A Holiday Gift for Tigers Fans!

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays from all of us at Rock M Nation, and I have a treat for you today! When I interviewed RJ Layton, Sports Information Director for Mizzou Hoops (that story is coming out later this morning), I HAD to ask him about the most beloved gif of the Cuonzo Martin era. You know the one.

I see this come across the twitter and I immediately become that Kermit gif with the flailing arms. You know something GOOD is coming. So I had important questions for RJ. Is this gif accurate? Does Cuonzo Martin drink THAT much coffee? Where did internet gem come from?

According to RJ, Coach Martin really is drinking coffee all the time. Like, constantly. He has a couple of them at practice, and basically, every picture outside of game action manages to include him drinking coffee. (side note: I wonder how he takes it?) The first one to notice the excessive coffee drinking was actually the previous SID, Patrick Crawford, who was with Cuonzo his first year. Crawford was the original purveyor of the concept, so when he left and RJ came in, he loved it so much and thought it was so awesome, the team just ran with it.

How are there so many versions?

RJ: We always have a camera on the practices and on Coach in general so every time he has coffee, our photo and video people just know to capture it. So we have tons to choose from.

How did former SID Patrick Crawford come up with it?

RJ: I’m kind of young so I didn’t really understand it, but I guess everybody says, “coffee is for closers.” Crawford is kind of a pop culture guy where he knows everything, so I’m sure he knows where it came from.

(Fun fact: I googled it. It comes from the 1992 film, GlenGarry Glen Ross, which I have never seen)

How is the gif primarily used?

RJ: When you tweet about recruitment, you can’t tweet about recruits until they sign them because that’s a compliance issue. So, we were like, how can we post something where everybody knows what we’re talking about without talking about it? So that’s kind of how it’s come about. It’s like a way we can now give a shout out to the kid for committing without saying his name because that’s against policy. It’s kind of like the bat signal for football.

Thought y’all would enjoy this inside info. And like I mentioned earlier, be sure to check out my extensive interview with RJ up later this morning!

On to the Links! It was a light day.... Hoping everyone has a safe and happy holiday!

Karen Steger Designs

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Yesterday at Rock M

• Aaron asked if D-Line Zou on the verge of a comeback.
• Sam and Matt recorded a new episode of Dive Cuts, but we don’t have a recap yet. You can listen to it on Apple podcasts though here.
• IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: Matt examined the Tigers rotation- it was very good. Highly recommend.

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More Links:

• PowerMizzou (free): Gabe and Mitchell were back with some hot taeks in their newest Blowin Smoke, Presented by Weston Tobacco series. Mitchell Forde shared a scouting report on Mizzou’s bowl opponent (for now), Iowa.
• St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Matter was back with a Christmas Eve chat, answering questions about football and basketball.
• Columbia Missourian: Andy Kimball wrote about how Shawn Robinson is adapting to his new role as safety.
• Sports Illustrated: Jason Jordan wrote this awesome piece on how, this COVID Year, experience is proving critical for this surging Missouri team.

• Looking good, Harrison!

• Columbia Tribune: Eric Blum looked at how Mizzou will move on without star Nick Bolton.
• I missed this from Mizzou Soccer earlier this week. Moving up in the stat rankings!

• The Associated Press’ Eddie Pells (via the Missourian) wrote about COVID, legislation, and lawsuits signaling change in college sports in 2020. Highly recommend.
• We’ve got a new depth chart for the bowl game. It’s looking... thin.

• Joe Lunardi put out a new bracketology, Christmas edition. According to Matt Harris’ calculations, Mizzou is a 5-seed (!!!)

Social Media Holiday Wishes

• Holiday greetings from Mizzou Softball!

• Burn those L stockings!

• Enjoy this nice video from Mizzou Track & Field / Cross Country!

And just because this is fun and a blast from the past... enjoy.

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