Bring your Tigers football, basketball and recruiting questions, and talk to Eli Hoff in a live chat at 11 a.m. Thursday.
Live transcript
Eli Hoff:Â Morning all! Happy baseball opening day to those of you partaking today... unless you're a Cardinals fan? But hey, today's the day to remain optimistic. Let's get to your questions.
bigron:Â Eli, anything new on the portal either coming or going?
Hoff:Â There haven't been any big developments on the transfer portal front this week. Jacob Crews has officially signed, so that deal is done. Mabor Majak and Curt Lewis are in the portal. I've seen reports that Jesus Carralero Martin was planning to enter, but the last I'd checked, he hadn't done that and it seemed like there was a chance he wouldn't. So I'd say there's still a TBD on the exit front. The coaching staff has been in contact with plenty of players, but there's a lot of tape to go through, a lot of calls to make and the season isn't even over yet for everyone. It seems like the churn of entries into the portal is yielding to a slower matching process this year. The coaching carousel was the more dominant bit of movement this week. That slowing down and the NCAA Tournament spitting out more teams should bring around more portal commitments soon.
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theMick:Â Good morning Eli, The Drink recently said Mizzou will be active in the spring portal, which opens soon. Perhaps there will be multiple subtractions followed by additions. I look at the current roster and foresee depth issues on the O-line and at linebacker. What do you think? Are there other positions that need a bolster for experience and/or depth?
Hoff: Yes, Mizzou will be active in the portal, as Drinkwitz said. I think offensive line is the most interesting spot to consider for a possible add. After he told reporters that MU would be active, I asked him whether he felt the fifth O-line starter could be on the roster now. "I think we could — and I think we could have one come out of the portal, too," he told me. So that's certainly a spot to watch.
Depth in the trenches in general is always valuable. Given the injuries at linebacker last year, you're right to pinpoint that area as well. Maybe the staff wants to get a bit more competition at cornerback. Overall, though, it will probably be a "best available" portal window, where Drinkwitz et al are looking for a couple spots and open to anyone of a certain caliber who wants to come compete at Mizzou.
I wrote this piece about the portal and the offensive line that is probably of interest.
senior scramble:Â So I sent an email to an administrator at Mizzou and asked them is coach P is still the coach. They said as of now. That is crazy either keep her 100% so she can hit the portal or go after a new coach. The program is stuck and can't move forward. How incompetent is this situation. If you're going to compete in the SEC you must have a solid direction and in this case, there is no direction. I feel so bad for those good young players. So far as I know none of them have entered the portal. I can safely say the mens program wouldn't been treated like this.
Hoff:Â It's nearing the point where any move made on the coaching front is too late to be able to do anything of value in the transfer portal. It seems like the interim administration is not going to dismiss Pingeton. There's still the chance that the new AD makes a quick call and does that. But let's say the new AD starts on Monday (that won't happen)... how much of the portal would be salvageable even at that point? It seems like the path forward will have to be using the last year of Pingeton's contract, barring any striking action. Hayley Frank is done. Mama Dembele is opting to play her last year at South Florida. There haven't been any other exits yet, but it looks like the current trajectory will set a step back even from last season's last-place finish.
Kevin:Â Does Dennis Gates have to have a bounce back season in order to keep his job? If things go south early, how hot does his seat get?
Hoff:Â That's a question I'll be asking of the new AD, since that's who will set the expectation. Really, any sort of season will be a bounce back from this one. Even just one win in SEC play would, in a purely literal sense, be an upgrade.
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