For the first time in the transfer portal era, Mizzou regrettably had a wave of talented prospects leave the team. What does this say about Drinkwitz’s approach to roster building?
The transfer portal has been very kind to Eli Drinkwitz as he has built his Missouri Tigers program over the past half-decade. Actually, we can give him and his staff more credit than that: they have been masterful at using the portal. Overall, the team is running a major profit in terms of impact players added compared to lost.
They have stockpiled leaders and culture builders like Theo Wease and Kristian Williams. They have grabbed short-term fixes at positions of need like Nate Noel, Marcus Bryant, and Corey Flagg. They have added multi-year building blocks like Chris McClellan, Cayden Green, Joseph Charleston, Ty’Ron Hopper, and Dreyden Norwood, and more. They have snagged critical depth pieces like Sydney Williams, Tre’Vez Johnson, Marcellus Johnson, Josh Landry, and others. They have scouted and “promoted” to the SEC small-school gems like Cody Schrader, Cam’Ron Johnson, Nyles Gaddy, Marcus Carroll, and Khalil Jacobs.
With all of these impactful additions, it is easy to forget how few impact prospects — players the staff would strongly desire to keep, but could not — had left Mizzou. Until this offseason, the Tigers had only lost two young players they would have kept as big-time contributors (Dominic Lovett and Mekhi Wingo). Unfortunately, this year changed that trend, as four of the crown jewels of last year’s high school recruiting class are now headed elsewhere.
So what gives? Is Mizzou’s NIL in shambles, unable to pay players? Portal additions indicate otherwise. Has the staff decided all four of these prospects — RB Kewan Lacey, WR Courtney Crutchfield, and DEs Jaylen Brown and Williams Nwaneri — were evaluation whiffs, and do not have a future in the SEC? No, that is not what is happening. Were they considered bad culture fits, and allowed to walk? Unlikely in most cases.
Eli and his staff have decided to take an approach to roster construction that is not going to involve giving massive NIL paydays — or at least pay raises — to players who have not yet proven to be contributors. In simple terms, “Production over potential.” Drinkwitz said this exact phrase during a press conference last week, and this mantra is on display with both the types of players they have added as well as the ones they have lost.
We can’t know what motivated each departing player, and probably will never have much insight into the staff’s internal evaluations of each. It would be tacky to speculate too heavily about NIL negotiations: perhaps Crutchfield wanted to be closer to home, for instance, or Brown, a less-crowded depth chart.
But we can read between the lines on trends, and listen to Eli’s own words. There is little love from college football coaches to give NIL raises to players who have not yet proven to be productive, even if they are overflowing with potential. In using that phrase, Drinkwitz was parroting Indiana’s Curt Cignetti, who has won at all levels and built his Hoosiers team this offseason with the same philosophy. His school committed to growing a healthy NIL budget this year, and Cignetti used it to build a team of veterans who had produced at their prior stop. He then molded them together to build a winning team, and his squad made the playoffs and were one of the best stories in the country.
Running backs coach Curtis Luper will sleep better tonight knowing he has a 200-carry true sophomore running back, and not a 20-carry one. The fans might not sleep so easily. Watching Lacy, Crutchfield, and Brown contribute to SEC peer programs is going to sting, and losing Nwaneri to an old Big 8 rival in Nebraska was both predictable yet painful. The staff will have to make tough, calculated decisions around NIL budgets, depth charts, projected development, and clubhouse chemistry. As fans, we won’t have the full insight, and the losses will sting, as the staff shapes this new strategy.
Dispatching NIL funds to lure players to sign is part of the game now — that will not go away. Missouri will still need to be invested in having a healthy enough operation to sign both competitive recruiting classes as well as swim with the big kids in the deep end of the transfer portal pool. But when it comes to renegotiating deals, Drinkwitz told us what kind of player he is going to prioritize for his roster.