The Morning Commute for January 6, 2025.
Welcome to the Morning Commute
Today we’re talking about the secondary. And how it’s about to look very different.
On Sunday, Mizzou landed one of the more surprising transfer commitments of the offseason thus far — UNLV’s Jalen Catalon.
Does that name sound familiar? It should! Catalon was a First Team All-SEC selection by the Associated Press in his redshirt freshman season… all the way back in 2020! Yes, due to the COVID year and some injuries, Catalon is entering his seventh season of eligibility, and he’ll spend it in Columbia. Catalon has a whopping 10 interceptions to his name in his college career, five of which he nabbed in this last season under Barry Odom at UNLV. He was named a Third Team All-American and returns to the Power Two to close out his college career.
The thing is this: It would be one thing if Mizzou was adding a high-end safety to its existing corps, which already includes a returning Daylan Carnell and, from what we’re aware, Dreyden Norwood, Toriano Pride, Marvin Burks, etc. But this is the fourth secondary addition Mizzou has made this offseason, including Santana Banner, Mose Phillips and Santana Hall, who signed up for the Tigers mere hours before Catalon was announced.
We’ll have more from Nathan Hurst later this week on what the new secondary could look like. But for now, let’s marvel at the fact that Eli Drinkwitz has once again put Mizzou in a strong position to succeed through his prowess in the portal.
Yesterday at Rock M and Rock M+
Welcome to a new weekly column at Rock M Nation, “Olympic Sports Catch Up.” As the Olympic sports manager at this beautiful little website, I lead a team of talented and passionate writers who have a special interest in non-revenue sports at Missouri. Because football & men’s basketball rule the pages of Rock M in terms of readership, I thought I’d try to draw some extra eyeballs over to my side of the internet and the sports that are consuming us these days.
Please check this feature out when you get the chance! Learn about all the wonderful stuff happening at Mizzou not on the gridiron or hardwood!
“We had way too many empty possessions we had in that first half,” Head coach Robin Pingeton said. “And winning is hard in the SEC. Winning on the road is really, really hard. Ball security is a huge point of emphasis…you don’t give yourself a chance in those situations.”
Mizzou will continue its search for a first SEC win on Thursday.
“We talked about core value number four is, “Enjoy the journey,” and it’s been a hell of a journey,” Drinkwitz said.
Here’s to another journey for the next five years!
Catalon has bounced around since starting his college career at Arkansas in 2019. He spent fours seasons in Fayetteville before transferring to Texas in 2023, where he appeared in eight games for the Longhorns. He then took his talent to Sin City, where he starred for the Rebels this past season.
Yes, that Jalen Catalon. The one that was an All-SEC safety for Arkansas all those years ago!
Since the 2017-18 season (once Bruce Pearl got that thing going) the Auburn Tigers have played 64 conference games in Neville Arena and lost only 12 times (81% win rate). They’ve won by double digits 34 times (53% of total games and 65% of wins) and by 15 or more 21 times. One out of every three games is a blowout, 40% of Auburn’s home conference wins are blowouts.
Hmmmm… maybe that had something to do with it.
- Over at Rock M+, we’re keeping up with the transfer visitors traipsing through Columbia and discussing the reasoning for outgoing transfers, few as they may be right now.
Subscribe to Rock M Radio on Apple Podcasts. Or stream episodes through Megaphone or Spotify. Have a question for us? Leave a 5-star review with your question and that show just might answer it in an upcoming episode!
If you like Rock M Radio drop us a Review and be sure to subscribe on your preferred podcasting platform. Follow @RockMRadio on Twitter and if you heaven’t already head over to our YouTube channel and click that subscribe button!
(** RockMNation has affiliate partnerships. These do not influence editorial content, though RockMNation may earn commissions for products purchased via affiliate links.**)