Meet with local media on Thursday morning, Mizzou head coach Eli Drinkwitz said he felt better about his 2022 football roster than he had on any previous day. The main reason is simple: Drinkwitz finally has a feel for what that roster will look like when the Tigers open fall camp on the last day of July.
"I know the guys that are in this locker room are committed to be in this locker room," Drinkwitz said. "I don't have fear of them transferring out as of right now. They want to be here for the 2022 football season."
The final tally for the Tigers was 12 scholarship players transferring out, 12 incoming transfers from other college programs, three junior college signees (including Ma'Kyi Lee, who will arrive on Friday), 17 high school signees and nine preferred walk-ons. That adds up to 41 new faces on campus for this fall.
Here is the full rundown of all the changes:
It adds up to more than a third of the scholarship players on the roster being turned over in a single year. In the new age of college football and the free transfer rule, it's the rule rather than the exception.
"Let's focus on building this football team for this year. To the very best we can," Drinkwitz said. "And then we'll do the very best we can after that. We're recruiting in a manner that he's going to continue to build the roster moving forward. But to say that you're going to continue, you have to have a plan, but I don't know what December is gonna bring. I don't know what the transfer portal is gonna bring. All I can do is build our team for this season."
Each year is--now more than ever--a standalone examination. Program building still exists, but the way it's being done has changed, at least as long as the rules that are in place remain in place. That's part of the reason Drinkwitz spent most of the offseason searching for the right fit at the most important position on the field. The day after Missouri's loss in the Armed Forces Bowl, Connor Bazelak announced he was transferring. That left the Tigers with Brady Cook and Tyler Macon as the only scholarship quarterbacks for spring football. Drinkwitz courted a number of transfer signal callers before landing Abraham, a 7th-year transfer from Mississippi State, as a walk-on who will have the chance to earn the starting quarterback job and a scholarship.
"Brady Cook and Tyler Macon both had good springs and us looking at a potential transfer quarterback which really no slight on them," Drinkwitz said. "The one thing that neither one of those guys can change is the amount of experience they have playing college football and so our first six games we have three on the road at Kansas State and Auburn and Florida, and the only the best teacher is experience and so in those situations, having an experienced quarterback was something that was important and something that we were looking for."
Added to the mix this week was four-star signee Sam Horn, who arrived on campus and has begun Missouri's offseason programming. Drinkwitz reiterated Thursday that Horn was going to be in the mix to be Missouri's starter on September 1 against Louisiana Tech.
"I think I've been very clear since the start of spring but I would not name a starter until Sam Horn had the opportunity to compete for that position," Drinkwitz said. "And that is ongoing and starting right now."
Perhaps appropriately, it is the quarterback position that still holds the biggest potential question mark on Mizzou's 2022 roster. The Major League Baseball draft is on July 11th. Horn is considered a potential top 100 prospect in that draft as a pitcher who has hit 95 mph this spring.
"I'm not naive to the fact that Sam is going to have a difficult choice in front of him in July," Drinkwitz said. "We believe that he's got a great future here as both a football player and a baseball player. Mizzou football and baseball fans, that's what we're pushing him off but I also not like the fact that he could choose to pursue a career in the Major Leagues and I could not stay status quo and only have two quarterbacks on the roster with experience and so we needed to have somebody else."
Drinkwitz has imposed no deadline on Horn. Asked if there is a deadline for him to sign with a baseball team, the coach said it was a good question but that he hasn't even asked it. He expects everyone that will be on the roster for the 2022 season to be at the opening day of camp on July 31st.
"So July 31st, I guess, is the deadline," Drinkwitz said.
Outside of Horn, everyone who was expected to be here is here. The Tigers signed Baylor transfer Josh Landry more or less as a replacement for Daniel Robledo, who Drinkwitz said on Thursday will be out at least until Missouri's bye week with "an upper body extremity injury." Lee, the offensive lineman added this week, said Missouri likes him at right tackle where Hyrin White has not yet been publicly ruled out for the season, but very well could miss the whole year.
Ennis Rakestraw, Martez Manuel, Kyran Montgomery and Kris Abrams-Draine, all of whom missed spring football, have been cleared for full speed duty without restriction this summer.
As for any further additions, Drinkwitz isn't really expecting any. But it's 2022 and that means anything is possible.
"We've kind of taken the approach of the best available player, somebody we felt like could really impact our roster in a positive way, we could potentially make room for them," Drinkwitz said. But we're not actively seeking. It would have to be a position of need and have multiple years of eligibility. We're almost done portal shopping. But I think in this day and age, you never say never."
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