The Morning Commute for Friday, July 24th, 2025
Welcome to the Morning Commute
I wanted to say something about the forthcoming changes referenced in this post from yesterday:
In just a couple of weeks, Rock M Nation is switching to a new platform as part of SB Nation’s network-wide move to a new publishing platform. This will change the look of the site and also make it faster and more reliable on any device you use. This is an upgrade.
When you land on the site, it will look cleaner – less clunky, with more white space, a better ad experience with faster load times – but will still have all the usual articles, analysis, and news by all the folks you know.
Community discussion and content created by you will be more prominent in the new design. The best comment threads will be easy to find, and staff and commenters alike will be able to start conversations whenever they like with a brand new tool.
First of all as you know with the set up here, we don’t have a lot of control in these decisions. But I think many of you enjoy more insight. We’ve been using a publishing platform developed and managed by Vox Media for the better part of the last 10 years. Developing and managing a publishing platform is expensive, I guess, so Vox wanted to shut it down and migrate to a platform they could license at a lesser cost. This is a bit of a good news, bad news thing as many communities are quite used to the existing platform. So there might be a bit of a learning curve as we get used to the new things.
Yes the site is going to look different.
For many communities this is going to be a vastly superior way of interacting with content. However the community here is one of the more unique in all of SBN. So I honestly don’t know if this is going to be better or worse for everyone who reads, and comments.
But here’s what I know, we’re going to make a really good go at making it work, and making it work for you, the readers.
We’re planning on embracing the new format and new look, and trying to really improve how we approach our posting.
The name of the game here is flexibility. Being able to forgo full articles in favor of quicker hitters, and more interesting ways to interact with the audience. I think it can be really cool. I’m cautiously optimistic.
In the meantime, we’re also doing some staff revamping on the Football side. Nate and Nathan aren’t going anywhere. But on top of Chad’s retirement, we got the news that Dan Keegan has opted not to return as well. We wish Dan well, and you’ll probably still see him floating around.
So stick around, bear with the changes. I think the content is going to be really good.
Yesterday at Rock M and Rock M+
“The consistent progress we’ve seen under Coach Drinkwitz’s leadership is inspiring,” Athletics Director Laird Veatch said in a public statement. “This extension, along with increased investment in our coaching and support staff, reflects our commitment to sustaining success at the highest level.”
In his first five seasons as Mizzou’s head coach, Drinkwitz has set records for the best overall record in a coach’s first five years and the best four-year home win percentage in program history. Over the past two seasons, Mizzou is tied for third among SEC programs with 21 wins.
No mention of how much, or if there’s a raise involved. But they did mention an improved staff pool, which isn’t a bad thing. Join in the conversation on RM+.
- Nathan continued his opposing player exploration with LaNorris Sellers and Xavian Sorey:
Sellers passed for 2,534 yards, 18 touchdowns and just seven interceptions while also rushing for 674 yards and seven scores. While not prolific through the air in his first year as a starter, his blend of size, speed and playmaking ability ignited a South Carolina offense that had been pretty bleak in recent years.
Sellers is getting some preseason Heisman talk… it would be a lot of fun to blow that up for him and the Gamecocks.
- Matthew Gustafson previewed the Mizzou Volleyball non-conference schedule on Rock M+:
Mizzou Volleyball is one of the last teams in the nation to not release its full schedule. However, I managed to piece together what I believe is its entire nonconference schedule by looking at the schedules released by other universities. It’s possible that the team could add one or two additional matches, but this lines up pretty well with last year’s non-con schedule.
Really nice work to piece this all together.
- Over at Rock M+, we’re talking about 2027 recruits, and more top 8 discussions!
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