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Transcript

Eli ±á´Ç´Ú´Ú:ÌýHappy Thursday, all, and welcome to this week's Mizzou chat. One week from today, Eli Drinkwitz will just about be on stage at SEC media days in Atlanta. The dawn of talking season burns bright on the southeastern horizon! In the meantime, I'll be around for the next couple hours to take your questions.

Tom O: From your reporting Drink is striking out on a lot of HS players he has invested a lot of time and money to recruit. In some publications we are ranked in the 70s with lesser schools having much better success. Do you think this is a one off or is Drink courting much better players so we are competing with the big boys or is it just money.

±á´Ç´Ú´Ú:ÌýWhat's going on with Mizzou football recruiting right now seems like the most pressing question. I'm writing about it more tomorrow's paper/website, and the short answer is that it's hard to get a read other than it being uncharacteristically not good.

A Drinkwitz class has never come in at worse than No. 32 in 247Sports rankings. (The 2020 class came in at 50, but he'd just been hired so it's not a fair eval.) Right now, the Tigers are at No. 72. Only four players who visited this summer are still uncommitted, so without some flips or new leads, so to speak, the well is running dry.

It seems pretty clear that while Drinkwitz has done well has a high school recruiter, he's increasingly prioritizing the transfer portal. The side effect of that is smaller, less-talented high school classes — but I don't think the plan was to let that happen to this degree. Maybe after seeing what happened with the 2024 class (Nwaneri, Lacy, Crutchfield, etc) there's less of a budget for this cycle. If that's the case, I'd understand why. 

I don't think I'd buy into the notion that MU has just gone after bigger fish. Of the 33 visitors this summer, 10 committed to Missouri and four are still on the board. Of the 19 who've committed elsewhere: 5 are going to other SEC schools, 6 are going to Big Ten schools, 4 are going to ACC schools and 4 are going to Big 12 schools. It's not like they're all going to 'Bama or Georgia.

Drinkwitz has done well with the 3-4 players he adds late in the cycle once the season has started. If he can do that again this year, the class looks all right in the end — not great, but not like it does now. At the moment, I'd call it more anomaly than cause for panic, but I'm not sure that top 20 high school classes will be the norm going forward. 

Ken S: I came here to ask questions about football recruiting as well. I have no reason to think Drink won't get a good group of players he wants. His recruiting has been great. I wonder if this is an NIL problem. Perhaps Missouri is trailing SEC schools in NIL cash to land the recruits it will take to sustain. Thanks.

±á´Ç´Ú´Ú:ÌýThat's my inclination. With budgets becoming (theoretically) more finite under rev share, schools are going to need to increasingly decide whether to cut back what's available for freshmen or what's available for upperclassmen transfers. We don't know the specifics, but I just keep coming back to that "production over potential" remark Drinkwitz made in December. Maybe some other SEC schools are divvying up funds differently. It's also worth noting that nothing, as far as money goes, has been signed at this point. Given the changes in spending rules and uncertainty around what is and isn't OK as an NIL deal, I'd guess there are more than a few offers to freshmen around the country that won't materialize as promised. Maybe that shakes things up a little later in the cycle.

¸é³Ü²õ²õ:ÌýEli, just a compliment this morning, no questions. I've enjoyed your Mizzou "Top 25" lists this week. We could nick pick each other on the rankings, but the overall looks right. And yeah, you've got to go with Chase Daniel in the one spot in the Top 25 Athletes. HIs impact on Mizzou sports is unmeasurable.

±á´Ç´Ú´Ú:ÌýThank you! I'm glad you enjoyed them. The lists were a lot of fun to put together. As I wrote in my column about how I came up with them, there's plenty of room for debate and suggestions, which is part of the fun in my eyes. 

Ken S: I saw you had done a Top 25 and was fully prepared to argue with your picks, as I am pretty sure I am you father's age, but I cannot argue. I think I would have found a way to get James Franklin on the list (I think he is so underrated), but I couldn't tell you who to remove. I have always thought had Danario Alexander been able to stay healthy he would have been so much more special.

±á´Ç´Ú´Ú:ÌýThe easy part is thinking of more names. The hard part is figuring out who'd have to come out to make room for them! We share a view of Franklin's time at Mizzou and that he's underrated. I would've loved to get Henry Josey on there too. In the end I just couldn't make a case for either of them over those who did make the list. There could easily be another 25-deep list of honorable mentions.

Palmetto State Fan: Let's pretend you are Sam Horn. What is your decision? Football, baseball, neither and play baseball the spring of 2026 and then see what the MLB has to offer?

±á´Ç´Ú´Ú:ÌýAssuming I want to be a pro athlete, baseball. Probably in 2026 if I'm not a starting quarterback at that point. If a team will draft me now and let me play football this fall before joining the farm system, great. If not, sign out of the '26 draft. To be clear, that's what I would do. I don't know what kind of opportunities or money has been or will be offered to him for either route. That'll obviously factor into his eventual decision. I don't blame him for doing both as long as he can.

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