The Morning Commute for December 25, 2024.
Welcome to the Morning Commute
Today we’re talking about Christmas. And how we hope you have a merry one!
To all of those celebrating or not celebrating today’s Christmas holiday: We hope you have a wonderful day surrounded by your given or chosen families… or both! We’re very grateful for everyone who reads all of our musings and thoughts on all things Mizzou sports, and we hope you’ve enjoyed our company as much as we enjoy yours.
On behalf of the Rock M staff: Merry Christmas!
Yesterday at Rock M and Rock M+
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.
I like adding players who have already been good vs. those who may be good at some point.
I imagine this game is going to bother Dennis Gates and his staff for a while. They didn’t play great, but they played well enough. Illinois didn’t play great either. I think both teams really deserve a lot of credit for forcing the other team to do things they didn’t really want to do. It was a grind. My main takeaway from watching is that both Illinois and Missouri are good basketball teams. But for Illinois the math was just slightly better than for the Tigers.
It’s going to bother me for a while too.
[Johnson] was tied for first in the country in sacks among true freshmen in 2023, and had a dip in production in 2024 which was mostly due to less usage than the previous year from an injury he suffered against East Carolina. He dropped in pass rush snaps from 234 to 123, yet still had four sacks. If we look at his production from a rate standpoint he had 0.03 sacks per snap in 2024 and 0.03 sacks per snap in 2023, so the reality is his total production dropped but he stayed virtually the same player.
You mean Mizzou is getting a really productive pass rusher? I’m sold!
With the addition of Pribula, who despite his back-up status, was largely coveted by numerous big-time programs, as well as the other portal hauls, the Tigers suddenly have put themselves in position to be relevant for the playoff chase in 2025. I didn’t feel that prior to this past week, but I do now and we’ve got the transfer portal – as maddening as it can be at times – to thank for that.
Funny how having a QB in place makes things feel better.
- Over at Rock M+, we’re talking about some holiday transfer visitors and Beau Pribula’s reported NIL deal:
Paying $1.5million for a starting level QB seems like a good deal now! With Missouri being at the forefront for NIL advancement, but also with much of the upper levels of CFB catching up, I wonder how that is going to impact the Tigers going forward. As these prices go up, where is the limit for a school like Mizzou which has historically not had the deepest pockets?
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