Mizzou Football is focused on their success in recruiting

Always look at the bright side, y’all. That’s the lesson in all of this. Things are going well in recruiting for Drink and his new staff, and we should all be psyched about that. Will there be decommitments? Likely so, as it’s just the world we live in. Actual LIVE recruiting trips will take place sometime— right now, it’s at earliest Aug 31. So assuming visits start back up, there will surely be schools who reach out and try to nab Mizzou’s verbal commits; it’s just the business of recruiting. Some kids will undoubtedly become curious about what else is out there, especially when schools like those at the top of the SEC come calling (GIT OUTTA HERE, BAMA), and might end up at one of those schools. So what’s Drink and his staff to do?

Well, Souichi Terada of the Kansas City Star has some answers for you in a new piece where he talked to various members of the Tigers’ staff about how Mizzou is working to combat that. Here’s a few highlights— read the article!

Coach Luper mentioned that at some schools, once an athlete commits, they are sometimes forgotten about. In normal (non-Covid times), I would think that this likely happens often, like an, “Okay, we got you. Who’s next?” approach. Whereas Mizzou, Luper said, is working to stay engaged with those commits, by sending them written correspondence— I feel like I’m always seeing Travion Ford opening some black & gold mail on Twitter— or by conducting weekly/bi-weekly Zoom meetings with the commits.

How are the virtual recruiting visits going? According to Coach Woods and the article:

Mizzou has done a great job of selling its best features, whether that be facilities, playing in the SEC or the new coaching staff headed by Drinkwitz. He (Woods) also said being able to “host” recruits for virtual visits has led to recruits being more educated than ever about what Missouri and Columbia have to offer.

Since Mizzou’s verbal commits are likely to sign later, it’s especially important to keep them interested and make it well known they are a top priority.

“We actually have better relationships now with those that are committed to us than we would’ve had had there not been a pandemic,” Luper said. “We have a lot more interactions than we would have. But that’s our way of handling the athletes that are committed to us.”

Souichi, our new Friend of the Pod/Rock M, does great work for the KC Star, and I highly suggest checking out this post.

Moving on, but staying with Football, SEC Media Days have been postponed, according to John Talty of Alabama.com. There’s no official date on when we might see them occur, but they are expected to be pushed back until at least the last week of July and possibly the first week of August, so we’ll be waiting for a bit to see Larry Three-Sticks and Drink take the (virtual) podium.

Enough chatter, on to the links!

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Yesterday at Rock M

• Nate wrote a game preview for the Georgia Bulldogs.
• IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: Nate did some scholarship math for ya.

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More Links:

Football

• PowerMizzou (free): Mitchell Forde wrote an Over/Under piece, featuring seven key numbers for Mizzou football in 2020.
• The Athletic ($$): Peter Baugh wrote a Twenty for ‘20: Looking at the most important players for the upcoming season.
• Trumans Tales (Fansided): The staff continued their 2020 positional breakdowns with the Offensive Line , Safety, and Linebacker.
• Keep it up, Tyler Macon!

Other News impacting the College Football landscape

• Pat Forde of Yahoo Sports undertook a radical reimagining of the college football landscape into more regional conferences in light of that damn coronavirus that has gone and mucked everything up.
• Katherine Acquavella of CBS Sports asked a sports cardiologist to explain why athletes with COVID-19 symptoms need cardiac testing before playing games.
• Dennis Dodd of CBS Sports wrote an alarming piece about how COVID-19 does not discriminate, and young athletes are not immune to complications.
• Some interesting news from Ross Dellenger:

Other Mizzou Sports

• Cameron Teague-Robinson (WE KNOW HIM!) and Jon Hale of the Louisville Courier-Journal wrote a very important piece about how Black head coaches continue to be overlooked conversations about racial inequality grow. Cuonzo Martin is featured, of course.
• Screams uncontrollably. Covid, PLEASE don’t take this away from us. PLEASE?!?

• Columbia Missourian: Max Baker wrote about how the Porter Bros (Jontay and Michael) will be reunited in bubble play in Orlando. LOVE TO HEAR IT!
• Women’s Hoops has a date scheduled for their annual golf tourney at Old Hawthorne!

• The Mizzou Pix Photo of the Year Contest continues with a matchup of #4 Faurot Field “Home” vs #13 Zo & his version of “The Scream.” OMG! These are insane photographs and I have both saved on my phone, but I have to give it Zo showing that excitement. LOVE TO SEE IT.

Interesting/Non-Mizzou News

These are a few of the best sports stories & tidbits I found regarding some goings-on in sports and the world— Enjoy!

• Gaelan Bacharier of the Columbia Missourian detailed how MU student life will look vastly different under the proposed fall semester guidelines. Gap year, anyone?
• Dave Matter of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch detailed in a video how he got his start at The Post-Dispatch.
• The 2020 Minor League Baseball season is officially canceled, so what’s next? JJ Cooper and Josh Norris of Baseball America attempt to find out.
• Rock M Graphics guy Levi is applauding this statement from U of A linbebacker, Issaiah Johnson, and so am I (especially if you read the links above).

• And finally, some happy things from the universe’s favorite Tweeter/Twitterer/Social Media Superstar, Rex Chapman:

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