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For today's camp notebook, I've got a sampling of things I talked about with Mizzou assistant coaches at pre-camp media day on Sunday. I talked with every offensive assistant and then spent a good amount of time with defensive coordinator Blake Baker. Here are some of the things we talked about:
Erik Link, Tight Ends coach/Special Teams Coordinator
When asked about a position battle he was paying particular attention to, Eli Drinkwitz mentioned the punting competition. Here’s what Link said about it:
“It's an open competition right now. Really between three guys. Jack Stonehouse, who's a redshirt freshman, Sean Koetting who, you know, actually punted for us in the Arkansas game at the end of the year. And he's been a backup, you know, was a backup punter for the last two seasons. And then Luke Bauer was a kid out of St. Louis. Between those three guys. They're competing for the job, and hopefully we'll have that solidified soon.”
On splitting duties between special teams and tight ends: “A lot of early mornings and late nights. No, we have great support staff that obviously helps out. Whether it's, you know, quality control coaches, assistants, analysts, graduate assistants that all are kind of chipping in and the rest of our coaching staff. But it's something that I've done before. It's definitely, you got to manage your time effectively and be efficient. But, you know, it's certainly doable. And I would say it's more rare to have standalone special teams coordinators, even though it's become more popular. It's still probably more on the rare side. So, again, something I've done before, and I'm excited to be working on the offensive side.”
Curtis Luper, Running Backs Coach
On freshman Tavorus Jones: “You can initially tell that he's got some suddenness to him and some quickness so we're excited to see what what he has, what it's like when you put the pads on. Then he can go, so we're going to make sure we know exactly what capabilities he has going into the first football game, how he can help us win.”
I asked him about running back being a position you can play early and what the hardest parts to learn are. I said that I assumed it was pass blocking.
“In the evolution of a running back that's the last thing that's gonna happen. You know, he's gonna be a guy who can pick up the blitz and read the defense and scan the defense and block from one side of the field to the other side and be in sync with the offense. We won’t ask him to do much of that. It'll just be obvious. Obviously, he's got to see what he can do with football, you know, as a runner and as a receiver, maybe a kick returner as well. But it is mentally the easiest position on the field to play. Maybe not on Saturday. On Saturday, it’s one of the most demanding positions because I tell the guy I tell the coaches, I'm like, you get the football at running back, all 22 eyes are on us defensively and they're all coming…It’s a physically taxing position. Tyler Badie had 330 touches and he had 1000 hits to his body counting the hit to the ground. So it's a physically tough position.”
Three guys are coming back that played last year in Michael Cox, Elijah Young and BJ Harris. I asked Luper whether their limited carries last year had something to do with what they weren’t doing or whether it was more simply because Tyler Badie was so good.
“I didn't expect him to be 30 touches a game, 28, whatever he had. I expected 15, maybe 20. So it was more to him. And then so the same thing this year. You know I've had four running backs at 500 yards to get to 2000 and we have had one. So running back by committee that, you know, that works.”
Marcus Johnson, Offensive Line Coach
Obviously I talked to Johnson prior to knowing that Bence Polgar was ineligible. When Drinkwitz delivered that news, he told us Connor Tollison, Drake Heismeyer and Richard Taylor would compete for the job and all three are capable. I asked Johnson how close he was to identifying his top five or top ten guys at the start of camp.
“My thing is I treat tomorrow like they’re freshmen. There are some guys that have been here for a while and they know the terminology and the lingo and it’s s probably gonna get boring. My thing was it doesn't matter if you’re Javon Foster or Woody (Connor Wood) or whoever I’m gonna treat them all the same. I think that's my job and just assume nothing. I don't know if you’re ever comfortable with it you know what I mean? Just because it's always next man up mentality, but it’s day one. I’m gonna treat it as such.”
