Welcome to the offseason version of Four Down Territory.
It’s going to be a little different than it was in-season. I'll post one weekly during the season, which is from SEC Media Days through Missouri's final game.
During the offseason, I’ll post every other week and the thoughts may be a little shorter.
I don't want to post a Missouri football-based column and not write about the team. Now, if something happens on a week it's not scheduled to come out, I'll change course and post a column.
1. Early opinion on Corey Batoon.
My early opinion on Batoon from a coaching standpoint is that he is not the flashy hire that some may have wanted and that’s more than okay. I didn’t really know Kirby Moore or Blake Baker before they got hired here and they were excellent. Also, this hire is very on-brand for the Tigers, and I mean that in a good way.
The Tigers are about getting it out of the mud. For the rest of my life, no matter what the abbreviation stands for relative to where I'm at STP will always mean something to prove in my head.
For example, I went to the dentist on Monday morning and I saw a sign that said STP, which meant stop the pop (or soda for those of you who don't call it pop).
Batoon seems to fit that mold on paper when you look at his resume and his recent work at South Alabama.
I think for him to take a South Alabama team from the 40th-ranked defense in his first season, which is around where Mizzou is currently at, to a top-15 defense last season seems impressive considering the Jaguars aren’t a Power Four team nor are they running the Sun Belt.
Batoon has been coaching longer than I’ve been alive (I turn 25 on Sunday) and he’s worked all over the country and has Power Four experience but this will be his biggest coaching job to date. A coach looking for an opportunity to show what he can do.
It seems very STP-ish to me.
I won’t get into everything he’s done or why there should be room for optimism (although from what I’ve seen Mizzou fans seem to be on board with the hire), you can find that here. But I think the Tigers' defense will be fine.
There will be a lot of new parts via the transfer portal or just some younger players who haven't got starter minutes before playing those minutes in the fall but they should be fine.
I was trying to interview him last week, but he understandably had to do a lot of introductory stuff such as meet the staff, players and probably a lot more people behind the scenes. Plus, all types of life stuff that comes with moving and things of that nature.
So, we're trying to set up a one-on-one sometime in the next few days.
2. Early opinion on Brian Early.
When it comes to Early, he replaces the defensive end coaching vacancy. So, Missouri is squared away when it comes to coaching vacancies.
I won’t pretend to know EDGE coaches going into this coaching search and I won’t act like I knew Early before his hiring but he’s worked some good defensive linemen. He has over 20 years of college experience and another 10 in the high school ranks.
He’s coached up a few first-round picks the last handful of seasons and when you have a five-star signee like Williams Nwaneri that helps. Sure, the guy who helped recruit him is gone but if the replacement is a guy who isn’t far removed from helping Ed Oliver, from Houston (before it became a Power 5 school), be a top 10 draft pick, I think the position group will be okay.
Something that may be overlooked about Early is that he played a big role in recruiting JUCO prospects. He helped wide receiver Tank Dell come to Houston and Dell had a fantastic rookie season this year with the Houston Texans.
For more on Early, click here.
3. Darius Robinson shines at the Senior Bowl.
For the most part, the next few weeks of football regarding the current team should be quiet until spring ball starts in late February or early March. The team has filled its coaching needs and the roster seems set. So, the Senior Bowl was blowing up my X (Twitter), more specifically, defensive end Darius Robinson.
He’s legitimately worked his way into being a Day 1 pick in the NFL Draft in April.
Of all the players on the team, I think Robinson is the first player who truly gravitated to me in the sense that if he saw me somewhere other than in an interviewing setting he’d come up and talk to me.
That’s what happened at the Elite camps Mizzou was hosting for the high school players last June. I was there for just about every day of every camp and he’d come over and chop it up with me for 15-20 minutes every time he saw me.
That’s when he first told me the story y’all heard on the pod about an NFL team questioning him about entering last year’s draft.
He was also telling me that last year had to be the best defense ever and that the team had to do more than sneak into a bowl game.
Well, they weren’t the best defense ever but they were pretty good and they won the Cotton Bowl. Plus, he went from a likely mid-round pick to (for now) looking like a second-round pick at worst.
I’m happy for him and hope he does well. He always made my job easier and he’s genuinely a good guy.
4. How do you feel about your favorite pro-team drafting players from your favorite college team? How do you feel about your favorite pro team drafting a player from a rival school? What ranks higher for you, your favorite pro team or your favorite college team?
Let’s start with the latter. I’ve said on several occasions, that college sports were never all that big in my family. There wasn’t someone who went to a powerhouse university and so everyone decided to cheer for that school. That's not how it worked for me.
Also, no one in my immediate family is from the same state.
So, for example, Duke-UNC just played basketball so most of the people I follow on social media were talking about that game and their allegiances despite most of them not going to those schools. But they all were born and raised in that state or their whole family was born and raised in that state and already had their allegiances and passed it on to them.
Now, I’m from Charlotte, but by the time we moved there when I was 10, no one was going to be able to mold my allegiance to a school.
So for me, I never really had a college team. So, pro sports rank above college by default.
But how was it for you before you went to college? Because I imagine all of you want Missouri to do well over your favorite pro teams at this moment (understandably).
So, what was more of a priority? Your pro teams doing well or your favorite college team doing well?
The reason I ask is because if your favorite college team ranked above your favorite pro team, then how did you respond when an athlete from your favorite college team plays for your favorite pro team and they underperform for the pro team?
What do you say now in that scenario?
Do you still say, ‘He’s a Tiger, it’s okay that he/she sucks.’
A perfect example would be Nick Bolton. The Chiefs linebacker is a Pro Bowl-level player when healthy and he's going to get a nice contract soon. So, he doesn’t suck.
However, his pass coverage at times leaves a lot to be desired at times. That's okay. No one's perfect, but it can be annoying. So, in those types of situations for Missouri and Chief fans, how do you react mid-game when Bolton (or whatever former Missouri athlete you want to insert on your favorite sports team) messes up pretty badly (let's say gives up a touchdown or blows the game-winning play) or is having a terrible game overall in the moment?
“In the moment” is the key phrase because I know you’ll love him after the game and forever.
But do you treat them like any other player playing poorly for your favorite pro team?
I feel like I treat all players equally once they get to my favorite pro teams.
I am a fan who is a lot more honest with my teams than others. For example, I get on everyone who messes up on the Chiefs. Ask @drewking0222. It can be Patrick Mahomes, Andy Reid, Travis Kelce, Bolton, etc. I don’t care.
Next question (s).
I just said I don’t have a favorite college team, which also implies I don’t have a rival team or ones that I hate organically.
How do you feel when a player from a rival school is drafted to your favorite pro team? Everyone here hates the Wildcats, but if you're a Chiefs fan did you like them drafting Felix Anudike-Uzomah in the first round?
Does your disdain for the Wildcat evaporate once they join your pro team? Does your disdain ever go away? Do they have to show they're a good player for the pro team first before you ease up on them?
Fandom is the most fun and interesting thing about sports, but I like seeing the intersection of fandom when someone has to root for or against someone because of their brand allegiance to either the pro or college team.
It’s going to be a little different than it was in-season. I'll post one weekly during the season, which is from SEC Media Days through Missouri's final game.
During the offseason, I’ll post every other week and the thoughts may be a little shorter.
I don't want to post a Missouri football-based column and not write about the team. Now, if something happens on a week it's not scheduled to come out, I'll change course and post a column.
1. Early opinion on Corey Batoon.
My early opinion on Batoon from a coaching standpoint is that he is not the flashy hire that some may have wanted and that’s more than okay. I didn’t really know Kirby Moore or Blake Baker before they got hired here and they were excellent. Also, this hire is very on-brand for the Tigers, and I mean that in a good way.
The Tigers are about getting it out of the mud. For the rest of my life, no matter what the abbreviation stands for relative to where I'm at STP will always mean something to prove in my head.
For example, I went to the dentist on Monday morning and I saw a sign that said STP, which meant stop the pop (or soda for those of you who don't call it pop).
Batoon seems to fit that mold on paper when you look at his resume and his recent work at South Alabama.
I think for him to take a South Alabama team from the 40th-ranked defense in his first season, which is around where Mizzou is currently at, to a top-15 defense last season seems impressive considering the Jaguars aren’t a Power Four team nor are they running the Sun Belt.
Batoon has been coaching longer than I’ve been alive (I turn 25 on Sunday) and he’s worked all over the country and has Power Four experience but this will be his biggest coaching job to date. A coach looking for an opportunity to show what he can do.
It seems very STP-ish to me.
I won’t get into everything he’s done or why there should be room for optimism (although from what I’ve seen Mizzou fans seem to be on board with the hire), you can find that here. But I think the Tigers' defense will be fine.
There will be a lot of new parts via the transfer portal or just some younger players who haven't got starter minutes before playing those minutes in the fall but they should be fine.
I was trying to interview him last week, but he understandably had to do a lot of introductory stuff such as meet the staff, players and probably a lot more people behind the scenes. Plus, all types of life stuff that comes with moving and things of that nature.
So, we're trying to set up a one-on-one sometime in the next few days.
2. Early opinion on Brian Early.
When it comes to Early, he replaces the defensive end coaching vacancy. So, Missouri is squared away when it comes to coaching vacancies.
I won’t pretend to know EDGE coaches going into this coaching search and I won’t act like I knew Early before his hiring but he’s worked some good defensive linemen. He has over 20 years of college experience and another 10 in the high school ranks.
He’s coached up a few first-round picks the last handful of seasons and when you have a five-star signee like Williams Nwaneri that helps. Sure, the guy who helped recruit him is gone but if the replacement is a guy who isn’t far removed from helping Ed Oliver, from Houston (before it became a Power 5 school), be a top 10 draft pick, I think the position group will be okay.
Something that may be overlooked about Early is that he played a big role in recruiting JUCO prospects. He helped wide receiver Tank Dell come to Houston and Dell had a fantastic rookie season this year with the Houston Texans.
For more on Early, click here.
3. Darius Robinson shines at the Senior Bowl.
For the most part, the next few weeks of football regarding the current team should be quiet until spring ball starts in late February or early March. The team has filled its coaching needs and the roster seems set. So, the Senior Bowl was blowing up my X (Twitter), more specifically, defensive end Darius Robinson.
He’s legitimately worked his way into being a Day 1 pick in the NFL Draft in April.
Of all the players on the team, I think Robinson is the first player who truly gravitated to me in the sense that if he saw me somewhere other than in an interviewing setting he’d come up and talk to me.
That’s what happened at the Elite camps Mizzou was hosting for the high school players last June. I was there for just about every day of every camp and he’d come over and chop it up with me for 15-20 minutes every time he saw me.
That’s when he first told me the story y’all heard on the pod about an NFL team questioning him about entering last year’s draft.
He was also telling me that last year had to be the best defense ever and that the team had to do more than sneak into a bowl game.
Well, they weren’t the best defense ever but they were pretty good and they won the Cotton Bowl. Plus, he went from a likely mid-round pick to (for now) looking like a second-round pick at worst.
I’m happy for him and hope he does well. He always made my job easier and he’s genuinely a good guy.
4. How do you feel about your favorite pro-team drafting players from your favorite college team? How do you feel about your favorite pro team drafting a player from a rival school? What ranks higher for you, your favorite pro team or your favorite college team?
Let’s start with the latter. I’ve said on several occasions, that college sports were never all that big in my family. There wasn’t someone who went to a powerhouse university and so everyone decided to cheer for that school. That's not how it worked for me.
Also, no one in my immediate family is from the same state.
So, for example, Duke-UNC just played basketball so most of the people I follow on social media were talking about that game and their allegiances despite most of them not going to those schools. But they all were born and raised in that state or their whole family was born and raised in that state and already had their allegiances and passed it on to them.
Now, I’m from Charlotte, but by the time we moved there when I was 10, no one was going to be able to mold my allegiance to a school.
So for me, I never really had a college team. So, pro sports rank above college by default.
But how was it for you before you went to college? Because I imagine all of you want Missouri to do well over your favorite pro teams at this moment (understandably).
So, what was more of a priority? Your pro teams doing well or your favorite college team doing well?
The reason I ask is because if your favorite college team ranked above your favorite pro team, then how did you respond when an athlete from your favorite college team plays for your favorite pro team and they underperform for the pro team?
What do you say now in that scenario?
Do you still say, ‘He’s a Tiger, it’s okay that he/she sucks.’
A perfect example would be Nick Bolton. The Chiefs linebacker is a Pro Bowl-level player when healthy and he's going to get a nice contract soon. So, he doesn’t suck.
However, his pass coverage at times leaves a lot to be desired at times. That's okay. No one's perfect, but it can be annoying. So, in those types of situations for Missouri and Chief fans, how do you react mid-game when Bolton (or whatever former Missouri athlete you want to insert on your favorite sports team) messes up pretty badly (let's say gives up a touchdown or blows the game-winning play) or is having a terrible game overall in the moment?
“In the moment” is the key phrase because I know you’ll love him after the game and forever.
But do you treat them like any other player playing poorly for your favorite pro team?
I feel like I treat all players equally once they get to my favorite pro teams.
I am a fan who is a lot more honest with my teams than others. For example, I get on everyone who messes up on the Chiefs. Ask @drewking0222. It can be Patrick Mahomes, Andy Reid, Travis Kelce, Bolton, etc. I don’t care.
Next question (s).
I just said I don’t have a favorite college team, which also implies I don’t have a rival team or ones that I hate organically.
How do you feel when a player from a rival school is drafted to your favorite pro team? Everyone here hates the Wildcats, but if you're a Chiefs fan did you like them drafting Felix Anudike-Uzomah in the first round?
Does your disdain for the Wildcat evaporate once they join your pro team? Does your disdain ever go away? Do they have to show they're a good player for the pro team first before you ease up on them?
Fandom is the most fun and interesting thing about sports, but I like seeing the intersection of fandom when someone has to root for or against someone because of their brand allegiance to either the pro or college team.
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