2012 Tiger Mailbag: Free 19th Edition

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Each Wednesday, PowerMizzou.com publisher Gabe DeArmond and recruiting editor Pete Scantlebury will answer questions from subscribers in our Tiger Mailbag. This feature will allow for longer, more in-depth answers than you may get on the message board on a daily basis. To have your question in next week's mailbag, send an email to Gabe at powermizzou@gmail.com. On to this week's inquiries:

NotoriousBRE asks: I read in the S.I. article that one of Jabari Parker's coaches is a former Mizzou player. So does Mizzou have a realistic shot or am I just getting my hopes up?

GD: The player is Marlo Finner, who has been back at Mizzou quite a few times. But I haven't seen or heard anything that leads me to believe Missouri is a player for Parker.

TnMizzou asks: When are the MIZZOU camps this year? Do you have a list of some of the names we should be looking for at the camps?

GD: Camps start this weekend in St. Louis and run through next Sunday in Kansas City (including camps in CoMo and Springfield). We'll have complete coverage of all of them including a list of prospects to watch in each location in the Chamber on Friday.

ZouFan27 asks: With the SEC schools being so defensively dominant, do you think the MU will change their offense to meet the challenge?

GD: Pinkel has said many times they are going to more or less do what they do scheme-wise. There may be some tweaks in the coming years, but for now, the players Missouri has were recruited to run the systems they run and I don't see major changes at all this season.

JRhodes5 asks: In your opinion why doesn't college baseball get more coverage (televised games)? Also, how will our baseball team stack up in the SEC?

GD: To be brutally honest, I don't think it's a great game. The simple fact is that colleges don't get the best talent. The best talent is drafted straight out of high school. Guys like Kobe, Lebron, Garnett are the exception in basketball. Most great players went to college (now virtually all of them). In football, they HAVE to go to college. In baseball, anytime you get an elite recruit, you have to hope he chooses you over the majors. That leads to a watered down talent pool. Plus, I think baseball fans like 4-2, 2-0, 6-5 games. In college, because of less pitching depth and metal bats, you see 12-9, 15-11, 10-8 with regularity. As far as Mizzou goes, I've often heard the phrase that Missouri football is jumping into the deep end of the pool in the SEC. If that's the case, baseball is jumping into the ocean. Baseball is the second major sport at a lot of SEC schools. The Tigers, right now, are somewhere in the 11-14 range as a program in all honesty.

the agency asks: We all follow Powermizzou for great coverage of Mizzou, but could you recommend some sites that we should check out for more SEC information?

GD: I wouldn't be doing my job if I didn't promote my Rivals brethren in the Southeast. Just type in the school name.rivals.com to go to any of those sites. Saturdays Down South is good, so is Mr. SEC. I also think the SEC does a great job with its own site. Big12sports.com was pretty good, but the SEC site has had even more that I think would interest people.

mexicojoe asks: Pick a starting five from Norm's teams in the '70's, another starting five from his teams in the '80's, and one from the 90's. Pick a team from the Snyder era, another from the Anderson era, and the Haith squad. Rank them 1-6, 1&2 get a bye, then they play a mini tourney.

Who wins?

GD: The 70's are before my time. I know Willie Smith has to be on it along with Kim Anderson, but I just don't know enough about the teams to pick a full team. I wasn't even born until '76. In the 80's, it's Stipo, Sundvold, Chevious, Doug Smith (he played in the 80's and 90's) and Byron Irvin for me. The 90's is Booker, Smith, Peeler, O'Liney and Crudup. Quin's teams would go with Rush, Kleiza, Johnson, Paulding or Gilbert (I'd lean Clarence) and Dooling. Anderson's team is Carroll, Lyons, Lawrence, Denmon and Bowers, I guess. Haith's team is last year. Of the five I completed, I'd go with the 80's team as the top seed beating last year's team and Quin's team beating the 90's team. I'll take the 80's Tigers over Quin's as the best "all-era squad" Mizzou can put together.

IllTigers asks: At which position do you see a weakness or a lack of depth for the Mizzou football season in the coming years? How is the team addressing this weakness?

GD: I don't think there's any question right now it's defensive tackle. I just don't see the depth the Tigers will need. They're addressing it by recruiting a TON of defensive tackles this year. I think you'll see five D-linemen in this class.

CrouchingTiger04 asks: Do we know when DGB and Maty Mauk will arrive on campus, and in a semi-related question, have you heard how James Franklin's recovery is progressing?

GD: All freshmen are expected on campus by June 4th. As far as Franklin, Pinkel said at the SEC meetings today that he was ahead of schedule and starting to throw a Nerf ball.

etkkb4 asks: With L'Damian Washington, Marcus Lucas, DGB and TJ Moe possibly all on the field at the same time, there will be serious size mismatches (throw in Eric Waters, too) for other teams to deal with. Also add in Jimmy Hunt, Bud Sasser, and Gahn McGaffie for depth/rotations. While I think 2012 probably wont be the most productive passing offense in school history, do you think this is the best/most complete WR corps we have seen in the Rivals era or do I need to put down the Kool-Aid?

GD: That group has a TON of potential. But to steal a line from Pinkel, let's not start building any statues yet. Only Moe has done a lot at the college level. Lucas and Washington had some big moments last year, but they have to do it every week now. There's every reason to think DGB will be big-time, but he hasn't even had a college practice yet. Anytime you start talking about great wide receiving corps, just go back to 06-07 when Missouri had Maclin, Rucker, Coffman, Danario, Franklin, Saunders and Perry. That's seven guys who had at least a shot in an NFL camp and five of the top ten receivers in school history all on the same roster. This year has a long way to go before we start discussing them with that group.

etkkb4 asks: Have you seen any "candy" at practice/spring ball? Do you expect it this season with low depth at DT?

GD: I don't really remember how much they used it in camp, but yes, I expect to see it this year. Madison, Sam, Ealy and Ray could all be the inside guy, I think.

etkbb4 asks: Let's assume you are the coach of our basketball team. Knowing what you know now about players staying/coming in (which, before practices start, isnt a ton), who is your starting 5? How is time split amongst those not starting?

GD: Pressey, Dixon, Bowers, Oriakhi and either Bell or Ross start. You figure out which of the two (Bell or Ross) will be more able to handle being a sixth man and start the other one. That guy and Brown and Criswell get a lot of minutes off the bench. Webster-Chan probably gets decent minutes too. The rest pick up the scraps this season.

Blackout65201 asks: Why is the SEC so adamantly opposed to a Plus 1 system for football? SEC is 8-2 in their last 10 BCS games (9-3 if you count last years NC game) I understand that TV dollars would probably be greater w/ a 4-team playoff, but it seems like a Plus-1 system would actually INCREASE the odds of getting an SEC vs SEC matchup in the big game.

GD: Honestly, I haven't studied it enough to give you the pros and cons of each scenario. And I haven't talked to anyone in the SEC office about their thoughts. Hate to dodge the question, but at this point, I just don't have a satisfactory answer for you.

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