tackle Harold Brantley practiced on Tuesday, and during the open portion at least, was not limited by any red jersey. It's not known how much Brantley will practice once the team gets into full pads, but that was certainly an inspiring sign. Until early February, Odom was unsure when Brantley would return.
On Friday, the team announced that former four-star OL Andy Bauer is retiring from football due to on-going hip issues. Bauer went through the first day of practice on Tuesday, but a source told me he was in considerable pain afterward. The next day (Wednesday), the decision was made to retire. Bauer worked at center on Tuesday. His Missouri career ends without him seeing the field.
Moving on from the injuries, I found this quote from Donavin Newsom interesting. When asked about the differences in duties for the linebackers under DeMontie Cross, Newsom said there were "more responsibilities."
"You have to know different positions," Newsom said, "because for the inside linebackers, they’ve got to flop sometimes, SAM is considered a safety now so we’re mainly coverage, which I did a lot last year so that’s more comfortable for me."
A couple of things here. With the strong-side linebacker now being considered a safety, that would give some credence to Cross running a 4-2-5 defense in Columbia, much like TCU did. Of course, that's kind of semantics, because Newsom is 238 pounds -- he's still linebacker-sized, not safety.
But the other part that struck me as interesting is when he said the inside linebackers have to flop sometimes. If Newsom is a safety, that means the WILL and MIKE positions are considered the inside linebackers. Which, if they are, means there has to be another stand-up position outside of WILL to have that make sense. This is just speculation, but that would also show that there could be more three-man fronts this year, with a defensive end standing up as a rush linebacker.
Again, just speculation based on that quote -- but it's always fun to try to put the pieces together with a new coordinator.
On the basketball side, I don't think there's much left to be said. Missouri looked and decided the best option was to stand pat for now. People have asked if it's possible that Mack Rhoades would change his mind given that the statement he released never explicitly said that Kim Anderson would be back. I agree that it was hardly a ringing vote of confidence, but I don't see any way Rhoades would reverse field even if somebody became available. It would just be a terrible look and I don't think that's the route Rhoades would go.
So now we wait for staff changes and roster changes. And based on what I've heard, I think it's likely there will be some of both. I don't know specifics in either case at this point in time. I will say that the players that people have discussed potentially transferring are Tramaine Isabell, Namon Wright, Jakeenan Gant and Russell Woods. I've heard some people mention KJ Walton as a possibility, but I don't see that one. We don't speculate on individual kids who might go, but those four have been brought up by quite a few people and it's kind of silly to just bury our heads in the sand and pretend we don't hear the chatter. Understand, we're not saying any of those kids specifically is leaving. They're just the names that have been tossed out by people. So we wait. Anderson said he would meet with players individually next week, so I'm not really anticipating any news before then...and maybe not that soon either. We'll follow it.
To reset the situation, Missouri currently has one scholarships available. They have nine players scheduled to return (including Jordan Barnett) and three prospects signed. Obviously there's the one they have to forfeit out there. If it were me, I'd absolutely give up the scholarship this year. Get it over and done with as soon as possible. But it's really not up to me. So the Tigers have 0-1 available right now, plus whatever number of players might transfer out.
Stay tuned in a moment for the recruiting portion of the Chamber...
