Join Mizzou beat writer Dave Matter for his live chat at 11 a.m. Thursday
Bring your Tigers football, basketball and recruiting questions, and talk to Dave Matter in a live chat at 11 a.m. Thursday.
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I don't think so. In situations like this, if the doctors/trainers clear him to play despite the labrum issue - and as long as Brady wanted to keep playing, which he clearly did - then he was good to go the rest of the year. He wasn't the most accurate throwing the ball deep, but I saw him uncork some pretty nice passes downfield. The deep shot to Lovett at Auburn. The deep shot to Lovett at Tennessee. He finished the season throwing more than 200 straight passes without an interception and was at his best late in the year. During the season, the staff was well aware that he was going to need surgery. Drinkwitz made subtle mentions of his shoulder issue during the year. He didn't practice during the bye week and was listed on the injury report as probable the week after Kansas State while they monitored the injury.
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I'm not big on the what-if game. Why do we only count the close losses as possible wins and not the close wins as possible losses? They were fortunate to barely beat Vanderbilt and Arkansas - just like they were unfortunate to lose close games to Auburn, Georgia and Kentucky.
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Here is the aforementioned story on the 10 plays that defined Mizzou's football season.
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The staff clearly didn't believe Young was a core part of the offense. He spent the first month or so of the season nursing an injury and then once he was healthy he was just a bit player in the offense. During the year Drinkwitz essentially said his smaller frame limited his role in the offense. I interpreted that as meaning he wasn't able to pass protect like the other backs on the team. I wouldn't consider it a major loss. For whatever reason they just never felt compelled to give him a big workload other than last year's bowl game - when Badie was out - but when he still split the job with Dawson Downing.
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I have to say I haven't had the time to do much research or reporting on Kirby Moore. The news broke during my drive to Arkansas yesterday that Mizzou was working to hire him. Then the rest of my day was consumed with basketball coverage.This much I've learned in the last 24 hours: Drinkwitz didn't have a prior relationship with Moore other than knowing his brother, current Dallas Cowboys coordinator Kellen Moore, and just general familiarity through their common Boise State connections. This isn't a case of Drinkwitz hiring an old buddy. They've never worked together. He was impressed with his body of work at Fresno State, where Moore worked closely with QB Jake Haener, who threw for 67 touchdowns over the last three seasons. Fresno State starting center Bula Schmidt and occasional starting guard Jacob Sampson Jr. are both in the portal. I would think Schmidt might be appealing for Mizzou, but I'm not sure if there's mutual interest of any kind yet.
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I'll trust the rest of the chatters to ask the Kirby Moore questions from every angle imaginable so I'll ask something different: In the bowl game, even without Isaiah McGuire and DJ Coleman as rushers, Sam Hartman rarely had more than a few seconds to get rid of the ball. But when he did, our - in my opinion, pretty talented corners - were playing way off the receivers. Can you provide any insight into why they weren't either jumping routes or at the very least much tighter on the WFU receivers? Seems like a missed opportunity to me.
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Can you ascertain the degree to which all these recent announcement of returning players (Hopper, KAD, Rakestraw, Robinson, in particular) are from buying into what Drink and Blake Baker are selling and how much may be (though we'll never really know) from Laurence Bowers and the crew are putting together in the NIL world? Bowers hinted that something big was coming (whether that would be public or not, I don't know).
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I don't have any dollar figures or anything like that, but it's fair to assume the NIL collective has played a role in keeping some of these veteran players on campus for at least another year. They also clearly believe in Baker as a coach and his system after the season he just put together in his first year as coordinator.
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So happy with Mizzou men's basketball. Not sure if they can get in NCAA but they have restored the excitement to the program. Football wise , I am super excited we got an offensive coach. Drink will be a good CEO . I knew he wasn't going after a QB he is happy with who he has, plus all the good QBS have already committed. My concern is the Offensive line and we have got no one out of the Portal. If we don't upgrade there, going to be another 5 or 6 win season. As of yesterday we are last in SEC. IN getting portal players. We have only 2. I hope Drink is just being quiet and they have some guys coming. In my mind and I know it will be hard if Mizzou men's basketball gets 9 SEC wins and beats Iowa State they could get in the Big Dance.
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Don't assume Drinkwitz won't pursue a quarterback this offseason. I'm told he wants to add to his QB room. Now, that's different from aggressively pursuing a Power Five transfer who will be an obvious Week 1 starter. But as of today, there's only one healthy scholarship QB on the roster - who's attempted all of two passes in college. Cook returns late spring/early summer from surgery and Gabarri Johnson joins the team in June. It makes sense to add another QB to the mix, even if it's another Jack Abraham-type QB, someone with some college experience who adds some depth to the room.
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Arkansas gets up for home games at BWA because it's an incredible environment and their fans are some of the best in the country. Plus, they absolutely needed that win. Musselman said after the game he made it clear it was a must-win - and that's rare for coaches to say out loud. They were already 0-1 in the league and from here they play at Auburn then home against Alabama. That's three ranked opponents in a row. The stakes were huge for the Hogs. And he genuinely respected Missouri's talent and coaching. I think all those factors outweighed the rivalry aspect.I've probably covered close to a dozen games at BWA and that was the loudest I've ever heard it. Great atmosphere for college basketball - and even though Mizzou sputtered in the second half and got sloppy at times, they stayed in the fight and made it a two-possession game late. That was the first high-major road conference game for a bunch of those players: Hodge, East, Gomillion, Carter, Gholston and Shaw - everyone except Brown, DeGray and Honor. Lots of valuable learning lessons to take away from that one.
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He's only been a play-caller for one full season. I don't think he's married to one particular system. He was the passing game coordinator in Kalen DeBoer's spread offense for a couple years, then got promoted to offensive coordinator under Jeff Tedford this year. Fresno was pretty balanced this year: 466 runs, 473 passes. For what it's worth, here's where Fresno's offense rated among all FBS teams this year in several categories under Pro Football Focus' grading system:Offense: No. 26Passing: No. 16Pass blocking: No. 92Receiving: No. 29Running: No. 23Run blocking: No. 22When an assistant has such a small sample size of coordinator experience/play-calling, it's hard to know how much impact the assistant had versus the head coach, especially in this case considering DeBoer and Tedford are both offensive head coaches. That tells me Drinkwitz was impressed with the interview as much as the body of work.
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Lots of leaders return on the MU defense, next year. Who do you sense will be the leaders of the offense, particularly if Brady Cook isn't the starting QB? I think there's a decent chance he sticks around for the fall because I highly doubt Drink and Kirby Moore name a starting QB much before the week of the South Dakota game, since Cook can't be in the mix until the summer. But if he's not the starter, they'll have to find key people to lead on the field. Who might that be?
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If Javon Foster indeed returns - and at this rate, that seems very likely - then he's a definite leader on the offense. I'd say Cody Schrader fits that role, too. Near the end of the season I remember a couple veteran defensive players saying that Schrader would be a captain in 2023.As for Cook potentially transferring, I think that becomes harder now that he's undergone shoulder surgery. His options would probably be pretty limited without a full offseason to learn a new offense and earn a starting job.
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Prior to the season several in the media speculated that Horn would be the starting QB by mid season, obviously that didn't happen. Now,there are rumblings that Cook will be the starter in 2023. I guess that's possible, but if he wasn't able to "force" himself onto the field this past season given Cook's struggles I have doubts. Seems like a strange situation?
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I can't speak for anyone who thought Horn would take over midseason. Who actually predicted that?I suspect they'll wait until shortly before camp or during camp to name a starter. It does't make much sense to do it anytime sooner. Horn will get the bulk of the reps in the spring - any other snaps will go to a walk-on, unless they add a portal QB here soon - and Cook will be coming off surgery.
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He's never done an interview since enrolling at Mizzou. Drinkwitz's rule is freshmen aren't allowed to talk to the media until they've played a game - and then it's still at Drinkwitz's discretion. Horn was requested for interviews after he played in the New Mexico State game but seemingly never given the green light. Hopefully that changes this spring.
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Dave, I was pleased with the game last night but not the final score. I really like the fight this team plays with. I did feel like once ARky increased the defense intensity that we started playing more 1 on 1 and had little ball movement. Obviously rebounding was not pretty last night as to be expected but I see this team competing every night regardless of who or where. In your opinion did Arky D take us out of our offense or did we get away from it as the intensity pick up due to excitement?
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I thought Arkansas' defense in the halfcourt deserves a lot of credit for making Mizzou uncomfortable on offense. The Tigers started stopped attacking the paint like they did in the first half and didn't play through contact with enough force. It seemed like they were waiting for whistles instead of attacking to force the issue. Rebounding is going to be an issue for this team against a bigger, more physical team like Arkansas. Mitchell was a problem last night when he was on the floor - especially when Kobe was in foul trouble. And he still grabbed only two rebounds.
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He's up there but I think Bruce Pearl still sits on that throne. (Don't overlook Stackhouse either. He's got a crazy temper.)Muss is a really good coach. The team and the crowd feed off his intensity. He's the kind of coach that you love if he coaches your team and you hate if he's on the other bench. Mizzou had a guy like that for three decades.
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Dave: I know you don’t like to speculate, but, what’s your gut telling you about the Mosley situation? Rumor is he has an attitude that doesn’t fit with the current rotation? Is there anything to read into the fact that he didn’t even make the trip to Fayetteville? Thx!
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Just strictly from a numbers standpoint it appears MU needs to add a QB.
Assuming Cook is here and healthy in the fall that still leaves only three scholarship QB's.
Not to mention Cook was mediocre at best and Horn and Johnson have little to no experience.
I personally wouldn't be comfortable with that scenario for numerous reasons.
The UVA QB, the Boise State QB and others are still available.
Won't Drink and the new OC pursue the portal more aggressively especially given Cook's situation?
Also, how does a transfer effect Cook's likelihood to return?
