⚡ CFB Dashboard

Podcast: Missouri at The Voice of College Football Episode: SPRING PRACTICE UPDATES / MISSOURI TIGERS LIVE 64 Transcript: Oh, we are live. We are live. Don't mind me folks. We are just making sure everything looks good. We know how this works. You guys have been around. >> Just making sure everything looks good. We know how this works. >> All righty. Oh, baby. Alrighty. I think enough time has passed. Welcome to Missouri Tigers Live. My name is Zach Millius. I am here as always in my well apartment uh to talk about Missou Tigers football. We're also going to touch on basketball and we're going to touch on look we're going to give some props to uh to uh to the baseball team too. So sit in sit down. Welcome in. Have a little snack. Uh we're going to be here for a little bit. Uh that's the wrong remote. Let me mute the conference title games. because it's a little loud. Oh, my head. Anyway, alrighty. Welcome to the Voice of College Football Missouri. I am Zach Romelius here. Uh, you can follow me on Twitter at PsychoZ50. Again, I want to thank Mark. Please subscribe to Mark Rogers TV, the voice of college football. Mark does an unbelievable job of uh, you know, coast to coast uh, covering this sport that that he loves. I love everyone that that uh you know, everyone that uh that's here. Um loves this silly sport that we're you know, I I I know there's that stuff going on in Congress right now. I'm kind of of the opinion that we when something comes of it, we'll talk about it. Uh I am going to post the link to the website in our comment section. Um, guys, hit the hit the thing. Take a look at it. I I remember when I started at this this network before the 2021 season. It was Bryce Young's first year as a starter at Alabama. It's been a while. Um, and I just remember, you know, it was still a lot of fun, still great, but how far this place has come. And now, if you go to the website, you can go to our shop. Um, you can see our shows, who hosts what shows, what shows we have, and what times. They still got to fix my my show doesn't go on it. Doesn't go out at 6, but you can see who hosts the different shows. The Georgia, Auburn, Notre Dame, Michigan, Alabama. Um, you know, we have an SEC show. We have a couple Alabama people. We got Missouri, Virginia Tech, Texas A&M. We've got people Michigan, Tennessee, you name it, we got it. And if there is a a school that you want to talk about, talk to Mark and I'm sure we'll we'll he can figure something out for you. Um, but subscribe to Mark at the Voice of College Football. And then guys, most of all, like and subscribe. I need to do a better job promoting. We're going to do a better job promoting as this summer uh rolls around and we get more into closer to the season type. you know, we still got a few weeks before it's even time to to start doing previews. We'll do 12 weeks of previews like we did last year. That's three months, but that takes us to May. So, we still got a couple months and you might I might move in that time. So, um we'll see how everything goes. But we are first and here most to talk about Missouri Tigers football. And that's why we're going to talk about spring practice. practices underway. Look, I'm not going to pretend that a lot comes out of spring practices around this time of year. You mostly have to go to different websites to see different interviews. Um, but what I've gotten out of a lot of the the stuff you see on Power Missou, Rockm Nation, a lot of these Missou websites is they know the pass rush has got to be a thing this year. They lost. I mean, they they did Cody Goodwin over at Power Missou did a wonderful article with Maris um talking about the the pass rush and and Missou's pass rush. It was among the best in 2025 uh by Pro Football Focus. Again, not the end all be all of all this, but they were the first in the SEC of pass rush grade. They recorded 259 pressures, fourth most in the SEC behind Old Miss, Texas, and Oklahoma. Part of the reason they were so low at that list is because they played at such a snail's pace offensively. Um, and and in a lot of these games, they held the time possession marker like crazy, like the Kansas game. Um, they generated 19.9 pressures per game, which was the third best rate in the SEC. So, out of those 259 pressures that Missou had, they only returned 60. Daryus Smith had 30. Another 14 came from Langden Kitchen. They're all gone. Um, so there was a wonderful article. I'm not, you know, Power Missou is a paid service, so I'm not trying to read the read uh verbatim what they got. Um, but how good is the pass rush going to be? You have Smith, Kitchen, Gracefield, Jaylen Marshall. You got Dayton Hopkins, Dante Simpson, Jaden Jones, Malik Bryant, Sam Williams, Williams, Jason Dial, CJ May that are going to get shot. Missou does have a history of guys jumping up and being able to provide more pressure. Um, Zion Young and from 24 to 25, I didn't know he could rush the passer in 2024. I thought he was more of a run stopping Dend and that uh that choose not that showed not to be the case. Um, uh, he he was great last year, obviously parlayed potentially into being a first round pick. Um, there's the guys throughout the history of of this Missou football program since Eli's gotten here that have showed that, hey, they can they can do this. Um, and they can and they can lead a pass rush room. Uh, they need, sorry, they need to show us that they can. I mean, we've seen with Eli, you know, Christian Williams, Chris Mlen, guys take huge leaps. A lot of the times those were just welcome as some idiot drives down my street. Um, a lot of times those guys were just bonuses. That's not the case this year. like these guys have to perform if Mizu is going to have a competent pass rush uh and win football games of games maybe the offense isn't I apologize for yawning so much. Holy cow. Uh I gota send the tweet. Um another big news thing, Nick Rodriguez um is a spring captain. He's going to wear number five. Um, not, you know, the craziest like, oh my goodness, Nick Rodriguez is is uh switching numbers, but he is a captain and that's should be kind of the set. Um, he's going to take over from Zion and kind of the the the energy standpoint. And then he talked about the linebacker room and then he says you're going to see a lot of depth, a lot of talent there. Um, and yeah, I mean, it just is. I mean, then there has to be. I think that I've talked about it a bunch. I think the linebacking room at Missou is going to be pretty dang good. Um um you know there's not a lot of recruiting stuff. I mean Missou did a couple get a couple commits. Uh we'll talk about that here in a little bit. Um speaking of Maris, there was a video that that dropped of him working out and and and practicing. He's looks like he's slimmed down. He looks like he's primed for a big year. uh you know, we're not going to know until Kansas next year who's ready to make the leap, but he's really slimmed down and he looks great. So, we got you got to be excited for that. Um, you know, Cory Batoon gave another great quote and this was all over the place that look defensively this year this team is starting from ground zero. Like there's they've lost so much. We just went over what they lost in the D room. They're losing all their corners, lost most of their safety production. They bring back Nick Rodriguez and that's about it. So, when it comes to like they're starting from nothing defensively, they have to build a defense and we'll kind of see what happens there. Um, it's it's going to be hard to really preview this team. I think if you're if you're trying to if you're trying to kind of project this team, and I know t people are, you know, um you know, we're getting into that point of the year. It's March spring practices, but it's going to be impossible to really project this team because we have no idea. They have a new starting quarterback, a bunch of new receivers, a bunch of new linemen on both sides of the ball, a whole new defense. like this thing could swing pretty violently in one way or the other. This could be a five and seven team. This could be a 9 and three, 10 and2 team. We just won't know and we've got some time before we figure it out. But all we've got right now are freaking spring practices, which aren't the most amazing thing ever. um you know they aren't going to play a spring game. A lot of this is closed to the media. Again, a lot of these updates are courtesy of Power Missou and Rockm Nation. Um there's a few guys that have bulked up. Jeremiah Beasley is now listed as 66237. Um he looks that the part Um there's a lot of talk from the coaches and from the play that Jade McGregor, a safety freshman, um is definitely looks like he could play uh his first year on campus. Um a lot of this stuff, but like a lot of the things that guys have they're talking about with guys that all you can talk about is their size, their build, their strength, you know, like how they look. um you know on the field. It's it's hard to really quantify anything. Um and again, I'm not just going to read Power Missou verbatim. That's not what I'm here to do. But this is going to be a hard team to read until that Kansas game. And even after the Kansas game, look, the Kansas game this year, we're like, "Oh my god, we have a passing attack." Norfleet looks awesome. Aliday looks awesome. Kevin Coleman, who and Kevin Coleman's always been good. and then it just completely fell apart because the team didn't have a passing game and and Kirby did not have a great plan. Bo was not a good quarterback. So, it's going to take even longer than that game to really figure out what Missou has at all positions. Um, all we can talk about now is like how guys look, you know, who's starting where. And we're not going to have a lot of news about that again because Eli doesn't do spring games, which is fine. Most programs don't do spring games. Florida State just canceled their spring game. I'm not too worried about spring games and like what they mean. Um do want to say congratulations to Ahmad Hardy. He had a kid. Um you give that guy dad strength. Dear God, good luck SEC. Um um that's that's that's actually crazy that that he uh that he came back uh uh or that he uh he had a kid and and that good luck um primed for a big another big year in the Missou offensive line room. Um, let's go ahead and like I said, we'll talk about spring practice. If there's anything worth talking about, a lot of it that you see online is just like, "Oh my god, Jaden Blair looks huge." You know, Jade McGregory is getting real reps. Like, that's not news. Um, it's just hard for me personally to really talk about that stuff. Not It's not that I don't care. It's just hard to I'm not out there getting the footage. I'm not. And I'm Power Mazoo is a a pay for website. It's behind a pay wall. I'm not just trying to take everything they write and all the hard work they put in and give it to you guys. That's not what I'm about. Um I can see tweets. I can see things and and that's kind of what I've talked about like but I'm not going to like read their articles verbatim. That's just not fair to them and it's not fair to you guys. So um but spring practices are going uh we know Austin Simmons is going to be the starter quarterback. Um, and we're seeing a lot of good apparently we're seeing a lot of good things at practice, but and we're seeing guys that have definitely bulked up, but that always happens. So, um, let's actually get into some real news, uh, which is recruiting. Missou's three star lu committed to the Tigers. Uh, he's 6'5, 300 lb, uh, offensive tackle. Um, he is the 40th rated offensive tackle in the country. He Missouri beats out Louisville beats out Virginia Tech. Um Pit, Kentucky, Nebraska, Vanderville, Virginia, Florida were on his offer list. Um he is the third commit for 2027. Jabari Loftton um a a safety, another three star. And then of course uh Brilan Warren, the quarterback, um are the other two commits. Um no three no four stars, just a couple three stars so far for the Tigers. Um, but it's it's always nice to get a commit and when you're Missou at this point like yeah, it's it's not a bad thing to to become a developmental program. Um, some other guys uh that Missou is currently talking to or trying to get a good look at is Raheem Floyd. Ed Floyd is a top 150. He's 151 based on 247 from East St. Louis. Currently does not have a scheduled visit with Missouri. He's got scheduled visits with Indiana, which who can blame them. Uh Wisconsin. Uh Tennessee, Nebraska are the other schools on his radar, uh according to this article. Um yeah, I mean Missou needs to do a better job of getting elite talent onto their onto their campus. Yeah, they may transfer out. That's okay. It happens. but you need to have those guys available and to fill roles so you're not having to do potentially like this year where you're just kind of shooting it against the wall. Um the other big name from East St. Louis is M Johnson Cook. Um he is a running back. Um he's the number 74 player nationally according to 247 uh CL again class 27 East St. Louis. Um he did not visit Missouri this weekend, it looks like. Um this is a race Missou is trying to enter. He currently has visits set with Miami, Old Miss, and Auburn. Um he's probably going to go back he's it's been said he's going to go back to Miami. Um this definitely makes me feels like Miami is the leader. It's going to be tough for Missou uh to overcome, you know, the Hurricanes. That's just not a school I I expect to outreruit even for more local guys. He's a big boy. 6'2, 235 pounds. That is a ho of a running back, people. So, we'll keep an eye out. Uh Marshon Ivy is a linebacker. He's veg, he's going to visit Missou in May. Arizona State and Miami are also going to look. He's 63 215 linebacker. Uh Kieran Gubbin, he was there over the weekend. He also has a visit set with Iowa State, three star safety, number seven prospect in Missouri. Um I've already said Luell he committed um uh Jir Henry as a defensive lineman. He's Missou did make his top five with USC, Illinois, Michigan State and Miss. Um he's going to come on campus. Jordan Holman was on campus another safety. They are really hitting safety hard. Caleb Elkins another safety. Um Vanderbilt Tennessee, Oregon and Indiana's other visits. Antoine Jackson is a defensive end. Uh Brian Early I know has tweeted about him before. He's out of the Memphis area. He's got visits set with Alabama, Old Miss, Texas A&M, Tennessee, Florida, and Mississippi State. Um Amiia Ambati, uh he's a Minnesota native, another defensive lineman, 6'2, 275 pounds. Um he's going to make an official visit to Missou along with Michigan State and Minnesota. That's a group you need to, if they really want this kid, that's a group you need to out recruit. Uh Blake Benton, a linebacker from Minnesota. They're hitting Minnesota hard. Um he's got an official with Penn State and apparently that's the team that has a lot of a lot of momentum there. Uh Kaden Green's younger brother, uh Caleb Green is on campus. He's an athlete. Not really highly thought of, but that's okay. Uh some other names, Brandon Sherrod, a top 200 player, class of 2027 corner out of Texas. He's trying to set up a visit to Missouri. Um there's again this is just a lot of uh there's just a lot of three stars, a lot of guys um coming in that uh you know you don't expect to play right away, but Missou needs to become kind of a developmental program. you need guys to stay until their junior year to to ready to take up spots and if they leave then that's when you have the portal. We'll see what happens um there. But that's kind of what I wanted to get to with recruiting. Um Eli normally does a good job recruiting so I'm a little shocked about last year's status. Um I think that the transfer portal exodus has kind of rocked him a little bit. Um but we'll see. I think Eli does a magnificent job recruiting in the portal. This year will kind of be his magnumopus if Missou has a good defense this year. Um because they just lost so freaking much. Again, you're listening to the voice of college football. This is the voice of college football Missouri Tigers live. I am here every Monday. We just went over some spring practice updates, um some recruiting, um and now we're going to go around the zoo. Um, we're just going to talk a little bit about some other Missou sports that are in season. Um, we'll start with the ones not doing so great, which is what used to be the the pride and joy of Missou athletics and that is Missou softball. They are seven and 15, 0 and2 in conference and that probably going to be getting rid of. They are just struggling big time. But what I want to give props to, this is a program that I've crapped on a lot. A lot of people have. I for a long time, and I still believe this, you know, a hot 20-ish games isn't going to make me change my mind on this about them just kind of needing maybe to abolish the program. But we got to give a lot of credit to Carrick Jackson and Missouri Tigers baseball. They're 14-2. They've won what, 12 in a row? Yeah, 12 in a row after losing a game to Florida Atlantic. and they lost a game to Mount St. Mary's. So, they're not completely impervious to stupid losses, but we've seen LSU lose dumb games. The North Dakota State team that Missou swept beat Vanderbilt. Like, it's baseball, man. Like, losses happen, wins happen, and this program who has been just in the gutter for 20 years has really come along. And now, we'll see. They got Southern Indiana tomorrow, and then they got Auburn who's ranked number six in the country according to mutigers.com. We'll see, man. If if they you can win a series against Auburn, then you are you're going to be in good shape. The Tigers are led by uh Tyler Mun, not the former quarterback. Uh he's a red shirt sophomore out of Kirkwood, Missouri. Tyler with a 1.254 OPS. He has two triples, seven doubles uh out of his third, so nine extra base hits out of his 30. He's a 672 slugging percentage. He's raking and he's got six he's stolen six bases out of seven attempts. His on base is at 582. Um the power is coming from Jay Swoda and Cameron Benson. Uh they have three four and three home runs comparatively. What is going to be nerve-wracking for this team is as we do get into SEC play, they don't have a thumper in the middle of their lineup. Um and it's it's like professionals, man. like you got to have the ability to to score three runs on one swing. Um but we'll see there. That's a team built on speed, man. They're 28 to 34 uh in the uh on the on the base pass and stealing. Now, on on the pitching side, this is where the the obvious improvement has come. Last year, this freaking team had an erra close to 10. Now again, we have to wait and see what happens in SEC play, but Josh McDev 2.370 IRA, he is 3 and0 in four starts. Brady Kellenbrink uh 3 and 0 in four starts with a 429. Pimemental four and four starts. He's 2 and0 with a 4.76. Like that is not too shabby uh this time of year. The issue is Ian Lo is your closer. He is a 3.86. Um he has a bad tendency to walk guys. He has six he has six walks uh in seven innings including he walked the bases loaded the other night which isn't great. Um McDev in four starts has gone 19 innings. That's fine. Um save him for SEC play. But this is a program that for so long again they haven't played anybody. But this is a program for so long that can't even win games that should win. I mean last year they were losing games to and I know they lost a game to Mount St. Mary's. They're losing games to Stson. They were losing games to to just all these horrible teams. And this year they do have the bad law two bad law. They lost to FAU and they lost one game to Mount St. Mary's. But other than that, took care of North Dakota State, took care of UIC, took care of a lot of these programs, and that has to be congratulated. That has to be a positive uh for Carrick Jackson as this as this program tries to gain any sort of freaking footing in the best conference in in the sport. Um, you just you got to you can't suck. And there there this program has been embarrassing for a long stretch of time. And I wouldn't quantify them as embarrassing right now, which is good. Um, you you have to be a little happy about that. Um, so that's what I wanted to touch on. Missou, they have a big series this weekend, so Monday we'll kind of we'll kind of get back to it. Of course, the big news on Missou's campus right now is, of course, Missouri Tiger basketball. Um, last week when we talked about Missou, there was a lot of optimism. They had a big week coming up. Two big games against rivals. Um they had just won at Mississippi State. They'd beaten Vanderbilt in recent days. They beat Tennessee, made a competitive effort at Arkansas, BWA, a hard place to play. And then they laid an absolute egg. They go to Oklahoma. They did the same thing as they did last year where they beat Oklahoma at home. Now this year, last year they killed OU and that's made last year trip to Norman so much worse. This year they got lucky to beat U at home. They hit a couple buzzer beers. I'll grant that, but you lost. They didn't even show up in Norman. They just didn't show up. It was an embarrassing effort. And then you come home to play Arkansas senior day for Mark Mitchell, Jacob Cruz, um you know, Sean Phillips, all these guys. And again, you you get dropped. Um, it's inexcusable for like what you were playing for. I I people got mad at me because I'm like, "Oh, you I went on and on, but I'm like, no, it's inexcusable to lose that game. Arkansas did not have Darius Akuff, who's going to be uh a a top half of the first round pick. He's a lottery pick. Um, he's a really good player. You lose him and you have them at home and you and Mark Mitchell gives you a 32 and you get dropped. Malik Thomas goes, please. Um, you give up 17 to Malik Ewen who's not good. Uh, DJ Wagner's kept in check. Billy Richmond's kept in check. But Trayvon Brazil, Malik Thomas, and Malik Ewen just kill you. Um, you know, I thought Sean Phillips, who I've been really hard on, had an okay game. Uh, he had 13 and 10, did give up big offensive rebound in the end. Always a candidate for a really stupid foul, but I thought he played okay. Tio Barrett, look, man, when it comes to Tio Barrett, I I don't have a problem with Tio Barrett, but either I need to see something over the next two to three games that this team plays or he can't be the starting point guard next year. He just can't. His turnover rate is too like he averages over he averages two turnovers and three assists. It's just not his turnover rate where' it go is 20%. That's just not good enough. Um I thought Ant played okay. He didn't shoot the ball well. He's only one for four from the field, but he had um five assists and he didn't turn the ball over. Had a steal. Cruz has just been non-existent. They got nothing from Trent Burns. He only played five minutes. Shawn Phillips played 36 minutes, which is crazy to me. U part of part of that is they played small a lot. But what made what has made Shawn Phillips more effective I thought was Trent Burns coming in and playing 10 to 15 minutes and making Shawn Phillips a 20minut in a game player, not 24, 25, 26. and he could play kind of more within himself. Um, I thought Shawn played okay Saturday. You know, I'm not putting that game on Shawn. That game falls on a variety of reasons. Um, he wasn't the only one that didn't box out and the game did go to overtime, so he played 36 of 45. Like, he didn't play 36 of 40. Um, but yeah, Mark Mitchell was a godsend. Jaden Stone continues his shooting struggles. He was two for I mean, he's four for seven from the field, but he only had 11 points. He wasn't getting to the free throw line. Um, yeah, Missou went from like I'm I was pretty confident they were going to make it as Ferman takes a big lead on East Tennessee. Um, and on bracket bracket matrix, they still are a a 10 seed, like a consensus 10 seed. They're going to play Kentucky on Thursday and that's going to be an interesting game. I don't think a loss to Kentucky knocks them out of the tournament, but I do think a loss can Sorry, my arm's crazy itchy. Am I trying to show off what what isn't there? Yeah, nothing there. Um I I think if they lose to Kentucky, I don't know if they'll get left out, but I think there's a chance that you're in Dayton and that's not where you want to be in year three of your or year four of your head coach. Uh especially when a week and a half ago we were like, could they get to a seven? Like you have to beat a bad OU team, you have to beat Arkansas and then maybe win an SEC tournament game. You'd get a double buy. And that's what makes Saturday all the more inexcusable. Like you had a chance to get 11 and seven in conference with Tennessee got dropped by Vanderbilt. You were going to be a a a the four seed in the SEC tournament. You were going to get then an advantageous first round game and now you're or quarterfinal game and now you're stuck and you're now the eight seed. you're going to play on Thursday uh against uh against probably Kentucky which great um it's it's weird that how much further ahead of program than you Arkansas is and Arkansas is just a better basketball program. It is like Missou football is a better program than than Arkansas football but Arkansas without their best player was able to come into your building and just kind of beat you up and beat you around. I mean, Missou did not rebound well again. 10 offensive rebounds for the Tigers, 13 for uh Arkansas. The bigger issue, 13 turnovers to 11 assists. Um headlined by Shawn Phillips is four turnovers because he Look, I'm I again, I don't think he played bad on Saturday. Um I've gone back and watched the guys I was driving to to Evansville to watch my school, Western Illinois, make the uh women's NCA tournament, but four turnovers is ridiculous. T Barrett He if he's gonna have these turnover issues, we c he's not going to be the starting point guard next year. He just he just can't be. Um there's too much on the line next year to put the ball at 50% of your possessions, put the ball in the hands of somebody who can't keep it. Um I and and now you know how how crazy how things sway. I do think you need a starting big. U I thought Transference can maybe provide you starting big. uh uh momentum, but obviously that's not going to be the case. So, it's just not um you need a starting big. You're going to need a couple wings. Um you know, you're going to probably need another guard because I don't see how Ant stay. If Ant does stay, it solves some of these issues because you're going to have Ant, you're going to have Tio, you'll have Crow in your back court. Um, you need a couple wings to go with Trent Pierce and you need another big um to go with Bryant Burns, but I don't think Ant's gonna stay. So, I mean, how many minutes did Ant play on Saturday? Ant played 33. He played a lot. He played more than Tio did. Well, he's playing better. He didn't turn the ball over and had a steal. And like that final turnover from Tio at overtime is just inexcusable. 35 40 feet away from the court or from the basket and you just chuck it. Um, but give credit to John Cal Perry, man. Without his star, he gets 17 from Malik Ewan, who was averaging what, 10 points a game. You know, he got a lot from Malik Thomas. If Malik Thomas stays another year, I'm not sure what Arkansas has in its recruiting class, but if Malik Thomas comes back, and that I love, let me let me be clear. I love >> PN. Your website is such garbage. I love Billy Richmond. I loved Billy Richmond last year. I was like, "Oh my god, this guy's gonna be such a pain in the butt for the next half decade." Uh yeah, if both those guys come back, we're going to have some issues with Arkansas. Like they're just they're going to be older, not norally a Calic, and they're going to be uber talented. So, um, and Ferman hits the three. So, uh, other than that, I think that's all I'm going to talk about tonight. Um, 35ish minutes in, talk about spring ball, talk some recruiting updates. Hopefully, some more stuff happens this week just to get a little more energy into the into the broadcast um, as we as we go further into the off season. Um, you can follow me on Twitter at PsychoZ50. hear my insane ramblings. Um, next Monday we'll do we'll talk more about spring practice obviously. Um, we're going to talk about um some more recruiting notes as we are giving them. And then of course it's it's going to be tourney time uh for the Tigers. We'll talk about the baseball team as as this time of the year is kind of just around the zoo. It be closer to the summer be more time to focus on football. But um if I'm being honest with you guys, I am football out so it's hard for me to to to really bring the energy when it comes to football. Um, but there there's gonna be more stuff to talk about next week and hopefully more good recruiting news and then uh we'll get on on top of uh uh spring ball. So, thank you guys all for tuning in. Please like and subscribe and uh we will see you next week and we'll talk about this Missou tournament chances, tournament uh lineup and we'll talk about Missou football and we'll talk about the baseball team and their series against Auburn. So, thank you for tuning in. I will be back next week with a big show next week. Next week's going to be a big show. I'm not going to deny that. Uh, this week was an appetizer. Next week, big show, not just for football, but for all the sports at Missou. Thanks for tuning in, mis. And I will see you all next week. Go Tigers. Show notes: Hosted on Acast.