BenFred: M-I-Z, Transfer U? Drinkwitz and Gates modernized to move Mizzou forward (2024)

Star Missouri football receiver Luther Burden recalled the moment he knew incoming Tigers transfer Toriano Pride was gifted.

It was long before the former Clemson defensive back wowed his new MU coaches with a 4.36 40-yard dash during a recent practice.

Burden and Pride grew up playing both with and against one another in and around St. Louis.

“Most impressive thing?” Burden said Thursday during Mizzou’s “Come Home Tour” caravan swing through St. Charles.

The Heisman Trophy hopeful grinned.

“Probably stopping me.”

When Pride hit the transfer portal, Burden and Tigers head coach Eli Drinkwitz went from their normal player-coach relationship to transfer recruiting teammates, trying to sell the former four-star prospect on the Mizzou program he passed over when both he and Burden departed East St. Louis High as part of the 2022 class.

Yes, said Burden, the pitch was easier coming off an 11-win season that included Mizzou’s Cotton Bowl victory against Ohio State.

“I was on him,” Burden said. “Because I’m trying to build something special here. Leave it better than I found it. I feel like he can definitely help with that.”

Pride aims to answer one of multiple question marks on a Mizzou defense that lost its coordinator to LSU and a good chunk of players to the NFL Draft.

Zoom out, and he’s one of 14 (for now) incoming transfers in a class of them that includes four former four-star prospects.

From the portal, Drinkwitz has added from Michigan (linebacker Jeremiah Beasley), Oklahoma (offensive lineman Cayden Green), Georgia (pass rusher Darris Smith) and Clemson (Pride.) He answered his quarterback depth need with the portal addition of Drew Pyne to play behind returning starter Brady Cook, and he hopes to hit big on Georgia State transfer-up running back Marcus Carroll. Scouting Service 247Sports ranks Mizzou’s transfer class as No. 16 in the nation. And Drinkwitz isn’t done yet.

“If you ask me if we are still shopping in the portal, the portal is always shopping,” Drinkwitz said. “We are always shopping and hopping.”

Drinkwitz calls modern transfer recruiting a faster version of speed-dating.

Now consider third-year Mizzou men’s basketball coach Dennis Gates, who also is all aboard the transfer train.

While there’s nothing very nice to say about Gates’ second season other than it’s over, it should bode well for his ability to rebound that in addition to a keeping a highly ranked incoming freshman class from fracturing, he also created the necessary roster space to add multiple transfers who should make immediate impacts.

Gates needs transfer-up additions Jacob Crews (UT-Martin) and Marques Warrick (Northern Kentucky) to pop. Tony Perkins (Iowa) and Mark Mitchell (Duke) are more than familiar with college hoops’ highest level. Gates had to churn talent and didn’t hesitate, using the portal to buy time for the roster’s youth. His offseason moves made fans excited about both the present and the future. Considering last year’s flop, that’s saying something.

“Top-10 portal class in the country,” Gates said Thursday. “We are one or two more pieces away, and we are definitely still continuing to recruit. It’s not over until our summer session starts.”

You have to get more out of the portal than you lose to it to survive as a coach right now. If you’re crying about players pursuing NIL cash in their portal pursuits, you’re probably doing more losing than winning. Programs in the state of Missouri, thanks to aggressive NIL laws, can benefit more than most through coaches’ abilities to be heavily involved with NIL negotiations for recruits. Show-Me no excuses.

Drinkwitz, like new SLU basketball coach Josh Schertz, talks about the reality in terms that often sound like a pro-sports general manager navigating free agency, complete with salary-cap concerns. Figuring out where and how to spend your NIL purse is now a key coaching skill. Embracing the present doesn’t mean these coaches don’t have concerns about the trend or where it’s headed. But others can fret over that. These guys have work to do. For someone who has long been over the pro-NCAA narrative of amateurism, it’s refreshing to hear coaches get real.

“Each coach has their own opinion on what they’re trying to do,” Drinkwitz said. “Obviously, we are active in the portal. It’s really helped our program. Eleven of the 22 starters last year came from portal opportunities. It’s a game of Moneyball. You have to figure out what is the investment you want for the return you can get, in balancing the roster and what all that means. For us, it’s a positive, and something we are going to be in.”

When you compare what Mizzou is doing in the NIL-driven portal to what is happening at some other places, the Tigers look and sound like they are ahead.

Pride’s old program, Clemson, for example, has been trounced in the transfer-portal trenches this offseason, perhaps due to Clemson coach Dabo Swinney’s continued handwringing about NIL.

LSU coach Brian Kelly was caught whining after missing out on some defensive line targets who scored bigger paydays elsewhere.

“We’re not in the market of buying players, and unfortunately, right now, that’s what some guys are looking for,” Kelly said in a TV interview. “They want to be bought.”

Funny, Kelly didn’t have a hard time buying Mizzou defensive coordinator Blake Baker this past offseason. I don’t think former Heisman Trophy winner Jayden Daniels, who considered Mizzou before transferring from Arizona State to LSU, played for free before he entered the NFL.

Drinkwitz and Gates don’t get every transfer they want, but they are hitting more than they are missing, and they aren’t sounding like hypocrites while doing it.

Everybody on Mizzou’s campus seems to get it, from the new athletics department boss ...

“The coaches who have struggled, I think, have been stuck in the ways of the past,” Laird Veatch said. “Change is moving so fast, you don’t have time to stop and worry about it or regret it. You just have to completely embrace it, jump in and take advantage of it.”

... To the star football player.

“I definitely like helping, because I feel like a lot of players can relate to what I’m saying,” Burden said. “Shoot, it’s going to help our team get better. Whatever I can do that can do that, I’m going to do.”