If you were the coach of the Missouri Tigers.....

Problem: No bagman.

Fix: Get a bagman.

Lay out a strategic vision of where you want your players to come from. You do this by:

(1) As coach you hire coaches that are excellent recruiters who can coach. (2) Actually let those coaches do what they do best coach and assign areas to recruit that they (as coaches) have proven they can recruit (3) As a head coach you must be an excellent talent evaluator. If not surround your self with quality coaches and have them teach you to learn the process. Everyone needs a mentor. (4) develop offensive and defensive schemes that fit your players capabilities. (5) Build cohesion and teamwork. Players must buy into head coach philosophy. If not, players need to be processed out of the program.
(6) Emphasize that players play for Mizzou, not themselves.
(7) Learn and sing the alma mater with the players.
(8) Identify recruits early on and build relationships.
(9) Be relentless in all that you do.
(10) Bring respect to Mizzou in every thing you do.
(11) Make it fun for the players to play for Mizzou.
(12) Embrace those who have played for Mizzou.
(13) Aspire to compete and win the conference.

We need to fill up our stadium for every game. We have one of the smallest stadiums in the SEC.
We need to put a recruiter on top recruits that are not in the tri-state region instead of just offering the player and that's it.
We probably need to put more emphasis on talent in B10, Texas and B12 country and then SEC territory.
We need to get on talent and locate it early and show a lot of love.(athletes from this generation love attention)
FACILITIES
Win, win, win and be exciting.

or

Hire a NFL coach who's on the hot seat or his team has been struggling(New Orleans Saints) with a name like Michigan did with Harbaugh.

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If you were the coach of the Missouri Tigers.

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I would have some serious money for blow and hookers

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would have some serious money for blow and hookers

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So you would invite Maty back as a recruiter.....I can dig it

I would surround myself with people who are good at identifying and finding talent. You can't just go by how many stars a kid is rated as having.

For example, Bielema's offensive philosophy centers around having a big, powerful, front line to run a pro style offensive behind. So, naturally, in his 4th season we are... a Big 12 style finesse team with poor line play. Gobs and gobs of talent in the skill positions but we are starting a former DT who has never played the offensive line.

Its not that we haven't recruited highly ranked linemen and landed a few, its that the ones we did land aren't very good. We did a poor job of identifying who out there had real SEC level talent and now we are paying the price for that.

So if I was the new coach of Mizzou my priority would be to find recruiters who can only land a recruit, but can accurately judge just how good that recruit is.

Mmmm. Not exactly a list of juggernauts in college football.

Though he is class of 2018 so interest in him might start to pick up as he gets closer to graduation, in that case an early offer to establish yourself might be a smart move.

I'm always a little leery about going all in on a kid before his senior year off high school because he might not develop to be the stud player that people are projecting him to become. But I'm paranoid that way.

I'd say take a look at how much interest he is getting a year from now and if some big names have thrown their hat into the ring or not.

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remember the recruiting of EZ. I remember watching his videos of touring both Ohio State and then Mizzou. What I walked away with was how much difference there was between the two. Ohio State had a huge main hall dedicated to it's rivalry with Michigan, the locker rooms were better than what some NFL teams have. Then we get to Mizzou's. Typical locker room look for an average college and their walk down the hall reminded me of some high school facility.

So, in short. Facilities. Facilities. Facilities. First impressions are lasting impressions. Always upgrade and improve your facilities.

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Howard Richards was on 590 today and was asked how Mizzou can compete with the LSU's on the recruiting front and he placed facilities as #1 on the list.

He thinks the upcoming South End Zone project will put us on an even playing feild with the rest of the league and said the recent pictures were only preliminary, leading me to believe he thinks the final product will be flashier.

Here's the interview if anyone is interested. LINK

It's just one area. It's the easiest fix though. It's only money. Other things can't necessarily be bought. This can. It will help.

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Maybe it's a pipe dream to think Missouri can be much more than we've been

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I wouldn't go that far. Missouri has had some great seasons after all. Primarily it comes down to the recruiting area you happen to have squatter's right for.

For whatever reason Missouri doesn't seem to produce as much top in state talent as it should, and to make matters worse a lot of that talent is lured out of state. I feel your pain, Arkansas doesn't have the sheer population base to pull it off.

So in order to reach major team status you are going to need to expand your recruiting footprint. You will need to build a team that has sustained success, Pinkel brought you a fairly good amount of that but he was content to take two and three star players and get the best out of them.

Unless you want to go the Ole Miss route and risk the NCAA dropping the hammer on you I think there are no magic solutions to recruiting. Lots of hard work on the recruiting and lots of time. Keep a good coach for a long run and build on success one year at a time. That or get a big money booster and pray you don't get the NCAA's attention.

EDIT: Bah whenever I get tired I tend to leave whole letters out of what I write. Probably a good sign its time for me to mosey away form the computer for tonight.