Four Down Territory
Welcome to the offseason version of Four Down Territory.
It’s going to be a little different than it was in-season. I'll post one weekly during the season, which for me is from SEC Media Days through Missouri's final game.
During the offseason, I’ll post every other week.
1. Missouri is on fire.
The 2024 NFL Draft has come and gone and several Tigers got their names called. Darius Robinson went 27th overall to Arizona, followed by Ennis Rakestraw going 61st overall to the Lions, Ty’Ron Hopper going to Green Bay 91st overall, Javon Foster went 25 picks later to Jacksonville, 31 picks after him was Kris Abrams-Draine going to the Broncos and the final Tiger to be drafted was Jaylon Carlies being drafted 151st to the Colts.
The momentum Missouri has had the last eight months has been incredible.
In August 2023, Williams Nwaneri committed. Then, the team started 5-0 and lost a close one to LSU, which sucked for Mizzou at the time but let everyone know they were a team on the rise. After that, they had three legendary games against Kentucky (fake punt), Florida (fourth and 17) and Tennessee (Cody Schrader dismantles Tennessee).
Schrader, who ironically went undrafted (signed with the 49ers minutes after the draft), had one of the best seasons in program history and became a consensus All-American. He also finished eighth in the Heisman voting.
Several players made the All-SEC team and four were named AP All-Americans in early December.
A couple of weeks later, Mizzou defeated Ohio State in the Cotton Bowl to cap an 11-2 season and now in the last month, has got six commits for the class of 2025.
This wave of momentum doesn’t include Laird Veatch being hired to be the new Director of Athletics, the coaching hires of Corey Batoon and Brian Early, the Tigers’ favorable 2024 and 2025 conference schedules they got and or the new stadium renovation plans the school has released.
All this will do is boost fan support and recruiting (among other things). So, the Tigers are in as good as a spot as they’ve been in quite a while.
2. Darius Robinson and his family were awesome.
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