The Chamber is back after its holiday hiatus. As always, please keep discussion of the information below contained to The Tigers' Lair.
-- We're still waiting on the final hires for Odom, starting with a new offensive line coach and then perhaps a special-teams coordinator, but there's no new information to pass along on those right now.
As we head to the NFL draft declaration deadline (Jan. 18), it seems more and more likely that Missouri won't lose any underclassmen to the draft. Based on recent tweets from Josh Augusta, it sounds like he's set on returning for his senior year.
(And, yes, I think Augusta would get drafted if he left because of his combination of size and athleticism alone.)
A source confirmed to me that both Augusta and Aarion Penton are coming back, and while the source didn't know their exact draft evaluations, it was believed to be of the "stay in school" variety.
Now, the situation with Charles Harris is a bit more interesting. I was told he got a second-round evaluation, and while he intends to come back, he is still in the process of getting to know the new staff (namely, Chris Wilson, the new defensive line coach) before coming to a decision. The feeling is that he will stay, but it's not as done a deal as it is with Augusta and Penton at this point.
-- Quarterback is the most interesting position to follow leading into signing day and then the spring. As I've said before, based on talking to a good number of people, I think it's highly unlikely that both Eddie Printz and Marvin Zanders are with the team into the summer. The desire to add at least one quarterback in this class gives credence to that.
A source told me that Missouri doesn't have interest in Davis Webb, the Texas Tech transfer, at this point. Missouri tried to add JUCO QB Jerod Evans in December, but he committed to Virginia Tech after visiting Missouri. The issue with JUCO quarterbacks and graduate transfers is that the majority of them want situations where it's an easy situation for them to win a starting job.
(Which, I would agree with if I were them. If my eligibility is running out, I'd like to find a place where I could play, and not sit on the bench.)
Missouri's situation is far more complicated, both with a sophomore quarterback who was dubbed as the heir apparent before he arrived on campus, and with the reinstatement of Maty Mauk, a redshirt senior with about two full seasons of starts under his belt. In an ideal world, Missouri would like to add a JUCO quarterback to provide depth for spring ball and this season, but that's looking unlikely. If there is mass attrition from the quarterback position after the spring, I was told Missouri could again see who is out there -- again, just to add depth.
Now, the biggest question is where does Maty Mauk fit into all this? I know that he has met with Josh Heupel and the message seemed to be a "clean slate", but it has been made clear to Mauk that it's a no-tolerance policy for any violation of team rules now. A source said academics aren't an issue (contrary to other reports) and he is still on schedule to graduate in May.
There are a lot of questions at play here, however. If Mauk isn't the starter out of spring, does he look to transfer? If Mauk IS the starter, what does that mean for Drew Lock? And then what does Missouri do about a possible thinning depth chart at the position? The most disastrous scenario, in my opinion, is for Missouri to leave the spring with one scholarship quarterback on the roster. It's imperative that Missouri finds a quarterback in this class that can enroll early. That may be a tall task given the time restrictions, but there has to be more contingency plans in place for that scenario I mentioned.
-- It is moving a little slower then what you all want, we know, but recruiting is starting to pick up a little speed. For those that missed it last night Mizzou offered two 2016 prospects. Both are junior college safeties committed to Power-5 schools. Both were also recruited by Greg Brown while he was at Louisville so there is a preexisting relationship. PowerMizzou caught up with Kyzir White and London Iakopo quickly to get their initial thoughts on landing Mizzou offers.
White, a Wes Virginia commit, was the more subdued of the two. He said he didn’t know too much about Mizzou yet and that his talks with Brown weren’t far enough along, in regards to Missouri, to start talking about a possible visit. The No. 19-ranked junior college prospect has official visits scheduled to Penn State (1/22) and West Virginia (1/29). He told PowerMizzou that he still plans to use his other three official visits as well so there is a chance that the Tigers could get an official visit. White spoke with Barry Odom when he got the call from Brown about the offer. According to White, it was pretty standard talk with Odom saying how much he liked White’s film and how much Mizzou would like him to be apart of their program. PowerMizzou will keep in touch with White to see if an official visit to Missouri materializes.
Iakopo, a Arizona commit, sounded more likely to take an official visit to Missouri at this point then White. He took his official visit to Arizona in October and is working on setting up some for January now. He had one set to Louisville, but that is on hold while the coaching dust settles. When asked if he thought he’d officially visit Missouri Iakopo answered, “I believe so. Yes sir.” The No. 51-ranked junior college prospect has only talked to coach Brown so far. He admitted he doesn’t know much about Mizzou, but said he can’t wait to learn more. PowerMizzou will have more form Iakopo when/if an official visit to Missouri is scheduled.
A couple takeaways from the two offers. Missouri obviously wants to bolster the safety depth. They have Greg Taylor and DeMarkus Acy scheduled to arrive this summer to fill the spots vacated by Ian Simon and Cortland Browning. The need for another seems to indicate Cam Hilton is staying on offense. The Tigers need one more safety commit to get the numbers back to what they were before he moved to offense.
The other takeaway is information we’ve heard from sources around the program. It sounds like Odom will be much more amenable to recruiting junior college prospects than Pinkel. The perception of junior college players is evolving and Pinkel was slowly changing his strategy in recruiting them (Mizzou signed five junior college prospects in the 2015 class). Odom could ramp those efforts up even more. That doesn’t mean the Tigers will be signing ten JuCos each class. It has more to do with what level of junior college players Mizzou will go after. Pinkel seemed to focus on getting players they placed back and then plugging holes. We could see Odom going after higher level impact guys that they want regardless of position.
- PowerMizzou caught up with Mustang (Okla.) tight end Blake Williams recently. He holds offers from Illinois and North Carolina. He has not taken any official visits yet, but he has one set up to Illinois and could take one to Iowa State. Williams just started communicating with Cooper Bassett, the Mizzou TE GA, a couple days ago. At this point the talks are just in the introductory stage, but with Mizzou likely to take at least one more tight end Williams is a prospect to watch.
- We are chasing down info on 2016 tailback prospects now for the tailback target board. Jeremy Lewis is a prospect that the old staff liked, but not quite enough to offer. He is being followed by both Barry Odom and Josh Heupel. Now GAs are often in charge of setting up who coaches follow, but still may be something to watch. There are only a handful of 2016 prospects, not committed to Mizzou, that are followed by both. Lewis told PowerMizzou a couple days ago that he had not heard from Mizzou yet, but we’ll continue to follow the situation.
Adam Cofield hasn’t heard from Mizzou at all during the holiday dead period. Coaches are allowed to make phone calls and message prospects so that is not the reason. We will check in with Tre Bryant and A.J. Taylor to see if Mizzou has quit recruiting them altogether since they made statements saying the are remaining committed to their current school choices. We will try to find out if there is any chance Darius Anderson takes an official to Mizzou. At this point we don’t think there is. We’ve been told that Arizona Western, formerly of Caruthersville, tailback Darrell Monroe is an option at tailback. With Natereace Strong arriving at Mizzou as a sophomore, in terms of eligibility, Mizzou is not completely apposed to taking two junior college prospects.
PETE SCANTLEBURY ON THE FOOTBALL TEAM
-- We're still waiting on the final hires for Odom, starting with a new offensive line coach and then perhaps a special-teams coordinator, but there's no new information to pass along on those right now.
As we head to the NFL draft declaration deadline (Jan. 18), it seems more and more likely that Missouri won't lose any underclassmen to the draft. Based on recent tweets from Josh Augusta, it sounds like he's set on returning for his senior year.
(And, yes, I think Augusta would get drafted if he left because of his combination of size and athleticism alone.)
A source confirmed to me that both Augusta and Aarion Penton are coming back, and while the source didn't know their exact draft evaluations, it was believed to be of the "stay in school" variety.
Now, the situation with Charles Harris is a bit more interesting. I was told he got a second-round evaluation, and while he intends to come back, he is still in the process of getting to know the new staff (namely, Chris Wilson, the new defensive line coach) before coming to a decision. The feeling is that he will stay, but it's not as done a deal as it is with Augusta and Penton at this point.
-- Quarterback is the most interesting position to follow leading into signing day and then the spring. As I've said before, based on talking to a good number of people, I think it's highly unlikely that both Eddie Printz and Marvin Zanders are with the team into the summer. The desire to add at least one quarterback in this class gives credence to that.
A source told me that Missouri doesn't have interest in Davis Webb, the Texas Tech transfer, at this point. Missouri tried to add JUCO QB Jerod Evans in December, but he committed to Virginia Tech after visiting Missouri. The issue with JUCO quarterbacks and graduate transfers is that the majority of them want situations where it's an easy situation for them to win a starting job.
(Which, I would agree with if I were them. If my eligibility is running out, I'd like to find a place where I could play, and not sit on the bench.)
Missouri's situation is far more complicated, both with a sophomore quarterback who was dubbed as the heir apparent before he arrived on campus, and with the reinstatement of Maty Mauk, a redshirt senior with about two full seasons of starts under his belt. In an ideal world, Missouri would like to add a JUCO quarterback to provide depth for spring ball and this season, but that's looking unlikely. If there is mass attrition from the quarterback position after the spring, I was told Missouri could again see who is out there -- again, just to add depth.
Now, the biggest question is where does Maty Mauk fit into all this? I know that he has met with Josh Heupel and the message seemed to be a "clean slate", but it has been made clear to Mauk that it's a no-tolerance policy for any violation of team rules now. A source said academics aren't an issue (contrary to other reports) and he is still on schedule to graduate in May.
There are a lot of questions at play here, however. If Mauk isn't the starter out of spring, does he look to transfer? If Mauk IS the starter, what does that mean for Drew Lock? And then what does Missouri do about a possible thinning depth chart at the position? The most disastrous scenario, in my opinion, is for Missouri to leave the spring with one scholarship quarterback on the roster. It's imperative that Missouri finds a quarterback in this class that can enroll early. That may be a tall task given the time restrictions, but there has to be more contingency plans in place for that scenario I mentioned.
BRIAN AUSTIN ON FOOTBALL RECRUITING
-- It is moving a little slower then what you all want, we know, but recruiting is starting to pick up a little speed. For those that missed it last night Mizzou offered two 2016 prospects. Both are junior college safeties committed to Power-5 schools. Both were also recruited by Greg Brown while he was at Louisville so there is a preexisting relationship. PowerMizzou caught up with Kyzir White and London Iakopo quickly to get their initial thoughts on landing Mizzou offers.
White, a Wes Virginia commit, was the more subdued of the two. He said he didn’t know too much about Mizzou yet and that his talks with Brown weren’t far enough along, in regards to Missouri, to start talking about a possible visit. The No. 19-ranked junior college prospect has official visits scheduled to Penn State (1/22) and West Virginia (1/29). He told PowerMizzou that he still plans to use his other three official visits as well so there is a chance that the Tigers could get an official visit. White spoke with Barry Odom when he got the call from Brown about the offer. According to White, it was pretty standard talk with Odom saying how much he liked White’s film and how much Mizzou would like him to be apart of their program. PowerMizzou will keep in touch with White to see if an official visit to Missouri materializes.
Iakopo, a Arizona commit, sounded more likely to take an official visit to Missouri at this point then White. He took his official visit to Arizona in October and is working on setting up some for January now. He had one set to Louisville, but that is on hold while the coaching dust settles. When asked if he thought he’d officially visit Missouri Iakopo answered, “I believe so. Yes sir.” The No. 51-ranked junior college prospect has only talked to coach Brown so far. He admitted he doesn’t know much about Mizzou, but said he can’t wait to learn more. PowerMizzou will have more form Iakopo when/if an official visit to Missouri is scheduled.
A couple takeaways from the two offers. Missouri obviously wants to bolster the safety depth. They have Greg Taylor and DeMarkus Acy scheduled to arrive this summer to fill the spots vacated by Ian Simon and Cortland Browning. The need for another seems to indicate Cam Hilton is staying on offense. The Tigers need one more safety commit to get the numbers back to what they were before he moved to offense.
The other takeaway is information we’ve heard from sources around the program. It sounds like Odom will be much more amenable to recruiting junior college prospects than Pinkel. The perception of junior college players is evolving and Pinkel was slowly changing his strategy in recruiting them (Mizzou signed five junior college prospects in the 2015 class). Odom could ramp those efforts up even more. That doesn’t mean the Tigers will be signing ten JuCos each class. It has more to do with what level of junior college players Mizzou will go after. Pinkel seemed to focus on getting players they placed back and then plugging holes. We could see Odom going after higher level impact guys that they want regardless of position.
- PowerMizzou caught up with Mustang (Okla.) tight end Blake Williams recently. He holds offers from Illinois and North Carolina. He has not taken any official visits yet, but he has one set up to Illinois and could take one to Iowa State. Williams just started communicating with Cooper Bassett, the Mizzou TE GA, a couple days ago. At this point the talks are just in the introductory stage, but with Mizzou likely to take at least one more tight end Williams is a prospect to watch.
- We are chasing down info on 2016 tailback prospects now for the tailback target board. Jeremy Lewis is a prospect that the old staff liked, but not quite enough to offer. He is being followed by both Barry Odom and Josh Heupel. Now GAs are often in charge of setting up who coaches follow, but still may be something to watch. There are only a handful of 2016 prospects, not committed to Mizzou, that are followed by both. Lewis told PowerMizzou a couple days ago that he had not heard from Mizzou yet, but we’ll continue to follow the situation.
Adam Cofield hasn’t heard from Mizzou at all during the holiday dead period. Coaches are allowed to make phone calls and message prospects so that is not the reason. We will check in with Tre Bryant and A.J. Taylor to see if Mizzou has quit recruiting them altogether since they made statements saying the are remaining committed to their current school choices. We will try to find out if there is any chance Darius Anderson takes an official to Mizzou. At this point we don’t think there is. We’ve been told that Arizona Western, formerly of Caruthersville, tailback Darrell Monroe is an option at tailback. With Natereace Strong arriving at Mizzou as a sophomore, in terms of eligibility, Mizzou is not completely apposed to taking two junior college prospects.
