Ten Thoughts for Monday Morning
1) Dennis Gates has been on a heater on the recruiting trail. Here's what's happened since I wrote this piece last week:
Connor Turnbull visited
And, oh, by the way, Gates hired Dickey Nutt as his second assistant.
The roster looks completely different than it did 27 days ago when Gates took the job. We wait on news of the third assistant, who we still believe will be John A. Logan head coach Kyle Smithpeters, a move we think will be made official some time this week.
2) Let's compare the roster at the start of the regular season to what it is today:
Start of 2021-22: Kobe Brown, Javon Pickett, Amari Davis, Boogie Coleman, DaJuan Gordon, Ronnie DeGray, Trevon Brazile, Sean Durugordon, Jordan Wilmore, Anton Brookshire, Yaya Keita, Kaleb Brown.
Today: Kobe Brown, Amari Davis, Boogie Coleman, Ronnie DeGray, Yaya Keita, Kaleb Brown, Mohamed Diarra, DeAndre Gholston, Aidan Shaw, Tre Gomillion, Noah Carter, Sean East, D'Moi Hodge, Christian Jones
That is six returning players and eight newcomers. As it currently sits, Missouri has eight players who could theoretically be playing their final season in 2022-23, but Tre Gomillion is the only one guaranteed to be doing so. The other seven (Davis, Coleman, Kobe Brown, Gholston, Carter, East and Hodge) all have a COVID year remaining if they chose to come back for 2023-24 at Mizzou.
The plan is pretty clear from Gates: Upgrade the talent on the roster immediately with the goal of being much improved in year one while allowing for flexibility to still add a full class in 2023 when you are going to really start seeing the high school recruiting start to become a factor. Yes, theoretically, all of those seven players above could return and Missouri could be without a scholarship in the 2023 class, but the chances of that happening are somewhere in the neighborhood of 0.0%. More likely you're going to have three to five spots in next year's class.
3) Of course, Missouri may not be done in this class. As of today, the Tigers have 14 players on scholarship, which is one over the limit. What are the likely moves to get back to 13?
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