The Morning Commute for Wednesday, April 23rd
Welcome to the Morning Commute
Today we’re talking about Tiger gymnastics. If you missed it (and you probably missed a lot of it if you tried watching Mizzou’s routines live on ESPN/ABC this last weekend), the Tigers made a splash by finishing 3rd at the 2025 NCAA Championships.
That might not be the topic du jour for everyone, but what Coach Shannon Welker’s team just accomplished was historic, to say the least.
Not only was the finish the best in program history, it also marked the highest team finish for any Tiger sport (men or women) since 2007, when the wrestling team placed third.
The history books will reflect that Mizzou has won only two team national titles (can you say, overdue?) – in 1954 (baseball) and in 1965 (men’s indoor track). Baseball came close to winning another natty, but ended as runners-up in the College World Series three other times in the span of 13 years (1952, 1958 and 1964).
We all know that football has come close, with the top seasons by most accounts coming in 1960, 2007 and 2013. There’s a lot of sentiment by Tiger fans that Mizzou would be within rights to claim the mythical 1960 national championship due to being ranked #1 by The Poling System – a mathematical rating considered to be a legitimate selector of national championships from 1935-1984.
Under Gary Pinkel, Mizzou finished ranked 4th in 2007 and 5th in 2013, and would have played in the BCS national title game in both years had they won the conference championship game leading up to the BCS playoff.
Should Mizzou claim the mythical 1960 natty and fly a flag at Faurot Field/Memorial Stadium? I’ll be honest when I was in Athletics and the topic was first broached, I didn’t like the concept but I’ve come around 180 degrees on it and feel like if there’s a system that had us as #1 then why the heck shouldn’t we claim it?
What say you?
Yesterday at Rock M and Rock M+
- The football Tigers got a nice offensive line transfer from Florida State in Jaylen Early, as detailed by Josh Matejka, while Sammy Stava broke down wideout transfer Xavier Loyd…
Early comes to Mizzou with extensive experience starting and rotating for the Seminoles, who just endured a disastrous year under Mike Norvell. And while that might give some Tiger fans pause, Early graded out as the Seminoles best offensive lineman on the season, earning a season 79 score from Pro Football Focus — a score that would’ve ranked third behind Armand Membou and Cam’Ron Johnson last year. Early has played all of his snaps at tackle, but can switch to guard if needed…
Early started 7 of 17 games for Florida State the past two years and has two years of eligibility left, while Loyd chose Mizzou over Oklahoma, Wisconsin and Louisville…
- The positional postmortem series for 2024 by Nate Edwards wrapped up with a look at the specialists…
Obviously Blake Craig has been dynamite on the kickoffs, knocking kicks out of the back of the end zone 68.9% of the time and pinning offenses on the 28.5 yard line on average, both of which are great. But any missed field goal for a Drinkwitz team is an amplified missed opportunity, and 19-year Blake Craig could not replicate Thiccer’s range, going 7-16 on field goal 40+ yards long. The flip side? 17-18 on field goals under 40 yards…
You’ll have to read the piece, but Nate gives a very eye-opening breakdown of how the Tiger special teams have slipped in some facets the past few years. Interesting stuff…
- Mizzou baseball got knocked around in an 11-0 run-rule loss at Missouri State Tuesday night, as Matthew Gustafson reported. But there was a promising development, as Sam Horn pitched a scoreless first inning in his 2025 season debut…
The highlight of the game was Sam Horn’s return. Mizzou’s dual-sport hurler had not appeared in a game since Feb. 25, 2023, against TCU, missing all of last season after tearing his UCL and requiring Tommy John surgery. He got off to a slow start, allowing a leadoff single and some hard contact, but showed the talent which made him a candidate to go in the first few rounds of the MLB Draft out of high school…
Despite the leadoff single, Horn needed only eight pitches to navigate his only inning of work, allowing the one hit while striking out one batter. We’ll see how careful the coaching staff is with the hard-throwing righty, but you’d have to imagine they’ll start stretching his pitch count little by little the rest of the season…
To keep up with all Mizzou WBB portal moves, check out the Rock M Nation WBB Transfer Tracker which will be updated with each exciting addition to Coach Harper’s first Tiger roster.
After making the NCAA Tournament in all of her four seasons at Mizzou, Cunningham will enter her seventh season in the WNBA, but her first year with the Indiana Fever alongside superstar Caitlin Clark.
- Over at Rock M+: Sam Snelling dropped an interesting rumor regarding a candidate to take over men’s hoops’ GM position, plus more basketball and football coverage.
Rock M Radio: Spring Transfers & Mizzou Football
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