1) Let's start with football because, well, the alternatives, folks, they ain't too pretty. Anyway, Mizzou picked up a commitment from former Notre Dame and Arizona State quarterback Drew Pyne on Sunday. In a vacuum, I understand why people might be skeptical on Pyne. He didn't win the starting job at Arizona State and then got hurt when he got a chance. He won games at Notre Dame but his numbers weren't eye-popping (before you let that bother you, check the last, I don't know, 35 years of Notre Dame quarterback numbers). But grading on execution considering circumstances, this is a straight A for Eli Drinkwitz.
Everything in recruiting has changed in the last four years. But none of it has changed as much as the quarterback market. It's the only position in football (well, other than kicker and punter) where only one person is going to play. And the competition all knows it. Backup defensive linemen and wide receivers and running backs play. There are five spots open at offensive line. Position players can find ways to get on the field via special teams. But if you're a quarterback and you aren't the starter, the only way you're playing is if the game is already decided or the starter gets hurt (or just isn't any good). Missouri already knows its starter next season. So does everyone else. Even if nobody came out and said it publicly, this is Brady Cook's team and anyone being recruited by Missouri to play quarterback knows the only thing he's being recruited as prior to 2025 is an insurance policy. So that kind of limits the options. As an insurance policy, Drew Pyne is pretty good. He has started football games and won football games at the Power Five level. There just aren't many other guys out there who can say that and would have been willing to come here.
Sure, Drinkwitz could have stretched into the spring transfer portal and taken his chances. But he's still not getting a current starting quarterback to come here to be a backup. He's still probably going to get someone who's been beaten out for a job at another Power Five school. And he already had that. A bird in hand, as they say. Pyne came out of high school as a four-star prospect and the No. 118 overall player in the country. His college career hasn't lived up to that yet, but he's produced at a higher level than just about anyone else Missouri could have hoped to get. Whether it ends up being a good move for Pyne won't be known until at least August of 2025 when Drinkwitz names a starting QB for that season. But it's already a good move for Mizzou.
2) The spring game is this Saturday at 1 p.m. Still a little weird that spring football ends before the SEC Tournament, but I'm not complaining. Any days they want to add to the offseason I'm on board with.
Missouri enters this game without any major questions in my book. The biggest one I have is probably what the lineup looks like across the offensive line. We're confident we know four of the five starters (Armand Membou, Cam'Ron Johnson, Connor Tollison, Cayden Green). It will be of note to see who that fifth starter seems most likely to be and exactly what position everyone is playing (including backups like Tristan Wilson, Logan Reichert and Jayven Richardson). This could change again if Mizzou is able to land another OL in the transfer portal. I anticipated they'd be more active looking at interior players, but they've had a couple offers go out to tackles, so it lends some question as to exactly what the plan will be across the line.
Defensively, who wins out opposite Johnny Walker? Who's the second DT next to Kristian Wilkins? And then who wins the punting and kicking jobs? Those are the only real questions this team has. They aren't all going to have answers after Saturday, but at least we'll get a look at a few things to educate our endless speculation over the next five months.
3) Okay, now on to the bad news. Except it's actually good news. Because the basketball season will be over some time in the next 96 hours or so.
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