The Morning Commute for Wednesday, August 7
Welcome to the Morning Commute
Today we’re talking about injury reports. Rumors flew yesterday that the Southeastern Conference was close to announcing a mandatory injury reporting system for league schools, and said system would be ratified as early as next week by league athletic directors – all in time to be implemented for the 2024 season.
If the reports hold true, the league will shortly announce a uniform system for teams to report out their weekly injuries and the estimated status of each player for the upcoming game: questionable or out. It’s not known how descriptive the injury updates will be, but I’m thinking it’ll resemble hockey (upper body, lower body) more than the NFL, which gets very specific (ankle, knee, ribs, etc.).
Regardless, this will be a very interesting move to see how coaches handle the mandate. Gotta love coaches, but man they are a paranoid lot in general when it comes to information getting out about their team. Coach Pinkel was one of the more forthcoming coaches in providing injury information in his day (for the most part, there were some special circumstances where it made sense to be sly), and I remember that he was always in favor of a uniform reporting system so that everyone was playing by the same informational rules.
When we ran up against a school that was ultra tight-lipped about injuries (looking at you, K-State), we still gave our weekly updates but didn’t worry about being as comprehensive as normal. I also remember that my PR counterpart at Colorado had fun with the injury reports the week when they played Kansas State – they would list fake names in their weekly injury reports like Daffy Duck (shot in the butt by Elmer Fudd) or Wile E. Coyote (anvil fell on head) to make fun of the Wildcats’ secrecy tendencies.
Either way, this will be interesting to see play out as a mostly minor side-story in a year chock full of major changes for the world of college football.
Yesterday at Rock M and Rock M+
At No. 11, this is Mizzou’s highest preseason ranking in the coaches’ poll since 2008 where they were ranked No. 7.
For the glass-half-empty crowd, as Quentin Corpuel pointed out in this tweet, Mizzou would be left out of the CFP playoff due to the Big 12 champ in this scenario (Utah based on having the highest ranking at this point) jumping over the Tigers, and the G5 also getting one team in the mix, despite being ranked well below Mizzou. That would be a bummer, but we’ll see how it plays out before writing any strongly-worded letters to the internet.
On the heels of a top-five class, the Tigers look poised for a slimmer group where the blend of talent might take precedence.
This was a very informative dive not only into Coach Gates’ past high school results, but also who the primary remaining targets are, as well as a look at the upcoming season’s depth at each spot on the floor.
- Over at Rock M+, we’re talking about Mizzou’s #11 ranking in the Coaches’ Poll and a little about Ole Miss becoming a darling with the football pundits, as they came in at a lofty No. 6 in the same top-25 poll.
DataMizzou – I’m always intrigued by Lane (Kiffen). Win or loss it’s gonna be a riot.
The Rebels were the undisputed winners of the off-season this year, as they hit the transfer portal hard and loaded up on enough high-level talent that most everyone has them as a favorite to make the CFP.
Rock M Radio: Smart-Type Football Talk
Hey, football camp is in full swing, and the 2024 season opener is only three weeks away! If you haven’t already done so, you’d be wise to get your mind right and check out the N&N (Nate & Nathan) podcast above that featured a great season preview with SEC Mike!
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