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1) Missouri has about three spots left in the Class of 2022 for right now. With the addition of linebacker Xavier Simmons, the Tigers now sit at 13 commitments. Eli Drinkwitz said at SEC Media Days that they'd probably take no more than 15 or 16 before the start of football season. On Friday, we ran down most of the targets you should be keeping an eye on. We feel pretty confident that Mizzou will bring in a full class of 25 or awfully close to it. But with the eligibility situation and not knowing exactly who will come back or what the transfer market will look like in the spring, you're going to have to make sure to hold a few spots back. So the possibility of two or three commitments in the next few weeks is there, but probably not more than that.
2) The Simmons commitment put Mizzou's class back in the nation's top 25. The Tigers sit at No. 25 as I write this. Where will they end up? The good news is that only two of the teams ranked above them (Clemson and Alabama) are there with as few as 13 commitments. The other 22 teams above Mizzou are there, in part, because they have more players committed and volume matters at least until you get to 20 (which is why rankings are a bit flawed until you get toward the end of the cycle).
Here are the teams ahead of Mizzou that will almost certainly stay there: Notre Dame, Penn State, Ohio State, Florida State, LSU, Georgia, Oklahoma, Alabama, Texas A&M, Clemson, Texas. That's a pretty safe bet not only in looking at the makeup of those classes so far, but that's basically a list of 11 of the top 15 recruiting classes in the country every single year.
Here are the teams other than that most likely to stay ahead of Mizzou: Oregon, Michigan
Here are the rest ahead of Mizzou, all of which the Tigers have a chance to pass: Michigan State, Arkansas, Boston College, Virginia Tech, South Carolina, West Virginia, Rutgers, Mississippi State, Iowa State, Indiana, Baylor. Of those teams, Arkansas, Rutgers and Indiana already have five 4-stars and South Carolina has four. If any of those teams can land another couple of four-stars, they've got a good shot to stay ahead of the Tigers. The rest all have significantly more commitments than Mizzou and significantly fewer four-stars. So let's say Missouri passes all but three teams on this list.
Here are the teams behind Mizzou that we think will probably pass them by signing day: North Carolina, USC, Florida, Miami
Taking all those teams into account would put Missouri with the No. 21 class in the country after things are all said and done if nobody else overtakes them between now and signing day. That's exactly where last year's class ended before moving up to No. 20 based on some post-signing day happenings.
Here are the other teams that could pass Mizzou: Tennessee, Stanford, Oklahoma State, Kentucky, Washington, UCLA, Auburn, Ole Miss
If more than half of those teams overtake Mizzou, the Tigers would be just outside the top 25. Obviously, we could also be forecasting someone to pass Mizzou that doesn't. Our most realistic projection is that this class ends up between 20 and 25 in the final rankings. It could be a spot or two better or worse.
3) Let's talk some football because the opener is just 19 days away. We haven't seen a ton at camp, but we've seen enough to start forming some thoughts on what things will look like. We could probably comfortably project 19 of Missouri's 24 starters (including punter and kicker) today. Here are the ones we're very comfortable with (you can find more depth chart chatter in the Chamber):
QB: Connor Bazelak
RB: Tyler Badie
WR: Keke Chism, Tauskie Dove
TE: Daniel Parker or Niko Hea depending on what the first play call is
OL: Case Cook, Mike Maeitti, Xavier Delgado
DL: Trajan Jeffcoat, Kobie Whiteside, Isaiah McGuire
LB: Blaze Alldredge, Devin Nicholson
CB: Ennis Rakestraw, Akayleb Evans
S: Martez Manuel, Jaylon Carlies
P: Grant McKinniss
K: Harrison Mevis
4) So that leaves five spots where we have some questions. Here they are:
Slot WR: I think it will probably be Mookie Cooper. But it won't stun me if Barrett Banister starts the Central Michigan game.
LT: Javon Foster or Zeke Powell. Right now, we'd give the edge to Foster. The linemen we talked to last week identified him as much improved
RT: Hyrin White or Connor Wood: We'd go with White based on experience, but this might be the tighest race on the team
DT: Akial Byers or Darius Robinson. Robinson has more upside, Byers is a more known commodity
CB: Ish Burdine or Chris Shearin or Allie Green. Many have assumed both Tulsa transfers will start. I'm not sure. I won't be surprised to see Burdine or Shearin win this job as the third corner (who is a starter in Mizzou's 4-2-5 alignment)
5) Sunday was the first day officially on the job for Desiree Reed-Francois. Today, she's in Asheville, NC for the three-day meeting of SEC athletic directors. This is always an event that tends to produce some news and I'm sure this year will be no different. You'll probably see some realignment headlines and maybe some NIL stuff from some of those that are in town to cover the event. Maybe even some talk of what an SEC schedule could look like once Texas and Oklahoma jump in. That's probably still going to be more speculative than anything concrete, though.
