Missouri baseball’s biggest series of the season starts today

Missouri hits the road to face No. 2 Vanderbilt this weekend, and the 20th-ranked Tigers have a real chance to make a regional for the first time since 2012, writes Garrick Hodge of the Columbia Daily Tribune.

Hodge writes:

Winning two games against the Commodores seemingly would make the Tigers near locks for a postseason appearance, but they should still feel pretty good if they take the series against Florida.

Missouri is 33-16-1 and ranked 20th nationally, but has gone 5-9-1 against Top 25 opponents. Additionally, no SEC team with only 12 conference wins has ever made the NCAA postseason; Missouri, luckily, is 12-11-1 in conference right now. So should Missouri at least split its remaining six games, it should be in pretty strong shape to make a regional at 36-19-1.

We’ll have a baseball preview up a little later on Friday.

The Bizarre Departure of Craig Kuligowski at Alabama

Former Missouri defensive line coach Craig Kuligowski had a quiet departure from Alabama in February, as he was replaced by Brian Baker. Since then, Kuligowski hasn’t landed a job elsewhere.

Now, AL.com reports that Kuligowski will make nearly more than all of Alabama’s ten active assistant coaches this year, as he’s being paid his full $750,000 salary while not being on staff.

AL.com writes;

Kuligowski’s termination was never announced by Alabama since coaches in this situation are typically hired elsewhere. His name was reportedly connected to a few searches for a defensive line coach but the time of year associated with job changes came and went without landing a new gig.

...

The contracts Alabama assistant coaches sign require the school to pay out the full salary remaining on the deal if terminated without cause. Those payments would end when they are hired at a new position, which didn’t come this offseason for Kuligowski.

It’s a bizarre situation all around, and the article still doesn’t clear things up, although it seems to heavily imply that Kuligowski was in fact terminated. I guess we’ll see if Kuligowski ends up with a new playbook this fall and maybe that will shed some light on the situation.

More Links:

• Mitchell Forde of PowerMizzou.com had a great look at recent immediately-eligible transfer quarterbacks and how they fared in their first season at their school. If you haven’t heard, Missouri has a quarterback named Kelly Bryant who is an immediately-eligible transfer.

The most interesting comparison? Oklahoma-turned-Texas A&M QB Trevor Knight. Things started off fast for Knight in College Station before fading down the stretch, but Missouri might have more offensive talent than the Aggies that season with which to surround Bryant.

• Also at PowerMizzou.com: A podcast with a guy you may know — Brad Smith.
• Good news for Drew Lock: He’ll get to continue to wear No. 3 in Denver. Coincidentally, Colby Wadman — the punter — is going to be wearing No. 6 instead of No. 3 this year. Something tells me if Corey Fatony were the punter in Denver, he wouldn’t give up his number so easily.
• Mizzou gymnastics picked up a transfer: Welcome to Columbia, Alisa Sheremeta from Illinois-Chicago!