2019 Tiger Mailbag: 25th Edition
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.
drew98 asks: Who are the 2020 football recruits that you think the coaching staff will hold a spot for regardless of when they plan to commit?
GD: At this point, I'm not sure there are any to be honest. I mean, they've got their board and a top guy at each position and such, but if the No. 3 guy wants to commit right now and the No. 1 guy wants to wait till December, I think Missouri would go ahead and take the No. 3 guy. The only player who I could have seen there being a huge gap between the top guy and some others would be Antonio Doyle and he's already on board. Obviously there is some tipping point at each position. In other words, at some positions they might be willing to take the third guy on their board, but not the fourth. At others, maybe they go six deep as far as guys they'd take right now. But with recruiting the way it is, I don't think there's anybody that the staff's going to say "We can promise you you've got a spot all the way up until signing day."
The top 34 teams in the 2020 rankings right now have at least 11 commitments. Half of them have at least 15 commits. Seven of them have at least 20 (including Alabama, LSU and Ole Miss in the SEC). Recruiting has changed. You want your spot, you better get it before your senior season starts. The pickings in December are going to be slimmer than they've been in years past, both for the players and the schools.
TigerCruise asks: Do you think Odom is pressing for earlier commitments this year because of the potential recruiting sanctions or is this just the status quo in 2019?
GD: This relates to the answer I just gave. This is what recruiting is now. June is commitment season. No more waiting around till November or December. When schools are offering 300 kids, the players know they have to get their spots. There are some, maybe the top 50 or so players in the country, that can wait as long as they want and there will always be room (or room will be made). But if you're a three-star kid and you want to wait till the fall to take visits and December to make a commitment, you're going to find out a lot of the schools that you thought had offered you don't want you anymore. I think it's less the coaches pressing for commitments than it is kids just understanding that if they want to make sure they've got a spot at a Power Five program they like, they've got to get it.
MIZ25! asks: As far as #1 overall recruits in Football and Basketball (Rivals era), who would you say had the best/or is having the best professional career?
GD: The Rivals era starts in 2002. So let's list off the top overall recruits in that time frame, ending with 2015 in football because that's the last class of guys that has even started their pro careers (we'll go a little further in hoops where players don't have to stay in college for three years.
Football: Vince Young, Ernie Sims, Adrian Peterson, Derrick Williams, Percy Harvin, Jimmy Clausen, Terrelle Pryor, Bryce Brown, Ronald Powell, Jadeveon Clowney, Dorial Green-Beckham, Robert Nkemdeche, Da'Shawn Hand, Byron Cowart
That's not a great track record. I mean, there are a lot of NFL players on there, but not a lot who have done anything. It's pretty clearly a two-man discussion. It comes down to whether you think Jadeveon Clowney will end up having a better career than Adrian Peterson. That's pretty tough to for me to find in favor of Clowney. Peterson has more than 15,000 yards from scrimmage and 112 touchdowns. It's pretty clearly AD here with Clowney second.
Basketball (these rankings started in 2003 and it's going to be over after the first class): LeBron James, Dwight Howard, Gerald Green, Greg Oden, Michael Beasley, B.J. Mullens, John Wall, Josh Selby, Austin Rivers, Shabazz Muhammad, Andrew Wiggins, Jahlil Okafor, Skal Labissiere, Josh Jackson, Michael Porter Jr., R.J. Barrett
The hit rate here is higher, which you would expect. Even the guys on this list that aren't stars were mostly first round draft picks and at least played in the league for a while. There aren't very many overall No. 1 total flameouts. In fact, if you look through the top five in every year, it's pretty much littered with all-stars and household names.
As far as the best on the list, that's obviously. LeBron isn't just the best on this list; he's in the discussion for best of all time. It really comes down to who is second. John Wall probably leads that right now. Okafor, Porter and Barrett are young enough to still have a chance to get there (Jackson too, I guess). But I'd say right now it's James, Wall then Dwight Howard.
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