I'm happy EZE didn't commit to MU today. The last thing we need is to land a kid from the mid-top tier to placate our fans, who would pronounce this class (with our without Ezekiel) as anything other than what it is: a complete disaster. Pinkel has got to be the luckiest talentless coach in history, stumbling relatively early into the spread offense, and finding three main "diamonds in the rough" in Daniel, Weatherspoon, and W. Moore (admittedly, among others). He's a terrible in-game coach, his recruiting blows, and he seems to care more about how he's perceived than about how the program is. He needs to be gone, yesterday, and if signing the SEC equivalent of The Little Giants helps accelerate that process, all the better. Hell, this class doesn't even have it's "Icebox", Ezekiel, so maybe that analogy isn't fair to TLG.

He's going to have to have a big year in '13, or I believe he will "retire" or "take a temporary leave" from coaching.

I'm honestly waiting for one of our recruits to show up at a Freshman talent show and blow bubbles through his nose. It's that bad.




http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-OZ2U4UozIB..._178425_n.jpeg

HE !@#$ING CRIED WHEN ASKED ABOUT MIZZOU!

He said he's a Tiger for life at the presser where he was announcing his decision to go elsewhere.

Did Ford shit on his couch? Kill his !@#$ing dog? How in Christ did we lose this kid?

Mother **** You, Gary Pinkel. I wonder how much a goddamn banner would cost in Columbia.

This is Otto Porter Redux. IIRC, Ezekiel's dad went to Mizzou, yet wore tOSU colors to the announcement, and likely helped EZE in this process. Either the Elliotts didn't feel that Pinkel was a good coach, or they felt that his job was in imminent jeopardy (or both). It's pretty telling, regardless.

ROFL

I believe both of his parents are Mizzou grads.

Mom ran track there, dad played ball.

**** you, Gary.

I have a feeling this will be Pinkel's last year. The boosters I know in Jefferson City have said he has one foot out the door and knowing the bank they work at ie Offical Checking of Mizzou athletics, I trust their opinion on the matter.

I wonder who Mizzou would go after though? Paul Rhoads? Bobby Petrino? Willie Taggert? Kirby Smart?

It's official: This recruiting class if officially the next-to-last nail in Pinkel's coffin. 1-5 in the past two days on key targets.

Small and thin and missing premium talent. They lost Ezekiel Elliott early because Urban Meyer was recruiting him harder than Cornell Ford (who thought he was all set/easy because of the connection).

Brian Jones and Alex Grinch are COLOSSAL fuckING DISASTERS in year 1 in Georgia/Florida. ONE recruit from there, combined, between the two of them. Way to lay the groundwork in the new recruiting area, guys.

Bruce Walker is off getting drunk somewhere, apparently, and then making eTrade moves (he's independently wealthy, you know?).

Meanwhile, Pinkel gets on and talks about the program and process and etc. while shitting the bed.

Unless Maty Mauk is Johnny Manziel, I see no way they win more than 6 games this season. And honestly, I would PREFER they miss a bowl so they have to cut ties with Pinkel. It's clear he has done all he can and is now at the point he's hurting the program.



Pinkel did a lot of great things at Mizzou. But he has failed on a colossal level when it comes to adjusting to the new challenge. His coaching staff is filled with "loyal" guys who couldn't recruit a cheetah to hunt antelope.

Your coach shit the bed at Notre Dame, got put on the bench at Florida in recruiting because he scared off recruits with his terrible BO and asshole attitude, and is resorting to signing almost exclusively JUCOs.

I'm sure that's going to work out for you...

Petrino will never happen. The same family that ran him off at Arky is a big booster at Mizzou.

I highly doubt Alden will hire someone who hasn't been a head coach before, so Smart is out.

Taggert is on the list. So is Rhoads (who is very MEH to me). I know that as of last fall, Kyle Whittingham of Utah was his top guy.

Whatever happens, he needs to empower the next head football coach to hire the best staff possible (and that doesn't mean "the same dudes that have been hanging around you for the past 15 years because no one else wants them")

Wait.

So hiring the coach's nephew from Wyoming isn't a good way to build a pipeline in the !@#$ing southeast?

**** - hire Nkemdiche's goddamn father to coach safeties, at least then we'd have gotten a single decent recruit out of there and could he really have done that bad a job coaching kids up compared to the Grinch?

Fire everyone.

Given the level of previous success, I can't imagine a worse year for Missouri recruiting. It's pathetic. It's not about losing Elliot, that's one sin of dozens. It's about losing multiple **** players, losing easy gets due to laziness, and a general culture of apathy and incompetence.

Pinkel isn't just leaving after a bad season; he's actively dismantling the program.

We finished far behind ****ing Kentucky. 2-10 Kentucky, whose new coach had about two months to recruit and washed out after failing historically at Arizona.

Washington ****ing State beat us in the rankings. Think about that for a minute.

As bad as it is, at least we can always fall back on the old standard of "At least we're not Kansas".

They actually beat us in the Rivals Rankings.

One final thing:

This goes for about 50 threads, but few things are more pathetic than ignorant, homeristic mother****ers who pollute threads with fallacious appeals to authority during the smoke and mirrors phase of regimes (See: Pioli, Scott; Haith, Frank; Cassel, Matt; Pinkel, Gary) then vanish like ripped ass through a jet engine when the frauds are shown for who they really are.

It's part of the torture of being a sports fan on a message board. Dumbasses come in en masse to support the team without a ****ing scintilla of a clue, and yet don't come back when it's time to lick the shit off their boots.

I've long been a Pinkel supporter because I viewed him as far from elite, but an above-average coach, someone who had legitimately put together a program in every sense of the term.

However, the last twelve months, at least, have been an enormous cluster ****, and I have to believe that the stability and viability of the program (read: lack thereof) directly reflect the shit show happening in Pinkel's personal life.

He's earned the right, in my view, to try to get the water out of the boat, but he looks desperate, tired, and his bucket appears too ****ing small.

Now imagine he's in a cigarette boat race, and not only does he have to worry his boat, but he's competing against guys with 600-hp outboard motors... the most skilled drivers with the fastest machines available. Meanwhile, he's just trying not to sink.

Pinkel is just a guy. He's an average NCAA coach who had some aberrational success after he lucked into some tremendously underrated players and feasted on a famished BXII North.

Everything that he brings to the table is eminently replaceable. There's no reason why Missouri can't hire an elite recruiter. If you can get a #5 class at Ole Miss, you can do it at Missouri.

LMAO. Unfortunately, probably accurate.

While I think he's very replaceable at this point, it's not fair to ascribe a representable track record of success to luck.

He built a program, and now it's probably time to turn it over to someone else before he also tears it down.

I just question how much of that program was actually built by Pinkel, or if he was a guy who was there during some fortunate times that also coincided with large money donations and a few recruiting oil strikes. It's a bit of a chicken-or-the-egg argument, but given Pinkel's rank incompetence as a gameday coach and his consistently blah recruiting, I'm reluctant to give him much credit at all.

The disclaimer is my obvious loathing of his professional ability.

Please, somebody, tell me there is hope for the future. I do not want my school to forever be butt buddies with Vandy at the bottom.

At least give me a likely candidate for HC once Pinkel goes 4-8 and is shit canned or somebody you would like to see here coaching. Is there an attractive coordinator looking to make a name for himself somewhere on Alabama's staff?

Vandy? The bottom? Not in today's SEC. James Franklin has made Vandy into a way stronger program than Mizzou currently is with better academics to boot.

Gary Pinkel approached the stage around 4 p.m. Wednesday, ready to discuss the future.
It was time for his annual Signing Day news conference, his first chance to talk about Missouri’s newest football recruits. But from the outset, most in attendance were staring into their cell phones, waiting to see where Ezekiel Elliott, the state’s top prospect 120 miles down the road, had decided to sign.
Elliott, a speedy, consensus four-star running back from John Burroughs School in St. Louis, was announcing his choice between Ohio State and Missouri at the same time as Pinkel’s news conference. The son of two former Missouri athletes, Elliott took a recent visit to Missouri that seemingly opened the door for the Tigers.
But Elliott decided to stick with his previous oral commitment to Ohio State, effectively locking up Missouri’s spot at or near the bottom of several recruiting services’ Southeastern Conference rankings.
Not that Pinkel — whose team went 5-7 last season, its first in the SEC — puts any stock in those things, anyway.
“I’ve never ever looked at a ranking since I’ve been coaching,” Pinkel said. “Our evaluation system has proven overall it works. We believe in it, and just leave it at that.”
For the next hour or so, that was the refrain from Pinkel and his assistants at Mizzou Arena’s Clinton Club. They do their own evaluations of players, they maintained, and lauded or not, this was a class to like and be grateful for.
Jeremy Crabtree, ESPN’s senior coordinator of recruiting, says there’s some truth to this. ESPN ranks Missouri’s class 38th nationally.
“While it’s exciting to see them have a top-40 class nationally, it’s also quite sobering to realize that’s how competitive things are in the SEC,” Crabtree said.
No doubt. Despite its decent overall ranking, Missouri’s class — according to ESPN — ranked last in the SEC, which had six teams finish in the top 10 nationally, with Missouri (38th), Kentucky (36th) and Arkansas (31st) among those rounding out the pack. Rivals.com listed Missouri’s class at No. 49 in the country, also last in the SEC, with Arkansas being the next closest team at No. 31 overall.
“The SEC is all about winning and you have to be able to sell that,” Crabtree said. “Missouri didn’t produce the type of season they wanted on the field, and that makes it a lot more difficult to recruit against some of the teams in their same conference.”
But Crabtree likes some of the players in this year’s class, particularly in-state. Fort Zumwalt South star Chase Abbington possesses the size (6 feet 2, 205 pounds) and speed to be an impact running back. Crabtree calls three-star Rockwood Summit linebacker Eric Beisel “a hard-nosed throwback,” and he also raved about Hogan Prep star Anthony Sherrils, who projects as a cornerback.
“If you put him in Dallas, Houston or Atlanta, instead of having a handful of offers he would have had 20-30,” Crabtree said of Sherrils. “He’s a heck of a player. Give credit to (MU assistant) Andy Hill for keeping him home.”
Missouri also landed three more players from the Kansas City area in Staley quarterback Trent Hosick, Blue Valley offensive lineman Clay Rhodes and defensive end Charles Harris from Lincoln Prep.
“Certainly, Kansas City is real important to us,” Pinkel said. “Kansas City has been very good to us.”
Missouri also landed one player each from new recruiting territories like Georgia (quarterback Eddie Printz), Alabama (safety Shaun Rupert) and Florida (defensive lineman Nate Crawford).
Pinkel hopes to see more players from those states come to Missouri in the future, though he added it will take time. Crabtree agreed, adding that this year’s recruiting haul — while not lauded like others — was at least a step in the right direction.
“We saw them go into Florida, Georgia, Alabama, and to be successful, they’re going to have to grow and be more competitive in those states,” Crabtree said. “That’s easier said than done, but the good news is we’ve seen some positive returns so far.
“The Tigers’ coaches and the Mizzou brand is recognized as an SEC program, and coaches will get more comfortable sending kids there because of familiarity. To a high school coach in Florida, Missouri is still a new phenomenon. But that’s something that could get better over time.”

Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/2013/02/07...#storylink=cpy

Pinkel's claims they don't care about rankings is b.s.

They threw around "nation's No. 1 recruit" like crazy with DGB. And I heard through the grapevine there were some complaints voiced about Rivals' criminal underranking of Duron Singleton.

Though I understand that. Rivals ranked Singleton as a 5.2 **. Which, from watching his film, is just silly. If you take 10 minutes to watch his film, you see at least a *** talent, and I'd slot him ****.

Rivals in general in slipping in terms of national rankings, anyway. They've lost a lot of guys to 247sports, which seems to eschew the team site model (that puts a lot of money into publisher's pockets) and instead just do rankings and throw all the money at national analysts.

PowerMizzou is still the best Missouri site... but Rivals is not the authority it was when it comes to football rankings like it was when I joined in 2005.

Looking at rankings for an individual player is pointless IMO. They are going to miss one some and hit on others. I like to use the rankings more from a macro POV. #48 and last in the SEC type classes will consistently have us finishing at or near the bottom of the league. It just isn't good enough. It's not even close. And unfortunately it's not that far off from what he's usually accomplished in terms of recruiting.

I think Pinkel's done. This is the 3rd underwhelming class in a row. I think the staff does a pretty doggone good job of identifying talent but is mediocre at recruiting it. He had two opportunities with the SEC in mind to upgrade the staff the past yr and he promoted a lapdog in one instance and hired his nephew in the other. That is inexcusable and those decisions along w/ allowing our oline and dt to be as depleted as it is is as much a reason I am done w/ him as any other.

He's done a lot for MU and I appreciate it but it's over. I understand why they gave him another season but if he's not wacked after what I expect to be another underwhelming 6-6ish type of season then I'll be furious as I'm sure many will be.

HE said MU had to step up. HE hasn't held up his end of the bargain. The proof isn't so much in the pudding of on field results as it is in how he's handled his staff.

Contrast that w/ the way Arkansas' has aggressively gone after coaching talent from HC on down to the very bottom of that staff. Whether or not it works out it won't be for lack of effort.

I think there's a lot of truth to this but it doesn't take away that he's put some pretty good teams on the field.

It's just over. He's had his run. He's just banking checks at this point and doesn't seem to have the fire. It just feels like to me he's hanging on as long as he can to get as much out of it as possible before hitting the road.

I think Alden's reticent to replace him. It wouldn't surprise me if he's here another season after next with a 6-6 type of effort.

Pinkel puts guys in the league, and will continue to do so (including this year). I have no issue with replacing him with a high profile coach, but I wouldn't make a change just to make a change.

Losing the OL to ISU was the biggest problem I had with this class. The players we got appear to be solid.

Pretty much where I am. Pinkel has done a lot of good things for Mizzou but has run his course.

I don't think Alden will be reticent to replace him - at all - if they miss a bowl game again this year. So... rooting for 5-7/4-8 is the way to go if you're on that mindset.

If he hits 6-6/7-5, Pinkel likely is retained.

It's all about how you view it. There's some kids in the class I really like but we aren't running with KU and Iowa State any longer. "solid" in this case is bottom of the barrel for our new league. Rivals has KU's class rated 4 spots higher. That should tell you something. Whether there's is actually better than ours or not isn't relevant. What is scary is that they're even in the conversation.

The staff has been good enough over the yrs that I give them the benefit of the doubt on any unheralded guys they go out and find during the heart of the yr that they offer and clearly want. The most disturbing thing to me this yr is it seemed like we made more late desperate offers to warm bodies than in the past. The kid from Lincoln Prep that thought he might end up at a Mowest type of school prior to Monday night is the most glaring example. Hopefully they pan out. Most of the time they don't.

There isn't near the talent on the roster now as just a couple years ago and it seems to continue sliding in the wrong direction. I am making that statement looking at the on field product and not just the recruiting rankings.



Looking at next season the scariest thing to me is thinking about how the defense shapes up. We are bereft of interior line talent and don't have near the depth of de talent that we had even last season let alone two years ago. Outside of EJ our secondary is very blah. I am concerned what was a bad unit could be absolutely atrocious offsetting whatever improvement the offense makes.

I don't really know what I'm rooting for, definitely not another middling 6-6/7-5 season that gets him retained.

I like Pinkel overall and appreciate what he's done so really I hope he can turn it around - I just don't see it as likely. I do see 6 or 7 wins as very possible.

4 or 5 wins and regime change is for the best if the alternative is that.

Given Missouri's population, metropolitan centers, donor base, and lack of DI schools in-state it is absolutely criminal that the football team has had as little success as it has.

MU has won a Big XII-II-II+II conference game more recently than ku.

Rivals reranked that juco safety we got late. MU's class is now #39 in the country. Still dead last in the SEC. It is also more in line w/ where the other recruiting services have the Tigers so it is probably a more accurate reflection of the class' strength. Doesn't materially change anything but thought I'd mention it.

It is amazing that the entire SEC is top 40. That is impressive.

I just looked at the offers for next year. It looks like there are three massive OL in the St. Louis area, including two who are 4* players and another from Olathe South who is a high 4/borderline 5*.

Any ideas how Missouri stands with them?

Let's see, that'd be Roderick Johnson, Andy Bauer, and Brian Wallace from the Stl side and Braden Smith from Olathe. Mizzou has apparently already offered all of them. We need as many of these guys as we can get desperately. Bauer was committed for awhile last yr and then decommitted. I would guess it's us or Bama for him. I think they're in good shape with Wallace, perhaps very good shape, just based on internet scuttlebutt. As for Johnson, something tells me that's going to be a battle as well but it's early.

To my knowledge we have one commitment for next yr's class, a tb from Stl named markel Smith.

Andy Bauer - Loves Mizzou and committed early because of it. Was scared a bit by the struggles in Year 1 in the SEC. Doesn't want to play for a dormat. Apparently is really close to his family, which is why he is likely to stay at home if he feels like Missouri will win at a decent level.

Roderick Johnson. Huge, prototypical LT type. Problems: He's from the suburban north, where Mizzou has struggled. Also, Ohio State has already offered.

Braden Smith - They were in on him early, but recent rumblings are that he wants to go away for school. He's a physical freak of nature whose football ability probably hasn't caught up with his athleticism (He's a 5-star athlete, 3-star player right now). He's pretty good friends with Clay Rhodes, which is Missouri's best shot.

Brian Wallace - I really don't know anything about this kid other than he has an offer and he goes to CBC. Not quite the same level recruit as the others (All of whom are national, top 100 types), but still a high D-1 player.

There's also a kid from the Kirksville area, I forget his name, who is likely to get an offer. Big OL type. (EDIT: THis is Jackson Morrison, from Maryville)

It's a VERY rare class for elite line talent in the state of Missouri. Josh Henson needs to make some hay.

Another big guy to watch is Peyton Newell, a DT from the KS side of the KC metro. Missouri has been on him for quite a while and is in pretty good shape. Probably a top 250 type.

Also on the KS side... RB Traevohn Wrench from Gardern-Edgerton is going to be a big-time recruit as well.

There's a kid in Maryville that's a good Oline prospect too that they will end up offering. Might be thinking of 2015 though...can't remember his name. I'll try and look it up later.

Jackson Morrison, I think.

He's a 2014 kid. I was thinking he was a Kirksville-area guy in my previous post.

I cringe everytime I see this thread bumped.

As it turns out, merely informative and useful bumps. I'm sure the next one will have DGB thrown off the team or Henry Josey having his leg amputated.

!@#$ing Tigers...

Not a college football fan whatsoever, but what kind of year did that freshman receiver have for you guys?

Wasn't he #1 WR and top 5 overall?

28 catches (12 percent of team total)
395 yards (15 percent of team total)
5 TDs (33 percent of team total)

He actually had about the type of year, percentage-wise, that I expected him to have. The Missouri passing attack was just much less potent than expected due to the injuries and inconsistent play at QB.

I had him predicted at about 40-50 catches, 500 yards and 8 tds entering the season. If Missouri's passing game produces at its average numbers over the previous 3 years under Yost, he is right at that mark.

What do you think our offense will look like next year? I know we'll still be a spread team, but do you think it will it look any different?
Posted via Mobile Device

It's hard to say for sure.

It sounds like Henson will further change the blocking schemes. I know he brought in a lot of concepts on zone blocking, narrower splits, and the Gs putting a hand on the ground. I'd imagine the OL will be asked to play a little tougher and more physically under Henson.

I also imagine we'll see a little more emphasis on the running game.

What I'd like to see?

1) More misdirection in the run game. Essential for running out of the spread vs. elite Ds
2) More formation experimentation (though Yost did quite a lot of this, actually). I'd like to see the two back set utilized more, even with a mobile QB. It also sounds like they will have a more multiple approach (which I know will please many).
3) Less effort on spreading horizontally and more effort on spreading both directions. Christensen and Yost both ran a ton of passing plays to the sidelines/flats. This worked quite well against overwhelmed defenses and not very well against good and fast ones. The middle MUST be attacked more, and routes need to work farther downfield, too.

They need to be more multiple. The spreads a good system for MU but not the way they were running it. I wouldn't mind one bit if they were running something Clemsonesque for example.

That's him! Makes sense I was racking my brain about who the heck the Kirksville kid was.

DGB's younger brother Darnell committed to Mizzou today. No idea how good he is.

Per PowerMizzou.com

What position does he play? WR too?

Yes. He was very ill with some disease, not sure what. Apparently he's made a full recovery.

I was wondering if he was just a package deal to get DGB but IDK anything about him. Hopefully he can play.

From what I understood from some Springfield folks, he was supposedly going to end up being a better athlete than his brother before his diagnosis.

How much do you think DGB regrets committing to Mizzou now?

Before Arkansas' latest offseason? Not much. Now? Immensely.

I feel almost bad for the guy. What a shit show MU has become. My only hope for any success this season is that the SEC teams think of us as a cupcake and forget to try or prepare.

Stage 2 leukemia.

Pinkel news conference today...

GUSHING about Maty Mauk. Talking about his arm strength, overall skill set, etc.

Pretty clear Pinkel wants Mauk to win the job, IMO.

Also... after the mojo I brought with starting this thread, I think someone else should do it for the upcoming season.

Should be someone who can dedicate the annoyance and self-loathing appropriate right now. Perhaps HAMAS?

maty mauk is his only ****ing chance at staying beyond next year. if he blows the **** up, maybe we'll ****ing do something next year. I have so little optimism that I'm less than 50/50 on buying season tix next year (student rate is dirt cheap and I generally make a profit, but it's depressing watching them most of the time)

Better show some adaptability and get away from those wide splits or whoever is taking snaps is getting killed because of slow-developing plans.

Hansbrough and Steward running 4.3's. Josey running a 4.4 and should be full go in spring camp.

Henson convinced them to narrow the splits some when he joined the staff. I would be he wants to narrow them even more. The oSu style uses much less extreme splits, if I remember correctly, and that's where his legacy lies.

I'm sure if Hansbrough and Steward were timed in that range, it was the high 4.3s (4.39/4.38) rather than the low ones.

They kept talking about Maclin running a 4.26 at Mizzou, and I think he ran a 4.4 flat at the combine.

If Steward is really moving that quickly, that's going to be a nice combo, with his size...

I'd be great with this.

Hey guys - remember when I joked that folks probably shouldn't even read this thread when it's bumped because it's always bad news?

Yeah. Just close the thread now and you'll be happier.

Andy Bauer has committed to Ole Miss.

We suck at everything.

:(

There is no ****ing way Freeze is that good of a recruiter. No ****ing way.

Seems different.

that endzone is just uglier than shit IMO.