In college football there are very few schools who earn a reputation for excellence in a particular position group. Examples that come to mind are Alabama for linebackers, Florida for defensive backs, Cal Berkeley for quarterbacks and Oklahoma for running backs. Missouri in the last several years distinguished itself in college football by producing outstanding defensive linemen who went on to success in the NFL. This led to a national reputation and the outstanding moniker D Line Zou. Whereas the other schools above leverage their reputation and build upon it in recruiting I see our new coaching staff as not only missing an excellent opportunity to build upon this but undermining all of the work in building this reputation by changing the defensive scheme. Missouri sports rarely earns a national reputation in anything in college football and to not build upon this and market the D Line Zou to recruits is an opportunity lost much to my disappointment. Branding is critical in college football and Mizzou football had a national identity and brand. HCBO and Demontie Cross are making a huge mistake in not building upon this reputation and switching to a defensive scheme which has produced extremely poor results against quality opponents. Mizzou does not distinguish itself in college athletics very often yet we did with our defensive lineman. It is time to turn Charles Harris and Terry Beckner loose on the pass rush and let someone else worry about gap control.
