The “respect my decision” portion of the Bad Season Checklist has begun. A few weeks ago, Alabama prospect La’Dedric Jackson decommitted from Missouri. On Wednesday, it was Cam Taylor’s turn.

Then, on Thursday morning, it was reportedly James Foster’s turn as well.

Foster committed to Mizzou back in April, while Taylor was the third commitment Missouri received during Night at the Zou weekend back in July. They are both having exciting senior seasons, which means extra recruiting attention ... which means lots of “Why limit yourself? Why not see what options are out there?” thoughts entering the brain.

Foster removed any sort of “Mizzou commit” paraphernalia from his Twitter bio recently. He also announced an LSU offer. It was pretty easy to see what was going to happen next.

It might be oversimplification to say “This is what happens when you have an unexpectedly bad year,” but ... this is what happens when you have an unexpectedly bad year. Obviously it’s cause for concern, especially if the decommits continue (and they very well could), but the only thing Mizzou can do about it in this precise moment is beat UConn, then beat Florida, then beat Tennessee, etc.

You have to generate positive attention, and you can really only do that by winning games. In the offseason, that was the key to trying to land some of the Tiger 10, and now it’s the key to holding onto who they have landed. They have two wins in seven games. Here’s to hoping for a few more moving forward. Win some games, then see what you can salvage.

More Football Links:

• The USA Today put together a list of college football coaching salaries, buyout info, etc. Barry Odom does not cost a lot, relatively speaking.
• Larry Rountree III runs angry, and I like him very much.
• Rick Neuheisel on Drew Lock: “He’s really good when he’s really good.”
• Nick Bartolotta lived his dream on Saturday.
• I really didn’t think my voice was going to hold out during this week’s Closers appearance, but it did!

• This is really well done.

More Links:

• T-minus 15 days to Iowa State.
• It took a little while, but Mizzou Volleyball eventually got back on track at Ole Miss on Wednesday. After taking the first set with ease, the Tigers dropped the second, then fell behind 17-12 in the third. But a 7-1 run gave them the lead, and they eventually took the final two sets, 27-25 and 25-23. They’re now 13-9 overall and 6-3 in conference play. That was a must-win, and they won.

• It’s already SEC Championships time in cross country? Time flies. Pressure’s off, by the way.
• Meanwhile, it’s already Senior Night for Mizzou Soccer.
• Looking to catch up on how Mizzou Softball is doing during fall ball? MUtigers.com has you covered.
• You know what you didn’t realize you needed when you woke up this morning? Interview clips from each of Missouri’s 2017 hall-of-fame inductees, that’s what.

Rhea Taylor:

Mark Ellis:

Adrianne Perry:

Tim Laudner:

Dennis Poppe:

SPOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOON:

• New PAPN! Half with Godfrey and half with another member of the SBN CFB arsenal, Morgan Moriarty. I only bring up the 2015 Mizzou-UConn game a little, I promise.