We are proud to welcome Will Garrett, Agency Sales Manager of Missouri Farm Bureau Insurance as our partner and sponsor. When you’re looking for in-depth analysis of everything happening at Mizzou, Monday Morning Thoughts is the place to go. When you’re looking for an in-depth review of your insurance policies, Will Garrett is who you need. Born and raised a Tiger fan, Will is proud of his hometown and takes pride in protecting his community, and the people in it. The time to prepare for tomorrow is today. Find Will in his office just south of Faurot Field! Click here to get in touch with Will and start the process.
1) Let's start with football because, well, the alternatives, folks, they ain't too pretty. Anyway, Mizzou picked up a commitment from former Notre Dame and Arizona State quarterback Drew Pyne on Sunday. In a vacuum, I understand why people might be skeptical on Pyne. He didn't win the starting job at Arizona State and then got hurt when he got a chance. He won games at Notre Dame but his numbers weren't eye-popping (before you let that bother you, check the last, I don't know, 35 years of Notre Dame quarterback numbers). But grading on execution considering circumstances, this is a straight A for Eli Drinkwitz.
Everything in recruiting has changed in the last four years. But none of it has changed as much as the quarterback market. It's the only position in football (well, other than kicker and punter) where only one person is going to play. And the competition all knows it. Backup defensive linemen and wide receivers and running backs play. There are five spots open at offensive line. Position players can find ways to get on the field via special teams. But if you're a quarterback and you aren't the starter, the only way you're playing is if the game is already decided or the starter gets hurt (or just isn't any good). Missouri already knows its starter next season. So does everyone else. Even if nobody came out and said it publicly, this is Brady Cook's team and anyone being recruited by Missouri to play quarterback knows the only thing he's being recruited as prior to 2025 is an insurance policy. So that kind of limits the options. As an insurance policy, Drew Pyne is pretty good. He has started football games and won football games at the Power Five level. There just aren't many other guys out there who can say that and would have been willing to come here.
Sure, Drinkwitz could have stretched into the spring transfer portal and taken his chances. But he's still not getting a current starting quarterback to come here to be a backup. He's still probably going to get someone who's been beaten out for a job at another Power Five school. And he already had that. A bird in hand, as they say. Pyne came out of high school as a four-star prospect and the No. 118 overall player in the country. His college career hasn't lived up to that yet, but he's produced at a higher level than just about anyone else Missouri could have hoped to get. Whether it ends up being a good move for Pyne won't be known until at least August of 2025 when Drinkwitz names a starting QB for that season. But it's already a good move for Mizzou.
2) The spring game is this Saturday at 1 p.m. Still a little weird that spring football ends before the SEC Tournament, but I'm not complaining. Any days they want to add to the offseason I'm on board with.
Missouri enters this game without any major questions in my book. The biggest one I have is probably what the lineup looks like across the offensive line. We're confident we know four of the five starters (Armand Membou, Cam'Ron Johnson, Connor Tollison, Cayden Green). It will be of note to see who that fifth starter seems most likely to be and exactly what position everyone is playing (including backups like Tristan Wilson, Logan Reichert and Jayven Richardson). This could change again if Mizzou is able to land another OL in the transfer portal. I anticipated they'd be more active looking at interior players, but they've had a couple offers go out to tackles, so it lends some question as to exactly what the plan will be across the line.
Defensively, who wins out opposite Johnny Walker? Who's the second DT next to Kristian Williams? And then who wins the punting and kicking jobs. Those are the only real questions this team has. They aren't all going to have answers after Saturday, but at least we'll get a look at a few things to educate our endless speculation over the next five months.
3) Okay, now on to the bad news. Except it's actually good news. Because the basketball season will be over some time in the next 96 hours or so. I always tell you guys when you're getting impatient for football during the offseason not to wish your lives away. So maybe I shouldn't be doing the same thing while there are still games left to play. But nothing about this season has been fun to follow. Some are masochists and watch knowing they're going to get angry. Some probably have been able to at least detach and not be as emotionally invested as you otherwise would. But none of us are having any fun. I highly doubt anyone in the program is either. Whether it ends on Wednesday night against Georgia or Thursday night against Florida (I've got no real interest in being ridiculous and pretending there's any chance it goes beyond that) doesn't really matter. It's going to end. Mercifully. And we can move on to the important stuff.
4) This offseason could very well determine whether Dennis Gates is successful at Missouri or not. I don't really want to get in to exactly how hot his seat will be next year because it's all so hypothetical and we don't even know who his boss is going to be. But whether his job's on the line next season or not doesn't reduce the level of importance of this offseason. It has to get better and it has to get better by a lot and it has to get better fast. There are really two major areas we'll monitor this offseason.
Staff: Kyle Smithpeters is being mentioned by many as a candidate--maybe even the main candidate--for the Southern Illinois head coaching job. It's his alma mater, it's right in the same area where his family had lived for quite a few years before moving to Columbia and it would be a significant raise (he makes $150,000 here). In other words, if they offer the job, there's no way he can say no.
Dickey Nutt is battling cancer and even though everyone seems optimistic about the long term prognosis, he's 64 years old and battling cancer. It's certainly possible that he either retires or comes back in a reduced, off-court role.
Charlton Young was awfully close to being Temple's head coach last year. Is it possible he gets another look somewhere this offseason? It might be less likely considering the season Missouri's had, but it's not out of the question.
We wouldn't think Gates is going to lose all three, but one or two seems likely. And we aren't saying that's a bad thing. There's no part of 0-18 that's irreplaceable. But it would add something else to his plate this offseason.
Players: A lot of this hinges on who and how many come back from this team. Mostly we're talking about John Tonje and Caleb Grill. I believe those to be the most in flux situations. My impression is that Missouri wants them back and I'd think both will want to come back (Grill would probably have more options than Tonje, but Grill has seemed legitimately engaged and his family has been very enthusiastic about Gates on social media). So I think we're looking at probably three or four transfers (the numbers always work themselves out). They need a starting point guard. They need a big man that can defend and rebound. They need one and probably two guys who can score (if one of them happens to also be the PG or the big man, fine). The portal officially opens a week from today. What happens in the ensuing weeks could go a long way toward determining whether Gates is at Missouri for years to come or whether that ice continues to thin and cracks either after next year or the following year.
5) The time is approaching where we'll start to try to get some answers as to how we got here with the basketball program. I know many of you are probably thinking "Why haven't you been asking Gates tougher questions about what the hell is going on?" Honestly, none of those questions are going to get decent answers in the middle of the season. While there are games still left, their entire focus is on how do we make it better and turn it around? You and I may think it's impossible (and in this case we're probably right) but that doesn't mean they quit trying. So we could ask those overarching big picture offseason questions in the middle of February. But they're not going to get answers. Honestly, with Gates, they're probably not going to get answers next week or the week after either. But at least we'll try at that time. There are questions that make sense during the season and others that are just better off waiting until the games are over. The only ones you guys want answers to are the ones that are better off waiting. I promise we're going to ask them. But there's no point doing so until there are no games left to play. Which, again, is coming soon.
Last edited:
