Bring your Tigers football, basketball and recruiting questions, and talk to Eli Hoff in a live chat at 11 a.m. Thursday.
Transcript
Eli Hoff:ÌýMorning all, and welcome to what's quickly becoming the end of the offseason... SEC media days next week and the start of preseason camp not too far past that mean it's getting dangerously close to football season. I'll take whatever questions, takes or other stuff you've got for the next couple of hours.
Tim:ÌýWill Burden be returning kicks this year?
Hoff:ÌýI'd be highly surprised if this happens. He wasn't on kickoff duty often, if at all last year — I think Marquis Johnson and maybe another young, quick wideout take that duty this season, if I had to guess. There's probably a discussion for Burden on punt duty, but even then, it's a question of risk versus reward there as far as injury is concerned.
Larry M:ÌýMU volleyball took a big step up last season and is projected for more this year. The current VB coach was hired by DesireeF from Las Vegas if I remember correctly. Any thoughts on the coach moving to Arizona to follow her former boss?
Hoff:ÌýLast year was a big year for Mizzou volleyball, and yes, Dawn Sullivan (who had a share of SEC coach of the year honors) was a big part of that. I haven't seen any inclination that she'd move with Reed-Francois again to Arizona. I'm not going to pretend that I'm a college volleyball expert, but I'd have to think that going from a rising SEC program to a Big 12 newbie is not, at face-value, a step forward. Sullivan can build something here and has the foundation already from last year's talent and a couple big transfers.
bigron:ÌýEli, enjoy your coverage of Mizzou sports, have you been to any of the mens Bball summer practices, if so what do you think?
Hoff:ÌýI haven't — we don't get practice access for basketball like we do for football. It seems, from what I've seen on the team's social media, there's been a lot of fundamental and conditioning work, which is what you'd expect to see this time of year. They're limited in how much practice time they can have anyway.
Larry M:ÌýFootball DT Gracial from St. Charles MO HS: This is his third year (probably red shirt one year). Hasn'tÌýseen the field that I know of. Is he considered an upcoming regular. Was a 4 star when recruited
Hoff:ÌýIt's a big year for him. He could be in the mix for a spot in the defensive tackle rotation this season, since there's plenty of room for competition in that regard. I 'd assume, right now, that Kristian Williams and Chris McLellan are the starters there. Sterling Webb probably rotates in. Can Gracial be the fourth?
jwvl:ÌýA lot of National talking heads have Tennessee having a better season than MIZZOU.
Hoff:ÌýI mean, it's talking season, right? Everybody's jockeying for takes on who will be good/great/sleeper/etc for this season. With Tennessee in particular, I don't see how anybody can feel too confident — it just isn't clear what Nico Iamaleava is going to be at quarterback. The hype machine and inexperience are in contrast with each other.
The Vols' schedule is interesting. Their "easy" nonconference games are Chattanooga, Kent State and UTEP, all at home. Their Power Four noncon is against NC State in Charlotte. That could be a trap game. SEC wise, it's hard to count on wins at Oklahoma and Georgia and at home against Alabama. Road trips to Arkansas and Vanderbilt should be straightforward. But home games against Florida, Kentucky and Mississippi State all could see upsets.Ìý
Just based on that slate, I'd say Mizzou has a one-win head start. Like, 10-2 seems quite plausible for the Tigers and 9-3 for the Vols. But again, this is just talking season.
Lu:ÌýMuch has been made about who Mizzou's rival is lately now that we no longer play Kansas in football. I'm interested in your perspective as to who our biggest Football rival is and why?
Personally for me its Arkansas. I had boots on the ground for our throttling of them this year and it was incredible. That said, I didn't get the sense there was a lot of hate from the Arkansas side toward Mizzou. I'm excited about the prospect of a rivalry "renewed" with Oklahoma, but again i'm not sure Sooner fans are all that concerned about us.
Hoff:ÌýIs there one? I'm not trying to be antagonistic, but I haven't gotten the sense that Mizzou fans' feelings toward Arkansas, Oklahoma or anybody else even approaches what they think of Kansas. I was raised on Minnesota-Wisconsin and the Arkansas/Oklahoma contests don't clear that bar either.Ìý
I think the problem with Arkansas is that lately, those games haven't had a lot of implications. Sure, maybe it's somebody coaching for their job or for bowl eligibility or it's just a blowout that gets a team to 10 wins. But the stakes never feel particularly high there.
I'll be curious to see what the Oklahoma game is like this year. There's history, albeit not particularly balanced history. There's also more recent beef, especially around Mizzou's recruiting/portal success, but I don't know how much that translates to the field. Are enough Mizzou fans who go to that game of the Twitter demographic? Probably not. That's not to say it couldn't be contentious, it just isn't really a rivalry to me. We need a sports word for that kind of game...
Palmetto State Fan:ÌýWould you be so kind as to review for us what the breakdown is in terms of the expected sources of funding are for the $250M North End Zone project? As I recall, a portion of the funds are to come via fundraising. Any idea on how that task is proceeding. Also, noticed work being done on the North End Zone video board. Is this part of the project or maintenance for the upcoming season? I believe the North End Zone project is going to be a "game changer" for not only football, but the athletics department.
Hoff:ÌýThe basic breakdown of the $250 million is this: $125 million from fundraising, $50 million from unspecified university sources, $75 million from university debt, which will be borrowed against the eventual returns from the project.
Of the fundraising portion: $50 million was pretty much instantly checked off from that massive anonymous donation earlier this year. Since then, Laird Veatch has said that Mizzou has secured 10 more donations for $1 million or more. I don't know about any other donations, but just with that information, it seems safe to say that roughly half, though likely a little bit more, of the fundraising piece is in place — albeit with more sources of funds required for the second half of the $125 million than the first because of the big donation.
I'm not clear on the nuances of this since budget stuff is still being worked out, but the last Board of Curators meeting made it sound like there could be some state appropriations money that rolls into the project, likely in that internal sources category. As I find out more there, I'll pin it down, but that just came out recently.
The north end zone work being done now — like, if you drive by Faurot, you'll probably see it in progress — was already planned before the north end zone project. They're expanding the video board and upgrading the sound system a little bit. That will be ready for this football season and, eventually, fold into the new north end zone, so it's not like it's going to be for naught.
bigron:ÌýSpeaking of men's Bball practices, why is it that access isn't permitted more often than it is? Are they worried about secrets getting out? LOL
Hoff:ÌýGreat question. That's my assumption. It's why the parts of football practices that we say are pretty much just individual drills. They invite TV networks, too, so they have to assume that everything that occurs will be filmed and put on Twitter, pretty much. Obviously, I'd like to be there for all of it, and I'll sit quietly in the corner with just my notebook to make that happen, but again, I think they're more concerned about the video. And there's no policy that says you have to let media watch X, Y or Z amount of practice, so there's not any direct incentive for letting us in. Now, I'd argue that if Mizzou let me watch all of a practice I could ask the coaches some pretty insightful questions about it and get some good, informative details to share with y'all without writing exactly what the scheme was — but I'm just a beat writer.
Lu:Ìýwell put, yea I agree to call anything that we have with another school a rivalry is almost an insult to the history of hate between us and Kansas...
Feels like the only way for us to have a rivalry game that means something each year is playing Kansas each year. With the way things are headed on a macro level in college football that doesn't seem very likely does it?
Hoff:ÌýThose games are scheduled, so it would take one or both parties getting out of them. Can you imagine the optics of Mizzou or Kansas trying to back out? Maybe it'll be a scheduling game of chicken.
But yes, if the SEC goes to nine conference games each year, it becomes a lot tougher to see competitive — emphasis on that word — value in playing a power conference opponent each year when you could instead, play three easier teams. That goes for every program, regardless of rivalries or not. It's tough.
Evil Calvin:ÌýWell, Mizzou and Kansas hadn't had any meaningful football games in decades, outside of the one big year in 2007. Is it just the whole Civil War kerfluffel? Not many people are still around from then...lol
Hoff:ÌýFair point there. I think in that case it's the magnitude of history. How many generations were raised on an MU-KU rivalry in some form? At least a handful. If as a kid you're accustomed to hating a certain team vehemently once a year or get indoctrinated into that once you get to a school, that sticks when it becomes regular enough. And that's the thing you can't fabricate or compensate for. History, you know, takes time to develop.
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Matt L:ÌýWhy are FSU and Ga Tech playing in Ireland? I get it as a gimmick for ND, but this makes no sense.
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Hoff:ÌýHa. I haven't the slightest idea. I was thinking about that for Mizzou the other day, though. If they played a one-off game abroad — let's say somewhere in Europe for this hypothetical — would enough people make the trip just because it gives a reason to do the Europe trip everybody wants to do at some point in their lives? Certainly not as many as would show up to a home game, but I don't know. I can kind of see the appeal for a school as a novelty, one-off type of thing.
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Keith:ÌýPersonally I hate the fact that we do not have Kentucky or Tennesee on our schedule anymore. Those were turning into real rivalry games and just as soon as they took hold, they pulled them from us. A shame if you ask me. Your thoughts Eli?
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Hoff:ÌýI can see that, for sure. But there are a lot of games I'd like to see on the schedule, as an observer. Mizzou and Ole Miss are in such similar places as programs right now that a matchup between them would be fascinating. As you point out, the Tennessee and Kentucky tension has produced good games lately. Could Mizzou stick with Texas? Those opponents might not be as interesting, though, in five years. Or even two. Not everybody can play only fun games in the SEC, I guess.
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Matt L:ÌýJust one man’s opinion but Mizzou in Europe has no appeal to me. If Im Europe, I want to experience the culture, the history the food etc. I don’t need a college football game thrown in. But I’m not going to Europe. Saving my money for a Mizzou trip to the CFP.
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Hoff:ÌýYeah, that's a good point and the obvious counterargument to what I said earlier. I can't disagree with it. If I'm taking in sports on a Europe trip, I want to see soccer — it's not too difficult to see college football really anywhere stateside. The other thing I hadn't really thought of until now: College football already kind of has destination games built in with bowls. If you want to see both your team and take a vacation, hope for a Florida bowl.
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Keith:ÌýI mean Eli getting another crack at Josh at Tennessee? Would've been great theater. The Fact is they just got cooking with those games and we got used to seeing them and I mean it is GREAT to get South Carolina (and the ever "gonna be great" Frank Beamer's kid) and Vandy, but really that first part of this schedule is brutally boring. Great to have Oklahoma back, but they should have left things with Kentucky and Tennesee alone! IMHO anyway! M-I-Z!
Hoff:ÌýI don't doubt or disagree with that at all. It brings me to an interesting thought that I'll leave y'all with today and (if I remember) ask for people to share in next week's chat: What's your dream Mizzou schedule? The rules of building it are that you have to have 8 SEC games (for fun, any opponents there), 1 nonconference game against a Power Four opponent and 3 noncon games against non-power conference opponents. Seems like a fun offseason exercise.
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Anyway, that's all for this week's chat. We'll talk again on the other side of SEC media days. Same time next week — see y'all there!
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