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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.
wehrli_22 asks: SEC games are won in the trenches, so looking at Missouri recruiting under Drink here is what I found ...There are 11 OL recruited by Drink and he has retained 10; for a retention rate of 91%There are 14 DL recruited by Drink and he has retained 8; for a retention rate of 57%Drink has recruited 73 players to date, 25 OL/DL and retained 20 for a retention rate of 80%Is Missouri recruiting enough linemen or do they still need to recruit better players to make a difference? I guess Missouri could try to 'recruit' the five best portal players every year for the OL.
GD: There are a lot of numbers there, but I don't honestly know if any of them mean anything. A coach who is only in his third season certainly should be retaining 90% of his guys. There are exceptions to everything obviously, but for the most part, you shouldn't be losing a bunch of guys within two years of signing them (for what it's worth, your individual numbers add up to 18/25 and 72%; I don't know which one is right).
Missouri is recruiting enough linemen. It's just a question of whether they're recruiting the right ones. The offensive line is the main position where I'll agree with the crowd that says it's not fair to judge Drinkwitz until next season. In the SEC, especially at Missouri, your offensive line is going to need to be guys who have been in college for two, three, four years. So we're really just hitting the point where his recruits should see the field on the offensive line.
At the same time, the offensive line is probably the one position where you aren't blown away by Drinkwitz's recruiting. His first class, he had only Connor Tollison as a high school player. There are four high school guys in last year's class and that will be a big key going forward. Armand Membou looks like a player. The other three are redshirting. You'd like to see at least one of them make an impact next year.
This answer was kind of all over and I don't know if it even qualifies as an answer. But the point is, the verdict is out on the offensive line.
KCTiger05 asks: If you had to point to one primary reason for our lackluster performance over Drinks tenure thus far would it be lack of QB?if so, doesn’t his future really rest in Horns hands?
GD: Yes. And yes.
There's no need to relitigate the quarterback position over the last three years. Here are two quick things on it: In three years, Missouri's passing offense has gotten worse every year (32nd to 66th to 101st). In 2.5 years, Missouri quarterbacks have thrown 33 touchdowns and 25 interceptions. But against Power Five competition, they have thrown 19 touchdowns and 24 interceptions. That's...alarming.
So, yes, he needs a quarterback. Yesterday. And realistically, that has to either be Sam Horn or an immediate impact transfer. And if you go the immediate impact transfer route, what does that mean for Horn, who probably didn't come to ride the bench for his first two or three seasons. So it goes back to Horn. I've said a few times that Horn needs to be Drinkwitz's Brad Smith. That's not saying he needs to be as good as Brad was. He just needs to be the guy that takes Missouri from a .500 team to a better than .500 team. He needs to elevate the performance enough to keep things going. And if he can't do that next season, well, we're going to have a conversation on our hands.
