Ten Thoughts for Monday Morning
Before you dive in here, I've already written a lot about Saturday's game in my Saturday night wrap and my Sunday morning thoughts as well as some Braggin' Rights thoughts so if there's something you don't see mentioned here, it's probably mentioned there. I'll wrap the Mizzou thoughts here and get into some national stuff as usual in this morning's thoughts.
1) Sometimes those of us in the media just try too hard. I'm not saying this to point out anyone specifically. It's a general thought and I include myself. After Missouri's 49-14 loss to Georgia (which really didn't feel that close), Eli Drinkwitz answered questions for 12 and a half minutes. We have a job to do. Part of that job is asking questions of players and coaches and getting their thoughts on what unfolded. But there simply aren't 12 minutes of questions to ask about that game. As Drinkwitz said a number of times, they got their butts beat. The game didn't turn on a play or a call or even a series of plays. Georgia simply had much better players and played much better. There's not a whole lot you can say about that game. I know we make a living off of analyzing every single aspect of every single thing that happens, but there just wasn't much that had to be said about that game. You saw it. You know what happened. So does everyone else who saw it.
2) That said, the real reason Missouri fans are so optimistic about where the program is headed isn't on the field. It's on the recruiting trail. The early signing period opens on Wednesday and runs through Friday. Right now, the Tigers have 21 commitments and we are expecting them all to sign early at this point. The class is currently at No. 20 in the Rivals team rankings.
We'll update the perfect class tomorrow and have a full preview either Tuesday night or Wednesday morning that includes players the Tigers are still chasing. Unless there are big surprises, we don't really know of any other four-stars who the Tigers could get this week so while the overall class score could go up a little bit, it probably wouldn't be significant. In looking at the teams behind Missouri in the rankings, here are the ones that would seem to have a chance to catch them: Iowa, Penn State, Washington, Florida State, Auburn. Those are the ones we come up with based on their current standing and number of commits. So, at worst, we think Mizzou would have a class that ranks about 25th. That would be the second highest rank ever for a Tiger class (they were 21st in 2010). More than that, the Tigers currently rank 8th in the SEC. Since joining the conference, Mizzou has never had a class that ranked better than 12th in the league on signing day.
3) That's a step in the right direction for sure, but it has to become the rule and not the exception.
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