It was a good day.

Thursday was a great day for Mizzou Football, with all sorts of news coming down. We’ve got a new Defensive Coordinator, Steve Wilks, who comes with rave reviews from Mizzou great Markus Golden and Ron Rivera. Word has leaked of some more seniors returning for an extra year of eligibility, new commit Mookie Cooper received some high praise from former Tiger Will Franklin, and basically, it was just an all-around great day to be a Tiger.

First up!! The new hire! Here’s the press release from the University about the hiring of Wilks, in case you missed it.

Dave Matter of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch broke the news of Wilks being a finalist earlier this week, and recapped the official hiring in a new post, where he spoke with NFL Head Coach, Ron Rivera. From Rivera:

“Steve is one of the best teachers and communicators that I have ever worked with,” Ron Rivera, head coach of the Washington Football Team told the Post-Dispatch via email on Thursday. “He is a tremendous leader of men and a genuinely good man. Missouri got an excellent coach.”

From PowerMizzou, who talked with Markus Golden about the new DC hire:

Moving on with the good news! Though not official, PowerMizzou noted that Mizzou has a WHOLE LOT of guys returning next season to take advantage of that extra year of eligibility.

And finally, in another post by Dave Matter, he wrote a great story about Mookie Cooper’s journey to Mizzou, and how the team is hoping he can provide an instant jolt to the Mizzou offense. From Vashon head coach (and former Mizzou player) Will Franklin, who is best friends with Cooper’s mentor:

“I see him being what we had with J-Mac when I was there,” Franklin said. “He’s a guy that can line up in the backfield, he can line up in the slot,” Franklin said. “He’s just a mismatch. He can run routes. The moment you put the ball in his hands he’s going to be electric.”

On to the Links! Here’s hoping the Ocean Gang comes out again against Tennessee! Josh will have your game preview today!

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Yesterday at Rock M

• Josh gave all the details about Mizzou’s hiring of Steve Wilks as the new Defensive Coordinator.
• Nate the Great & BK were back with a new fun-filled episode of the BTBS podcast, covering recruiting news, the transfer portal, and staff changes.
• COMING UP: BK looks into Steve Wilks a bit more, and Josh will have your Tennessee game preview.

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More Links:

Football

• KC Star: Souichi provided readers with a list of five things we need to know about Coach Wilks.
• PowerMizzou (free): Mitchell Forde put together the first of what I imagine will be many position resets. This time, he’s covered the wide receivers, while also covering the official hiring of former AZ Cardinals Head Coach, Steve Wilks.
• St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Matter was back with a new weekly chat, as well as the stories already mentioned above on Mookie Cooper and the new DC hire.
• Saturday Down South: Michael Wayne Bratton wrote that Mizzou found its new Defensive Coordinator, and it’s a good one while Steve Marik uncovered his top 10 moments of the season.
• Columbia Tribune: Eric Blum also covered the hiring of Steve Wilks, a popular topic today.
• Columbia Missourian: Emily Leiker & Wilson Moore recapped the hiring of Mizzou’s new DC.
• 2022 Indiana native DJ Moore has listed Mizzou as one of his Top 8.

Hoops

• PowerMizzou: Mitchell and Gabe were back with mostly basketball (!) hot taeks in a new edition of Blowing Smoke presented by Weston Tobacco.
• KC Star: Souichi Terada wrote about how Jeremiah Tilmon has found his way, and what that means for the Tigers, while Gary Bedore gave readers some insight into new Mizzou target, Braeden Moore, the 6’8” Nashville small forward who has heard from both kU and Mizzou.
• Columbia Missourian: Joel Lorenzo wrote about the “Pons problem”, and how the Tigers aim to control Vols’ enforcer in their rematch.
• The Maneater: Jack Soble went in-depth on the re-emergence of Mark Smith. Let’s hope it sticks around the remained of the season.
• TILLY!! Love to see it!

• Check out those handles on Lauren Hansen!

Other Mizzou Sports

• Shannon Welker’s No. 20 Gymnastics team is back on the mat on Friday at Hearnes facing off against No. 12 Kentucky. I find it strange that they fell 4 spots in the rankings after only losing to No. 4 Kentucky by 0.025 points!

Anyway, you can find the meet televised on the SEC Network at 6pm, called by former USA Olympic gymnasts John Roethlisberger and Alicia Sacramone Quinn— okay, that’s super cool. (More info at MUTigers.com)

• No. 6 TigerStyle welcomes Northern Illinois & Ohio to Hearnes on Saturday at 2pm. You can catch the action on WatchESPN. (More info at MUTigers.com)

• Mizzou Indoor Track is back at it with split squad duals against Arkansas & Iowa State in the Wooo Pig Invitational on Friday & Iowa State Cyclone Invitational on Saturday. (More info at MUTigers.com)

• Mizzou Swimming & Diving’s squads remain ranked in the Top 25. According to their schedule, next up for them is the SEC Championships in mid February.

Various Non-Mizzou Sports News

• Tokyo Olympics no more? According to Reuters, it sounds like the games originally scheduled for 2020 that were postponed (stupid Covid) are now just flat out canceled. That really, really, really sucks for the athletes who prepared so hard for what could be their one chance to compete.
• This is super cool. The Kansas City T-Bones baseball team of the Independent American Association has renamed their team the Kansas City Monarchs to honor the famous Negro Leagues team. (more info on ESPN.com)

• Couldn’t resist sharing the City Museum’s response to the Bernie meme. Bernie, get out of there!

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