Each week, PowerMizzou.com publisher Gabe DeArmond answers questions from Tiger fans in the mailbag. This format allows for a more expansive answer than a message board post. If you missed this week's mailbag, keep an eye out next week or send your question to Gabe at powermizzou@gmail.com. On to this week's entries.
MIZSanity asks: Time to beat that drum again....I know you've stated on many occasions how 1 game usually doesn't affect a recruits view of a school. But, we all witnessed the talent disparity between Mizzou and LSU. If I'm a Kamryn Babb holding an LSU offer, it seems this weekend would certainly make me look real hard at who I'm going to be playing with on my team. Did it become that much more difficult, in your opinion, to get these 2017/2018 StL elite guys to jump on board? Does Mizzou have anything major to sell to these guys, besides proximity to home? We're obviously more than a few good players away from sustained success.
GD: Let me play the other side: If I'm watching that game, I might think "Where could I go that I would be more likely to get on the field next year? I mean, LSU's third-string tailback looked like a bad, bad man on Saturday night. But as soon as Fournette is healthy again, he goes back to getting almost no carries. Some kids will view it the way you did in the question. Some will view it the way I did in the answer.
In recruiting, you are always selling one of two things. It's either, "Come join us and help keep us on top" or "Come join us and help us get to the top." That's it.
So did Saturday make recruiting more difficult? Not really. As you say, I always say one game doesn't usually have an impact. Kids look at the relationships with coaches and current players, how soon they can play, what the depth chart looks like, how far away it is from home, the uniforms, etc. There are a million reasons kids make decisions. One game almost never changes it.
As far as what Mizzou has to sell, proximity to home is a big part of it. But so is helping rebuild a program and becoming a legend in your home state. And if I'm Mizzou, I'm spending every second telling these St. Louis kids "Most of you can play at a ton of places across the country and most of them are really good options. But there's only ONE place that you all have offers you can commit to today and all of you can play together. And that's right here." May not work, but that's what I'd be selling.
