On January 31st, the NCAA dropped a bomb on Missouri’s seniors: Their last season of college football would last 12 games and no more. As part of the sanctions for violations of academic fraud, the NCAA banned the Tigers from playing in the 2019 postseason.
“I didn’t know what was going on. We got a team meeting out of the blue,” quarterback Kelly Bryant, who had been on campus less than three weeks, said. “I’m like what the heck is going on? It was a very serious meeting. Coach laid it out there, he didn’t hide anything from us, told us what all the different scenarios were.”
Some of the Tigers didn’t want to discuss the NCAA situation after practice on Sunday, deferring those inquiries to Barry Odom. Others didn’t hold back.
“It’s like, I mean, f— it,” senior offensive tackle Yasir Durant said. “I mean, not f— it, but f— it. We just got to go out, whether we have the NCAA or not, we still got to go out there and play and earn our right to go to a bowl game, earn our right for this kind of stuff.”
Missouri has already informed the NCAA it will appeal the sanctions. That appeal will be filed by March 24th and the athletic department is hopeful it will get the postseason ban lifted. Sources have told PowerMizzou.com the school thinks it will hear a final resolution around the start of the football season.
“I could care less about what they say about the sanctions,” senior wide receiver Johnathon Johnson said. “I know that our AD and our coach and other people around here are gonna go to bat for us and make sure we try to get those sanctions reversed. I’m not worried about it. I’m just coming out here making sure the team has the same goal and that’s to get better every day.”
There were a few days where some doubted if these seniors would be a part of that team. One of the results of the sanctions is that any of Missouri’s players with only one year of eligibility remaining would be free to transfer to any school without sitting out. And in this circumstance, those seniors effectively became free agents. Any school was free to recruit Missouri’s seniors. It simply had to notify the school’s compliance office of the intent to do so.
Plenty of schools did. Odom has said his seniors are getting calls daily. None of the players we talked to on Sunday wanted to mention specific schools, but they did acknowledge other coaches have reached out.
“A couple schools are calling, I guess, every one of our seniors,” Durant said. “I know for me there were a couple schools.”
“We all got together like who you got calling and we all talked about it,” Johnson said.
Missouri has 12 seniors on the depth chart that figure to get meaningful playing time during the 2019 season. None of them has expressed the intent to look around. Every one we spoke to on Sunday said it wasn’t even a consideration.
“This is how I see it: I signed my letter of intent in high school in 2016 and I know I made a promise to Mizzou,” starting cornerback DeMarkus Acy said. “How I see it, they stuck with me when other schools didn’t stick with me. That was their miss-out during high school. I’ve been telling them Mizzou got me so that’s who I’m gonna stay with.”
“I’m a True Son,” wide receiver/cornerback Richaud Floyd said. “I came here, I’m gonna finish here.”
“This is where I wanted to be since I committed here,” Durant said. “I love the coaches, love the environment, love my teammates. There was never a second guess in my mind.”
Johnson didn’t even take the phone calls: “There was not one doubt in my mind that I was not going to give them the time of day that they could talk to me and get me out of here. I’m all in.”
On one hand, it wouldn’t make a lot of sense for a player in a position to see significant time to leave. That would come with learning a new staff, new schemes and new teammates. For what payoff? A mid-level bowl game? Still, it could be a temptation, a chance to hit the reset button for one final year. The Tigers think it’s a testament to what Odom has built that nobody considered it.
“I would definitely say it says something about the program that we’ve got going and the coaches and the players that we’ve got on the team. We’re all like a family for real,” Johnson said. “We all had the same, ‘They’re calling, but we’re here.’ We ain’t even gonna too much focus on that because we know what we want to get done here.”
“We been grinding, we’ve built relationships on and off the field,” Acy added. “It doesn’t even matter. I don’t care what program it is. I feel like Mizzou puts me in the best position on the field and off the field. I’m just excited to be with these guys this season.”
The Tigers knew the questions were coming on day one of spring practice. The story will remain on the horizon until a resolution is reached. Any senior would be free to leave up until class starts in August. In some ways, the team, like the school and the fanbase, has been unified by this bout of adversity.
“At first it was kind of like a stinger for us first hearing it and first getting it sunk in that damn, that’s really what they’re doing to us,” Durant said. “But after a while I think everybody kind of had it in their mind like it’s going to fuel us more. We’re going to still go out there and play regardless.”
“As you know before every season Mizzou is getting doubted year in and year out,” Acy said. “I feel like we naturally have that chip on our shoulder. No extra fire or whatever. We’re just ready to play.”
Or, as some might say, f— it.
