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.
daveMIZ56 asks: With Zollers being a spring enrollee, what percent chance would you give him of seeing the field as a true freshman and burning a red shirt?I also assume we will hit the portal pretty hard this winter for a starter incase he isn’t ready and/or Sam Horn isn’t healthy enough.
GD: I don't what percentage chance I'd give it, but it's not high. First of all, true freshmen just don't play all that often. Is it possible Missouri tries to work him in in low leverage situations and he plays in enough games to skip the redshirt? Sure. It's even possible he's the backup and gets forced into action. But if the question is will Zollers be on the field in important situations as a true freshman by choice the answer is likely no.
I think Missouri fans are discrediting Drew Pyne. He's played major college football in high pressure atmospheres and done pretty well. I've heard good things about him out of summer camp. He would be my odds on favorite to be the 2025 starter. At the same time, yes, I think it's very possible Mizzou goes portal shopping for a QB this summer too because I just don't see how you could go into a season counting on Sam Horn to be a part of the picture. It's possible, but I don't think you can count on it.
petiesarmy asks: 1. I’d assume we are a top 12ish team going into UMass. Can you recall a top 10 or so team going on the road to such a small school? I can’t but I’m sure it’s happened in the last decade. I also find it interesting that in back to back weeks we are going to play road games in front of 120,000 fans but almost 85% will be at one school.2. Can we discuss…the difference between a top 75ish rated player and a top 200ish rated player? My assumption has always been the difference between players rated that high is pretty minimal. And clearly it is different year to year. Not asking for a breakdown of these two tackles exactly but just asking your overall thoughts/theory.
GD: 1) It's probably happened before although I don't remember it off hand. I think people are way too worked up about this. I mean, yeah, it's kind of a dumb game to schedule, but it's an almost automatic win. This is a better game than going somewhere like Toledo or San Jose State. Those are teams that could actually beat you. UMASS really isn't. The only reason I think people really care about this is that they somehow get embarrassed by it. Which is up to each individual, but personally, I'm not embarrassed by it because I had nothing to do with it.
2) There's not that big a difference. I think there are probably 15-20 players who any idiot could watch film and say "Oh yeah, he's a star." Those are the top half of the five stars. Once you get to 25 vs 125 vs 225? The differences are marginal. Systems matter, intangibles matter, desire, heart, maturity. And luck. Some are going to hit, some aren't. A four-star player at No. 150 may end up being a significantly better player than a three-star player who would theoretically be ranked 400. But certainly not always. The rankings are a guess.
Nathen.huffman asks: What's the chances that we can get a couple more power Mizzou tailgates this year? Any plans in the works that you can share yet???
GD: We'll give it a shot and we're going to try to have a couple events throughout the year, but these things take a lot of planning and coordination and sometimes on game day that's just not something we have time for. We're going to make an effort but no promises.
