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Published May 31, 2017
2017 Tiger Mailbag: 21st Edition
Gabe DeArmond
Publisher

Every 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. Keep your eye out each week to submit your question for the mailbag or send them to powermizzou@gmail.com. On to this week's inquiries.

JrJobes asks: What's your over/under on first downs reached without the help of a penalty flag for the Missouri offense this season

GD: 8.5. This is also the number of times I read this question trying to decide if you wanted an actual answer or just felt bad for me that no one else had posted a question yet.

Monda asks: What is the current status of our DL? Who's here, who's expected for the summer, what is your projected rotation game time?

GD: Defensive end--Marcel Frazier, Nate Howard, Tre Williams, Franklin Agbasimere, Jordan Harold return. The Tigers add Chris Turner and Nate Anderson to the mix there.

Frazier will start. On the other side, I predict Howard will win the job, Williams and Harold will back up and Anderson will play this year. Turner could easily shed the redshirt based on what I've heard, but I'm not sure there will be a necessity.

Defensive tackle--Terry Beckner, AJ Logan, Markell Utsey and Tyrell Jacobs are back. Rashad Brandon was here for spring football. Malik Young, Walter Palmore, Kobe Whiteside, Caleb Sampson and Akial Byers should be here this summer. Plus the Tigers added transfer Jordan Elliott from Texas, but he will sit out this year.

Beckner and Logan will be your starters, but Brandon will play a lot. Utsey saw time as a true freshman, so he should be in the rotation. I think four of the five other signees could see time, but again, how many will they need? Whiteside and Byers could very well be ready to skip the redshirt, but you don't do it to be the sixth or seventh guy in the rotation.

This recruiting class is very important at defensive end. The Tigers have loaded up on defensive tackles so guys they take there are going to be guys that they have really high on the board. But I think they need at least four defensive ends because Frazier and Harold are done this year and there just isn't a ton of depth.

TheRoyalPain asks:  Does Jeremiah Tilmon see the court as Missouri Tiger student athlete and if so, how long?

GD: Yes. And I think he'll be at least a two or a three year player.

TigerGrad19 asks:  Any chance Mizzou plays UMKC this year or in the foreseeable future? A couple of my friends go there and it'd be nice to blow them out so I could stop hearing about their "win streak" over us.

GD: Anything's possible. There are a few non-con games left to be filled. Chris Hollender just came from there and knows people so, sure, it could happen.

RufiosGhost asks: Should grown men wear cargo shorts?When will the basketball schedule be finalized?

GD: Depends on how much stuff you have to carry. I'm not big on caring if other people like my clothes.

Schedule should be done some time in August, maybe early September. That's when it's usually announced in full.

mexicojoe asks: Any idea which basketball recruits will be on campus this summer? How much "team" practice time are they allowed?

GD: I would assume they'll all be here. Haven't heard anything that leads me to believe otherwise. Except, of course, Jontay Porter, unless we get an announcement he is reclassifying in the next four or five days. The team is allowed eight hours per week of instruction, but I think at least two hours of that is one-on-one work. I'm not sure exactly what the breakdown is between individual sessions and team sessions. Of course, there's no limit to how often the players can get together and play pick-up and work out without the coaching staff present. And there will be a lot of that, I would assume.

I_Hate_the_Cornhuskers asks: If you could ban one poster for life and give one poster a free lifetime membership, who would they be?

GD: 1. You

2. Me

Alpha_101 asks: How many points will MPJ average next season?Using Rivals team rankings, how high will Missouri have to finish for AD Jim Sterk to return the coffee machine back to the football offices.

GD: I think Porter will be in the 15-20 points per game range. I've seen people asking if he's going to average 25. That's just not all that realistic. Markelle Fultz was the top freshman scorer last year at 23.2 per game...but he also played on a terrible team with few options. Malik Monk was second at 19.6 and that's probably a fair near-ceiling for Porter. I could see Porter getting up over 20, but there are other guys on this team who can score and Cuonzo Martin's teams haven't generally been ones that get up into the 80s on a regular basis with unlimited possessions.

Here are the freshmen I could find in the last 45 years (freshmen weren't eligible until 1973) who averaged more than 20 points per game: Kevin Durant, Carmelo Anthony, Chris Jackson (30.2 per game, damn), Wayman Tisdale, Michael Beasley, Kenny Anderson, Stephen Curry, Larry Hughes, Allen Iverson, Bernard King, Mark Aguirre, Markelle Fultz. That's 12 guys in 45 years. Only Beasley, Durant Jackson and King were at 25 per game. So 20 is possible. Twenty-five would put him among the top five freshman scorers in college basketball history. It's not impossible, but it's sure not likely. I'll say Porter averages 19.

As far as class ranking, I think the goal should be a top 25 class. Top 10 is unrealistic at Mizzou and top 15 is going to happen very, very, very rarely (thus far it never has). I think a top 25 class is achievable at Mizzou and would put you somewhere in the middle of the pack in the SEC. That should be the goal.

longhorns1231 asks: Will the PM golf tournament return? I've never played, but I may be tempted to show up and drag down a team.

GD: It isn't likely. There has to be a game to build it around that brings a ton of people in a day early. We had that with the Georgia game in 2012. But we tried to do it again the next year and had like 12 people sign up. For the amount of time and effort it takes, it's not worth doing if we can't get at least 15 groups or so and that's just not very likely.

Spikesdown6 asks: Who would win in a fight: @ASchiffer or a kangaroo? It would be a bare knuckle brawl. Place is a Wachovia parking lot, obviously.Also, could you ask around about baseball recruiting? I know it's not a huge revenue generator for the site, but I know some are interested in how Bieser's first class is shaping up after this season.

GD: Kangaroos are nasty. I'll take the kangaroo over Schiffer.

I can see what people can tell me about baseball recruiting. When we see a commitment on Twitter we try to mention it, but it's not something we follow closely.

Bjip86 asks: Since you started covering mizzou sports, what has been the most interesting event to cover? If you could relive one mizzou sports moment, what would it be?

GD: The most interesting, without a doubt, was conference realignment. But the most fun was the 2007 Kansas game at Arrowhead. Nothing else has really been close.

As far as one moment, the one I most personally enjoyed was the 2010 Oklahoma game. I took my kid down to College Game Day at 5 a.m. and just remember thinking "I never really thought I'd see this here." And when Gahn McGaffie ran the opening kickoff back, I think it's the single loudest moment I've ever experienced at a Mizzou game. That was a pretty cool day. I also have good memories of Corey Tate's game winner against Kansas in 1997 when I was a senior at Mizzou. But probably my single favorite Mizzou sports moment ever was when Erik Piatkowski's shot rimmed out clinching a perfect Big Eight season in 1994. I was a senior in high school then watching with my friends on TV back in Kansas City.

MizzouBSC93 asks:  Is all of the football recruiting over the summer on campus and satellite camps or are the coaches still on the road like we have been seeing recently?When can official visits start? When do summer workouts start?Are the position coaches allowed to work with the players before summer camp?When do juco player rankings happen? Is Mizzou hitting many juco kids?

GD: That's a lot of questions. There are no evaluation periods in the summer other than the camps. Official visits begin on September 1st. Summer workouts should start next week, mostly with Rohrk Cutchlow, but there are some opportunities to do some things on the field with the coaches (but you can't use a football). Not sure on the juco rankings. The juco name we're following the most closely right now is defensive end Najee Stevens-McKenzie, who plays at ASA Academy in Brooklyn, the same school as Rashad Brandon. Also Antar Thompson.

BradN11 asks:  Does Bill Self really have a big vendetta against MU and is he the one pushing us away from playing kU? What's your honest take on the situation...I know a lot of fans on both sides say "we don't need/want to play them blah blah blah" but I think that's a bunch of self righteous BS. We don't have a rival currently and their next closest "rival" is like K state. You can't forget history but I guess if you wait long enough it will eventually dissipate

GD: From everything I've been told, Self is the reason the game doesn't happen. I don't really know why, but that's what I've been told. It's obviously not as simple as "We won't play a team that left the Big 12" because they've already played Colorado and they play Nebraska and A&M next year.

I agree with your take on the rivalry. The season is more fun if they play. College basketball is better if they play. I think a lot of the people who say they don't need the rivalry say it to make themselves feel as if they're above the other side. It's like after an ugly breakup, you say "I'm better off without her and I don't give a damn what she's doing" while you secretly create a fake Facebook profile to stalk her and make sure she's not dating someone who's cooler than you. I understand there are some people on both sides who truly don't care if they play and a few who actively want them not to. I'd like it. It would be more fun if they played. As you said, eventually, neither side is going to pay any attention to the other. We're getting pretty close to the point where a generation of fans won't know that's supposed to be a big rivalry. I wish it would happen. I can respect people who disagree, but we aren't going to see eye to eye on it.

BigBadMadMan asks: When did you delete the off-topic forum? Or are you just allowing anything in the Lair nowadays? Inquiring minds and all. We're debating cargo shorts, FYI.

GD: It's the offseason. There's not as much to talk about.

mexicojoe asks:  With the recent passing of Frank Deford, who is on your Mt Rushmore of sportswriters?

GD: Boy, this is tough. I'll read anything Dan Jenkins writes on golf. He's a master. Joe Posnanski and Wright Thompson could write about the color of the paint in my living room and make it interesting, but I don't know if either one is on a Mount Rushmore quite yet. Dan Wetzel does a fantastic job of covering major issues. I think Andy McCullough is the best local beat writer in any sport in the country (he worked at the Star for two years and now covers the Dodgers for the LA Times). I'll read just about anything Pat Forde writes because I love his style and his versatility. My dad is the reason I got into this business. There are a ton of really good ones I'm leaving out, obviously. A lot of guys like Jim Murray, obviously I never really read. If we're talking all-time, I think pretty much everyone is going to put Murray and Deford on that list.

austinanderson asks: If Chip Kelly returns to the College Game do you see him as a viable candidate for SEC Openings & do you believe he will be able to replicate the success he had with Oregon?

GD: Oh, he'd be a candidate for sure. I could see Texas A&M being real interested if they move on from Kevin Sumlin. He'd do well. Would he lead the country in offense and get back to a national title game? Who knows? Depends on where he lands. Too many variables to predict that. He's obviously a damn good coach, but he was only at Oregon for six seasons. He doesn't belong in the discussion with the elite unless he makes another similar run somewhere.

MummaMizzou asks:  What do I do with my free time now that there isn't new basketball recruiting news every single day?

GD: Talk to your family? Go outside? Hit the pool or the golf course.

tigerten asks:  On Sunday the perfect class 3.o was released. If those 25 were to sign with Missouri, where would you rank this class.

GD: Perfect, obviously. But for real, that class would have eight four-stars (as of today) and three of the top 90 players in the country. That's a top 20-ish type class I would think, which is about as well as I think you can do at Missouri.

SplitTFormation asks: What current facility upgrade do you think will impress recruits the most? What upgrades do you think still need to take place to improve recruiting?

GD: I'm sure they'll like the bells and whistles and just the glitz of it all. The shiny stuff. Building this new facility ought to be plenty as far as that goes. Beyond that, winning will improve recruiting. That's really the main one.

MizzouBSCE93 asks: How does the win or else message by aggie AD affect state of Texas recruiting?

GD: For Mizzou? It doesn't. First off, Mizzou isn't out-recruiting Texas A&M in Texas any time soon. Second, if they didn't know Kevin Sumlin entered this season on the hot seat, they aren't paying much attention.

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