ºüÀêÊÓƵ

Bring your Tigers football, basketball and recruiting questions, and talk to Eli Hoff in a live chat at 11 a.m. Thursday.

Transcript

Eli ±á´Ç´Ú´Ú:ÌýApologies for the late start today, folks. I'm back from football practice and rolling now. I'll stick around 'til a bit after 2 p.m. today for your questions and takes.

³Ò°ù´Ç³Ü³¦³ó´Ç:ÌýWhat is the latest on Desiree Reed-Francois's buyout? It's a public university so this should be open inforrmation, correct?

±á´Ç´Ú´Ú:ÌýI don't have an update there. It's been very hush-hush. I don't expect it to be readily public either, even though Mizzou is a state university. The school (more so the Board of Curators, which does the highest level of decision-making, of course) can close meetings and records that deal with "HR" type things. The contract buyout seems to fall under that. More distance on the saga might loosen things up, or maybe there will be a budget line that pops up. I've got an eye out for it but again, I don't think either party is going to blast an announcement out there about what happened.

²Ï³Ü±ð²õ³Ù¾±´Ç²Ô²õ:ÌýI know that Phillip Roche is being “disciplined within the programâ€� – a decision which in my opinion is damaging to the university’s reputation – but isn’t he in serious trouble with the state of Missouri? How do you blow off EIGHT court appearance and not be in jail? How do you have multiple tickets including one for 117 MPH and still have a license? What am I missing here? Or is he simply untouchable because he is a prized football player?

±á´Ç´Ú´Ú:ÌýHe did go to jail because there was a warrant issued because of those missed court appearances. (A lawyer representing Roche has now appeared in most of those cases so it seems the matter should be resolved.) Court records suggest that some notices were sent to an old or incorrect address for Roche. I'm not saying that justifies anything or that a judge will look at that and excuse what happened — just something I noticed. I also don't know what goes on in someone's head that prompts them to drive that fast. Maybe it's just because I drive a Corolla, but I don't get the instinct to try hitting triple digits in my car. What the consequences ultimately are will be decided in a courtroom. That process has just taken a while because Roche has yet to show up for it. And whether or not you agree with Drinkwitz's course of action, it seems like that's settled as well — Roche has been at practice consistently besides the one day I reported he was absent (and one day right after that is unclear because media weren't invited). What this team has to hope, now, is that there aren't other offenses like his. Never good for a program to make a habit of having names from the roster appear in jail logs.

Robbo:ÌýAnyone else worried about the Boston College game???

±á´Ç´Ú´Ú:ÌýI mentioned this on the podcast we put out yesterday, but they're not a team to take lightly. I'm not saying Boston College will win the ACC or that Mizzou shouldn't win that game handily, but I'm intrigued by them. Bill O'Brien (the former Texans head coach and Belichick assistant in New England) is the coach there now. I've heard good things about Thomas Castellanos, the quarterback there, who's a dual-threat guy — something Mizzou struggled to play against a bit last year. I could see BC catching folks by surprise in Week 3. They're one of the teams I'll have to watch beforehand to really get a grasp on how much of a threat they pose, but it's not exactly a pancake game.

Mizzou Tommy:ÌýWho do you see starting the season at CB for the Tigers now that Rakestraw and Abrams-Draine have departed for the NFL?

±á´Ç´Ú´Ú:ÌýIt seems like Dreyden Norwood, who filled in when Rakestraw was hurt last year, will start at one corner spot while Toriano Pride, who transferred in from Clemson, will fill the other one. (A brief aside — I''ve got a story on Pride coming for tomorrow's paper/online that I think you'll all enjoy.) Marcus Clarke is likely CB3. CB4 seems more up for grabs. Freshman Cameron Keys has wowed a lot of people in preseason camp. Maybe he takes that spot.

Tahart27:ÌýGood day to you Eli! These ridiculous number of teams that we now have in conferences with all the insane expansion...well I won't say it's going to lead to the ruination of the game eventually, but do you think a lot of College Football fans might eventually be turned off and become indifferent to the game when they realize that--going by the sheer math of it--their favorite team in the SEC, Big 10, etc has, say, just going with the SEC, a 1/16th chance of winning their conference?

Hoff:ÌýI have my qualms with realignment like most people do, I think, but I actually don't see this particular aspect as a problem, and here's why. First, it's not like every team has an equal chance at an SEC title whether there are 14 or 16 teams... there are really only 4-5 teams you could say are clearly in contention, and even then, that might be a little generous to some. Second, what College Football Playoff expansion does is render a lot of conference championships less valuable. I'm not going to say they don't have value — a title is a title and it also comes with a first-round bye in the CFP — but there will be 2-3 SEC teams in the 12-team playoff field on a consistent basis who didn't win the conference championship but are still very much in the mix for a national title. I feel like that is probably more exciting for fans, and Mizzou's a prime example. All of y'all seem to be more excited for this season than any other campaign in recent memory. But I don't hear buzz that is centered around getting to play the likes of Georgia or Texas in Atlanta in December. It's about getting a playoff game at Faurot a couple weeks later, playing in a bowl game that has title implications, that sort of thing. Realignment has shifted plenty of things, but I think the CFP is making bigger waves in the SEC.

-

-

-

-

-

On this episode of the Eye on the Tigers Podcast, Post-Dispatch beat writer Eli Hoff is joined by columnist Benjamin Hochman to make suspiciously specific predictions about what will happen during the 2024 college football season. From a standout individual performance from one Missouri player against his former team to a game-deciding turnover to a very precise geographical way to look at College Football Playoff seeding, Eli and Benjamin go on the record with how they think Mizzou's upcoming season will play out.

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

COLUMBIA, Mo. — Cayden Green saw what happened when he entered the transfer portal.

It was a surprise when, in December of last year, he opted to leave Oklahoma after just one season. As a freshman, the offensive lineman from Lee’s Summit, Missouri, about 30 minutes southeast of Kansas City, had carved out a starting role that was surprising in its own right. But not long after the season ended, he was looking for a new school.

And then it turned ugly.

Oklahoma fans, evidently peeved at Green’s departure and further frustrated that he was transferring to Missouri, called him things on X, formerly Twitter, that a newspaper can’t print. They discovered that Green’s father owned an insurance agency and , writing things like “don’t trust him� in the comments.

That drew a rebuke from Reginald Green, Cayden’s dad, at the time.

“Stop it!� he replied to some of the frenzied reviewers. “Don’t do this because my son chose to enter the transfer portal in football. You live in (Oklahoma) and have never done business with my office. This is a really bad look for the Oklahoma fan base. Be better.�

On the Mizzou end of things, Cayden Green’s transfer seemed like a much warmer story. Despite choosing a different program out of high school, here was a player electing to return to his home state and reunite with a former teammate on his new offensive line.

Maybe that’s what helped Green keep a level head amid the unpleasant but unsurprising social media saga.

“Ah, yeah, I expected it,� he told the Post-Dispatch of the internet kerfuffle prompted by his transfer. “I knew what it was, especially the fact that I didn’t really tell the full story. It is what it is. At the end of the day, people talking on Twitter is not adding money to their accounts. It’s not feeding their families, so I don’t pay attention.�

But compartmentalizing what happens on social media can be a challenge for modern college athletes. So how did Green keep from getting caught up in the negativity?

“You just get off Twitter,� he said, “and it’s like it doesn’t even happen.�

Now, fully entrenched in preseason camp and preparation for the 2024 season, the social media antics that surrounded Green’s arrival in Columbia are almost a punchline — at least that’s how Armand Membou, Green’s high school teammate and a close friend, sees it.

“The OU fans go crazy about him on Twitter,� Membou said. “It’s funny. It’s a lot of fun.�

Membou is a year ahead of Green, but they spent a significant portion of their runs at Lee’s Summit North playing together. They stayed in touch when Green went down to join the Sooners, but he kept even Membou in the dark about his plans to transfer.

“He didn’t even know I was getting in the portal until right before I hit it,� Green said.

“When he hopped in the portal, I couldn’t even believe it,� Membou said. “It’s still crazy to me that he hopped in. When he committed here, I was so excited and fired up that I was going to be able to play with him.�

The duo will line up on opposite halves of the offensive line this season: Membou will hold down his right tackle post, while Green will most likely slot in at left guard. Spring practices saw Green working at left tackle — he can readily play both — but the arrival of transfer lineman Marcus Bryant from Southern Methodist shifted Green back to the interior.

Adding Green to a line replacing two departed veterans in Xavier Delgado and Javon Foster means different things to different members of the Mizzou program.

Membou sees it in an interpersonal way.

“It’s going to increase the chemistry in the O-line,� he said, “just with our connection.�

Coach Eli Drinkwitz views Green’s return to Missouri as a kind of retroactive recruiting win.

“We recruited Cayden heavily in high school,� Drinkwitz said at Southeastern Conference media days. “He entered the transfer portal, he took visits to a couple of different schools and ultimately we were the right fit for him.�

And offensive line coach Brandon Jones sees several reasons to be enthused with one of the newest parts of his position group.

“He’s been great,� Jones said. “He’s been a good fit for our room. He’s really bought into the culture, him coming from Oklahoma and having the success that he had, playing Texas and some of those bigger schools. I don’t think the room and the competition’s any different than what he was facing. ... I think the world of the kid.�

Mizzou Sports News

Will there be an extra edge to Mizzou-Oklahoma this year? 'There's too much made of it.'

• Eli Hoff

Mizzou Sports News

Why Mizzou football team curbs preseason expectations for 5-star freshman Williams Nwaneri

• Eli Hoff

Mizzou Sports News

Mizzou axes 2025 road game against Miami Ohio, will open football season against Central Arkansas

• Eli Hoff

For decades and decades — until about 15 years ago — angry fans interacted with athletes only occasionally, be it during a public run-in or from the stands at a game. Fans shared their opinions publicly via radio show call-ins or letters to the editor.

Today?

Fans have direct and constant access to the athletes themselves via social media, be it Twitter/X, Instagram or Facebook. If you’re, say, a Mizzou Tiger, fans can flood your phone with their opinions about you — good or bad — and fans of opposing teams, too. There aren’t many filters. And often, fans can hide behind an online identity. Their words can be merciless and overwhelming, motivating and over the top. There’s trash talk and utter trash spewed, too.

Really, it’s all too much.

But the horse is out of the barn.

“For this reason alone, irrespective of (name, image and likeness rights) and benefits that players are receiving today, I’m happy that I played in the era in which I played,� said Howard Richards, a Mizzou offensive lineman from 1977-80 and an NFL first-round draft pick by the Dallas Cowboys. “There was no social media, there were no cellphones, no cellphone cameras. And I could say, probably at that time, I would have been maybe one of those more sensitive players to criticism. You know, when you’re out there, busting your (expletive) to try to put on a good product for the university, the last thing you want to do is hear or read some comment from some clown in the stands that has no clue. So I think in my day it was easier to focus on the sport at hand, even playing professionally.�

Yet so many Mizzou football players are on social media. So many players of every sport at every level are on social media. It’s commonplace. It’s what you do. It’s the modern world. And the athletes navigate it all — some better than others — while providing access to themselves for strangers. And access to their inner emotions.

“I’m not going to lie: I always check Twitter after games,â€� said Mizzou receiver Mookie Cooper, a ºüÀêÊÓƵ native. “I’m going search my name and see what people are thinking. ... I look at it, really, for motivation. People seeing you, people care about what I’m doing — they comment on it.â€�

It’s pretty incredible, though, that athletes expose themselves to all this fan interaction. To use another idiom: Is the juice worth the squeeze? And these fans are people they’ve never met — and might never meet.

Of course, there are positives from all of this social media stuff. It’s fun for some Tigers to interact with Tigers fans because they share a passion. And there often are nice things said that can pump up a player. And for some athletes, it can be fulfilling to fill the role of local sports celeb (though for others, it can be intoxicating).

“If you engage with anyone, it could be something that’s fun — it just depends on where you are as a person,� Mizzou defensive lineman Kristian Williams said. “But it can affect your mood; it can get you up and down, just seeing different rankings and all types of things.�

It’s also just understood as the modern way — this is how things are when it comes to athletes and fans in 2024. And now with NIL, social media is a virtual land of financial opportunity. But it also is a minefield of meanness and even ruthlessness.

“I think that’s probably the most challenging part of our sport,� Mizzou football coach Eli Drinkwitz said, “especially when the way that you make money is through your name, image and likeness, so you need to be building a personal brand. But also understanding that you don’t have to be defined by the opinions of others. It’s something that you’ve got to work really hard to do — to separate yourself from your phone and figure out who you are as a person. And understand that social media is both positive and negative. You can’t get caught up in either one of them. You can use it for a tool, but don’t use it for an identity.�

Drinkwitz had a great line for Mizzou quarterback Brady Cook, who is coming off an 11-2 campaign last season and Cotton Bowl win: “We don’t need a celebrity quarterback; we need a battlefield commander.�

Luther Burden III is perhaps the most famous current Mizzou player, be it with his following on Instagram or his celebrity via the new EA Sports college football video game, in which the receiver is one of the highest-rated players.

But back in his freshman year of 2022, Burden didn’t get the ball in a loss against Auburn. The five-star recruit deleted references to Mizzou from his social media profile and posted: “Patiently waiting...�

In a transfer-portal world, you can only imagine the opinions that were sent his way.

Ultimately, two days later — which can seem like a couple of eternities on social media — Burden posted: “Mizzou fans: Please don’t misunderstand my intentions. I’m always a TIGER! Jus be patient, here we come! #Reset #MIZ.� On Twitter, the post was retweeted 596 times, liked 4,900 times and featured 178 comments from fans across the country.

It was a bizarre couple of days — yet perfectly regular in sports’ social media culture.

“It’s a challenge,� Mizzou assistant coach Curtis Luper said of social media. “But the one thing that we try to differentiate is: There’s the real world, and then there’s the one that isn’t. So we try to stay here, in the present, in this world. ... And we try to block out all of the noise, whether it’s good or bad. We have our own reality. ... We’re writing our own books. We’re going to write it our way.�

To me, Cooper succinctly summed it up best.

“It’s a lot,� he said of social media. “Especially if you don’t know how to deal with it.�

Benjamin-hochman

Hochman: How famous photo captures Cardinals' Carl Warwick's role on '64 World Series champs

• Benjamin Hochman

Benjamin-hochman

Hochman: Why this Tommy Pham at-bat Wednesday captured toughness of Cardinals outfielder

• Benjamin Hochman

Benjamin-hochman

Hochman: Erick Fedde bolsters the Cardinals' playoff rotation. Now go make the playoffs.

• Benjamin Hochman

Karissa Schweizer became the fastest American runner in the Olympics 5,000 meters as she finished 10th and took 10 seconds off her time from 2021 in the finals Monday in Paris.

The former Mizzou All-American was the top finisher among three U.S. runners with a time of 14:45.57. She ran 14:55.80 when finishing 11thÌýin Tokyo.

None of the Americans were able to challenge the lead group of runners led by gold medalist Kenyan Beatrice Chebet, who ran 14:28.56. No U.S. runner has ever won a medal in the event.

Schweizer spent most of the race running in the middle of the pack. When the leaders broke away, she made a move and passed fellow American Elise Cranny, who finished one spot behind.

Only one U.S. runner has finished higher in the final than Schweizer did Monday. But when Kara Goucher was eighth in 2008 she ran 15:49.39.

Schweizer also will run in the 10,000-meter final Friday at 1:55 p.m. ºüÀêÊÓƵ time.