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Published Jun 23, 2021
2021 Macadoodle's Mailbag: 24th Edition
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Gabe DeArmond  •  Mizzou Today
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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.

jrl3m8 asks: How was your trip?

GD: Excellent. I would recommend the Pacific Northwest to anyone. Got a couple of excellent recs from PMers and met up with both. But it's a bit of a climatic shock exiting the terminal at Lambert to a triple digit heat index. May move soon. Also, I think Mizzou got five commitments in the eight days I was gone which is an excellent ratio so it worked out for everybody (except Sean, who had to greatly increase his workload for a week).

In-person recruiting is back, and PowerMizzou will be your source for all the latest recruiting visit news and updates during the month of June. Click the image below and enter the promo code VISITS2021 to get premium access to the site free until Aug. 10. Offer valid through June 30.

tigerfever00 asks: Now that the secondary has been addressed with two solid corners….what do you see as weaknesses for the football team this season? Areas of need that still might need to be addressed? Unless you think the staff is done.

GD: I do think they're done for this class barring a transfer portal entry in the next seven days that they just can't pass up. Once Darwin Barlow went to USC, I think the transfer activity ended for this class. They do have one more spot they could use, but won't use it just to use it. Especially because as of now you're looking at something in the neighborhood of a 20-man class for 2022. If you use a spot here, you're probably taking one away from that class and Mizzou is actually off to a better start in that class than it was in 2021.

But we can still talk weaknesses. I agree that corner is no longer necessarily a weakness, but I'm not sure it's better than it was last year. I'm also not saying it's worse, but Jarvis Ware had as many interceptions last year as Allie Green and Akayleb Evans have combined for in three years, plus Adam Sparks played a fair amount and Chris Mills was on the field a little bit too. Throw in the fact that Tyree Gillespie and Joshuah Bledsoe are both gone and I think it's still accurate to say the secondary going into this season is a little behind where it was last year. That doesn't mean it's bad or it's a glaring weakness, but I see a lot of people who seem to believe that Missouri suddenly has one of the best secondaries--or at least the best corner groups--in college football and I'm not ready to go there just yet.

I'm still not sold on the offensive line just yet. Larry Borom was important when he was in the lineup last year. Getting Hyrin White back from injury should mitigate that and you hope Connor Wood can come in and be an impact player and the other guys improve, but it's still definitely not a position I'd qualify as a strength. I don't see how linebacker is as good as it was last year losing Nick Bolton and I've got to see Elijah Young for a few weeks before I'm convinced the running game is as good (I think there's a reason the staff was going after Barlow).

ConcernedTiger asks: Ed Chang update? Need to know about that shersey!

GD: Sadly, I have no update there. Haven't seen anything that indicates he has landed anywhere.

Carnell75 asks: Now that the 21' recruiting class is complete. I would love to get either your insight or breakdown of it or better yet an assessment of how the coaches did addressing needs and planning for the future. Not necessarily based on stars but instead on your personal assessment

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