Positivity Week enters Day #3 with a plea for passion and positivity this weekend. Mizzou has long had a (soft) commitment from Sheldon Richardson, now Rivals' #5 player in the country. This weekend, three more Rivals 100 players will be on campus. Bryce Brown, Rivals' #3 player, is one. Jheranie Boyd, Rivals #32 player, is another. And a familiar face, Ronnie Wingo, Rivals' #71 player, rounds out the group with an unofficial visit. Richardson's high school team plays on Saturday, so he will not be in attendance.
What are our chances for landing these three guys? Actually, not bad at all. In the links above, you'll find the following quotes:
From Brown:
1.You committed to Miami early, and now are going to visit other schools namely Mizzou. What has made you interested in the Tigers?
Bryce: Well I went there this summer and I was absolutely blown away [by] the atmosphere, coaches, facilities, ect. Also, [I went there] with an open mind and [I tried] to learn as much as I possibly [could] about the tigers helped with my interest.
From Boyd's coach (Boyd is also reportedly no longer considering Florida, which really cannot hurt our chances):
"He'll be going up to Missouri this weekend and he's told me several times he's very excited about the visit."
...
"I know he's really excited about the offense Missouri has," said Briggs. "He loves their explosiveness and how they get the ball moved around to different people. He's got family in the area and I think that's good for him. He's very interested. The last few weeks aren't going to change that."
From Wingo:
"Coach Ford and I have a really great relationship," said Wingo. "We'll catch up and talk about each other's game and if I have any questions, I can ask, but we don't talk a whole lot about recruiting. He's a good guy. He's always told me that Missouri isn't going to make me into something if I don't want to. He wants me to come be the best player I can be."
...
"I mean, Missouri's still a great team," said Wingo. "Now they have to figure out how to beat the great teams like Texas and Oklahoma. If they do that, the sky's the limit. I know I could help them do that. That's something I really look forward to doing in the future wherever I go."
Most of the info above either came from PowerMizzou or the PowerMizzou boards. This goes without saying, but if you were EVER thinking about giving PM a shot, the next few months are the optimal time to do so.
Now to the highlights:
Bryce Brown:
Ronnie Wingo:
You'll have to go to Rivals to get highlights of Boyd and Richardson, I guess--they haven't been introduced to Youtube yet.
As we saw last Saturday, we can't compete with the Texas's of the world when it comes to the hoss's up front, and none of these three guys are linemen (though Richardson is), but considering we've signed six Rivals 100 guys under Gary Pinkel (Mario Whitney, Chase Patton, Tony Temple, Kyle Riggs, Michael Keck, Blaine Gabbert), and considering we've got three coming in this weekend, along with possibly a couple more later on, this is still pretty big.
And needless to say, we've signed one five-star guy ever (Gabbert), and now we've got a chance at two of the top five? Wow. I can't bet we'll get all three of the guys this weekend, but we've got an excellent chance at one and a very good chance at two, and that's pretty nice. Missouri's recruiting class won't be broken if we can't land these guys, but it could still be made this weekend.
Oh we've got a game this weekend too? Huh. Didn't know. Colorado links!
- Columbia Tribune: Tigers will talk on Saturday
- Dave Matter: Cut to the Chase!
- The Missourian: Colorado depends on defense
- Denver Post: Rotating QBs say all the right things
- Boulder Daily Camera: CU must contain Missouri's Coffman
- KC Star: MU's defense will try to keep it simple
- PowerMizzou: Tiger defense tries to stay positive
- Denver Post: Unusual punts work out well for Missouri
Oh, and Missouri's defense almost as bad as K-State's? Let's not go overboard here.
Who's Not Hot
The Missouri defense has given up 993 yards of total offense and 84 points in the past two weeks. The Tigers have allowed opposing quarterbacks to complete 49 of 61 pass attempts in those two games and 390 rushing yards. Mizzou has fallen to 114th in passing defense and 100th in total defense in the nation.
In the past two weeks, Missouri has faced a Texas team that would have scored 35 points against the Baltimore Ravens' defense on Saturday and actually held a solid Okie State offense below its averages. Let's not go overboard here. In fact, let's just go to the BTBS stats, why don't we...
Finally, we started Links with recruiting, and we'll end with recruiting. Here are highlights from last week's Blue Springs/Blue Springs South game. Tune to the 2:30 mark and watch future Tiger QB Blaine Dalton pull an Eric Crouch and burn past the entire defense on a 95-yard TD. POSITIVITY, people. Positivity.