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FOOTBALL RECRUITING
*The 2021 Mizzou coaching staff is fully in place now with the hiring of Aaron Fletcher from Tulsa, who arrived in Columbia on Thursday. Eli Drinkwitz said earlier this week that Steve Wilks would coach corners and they were still working out the distribution of position duties with the rest of the defensive staff.
Fletcher will take over the recruiting areas vacated by David Gibbs' departure. It's a pretty seamless transition because both had Texas ties. In addition to Texas, Fletcher will be responsible for recruiting areas of Northern Missouri and helping out in Kansas City. The staff has been adamant about its intent to recruit Missouri at a level that Mizzou never has. To do that, every coach has an area of the state for which he is responsible. We got some detail on that. Here are the breakdowns of where each coach takes the lead in the state (obviously there's some crossover with position coaches as things become more clear and they hone in on specific targets):
Eli Drinkwitz: Columbia and Jefferson City
Steve Wilks: Sedalia area, northern Missouri
Casey Woods: Kansas City, parts of southern/southwest Missouri (Kansas, Oklahoma borders)
Curtis Luper: East of Central Missouri, St. Louis
Aaron Fletcher: Northern Missouri
Charlie Harbison: Western mid-Missouri, south of Kansas City
DJ Smith: Northeastern Missouri (North of STL)
Bush Hamdan: Northeastern Missouri
Jethro Franklin: Northeastern Missouri
Marcus Johnson: Southern Missouri and the bootheel
Erik Link: Springfield and surrounding areas, far Northwestern Missouri (Iowa/Nebraska borders)
Because Kansas City (plus the areas in KCK) and St. Louis (across into Illinois) have so many schools and tend to have far more targets than other areas, while Woods and Luper are the primary coaches in charge, there are multiple coaches assisting the primary recruiter in those areas.
Kansas City: Woods, Harbison, Wilks, Fletcher
St. Louis: Luper, Johnson, Smith, Hamdan, Franklin
The goal is clear: Even in areas that rarely if ever produce SEC level talent, maintain a presence so that Mizzou is seen as THE in-state school. It's off to a good start.
*The Tigers added to the 2021 class this week by grabbing former Tennessee signee J'Marion Gooch. He had never been associated with Missouri. The whole thing came together very quickly. The Tigers really started recruiting Gooch in the last week. He did a virtual visit with the staff and committed within about 24 hours after that visit. He plans to be on campus in June to add depth to the offensive line.
*Mizzou may not be done poaching the list of former Tennessee signees. Our intel is that Mizzou is in the thick of it to land Brown, a four-star running back that was released from his LOI with the Vols. The main competition at this point appears to be Miami and a big push from UCF since Gus Malzhan got the job. Malzahn and his new defensive coordinator, Travis Williams, recruited Brown hard at Auburn and are making him a priority in Orlando. Landing the four-star former SEC signee would be a big kickstart to their class. From what we hear, it's possible Brown makes a decision in the coming days.
*There don't appear to be any immediate "commit watch" prospects in the 2022 class from what we can tell. Rather than rehash new offers and such in that group, we're going to take a big picture look at what we believe will be the makeup of Mizzou's class. It's hard to know the exact number in this class with much of the eligibility stuff still to be sorted out, but we're forecasting a number in the low 20s overall. Here's how we see it breaking down by position.
Quarterback: 1
Running Back: 2
Wide Receiver: 4/5 (Two already committed)
Tight End: 1/2 (One already committed)
Offensive Line: 4
Defensive End: 2
Defensive Tackle: 2
Linebacker: 1
Cornerback: 2
Safety: 2 (One already committed)
Specialists: 0/1
Because last year's class was so heavy on defense, especially on the line and in the secondary, you could see the Tigers go lighter than usual in those areas. Quarterback will also be interesting to watch. Mizzou will definitely target one, but if the top guys on the list go elsewhere, it's possible they could choose not to reach for a quarterback. There are only three quarterbacks on the roster, but all three are true or redshirt freshmen at this point. In addition, you have Shawn Robinson potentially on the roster for two more years, who could fill in in an emergency situation. Again, we expect them to take a QB. But if the right guy isn't there, it's possible they choose not to.
Obviously there are a handful of players who will always have a spot regardless of the numbers. These numbers certainly are not exact, but they're a decent guideline of the way the class is likely to break by position.
These numbers could also be impacted by what happens between now and August in the 2021 class.
*There has been concern among fans that Thompson appears to be listening to other staffs, particularly the one at Illinois. From everyone we've talked to, Missouri is aware he is still being heavily recruited by other schools and the Tiger staff knows it will have to continue to work to make sure it can hang on to the four-star safety. But everyone we've spoken to is optimistic that will happen. Players that commit more than a year before signing day generally know where they want to go and end up at that place. Thompson will go through the recruiting process and he won't completely shut down contact, but all of our sources believe that he will ultimately end up in Columbia.
BASKETBALL RECRUITING
Nothing specific as far as names at this point because it's likely to be transfers only in the spring. But we'll do a reset here as well as far as numbers.
As you should know by now, everyone on the roster is technically eligible to return next year. Let's run down the likelihood on each player. The seniors told us earlier this week that they haven't really thought much about the situation and won't until after this year is over.
Jeremiah Tilmon--Extremely unlikely
Dru Smith--Highly unlikely
Mark Smith--Possible, but we'd think not
Mitchell Smith--Possible
Drew Buggs--Possible
Xavier Pinson--Possible, but we'd think very unlikely. We know that the reaction will be, "BUT WHY, HE ISN'T GOING TO BE DRAFTED." First of all, Pinson explored the draft process last year. If it had been a normal year, he might have gone then. There have also been social media implications of transferring throughout his time here. You can downplay those, but when they pop up repeatedly, they don't mean nothing. If you look at the last few weeks, it's pretty clear that there have been games where Pinson is just checked out. That kind of came to a point in the Ole Miss game, when Pinson went 1/9 for 2 points and was on the bench for Missouri's 15-2 run, the only stretch of good play in the entire game for Mizzou. We need to be clear, we're not saying there's any issue between Pinson and the coaching staff (though it's not been hard to read Martin's frustration at times). Nonetheless, we're expecting this to be Pinson's last year in college. Where he ends up after that, we have no idea, but from everything we can piece together (and we want to be clear no one with direct knowledge has told us they believe X will leave), we wouldn't count on him for next year's roster.
Torrence Watson, Javon Pickett, Kobe Brown, Parker Braun--Would fully expect these four to return. The only POSSIBLE exception would be Braun if he believes he can get more playing time somewhere else, but at this point, we think these four will be back.
Ed Chang, Jordan Wilmore--It would not be surprising to see at least one of these two move on. Chang hasn't seen the floor at all, Wilmore has played a total of 22 minutes in five games. It's possible neither returns. In order of likelihood we'd say the scenarios are one returns, then both leave, then both return. In other words, it's more likely neither is here than both are.
We would think the seniors that return (if there are any) wouldn't count against the 13 scholarship limit. Missouri has a five-man recruiting class coming in. There are four players we're confident are coming back. That means Mizzou could have as many as four spots available in this class (if Pinson, Chang and Wilmore all leave). Again, however many spots Missouri uses, we expect them all to be used in the transfer portal, whether that's on grad transfers or traditional transfers. The other thing to monitor will be players who signed with a school where there is a coaching change. Poaching those guys has been a Cuonzo Martin specialty. It should be a busy spring.
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