FOOTBALL RECRUITING
- Mizzou picked up ITS 11th overall commitment and fourth in-state on Thursday in Kirkwood (Mo.) DE/OLB Arvell Ferguson. Next up on the commit watch list will be CJ Boone, who is planning to announce on September 15th. Like we've said before, there is a good chance Boone will become the fifth in-state commitment for the Tigers, but he will also take other visits, most notably to Indiana and Kentucky and possibly others. He will take an official to Missouri the weekend of September 22nd when they host Georgia.
- An out-of-state prospect to keep an eye on is Isaiah McGuire out of Oklahoma. The three-star prospect picked up an offer after impressing the coaching staff at NATZ. He also made a quick return trip for Missouri's season opening win over Tennessee-Martin last week. We're not sure what McGuire's timetable is moving forward, but we wouldn't be surprised if he committed at anytime.
- It's Kendall Young commitment watch, part two. We had indications in last week's Chamber that it was going to happen last Friday. It didn't. Now, we are hearing that a possible commitment with Young might happen sometime this weekend. When/if it does, we're RELATIVELY confident it won't be Missouri.
- To follow up on our updates from last week's road trip to St. Louis, it does appear that Mizzou targets Shammond Cooper and Marcus Washington will be taking official visits to Nebraska this weekend. For Cooper, that will be his first one. He is also looking to take officials to Oklahoma, Missouri, Illinois, and Texas. For Washington, he's already taken an official visit to Ohio State this summer, he'll take one to Texas on Sept. 15th, and is planning to take his other two to Missouri and Florida.
From what we're told, Nebraska would take Washington, as would Texas. Ohio State probably wouldn't at this point in time. On Cooper, that one's a little more up in the air. Oklahoma has been considered the long-time favorite, but whether he can commit there depends on who you ask. If it isn't the Sooners, Illinois and Missouri are the two most common places you hear as likely landing spots. Hadn't heard much about Nebraska until this recent visit was scheduled, so we'll see where it goes.
- Speaking of inside linebacker targets, we're hearing that Missouri ramped up their recruiting efforts with Dutchtown (Ga.) product Kevon Glenn. We chatted with Glenn back in the spring at the Atlanta Rivals Camp. The three-star prospect seems pretty open with his recruiting process, so there seems to be a good possibility that Mizzou can get him on campus at some point. Kentucky, Ole Miss, and Georgia Tech are other contenders for Glenn currently.
In terms of the Wyoming game, no official visitors expected. There will probably be some in-state prospects in attendance along with Mizzou commits Jack Buford and Martez Manuel, who will likely attend every home game.
BASKETBALL RECRUITING
This is the main attraction for this week. Missouri will host two official visitors.
Let's start with Liddell, who always has been and remains Missouri's No. 1 2019 target. Keegan shared info from a 247 story last night that Liddell said he currently plans to take five official visits, but it could just end up being two or three. Missouri is Liddell's second official visit. Kansas State, in three weeks, is his third. Most don't view the Wildcats as a major threat here. It's between Ohio State and Missouri with some believing that Illinois is still in the mix (and some adamant that the Illini have no shot). Illinois has the fifth official, so if Liddell ends things before taking all five, Illinois is out.
There hasn't been much publicly on Liddell's Ohio State trip, so we can't really say how things went. In the thread linked above, Eric Bossi said he thought Ohio State really needed him to commit while he was there, or at least before taking other visits. Prior to the trip, it seemed everyone had OSU as the leader. When he didn't commit, a lot of people are backing off that stance now (which makes us wonder how true it was to begin with).
We still would not expect a Liddell commitment on or quickly after the visit. Don't get your hopes up for that. But the Tigers definitely are in good shape and will have a chance to put their best foot forward.
Bringing McKinney in on the same weekend is a part of that. McKinney is not a part of the 2019 recruiting class for Mizzou...yet. But we expect him to be and we don't expect it to take very long. McKinney told me earlier this week that a commitment "ain't gonna happen this weekend for sure." So we wouldn't look for a public announcement while he's on campus. But from everything we're hearing, an announcement in the days after the trip wouldn't be a major surprise. It looks from the outside as if the visit with McKinney was moved up for two reasons:
1) Missouri isn't going to get Rocket Watts and
2) So he can spend the weekend recruiting E.J. Liddell
Watts said earlier this week that the Missouri visit--which was originally scheduled for September 22nd--isn't happening anymore. We've had some people mention to us qualifying concerns with Watts. We can't say for sure it's an issue, but it's been mentioned. Still, to say that Missouri backed off Watts would be (only in our opinion) disingenuous. He's a four-star kid that they recruited heavily and scheduled an official visit with. Qualifying concerns don't arise out of thin air the summer before a player's senior year, so if they backed off because of that, why would they have scheduled the OV in the first place? What seems much more likely is that the staff got the feeling they were going to have to do a lot of catching up for Watts. Rather than try to do that and put McKinney off until later in the fall, it made more sense to go all in on McKinney, move up the trip and get the ball rolling in 2019. It's telling that McKinney cancelled a scheduled visit to Kansas State to take the trip to Missouri. The Tigers have always been the favorite here, it was just a matter of when Mizzou was ready to take the commitment. It appears Mizzou is ready to do so now.
Ideally, Missouri gets McKinney quickly and Liddell at some point in the next couple of months and signs both early.
If the above happens, the Tigers also host Tray Jackson on September 22nd. If they could lock up a commitment from him, you've got your three-man class for the early signing period. We still believe Mizzou probably signs three early and leaves one spot available either to put Parker Braun on scholarship or to look at transfers or spring commitments. And, as we always say, if they need more scholarships, more scholarships will be found.
Just one note on the women's side. Aijha Blackwell (daughter of Ernest and one of the top players in the country) is visiting officially this weekend. She's without a doubt the top target for Robin Pingeton and staff (probably even more so than Liddell is the top target for Cuonzo Martin's staff).
We're going to do our best to catch up with McKinney, Liddell and Blackwell after their visits and hope to have news for you as soon as possible after the weekend. After that, recruiting will probably be a little slow the following week, but there will be official visitors in hoops and football on the weekend of the Georgia game, which is easily the football staff's biggest in-season weekend. If things go well in hoops, the Tigers could have three commitments within a few days after that weekend is over.
Enjoy the early Chamber and find something to do with yourselves till kickoff now.
- Mizzou picked up ITS 11th overall commitment and fourth in-state on Thursday in Kirkwood (Mo.) DE/OLB Arvell Ferguson. Next up on the commit watch list will be CJ Boone, who is planning to announce on September 15th. Like we've said before, there is a good chance Boone will become the fifth in-state commitment for the Tigers, but he will also take other visits, most notably to Indiana and Kentucky and possibly others. He will take an official to Missouri the weekend of September 22nd when they host Georgia.
- An out-of-state prospect to keep an eye on is Isaiah McGuire out of Oklahoma. The three-star prospect picked up an offer after impressing the coaching staff at NATZ. He also made a quick return trip for Missouri's season opening win over Tennessee-Martin last week. We're not sure what McGuire's timetable is moving forward, but we wouldn't be surprised if he committed at anytime.
- It's Kendall Young commitment watch, part two. We had indications in last week's Chamber that it was going to happen last Friday. It didn't. Now, we are hearing that a possible commitment with Young might happen sometime this weekend. When/if it does, we're RELATIVELY confident it won't be Missouri.
- To follow up on our updates from last week's road trip to St. Louis, it does appear that Mizzou targets Shammond Cooper and Marcus Washington will be taking official visits to Nebraska this weekend. For Cooper, that will be his first one. He is also looking to take officials to Oklahoma, Missouri, Illinois, and Texas. For Washington, he's already taken an official visit to Ohio State this summer, he'll take one to Texas on Sept. 15th, and is planning to take his other two to Missouri and Florida.
From what we're told, Nebraska would take Washington, as would Texas. Ohio State probably wouldn't at this point in time. On Cooper, that one's a little more up in the air. Oklahoma has been considered the long-time favorite, but whether he can commit there depends on who you ask. If it isn't the Sooners, Illinois and Missouri are the two most common places you hear as likely landing spots. Hadn't heard much about Nebraska until this recent visit was scheduled, so we'll see where it goes.
- Speaking of inside linebacker targets, we're hearing that Missouri ramped up their recruiting efforts with Dutchtown (Ga.) product Kevon Glenn. We chatted with Glenn back in the spring at the Atlanta Rivals Camp. The three-star prospect seems pretty open with his recruiting process, so there seems to be a good possibility that Mizzou can get him on campus at some point. Kentucky, Ole Miss, and Georgia Tech are other contenders for Glenn currently.
In terms of the Wyoming game, no official visitors expected. There will probably be some in-state prospects in attendance along with Mizzou commits Jack Buford and Martez Manuel, who will likely attend every home game.
BASKETBALL RECRUITING
This is the main attraction for this week. Missouri will host two official visitors.
Let's start with Liddell, who always has been and remains Missouri's No. 1 2019 target. Keegan shared info from a 247 story last night that Liddell said he currently plans to take five official visits, but it could just end up being two or three. Missouri is Liddell's second official visit. Kansas State, in three weeks, is his third. Most don't view the Wildcats as a major threat here. It's between Ohio State and Missouri with some believing that Illinois is still in the mix (and some adamant that the Illini have no shot). Illinois has the fifth official, so if Liddell ends things before taking all five, Illinois is out.
There hasn't been much publicly on Liddell's Ohio State trip, so we can't really say how things went. In the thread linked above, Eric Bossi said he thought Ohio State really needed him to commit while he was there, or at least before taking other visits. Prior to the trip, it seemed everyone had OSU as the leader. When he didn't commit, a lot of people are backing off that stance now (which makes us wonder how true it was to begin with).
We still would not expect a Liddell commitment on or quickly after the visit. Don't get your hopes up for that. But the Tigers definitely are in good shape and will have a chance to put their best foot forward.
Bringing McKinney in on the same weekend is a part of that. McKinney is not a part of the 2019 recruiting class for Mizzou...yet. But we expect him to be and we don't expect it to take very long. McKinney told me earlier this week that a commitment "ain't gonna happen this weekend for sure." So we wouldn't look for a public announcement while he's on campus. But from everything we're hearing, an announcement in the days after the trip wouldn't be a major surprise. It looks from the outside as if the visit with McKinney was moved up for two reasons:
1) Missouri isn't going to get Rocket Watts and
2) So he can spend the weekend recruiting E.J. Liddell
Watts said earlier this week that the Missouri visit--which was originally scheduled for September 22nd--isn't happening anymore. We've had some people mention to us qualifying concerns with Watts. We can't say for sure it's an issue, but it's been mentioned. Still, to say that Missouri backed off Watts would be (only in our opinion) disingenuous. He's a four-star kid that they recruited heavily and scheduled an official visit with. Qualifying concerns don't arise out of thin air the summer before a player's senior year, so if they backed off because of that, why would they have scheduled the OV in the first place? What seems much more likely is that the staff got the feeling they were going to have to do a lot of catching up for Watts. Rather than try to do that and put McKinney off until later in the fall, it made more sense to go all in on McKinney, move up the trip and get the ball rolling in 2019. It's telling that McKinney cancelled a scheduled visit to Kansas State to take the trip to Missouri. The Tigers have always been the favorite here, it was just a matter of when Mizzou was ready to take the commitment. It appears Mizzou is ready to do so now.
Ideally, Missouri gets McKinney quickly and Liddell at some point in the next couple of months and signs both early.
If the above happens, the Tigers also host Tray Jackson on September 22nd. If they could lock up a commitment from him, you've got your three-man class for the early signing period. We still believe Mizzou probably signs three early and leaves one spot available either to put Parker Braun on scholarship or to look at transfers or spring commitments. And, as we always say, if they need more scholarships, more scholarships will be found.
Just one note on the women's side. Aijha Blackwell (daughter of Ernest and one of the top players in the country) is visiting officially this weekend. She's without a doubt the top target for Robin Pingeton and staff (probably even more so than Liddell is the top target for Cuonzo Martin's staff).
We're going to do our best to catch up with McKinney, Liddell and Blackwell after their visits and hope to have news for you as soon as possible after the weekend. After that, recruiting will probably be a little slow the following week, but there will be official visitors in hoops and football on the weekend of the Georgia game, which is easily the football staff's biggest in-season weekend. If things go well in hoops, the Tigers could have three commitments within a few days after that weekend is over.
Enjoy the early Chamber and find something to do with yourselves till kickoff now.
