FOOTBALL RECRUITING
DL TARGET UPDATE:
- George has reshuffled his college decision date, originally scheduled for December 1st, it will now happen on Thanksgiving day. Moving the date up came after George and his family had a virtual visit with Missouri's staff. The math seems pretty easy here, all signs point to the Tigers landing an experienced JUCO defensive lineman and bounceback from Miami.
- Young is definitely one of the hottest recruits among the JUCO ranks right now. He also had a virtual visit with Missouri's coaching staff on Tuesday. We've attempted to reach out to him for an update, but have been unsuccessful so far.
Interesting story on Young. He's 22 years old. He took time off playing football after high school and came back to it at Georgia Military. He's expected to graduate in December and will have three years of eligibility remaining. While he hasn't listed any favorites, we have a feeling that Georgia and Florida State may be hard to beat here. There are notable programs making a push as well as early signing day is less than a month away.
- Iton recently teased that he was going to release a Top 5, something he told us was in his plans earlier this month. The Northern Colorado bounceback took a virtual visit with Missouri's staff back in October and appears to still be in play for the Tigers. When Iton decides to announce his top schools, we have a good feeling that Missouri will be among that group. Ole Miss and Mississippi State are highly likely to be included in that group as well as those two programs appear to be the main competition. He also picked up new offers from Florida State and Texas Tech this week as well. Iton should make a decision very soon, as he's set to graduate in December and enroll at the school he chooses next semester.
TIGERS VS. TIGERS:
- Newly offered cornerback Dontae Balfour pulled no punches with Rivals.com analyst Chad Simmons earlier this week when he said Auburn was the leader in his recruiting process with Mizzou in the No. 2 spot. As long as Auburn continues to put on the press, Missouri will need to look elsewhere for another CB option in the 2021 class. Balfour is expected to choose a school soon and sign in December.
WR OPTIONS:
- This one has been very quiet since Johnson decommitted from Oklahoma back on October 26th. But, Missouri was involved with Johnson before he committed to the Sooners and it appears they are now heavily involved since the three-star prospect has been back on the open market. Johnson is listed as a cornerback and that's what Oklahoma was recruiting him as, but Johnson appears to be wavering towards playing wide receiver in college. The Greenville (Tex.) product has 4.39 speed and is a very dynamic athlete. This is a recruitment to monitor going forward as it seems Missouri is in a good spot here.
- With Muschamp out, South Carolina commitments are currently in limbo and have important decisions to make...and new schools showing interest. Missouri could possibly make a play with Reynolds, who has been committed to SC since March but has kept his options open. The Alabama native is seen as a compact, quick, and speedy slot receiver who also plays running back and returns kicks for high school.
2022 UPDATES:
THOMPSON SETS DECISION DATE
- Fresh off a visit to Ann Arbor last weekend, Thompson announced he will be committing on December 4th. Obviously, all the momentum is pointing towards the Wolverines and multiple FutureCast picks are also trending in that direction by insiders close to the Michigan program.
FORD GETTING CLOSER TO A DECISION
- Ford told Rivals.com Midwest analyst Josh Helmholdt that a college decision could come relatively soon after he takes some personal visits to campuses now that his junior season is complete. Oklahoma, Notre Dame, Arizona State, and Texas were schools specifically mentioned in the latest update. He also said he would like to visit Purdue, Kentucky, Texas A&M, Baylor, and Missouri (again) as well before making an announcement. Mizzou does have an advantage in that Ford visited Columbia back in March before COVID hit, so he got familiar with the coaching staff in person before the recruiting process went completely virtual.
KEEP AN EYE ON:
- Banks is another Lutheran North (Mo.) product that is emerging in the 2022 class. He picked up power five offers from Kansas, Syracuse, and Minnesota this week.
SCHEDULING STUFF
Sent out a couple messages this morning. As of now, the plan is to play at South Carolina. No one has been told that isn't happening. Usually by now, they would know if the game is off. We aren't telling you it's 100% they're playing, but that appears to be the belief this morning.
Eli Drinkwitz said on Thursday night Missouri had 53 players available. The reality is, it's below that because that number includes Kobie Whiteside, Larry Borom and Xavier Delgado who are all doubtful at best. So Mizzou is probably under the threshold, but again, that number is a suggestion, not a rule. If you want to play with fewer than that, you can. We believe Missouri plans to do so.
The impression from people around the league is that it's been communicated that teams need to have really good reasons not to play at this point. There is nowhere to put games that aren't played on the schedule and the league wants to do everything it can to get them in (and collect the revenue). No one that we've seen has reported any sort of directive from the SEC or anything, but the general belief from talking to people in various places in the SEC is that the schools understand the importance of showing up and playing a game, even if you're doing it with something FAR from your best roster.
On the basketball side, let's say there is extreme skepticism about the season and the ability to pull it off. Our belief is that some form of a season is going to happen. They'll play enough games to be able to put together an NCAA Tournament (likely with all games played in Indianapolis). As of now, the rule is that you need to have played 13 games to qualify for the tournament. We'd be willing to bet that number will be adjusted as March gets closer. They're going to play some games. They're certainly not going to play all of them. Who knows what the final number is going to be (it will vary greatly by team) but they're going to give it a shot. What it looks like, time will tell.
DL TARGET UPDATE:
- George has reshuffled his college decision date, originally scheduled for December 1st, it will now happen on Thanksgiving day. Moving the date up came after George and his family had a virtual visit with Missouri's staff. The math seems pretty easy here, all signs point to the Tigers landing an experienced JUCO defensive lineman and bounceback from Miami.
- Young is definitely one of the hottest recruits among the JUCO ranks right now. He also had a virtual visit with Missouri's coaching staff on Tuesday. We've attempted to reach out to him for an update, but have been unsuccessful so far.
Interesting story on Young. He's 22 years old. He took time off playing football after high school and came back to it at Georgia Military. He's expected to graduate in December and will have three years of eligibility remaining. While he hasn't listed any favorites, we have a feeling that Georgia and Florida State may be hard to beat here. There are notable programs making a push as well as early signing day is less than a month away.
- Iton recently teased that he was going to release a Top 5, something he told us was in his plans earlier this month. The Northern Colorado bounceback took a virtual visit with Missouri's staff back in October and appears to still be in play for the Tigers. When Iton decides to announce his top schools, we have a good feeling that Missouri will be among that group. Ole Miss and Mississippi State are highly likely to be included in that group as well as those two programs appear to be the main competition. He also picked up new offers from Florida State and Texas Tech this week as well. Iton should make a decision very soon, as he's set to graduate in December and enroll at the school he chooses next semester.
TIGERS VS. TIGERS:
- Newly offered cornerback Dontae Balfour pulled no punches with Rivals.com analyst Chad Simmons earlier this week when he said Auburn was the leader in his recruiting process with Mizzou in the No. 2 spot. As long as Auburn continues to put on the press, Missouri will need to look elsewhere for another CB option in the 2021 class. Balfour is expected to choose a school soon and sign in December.
WR OPTIONS:
- This one has been very quiet since Johnson decommitted from Oklahoma back on October 26th. But, Missouri was involved with Johnson before he committed to the Sooners and it appears they are now heavily involved since the three-star prospect has been back on the open market. Johnson is listed as a cornerback and that's what Oklahoma was recruiting him as, but Johnson appears to be wavering towards playing wide receiver in college. The Greenville (Tex.) product has 4.39 speed and is a very dynamic athlete. This is a recruitment to monitor going forward as it seems Missouri is in a good spot here.
- With Muschamp out, South Carolina commitments are currently in limbo and have important decisions to make...and new schools showing interest. Missouri could possibly make a play with Reynolds, who has been committed to SC since March but has kept his options open. The Alabama native is seen as a compact, quick, and speedy slot receiver who also plays running back and returns kicks for high school.
2022 UPDATES:
THOMPSON SETS DECISION DATE
- Fresh off a visit to Ann Arbor last weekend, Thompson announced he will be committing on December 4th. Obviously, all the momentum is pointing towards the Wolverines and multiple FutureCast picks are also trending in that direction by insiders close to the Michigan program.
FORD GETTING CLOSER TO A DECISION
- Ford told Rivals.com Midwest analyst Josh Helmholdt that a college decision could come relatively soon after he takes some personal visits to campuses now that his junior season is complete. Oklahoma, Notre Dame, Arizona State, and Texas were schools specifically mentioned in the latest update. He also said he would like to visit Purdue, Kentucky, Texas A&M, Baylor, and Missouri (again) as well before making an announcement. Mizzou does have an advantage in that Ford visited Columbia back in March before COVID hit, so he got familiar with the coaching staff in person before the recruiting process went completely virtual.
KEEP AN EYE ON:
- Banks is another Lutheran North (Mo.) product that is emerging in the 2022 class. He picked up power five offers from Kansas, Syracuse, and Minnesota this week.
SCHEDULING STUFF
Sent out a couple messages this morning. As of now, the plan is to play at South Carolina. No one has been told that isn't happening. Usually by now, they would know if the game is off. We aren't telling you it's 100% they're playing, but that appears to be the belief this morning.
Eli Drinkwitz said on Thursday night Missouri had 53 players available. The reality is, it's below that because that number includes Kobie Whiteside, Larry Borom and Xavier Delgado who are all doubtful at best. So Mizzou is probably under the threshold, but again, that number is a suggestion, not a rule. If you want to play with fewer than that, you can. We believe Missouri plans to do so.
The impression from people around the league is that it's been communicated that teams need to have really good reasons not to play at this point. There is nowhere to put games that aren't played on the schedule and the league wants to do everything it can to get them in (and collect the revenue). No one that we've seen has reported any sort of directive from the SEC or anything, but the general belief from talking to people in various places in the SEC is that the schools understand the importance of showing up and playing a game, even if you're doing it with something FAR from your best roster.
On the basketball side, let's say there is extreme skepticism about the season and the ability to pull it off. Our belief is that some form of a season is going to happen. They'll play enough games to be able to put together an NCAA Tournament (likely with all games played in Indianapolis). As of now, the rule is that you need to have played 13 games to qualify for the tournament. We'd be willing to bet that number will be adjusted as March gets closer. They're going to play some games. They're certainly not going to play all of them. Who knows what the final number is going to be (it will vary greatly by team) but they're going to give it a shot. What it looks like, time will tell.
