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Commute: Make or Break Week for Mizzou Football Recruiting

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The Morning Commute for Wednesday, July 2

Welcome to the Morning Commute

Today we’re talking about recruiting.

Over the next week, at least seven 2026 recruits with offers from Mizzou are expected to announce which school they will be committing to. With only nine current commits in the 2026 recruiting class — which ranks bottom three in the SEC — Missouri could use a strong week of commitments as a potential turning point for the Tigers’ 2026 class.

Four-star linebacker JJ Bush starts the seven-day stretch of commitments with his expected to be on Wednesday. Tony Forney (July 4th), Adam Balogoun-Ali (July 6th), Jayden McGregory (July 7th), Javonte Smith (July 8th), Jaxson Gates (July 8th) and Jowell Combay (July 9th) are also expected to make decisions in the next week.

Missouri started its week on a high note as three-star offensive tackle Braylon Ellison joined Khalief Canty Jr. as the second offensive lineman to join the 2026 recruiting class.

There’s more discussion over at Rock M+.

Yesterday at Rock M and Rock M+

It’s that time of year for pre-season All-Americans. While Missouri’s offense is set to experience plenty of roster turnover, there is one key returner that is primed to have a big season. Entering his second year at Mizzou, junior Cayden Green has been named a first-team preseason All-American, according to Phil Steele.

Cayden Green will be a big reason whether Missouri’s offense will be able to produce or not; especially come SEC play.

He was among the most-efficient players at the 15U level on Nike’s EYBL circuit last spring, and over the winter, he averaged 24.5 points, 5.8 rebounds and 2.5 assists at Webster Groves. That stat line alone is absurd for a sophomore, but Adkinson did it with a gobsmacking 73.9 true-shooting percentage and averaged 1.24 points every possession. Unsurprisingly, he picked up almost every accolade or award possible, including All-Metro Player of the Year and Gatorade Player of the Year for Missouri.

Sounds like Mizzou is picking up a top-notch future talent early. A great addition for Dennis Gates and company to plan around for the future.

The 6-4 lineman visited Columbia on June 6th but is familiar with the school as his older brother, Tyson Ellison, was a walk-on the past two seasons with the team and his father, Atiyyah Ellison, played at Missouri in the early 2000s before being drafted in the third round of the NFL Draft.

All the signs are there as to why Ellison came; I’m sure Drinkwitz was more than happy to bring the offensive lineman on board.

The addition of Brandimore shows that Harper is not only building for the present, but also looking ahead to the future. Mizzou has struggled for the last couple seasons to gain consistent scoring from the center/forward positions. Harper’s first fix was the addition of rising senior Jordana Reisma from Cleveland State.

Kellie Harper has been active since becoming a Tiger and I think Mizzou women’s basketball fans have a lot to be excited about. Read Karen’s Sunday piece about Hope if you haven’t already.

In one year Vandy went from fading doormat to uber-competitive spoiler team, and while its overtly reductive to credit that to Jerry Kill and Diego Pavia…yeah, it’s basically their talents that made that transition occur.
And they’re both back! As is most of last year’s Commodore team.

This Vanderbilt team will be no joke for Missouri, especially on the road. Definitely not a game Mizzou fans should be checking off their schedule.

Simpson got some early playing opportunities in February and had promising results at the plate, looking like a candidate to get serious time in the lineup after transferring in from junior college. Instead, an injury cut his season short and he never saw the field again.

It seems like one of those unfortunate timing scenarios for Mizzou baseball and Blake Simpson. It’ll be interesting to see what he does in his final year of eligibility.

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