Just over the weekend Mizzou saw 4x All-American Rocky Elam enter the transfer portal and quickly head to conference rival Iowa State. This news comes on the heels of their worst NCAA finish (14th) since 2014, their fewest qualifiers since 2010 (6), and their worst dual season since 2001. Through all that, I am very confident in the future of the Tigers and wanted to explain my reasoning and hopefully calm the fears of fans that I have seen.
Here are 5 reasons why The Future is Bright For Mizzou Tigers
- Injuries have been prevalent the past two seasons.
- Mizzou is bringing in back-to-back top ten recruiting classes for the first time…ever?
- Down years are relative, and it says more about how much Mizzou has improved and set the standard.
- The Rocky Elam transfer is complicated, but good for both parties.
- There are still a number of things I would like to see Mizzou take a step forward in.
Let’s dive into each:
- Injuries have been prevalent the past two seasons.
No one is ignorant to the injury issues that Mizzou has had the past two seasons, but they are at the core of disappointing results. So let’s dive into them. In the 2024 season we saw Kade Moore, Logan Gioffre, and Rocky Elam all miss significant time due to injuries. Moore was a unique off-the-mat incident, Gioffre had ribs broken during a match, and Rocky had a surgery recovery coming into the season.
In 2025 there was the medical retirement of Noah Surtin, Cam Steed had multiple injuries leading to injury defaults that swung duals, Keegan O’Toole was competing on a torn ACL for most of the season, Colton Hawks suffered a significant knee injury early in the year, Rocky Elam missed the season due to an injury after multiple offseason surgeries, and Seth Nitzel missed time due to a broken hand.
Every team has injuries, but missing a 4x NCAA qualifier (Surtin) and 4x All-American (Elam) is hard to make up. In their places you had a true freshman and a wrestler who had only spot started up to that point. O’Toole and Hawks were clearly wrestling differently due to their injuries. Seth Nitzel missed out on qualifying, but if he hadn’t missed as much time I think he would have had enough matches to get an At-Large as he had wins over four qualifiers. An under-discussed wrestler with injuries is Josh Edmond, who has suffered head injuries at important points during the season and was sporting a more protective headgear at NCAA’s this year.
Now if you have questions about injury prevention within the program, I think that’s fair after the past two years. But this season, all the wrestlers that suffered significant injuries were in their 5th year or greater. The only one that wasn’t was Cam Steed, who recovered and finished as an All-American. If injuries are a continued issue throughout the lineup, it could become a pattern and I think worth worrying about. Right now though, I think they’re a team that’s had a combined bad luck and an older lineup that has more wear and tear.
- Mizzou is bringing in back-to-back top ten recruiting classes for the first time…ever?
Wrestling recruiting rankings are a more recent thing within the past decade, and within that time the Tigers have never had consecutive top ten classes. Their highest ranked class was in 2020, with wrestlers like Keegan O’Toole and Rocky Elam. Other than that, since 2015 their recruiting classes have been ranked 8, UR, 16, 7, UR, 2, UR, 6, UR, 7. While the rankings haven’t officially come through yet, FloWrestling currently has Missouri at #4 for 2025. On top of that, they already have a top ten commit for 2026 in Antonio Mills.
While many associate Mizzou’s top recruits with the Askren Wrestling Academy, it is not a secret feeder group for the Tigers anymore. Many top college programs are recruiting AWA guys left and right. And while Mizzou is still bringing in top AWA commits with Aeoden Sinclair and Danny Heiser, they’ve expanded how they recruit as well.