3 takeaways from the first stop of Missouri athletics' 2024 Come Home Tour
SEDALIA, Mo. — Missouri’s 2024 Come Home Tour has a new centerpiece.
The MU athletics department’s fundraising and fan-engagement tour that will make six stops across the Show-Me State — and one in Dallas, Texas — over the next four weeks had the usual draws for fans who turned up Lamy’s No. 5 Bistro and Bar for the first stop of the series.
Four Missouri student-athletes — football’s Daylan Carnell; men’s basketball’s Aidan Shaw; gymnastics’ Jocelyn Moore; and men’s golf’s Adam Miller — spoke to guests and answered questions. Two Missouri football assistants, running backs coach Curtis Luper and cornerbacks coach Al Pogue, did the same.
But front and center, allowing the fans an opportunity for photos and an up-close glance, was the Cotton Bowl trophy, secured after Eli Drinkwitz’s football team went 11-2 and beat Ohio State in Arlington, Texas, for the program’s first major bowl win in over a decade.
How about that for a selling point?
Here are three takeaways from the first of six events:
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Fans ask about new Missouri football DC Corey Batoon
The Missouri athletes and assistants fielded questions from the 50-strong audience on the patio at the Sedalia establishment.
Most were lighthearted.
How high can you jump, Aidan Shaw?
What game have you got circled on the calendar, Missouri football coaches?
Answers, respectively: 48 inches; and Murray State in the season-opener, but also, slightly off mic, SEC newcomers Oklahoma.
But one query for Carnell, the Missouri star safety who will make up one of three returning starters on the Mizzou defense next season, hit on an offseason topic of curiosity.
How’s the new defensive coordinator?
The questioner is referring to Corey Batoon, the Tigers’ new defensive coordinator who takes the reins from Blake Baker, who left MU for the same role at LSU.
Here was Carnell’s answer:
“He's a real detailed guy,” Carnell said. “He's a big technique guy — I love the scheme he's put in. … I love what he's put in, a few similarities to last year, but he's his own person, own defensive coordinator, so he put his own twists and turns, what he likes. Overall, I love Coach Batoon. I talk with him daily. Great guy, brings the energy every day.”
The Missouri coaches touched on the subject, too.
Pogue made a comparison to Baker but with one key difference.
“Coach Baker, he was the big dog behind the fence just (barking),” Pogue said. “Whereas — Coach Batoon is the same guy, he just growls and shows his teeth, he doesn’t bark. For me personally, that’s the dog you should really be afraid of.”
Newcomers to watch in the fall
It was like spring camp all over again.
The question for Luper and Pogie —which newcomers stood out, coach? — came from another fan present.
Well, here’s who:
“A guy named Nicholas DeLoach,” Pogue said, referencing one of his redshirt freshman cornerbacks. … “Nobody knew about him, (and he) came to camp and earned his offer the old-fashioned way. He went and played like eight games of 7-on-7, did an individual workout for myself. … (Missouri director of athletic performance Ryan Russell) has done a really good job with him in the weight room, and he's always one of the top performers (with his) vertical and 40s and things like that.”
Luper used his offensive perspective to shout out a couple of defensive ends: Darris Smith and Zion Young.
“If we can get what we think we're gonna get from them,” Luper said, “defensively, we’ll be really good.”
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What are they selling?
The events, of course, are in essence a sales pitch to Missouri fans.
So, what are the Tigers selling?
Blair DeBord, Missouri’s associated director of athletics for development and strategic development, offered a three-point synopsis.
Season tickets, for one. Approximately half of the crowd gathered in Sedalia raised their hands when asked if they were football season ticket holders.
Second: Contributions to the Tiger Scholarship Fund, which is the official fundraising arm of Mizzou Athletics.
And the big one: NIL contributions.
“The Tiger Fund right now is what is giving us an incredible competitive advantage in college athletics,” DeBord said, “because of our incredible state law.”
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He’s referencing House Bill 417, passed last summer, which gives Missouri a leg up in recruiting within its state borders, especially, as it allows Missouri products to begin profiting from their likeness while in high school, as long as they sign a document signaling their intent to commit to an in-state secondary institution.
Several states have passed similar laws since Missouri set the tone.
The athletic department recently secured a $62 million anonymous donation, with $12 million intended to go toward the Tiger Fund.
The tour will make six more free-to-attend stops: In Kansas City on Monday; Jefferson City on Tuesday; Springfield on Wednesday; Dallas, Texas, on April 23; Moberly on May 1; and St. Louis on May 9.
This article originally appeared on Columbia Daily Tribune: 3 takeaways from first stop of Missouri athletics' 2024 Come Home Tour