Bring your Tigers football, basketball and recruiting questions, and talk to Eli Hoff in a live chat Thursday. The timing of this week's chat will shift a little bit, with Eli answering most questions in the afternoon, a little later than usual. Submit your questions at your leisure and check back later today for his responses!
Transcript
Eli ±á´Ç´Ú´Ú:ĚýHi all, and welcome to another Mizzou chat. I'm in a little early today to post a note that my responses will come a little later than normal today — more midafternoon than lunch hour. Don't let that keep you from submitting questions, though. We'll still cover a ton of ground. Check back this afternoon for responses and send your questions through whenever. The chat room will be open for longer, too, as a result.
°Ő´Çłľ:ĚýWere you as surprised as I was that Missouri football team was not ranked in numerous football polls. Secondly I have always wondered why Sam Horn has never gone to the portal to find a place were he was guaranteed to start.
Hoff: I'm not really surprised. I don't mean to come off as too negative here, but why would Missouri be ranked at this stage of the preseason? The quarterback options are a player who's never thrown more than 13 passes in a game and a guy who hasn't even thrown 13 passes in his career. There'll be new starters at running back, two wideout spots, right guard and left tackle. There's a lot to like on the defensive end of things, but basically eight new offensive starters is going to give folks pause. Fairly or unfairly, that's what these "way too early" top 25s are: acknowledgment of name recognition and returning production. As a result, they're not particularly good predictors of how the season will actually play out. Mizzou could very well wind up a top 25 program this season, but there are too many unknowns for folks to really think that right now, it seems.
It's also why I really dislike voting for preseason All-SEC honors and the like: It's hard enough just to figure out who went where this offseason, much less how good anyone's going to be. The more respected polls also won't come out for some time — rankings floating out there now are just the thoughts of personalities and pundits whose jobs are to fuel discussion versus be particularly accurate. I wouldn't put stock into them as anything more than something to talk about in the present absence of games.
Part of the appeal of Missouri to Sam Horn, I have to imagine, is that he's allowed to play baseball here too. I'm not sure how many other SEC schools would really be fine with their potential starting quarterback pitching while fresh off Tommy John. But Mizzou brought him in with that very much part of the pitch. If he transfers, the two-sport path might go away. There's also the question of if he entered the portal, which sport would it be for? Given that he hasn't thrown a pass since November 2023, he'd likely have to go down to the Group of Five level to walk right into a starting job — and even then, would that be guaranteed? If he wants to focus on baseball, the SEC is the place to be. All that to say his situation here seems to suit what he wants out of his college athletics experience.
Dr. Girlfriend:Â If the gymnastics program keeps on it's current trajectory does it eventually surpass the women's basketball program as far as institutional focus? I would like to see successful programs gain focus over albatross programs.
±á´Ç´Ú´Ú:ĚýInteresting question. I'm inclined to think no for a couple of reasons. First, attendance. Mizzou gymnastics' attendance record is about 7,300. Women's basketball can exceed that with a decent product. Based on the latest financial data that's out there, Mizzou gymnastics brought in a little under $51,000 in ticket revenue in 2024. Women's basketball brought in about $155,000 in 23-24. Maybe that margin is a little closer when we have the data from the most recent seasons. Still, when you look at revenue overall, women's hoops is going to bring in 2.5-3x what gymnastics does.
There's also just more inherent popularity for basketball over gymnastics (Olympics aside, we're talking year in, year out here).
Could it flip? Maybe, but it would probably be more a matter of Mizzou de-emphasizing women's basketball than it would be increasing investment in gymnastics — which is something I don't see happening anytime soon given the messaging around Kellie Harper's hire. Still, it's interesting to think about.
ł˘łÜ:ĚýRE: Sam Horn and Tommy John surgery... I know in baseball TJ can actually increase a players velocity and allow him to be a more effective pitcher. Do you know anything about the difference in effect on the football throwing motion? I'd imagine its similar but can't really think of a high profile QB who had TJ
±á´Ç´Ú´Ú:ĚýAnother interesting question, and the short answer is that I don't know for sure. Mizzou's J-School is great, but the curriculum I went through didn't include this kind of anatomy/physiology stuff!
Still, a couple of thoughts here: As someone who played both football and baseball growing up (though I was never good enough to pitch more than a charitable inning or two thrown my way), the motion is definitely different in where the strain on your body is. Trying to throw a breaking ball or even just put zip on a pitch requires a kind of elbow torque that a football throw doesn't — I feel like the more important areas to a football motion are the wrist and the core, if that makes sense. That would explain why Horn's rehab allowed him to be throwing a football before he was throwing 100% off a mound.
Second, as you mention, you just don't really hear about QBs undergoing Tommy John surgery. Google tells me there have been a few, and that Brock Purdy's elbow procedure was something close to TJ.
If anyone with real medical knowledge knows, feel free to chime in. But I feel safe enough in saying that the motions are different enough.
˛ŃÂáłółŮľ±˛µ±đ°ů:ĚýAny insight on why Mizzou wasn’t even in the running for the big, in-state, legacy lineman that went to Miami? Was he even recruted?
±á´Ç´Ú´Ú:ĚýSome important points of clarity here — and we're talking about five-star Nixa recruit Jackson Cantwell, for reference, who committed to Miami the other day.Â
Mizzou very much recruited him and was in the running for quite a while. Almost a month ago exactly, I wrote when he took Missouri out of contention. He took the Tigers out when he put out his final four schools. But before that point, Cantwell was a common sight on the sideline of games in the fall. His dad, Christian Cantwell, was around for at least some of them too. It seemed like Jackson had some interest — until he didn't. I'm sure money played a role. I don't know what Mizzou's offer was or how it compared to Miami or the other finalists, though you'd have to think if it was competitive, the Tigers would've remained in the mix. The better question is how much Drinkwitz and company would be willing to give to a recruit who, good as he is, might not give you much his first season. There's a reason the "production over potential" line came out after last season's touted freshmen transferred away.Â
¶Ů°äłŇ:ĚýEli: I don't know how dialed in you are to boosters and the whole world of NIL, but the numbers that I keep seeing thrown around for players is astronomical, and I wonder if you think this is sustainable. The whole revenue sharing thing won't change anything. Programs will just find ways to make deal with actual name, image or likeness attached. A commercial, and digital/print ad, whatever. I don't think it's out of line to suggest that the cost of an entire roster could be north of $100 million for programs that are recruiting 4 and 5 star recruits exclusively and paying premiums for transfers.
±á´Ç´Ú´Ú:ĚýYou're asking the question that I think a lot of people who work in college sports are asking. How long can anyone keep this up? Like you mention, some of the compensation numbers are just bonkers. Donor fatigue is both present and understandable. And there's a world in which this keeps trending upward to the point where players make more than coaches, like the dynamic in the NFL/NBA/other pro sports. That's still a little ways off, but can anyone confidently say it won't reach a point where the starting QB's salary is bigger than a head coach's?
Revenue sharing could help in that it allows schools to pay players directly, perhaps lightening the load a little bit from donors. That said, donors are still a big part of funding athletic departments, so I don't know the degree to which that will help. The $20.5 million cap expected to be in effect for the first year of rev share will rise steadily, too. It's not just hitting that threshold once — it's maintaining and expanding on it.Â
And there will still be NIL on top of it. It has to be "true NIL" (in theory, and there will be stricter oversight of this), but make no mistake schools are figuring out how to set this up. The good ones will work it out. When Laird Veatch has talked about getting corporate support, this is part of it — get athletes bigger name NIL deals to supplement their rev share compensation.
How sustainable does that sound? Probably not very, but what's the other option for a school? It's not like anybody can take an off ramp and expect to remain competitive, so everyone just keeps hurtling along this path hoping it evens out at some point.Â
˛Ń±«4ł˘±őąó·ˇ:ĚýBig honors for Julia Crenshaw - All SEC first team and now All Region first team!!!
±á´Ç´Ú´Ú:ĚýCrenshaw, Mizzou softball's catcher, was a bright spot on a pretty rough season for that program. She batted .361 this season with 14 homers and 26 stolen bases, plus caught nine runners stealing. That's some great development!
´Üľ±±č±č˛â:ĚýWhat will it take for Mizzou to get serious about baseball? In the SEC it's kind of a big deal.
±á´Ç´Ú´Ú:ĚýMoney. Pure and simple. Look at the stadiums and rosters around the rest of the SEC. The easiest (and really, only) way to get that is money. And a lot of it, too. It can't realistically happen all at once, either, if it's going to happen at all. I talked to Veatch about this last night at the Griggs-LaPoint Summit, and that was his explanation — it's going to be a gradual thing. They're starting with finishing the artificial turf at Taylor Stadium so it's not half turf, half grass. That's all I've seen for concrete, definitely happening plans for the stadium. Veatch hasn't publicly shared what the breakdown of rev share funds will be, so we don't know how well the roster's going to be funded.
If Mizzou had the cash to make all the changes needed for baseball to be competitive, it would have. So maybe the real answer is that more money is what's needed. Whether that's from a donor who decides to overhaul it or some other source I can't foresee, but money and investment is what rights any ship.Â
´Üľ±±č±č˛â:ĚýHow much of an impact do you expect from the departures of CY Young and the other BB coach? I always believed CY had much to do with Coach Gate's success. Thanks for chattin'
±á´Ç´Ú´Ú:ĚýRob Summers is the other coach, and he took the Cleveland State head coach job, for anyone who missed it. I'm sure there will be some impact. C.Y. was big in developing players and was the top assistant, so I have to imagine that looks/feels different. Summers was the offensive coordinator and brought in to work specifically with the centers, so that's just going to be an inherent change. It doesn't mean there's going to be a drop-off — getting Dickey Nutt back into a front-of-bench role is huge — but there will be some differences. Gates puts a lot of trust and stock in his assistants, but this is what happens with coaching staffs.
´Üľ±±č±č˛â:ĚýIt's way too early, BUT...Which football Tigers do you anticipate we'll be watching during next year's pro draft?
±á´Ç´Ú´Ú:ĚýCayden Green has the best chance of anyone right now to be a first-rounder next year. His path is a lot like Membou's, with the irony being that they were high school teammates, too. Connor Tollison seems like he's on track to be a mid-round guy. If he can stay healthy and have a great year, maybe Brett Norfleet gets some buzz. Daylan Carnell could get himself drafted with a productive season. Toriano Pride Jr. could be in the same category. That seems to be the most likely group to me.
That'll wrap up this week's off-timed chat. Thanks for coming by and sitting tight for the responses. We'll be back next week at a normal time!
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