So... about that game on Saturday...

Y’all... I don’t know about you guys, but this whole visiting the Gators this weekend thing doesn’t sound too promising. Nate agrees, so of course this is the correct take.

Six. new. positive. tests. On top of the others.

YIKES.

G. Allan Taylor of The Athletic covered Florida’s first practice after they were forced to shut things down for their massive Covid outbreak. While the coaches over there at The Swamp are saying things are “business as usual,” that’s... well... not exactly true. Shutting down practice means a lot of things, according to Taylor, who had this to say:

There’s bound to be rust after such a midseason interruption. The staff sought to treat the layoff as a bye week, but bye weeks feature practices and workouts and teammates actually interacting. With the football facility shut down by a COVID-19 outbreak — more than 25 players with positive tests and several others forced to isolate out of precaution — the interaction was limited to cliques and the physical reps were absent.

According to his talks with the coaches, they have utilized a lot of Zoom learning, but really, that doesn’t take the place of actual football practice. Sure, they got to look at Mizzou’s film for 9 days, but they’re not ON THE FIELD.

And, Taylor mentioned, not everyone returned to practice on Monday because of the rules regarding positive tests and contact tracing. According to SEC rules, those found to be impacted by contact tracing have to isolate for 14 days regardless of a negative test. “For those deemed positive shortly after returning home from the A&M trip October 10,” he said, those athletes are likely recovered. “But players who found out they had the virus the ensuing week are still in the margins.” AND THAT’S NOT COUNTING THE NEW ONES.

Of course, Dan Mullen, who not too long ago (before he himself caught the Covid), said he wanted to pack the stands with 90k people because the governor said it was okay (newsflash: it ain’t okay... my parents live in FL and they will attest, IT’S NOT OKAY), but at this rate, he’ll be lucky to get the required amount of players needed total and in each position group. Perhaps Dan doesn’t need to worry about the fans?

And of course he’s not offering up any specifics on problems within specific groups, which doesn’t seem to be sitting all that well with Drinkwitz. At his press conference today, he said that there haven’t been any additional positive tests for the Tigers, but testing isn’t complete, and he’s not offering up any injury updates. SO THERE.

For more information on the Florida take on this, do check out G. Allan Taylor’s article in The Athletic; it’s well worth the read, as is everything from that site.

One more thing to leave you with— this, from Tre Williams, as the team prepares for Florida. You really do love to see it. Included is the link to the full video, courtesy of Andrew Kauffman of ABC17.

On to the links! There A LOT for you today, so kick up your feet and take a break.

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Yesterday at Rock M

• Nate revealed the changes to the new depth chart— welcome back to the top, Damon Hazelton!
• Jacob covered the MIZ-Zoom event, where we heard from Coach Drinkwitz.
• Nate ALSO was back with a new edition of his critically-acclaimed (amongst Rock M, at least), Beyond the Box Score, looking at how a streak was busted.
• COMING UP AT ROCK M: Plenty of Florida Gators previewing!

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More Links:

Football

• St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Dave was quite busy, writing a few pieces on Tuesday. First up, he wrote that, with Rountree on chasing down a record, former Mizzou RB Zack Abron moves on from his tragic year. Next, he previewed the upcoming Florida Game, with players to watch and a lot of other stuff. And finally, he said that mum’s the word on Mizzou’s injuries leading up to the UF game.
• KC Star: Souichi wrote how Mizzou is down to only 64 available players against Florida (they had 65 against Kentucky, FWIW), but NOT due to Covid.
• The Maneater: Jack Soble shared his Five Takeaways: Drinkwitz’ game plan a great sign for the program.
• Columbia Tribune: Eric Blum wrote about about Drinkwitz’s coyness in regards to injury updates in his Mizzou Notebook. He also conducted a Q&A with Mizzou commit, Connor Tollison.
• PowerMizzou: Gabe covered Drink’s press conference and posted a video. The staff also shared the depth chart.
• Columbia Missourian: Max Baker wrote (on Sunday) that a large dose of Larry Three-Sticks wore down Kentucky’s defense.
• Saturday Down South: Adam Spencer asked that you appreciate Larry Rountree III, the man who carried Mizzou to victory against the Cats.
• Truman’s Tales/FanSided: Christian McDonald wrote about the studs & duds from the Kentucky game. Check it out!
• MUTigers.com previewed this weekend’s game!
• Toughness and Determination.

• Connor Bazelak spoke with Sirius/XM CFB’s Aaron Murray.

• Drinkwitz made Herb’s list of Top Performing Coaches again. Congrats, Drink!

Hoops

• I don’t think this was shared in the links yesterday, and if it was, I apologize. But... uh... who exactly is Mizzou going to play less than a month from now?

• X and Dru. Also, LOVE those practice jerseys. Will we see those as actual game jerseys this season? HOPE SO.

• And important for ME, but what will I do when if I can’t get tickets when it’s time on Thursday for me to log in to select my seats for this season? I got an email from the Tiger Scholarship Fund telling me when I can log in to select my seats for this season... assuming there are some available. Y’all, please cross your fingers. I’m terrified.

• Photo Day continues with Women’s Hoops. Tuesday’s subject? Micah Linthacum.

Other Mizzou Sports

• Diamond sports season will be here before you know it... Covid, you stay away. You can check out highlights from the softball scrimmage here.

• The Maneater: Jacob Lussier wrote about Mizzou Soccer, and how the Tigers and Bulldogs played an evenly matched game through 110 minutes, only to keep Missouri’s SEC road game winless streak alive.

• A gentle reminder... look. We know that this is a highly stressful time of year with the election right around the corner, but we — the moderators (the majority of whom are unpaid), as well as those of us on the payroll forced to read through this every day— kindly ask that before you post something in the comments, think to yourself: Will this likely get deleted because I’m right at the edge of what’s allowed? Is what I’m saying so open to interpretation that it’s going to rile people up? If the answer is yes, we kindly ask that you keep it to yourself. Otherwise, you may find yourself on a forced vacation from the site for a designated period of time.

Thank you,

Your Friendly Rock M Masthead & Moderators

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