All of our initial wave of stuff from media day has been posted both on the front page and the message board. Wanted to make sure you all see Pete's notebook from last night.
The big news was the release of the first depth chart of the Odom era. Before I get into my thoughts on it, I made sure to ask Odom how much it could change. He said he did things the way he did them to create competition and he wants that to continue. He admitted the depth could change in a few spots by Saturday. They're gonna play a LOT of guys. Different guys may be out there with the first team from week to week. The first depth chart is a starting point, but in no way a finishing point.
That said, I'll just go position by position and offer some thoughts.
QB: No surprise. Drew Lock starts, Marvin Zanders will play. I made sure to ask if what the plan was there. Barry Odom said they'll play anybody who has proven he can help them win. He said Zanders has done that.
RB: Alex Ross 1, Ish Witter 2. A bit of a surprise as maybe we expected Damarea Crockett to be No. 2, but Odom has really praised Witter since the spring. He said that five backs will travel (assume Nate Strong and Ryan Williams are the others) and four will probably carry the ball. So even though 2/3 may have been reversed, it's pretty much what we anticipated.
WR: Multiple surprises here. First of all, the inclusion of Emanuel Hall as a potential starter. We knew the staff was very high on Hall, but he had missed quite a bit of camp. Odom said he stayed engaged and took a lot of mental reps and it's a credit to him still to be in position to start. Not surprised the guy he's competing with is Dimetrios Mason. We heard a lot about him.
In the slot, I'm not shocked that Chris Black isn't a runaway starter. He was hurt and I haven't heard as much about him as some other guys. I'll be honest in saying Johnathon Johnson surprised me a little bit. I hadn't heard a ton about him either. That's what not seeing camp will do. Ray Wingo being on the depth isn't a surprise. I think he's one of the guys that's really going to benefit from the new staff and a fresh start.
Finally, Dominic Collins told me that he didn't finish camp as strong as he would have liked, but he felt good about his overall performance and is listed behind J'Mon Moore (note on Collins, he said his parents are making the trip from California to Morgantown to watch him play on Saturday which is pretty cool).
I was surprised not to see Keyon Dilosa's name anywhere. Also, just occurred to me Eric Laurent wasn't listed. Again, that's not really a shock, just kind of shows the folly of stressing over a depth chart guess in the first week of camp.
TE: Exactly what we expected. Sean Culkin, Jason Reese and Kendall Blanton will play. The freshmen probably won't.
OL: No surprises really. It lines up the way we expected.
DE: Credit to Jordan Harold. I thought someone would beat him out. Nobody did. Great story. Marcell Frazier and Spencer Williams will play. Josh Moore is probably the fifth guy. That means a redshirt for Tre Williams seems almost certain (and at this point, maybe one for Nate Howard too).
DT: Terry Beckner is listed as a second stringer and people are gonna freak out about that. I'd be willing to bet he plays at least half the snaps and if there's a down Missouri really needs a stop on third and short, I would expect Beckner to be in the game. The Tigers go four deep here (including Rickey Hatley, AJ Logan and Josh Augusta) with Markell Utsey as the fifth guy who isn't likely to play unless there's an injury.
LB: No surprises here either. If five play, Terez Hall and Cale Garrett are probably 4/5 in the order. Brandon Lee will help some as well.
CB: TJ Warren will eventually be a factor here, but it sounds like the plan is to work him in on special teams early and ease him into the defense. Christian Holmes is going to play. The surprise here was DeMarkus Acy, who we didn't realize had moved from safety. Odom said Acy can play all five secondary spots (including the nickel back) which is a big factor in him playing. Odom also said when they go nickel, they'd leave Donavin Newsom on the field as the first option and just put him in more of a "hybrid" position.
S: Maybe a mild surprise to see Ronnell Perkins name there, but last week when Anthony Sherrils missed a practice, Perkins was getting reps with the ones. Not seeing Greg Taylor means he's probably going to get special teams reps to start the season and have to leapfrog someone to get meaningful time on defense.
ST: Nothing too earth shattering here. Odom did say Tucker McCann would do kickoffs, but if the game had been yesterday, the decision on field goals would have come down to pre-game warmups. Not sure that inspires a ton of confidence. In the return game, Johnson and Black are both listed as starters. Odom said both would get opportunities against the Mountaineers.
Quick note on the depth chart overall. I broke down the average years on campus for each side of the ball (not total experience, for example, Alex Ross counted as 0 here, Marcell Frazier as 1...I was just using Mizzou experience). The maximum average would be 4.0 if every player was a redshirt senior who had started his career at Mizzou. Here's what the numbers were:
OFFENSE: 25 players, average of 1.32 years
DEFENSE: 23 players, 1.91 years
Both sides are pretty young. But offense is REALLY young. And maybe that's a good thing...if not for this year, at least for the future. I don't know if it means anything, just found it interesting.
Couple of WV links:
Holgerson says Mizzou is a mystery
WVU looking at LB platoon
8:37 AM UPDATE
*We take a look at three key matchups in this weekend's game when Mizzou is on defense
*A couple of recruiting notes. Mizzou has offered juco DE Michael Clemons:
*ICYMI, last night, Eric Bossi posted that 2019 Chicago PG Marquise Walker will visit September 24th, the weekend Missouri faces Delaware State in football.
We'll have plenty of stuff coming throughout the course of the day.
The big news was the release of the first depth chart of the Odom era. Before I get into my thoughts on it, I made sure to ask Odom how much it could change. He said he did things the way he did them to create competition and he wants that to continue. He admitted the depth could change in a few spots by Saturday. They're gonna play a LOT of guys. Different guys may be out there with the first team from week to week. The first depth chart is a starting point, but in no way a finishing point.
That said, I'll just go position by position and offer some thoughts.
QB: No surprise. Drew Lock starts, Marvin Zanders will play. I made sure to ask if what the plan was there. Barry Odom said they'll play anybody who has proven he can help them win. He said Zanders has done that.
RB: Alex Ross 1, Ish Witter 2. A bit of a surprise as maybe we expected Damarea Crockett to be No. 2, but Odom has really praised Witter since the spring. He said that five backs will travel (assume Nate Strong and Ryan Williams are the others) and four will probably carry the ball. So even though 2/3 may have been reversed, it's pretty much what we anticipated.
WR: Multiple surprises here. First of all, the inclusion of Emanuel Hall as a potential starter. We knew the staff was very high on Hall, but he had missed quite a bit of camp. Odom said he stayed engaged and took a lot of mental reps and it's a credit to him still to be in position to start. Not surprised the guy he's competing with is Dimetrios Mason. We heard a lot about him.
In the slot, I'm not shocked that Chris Black isn't a runaway starter. He was hurt and I haven't heard as much about him as some other guys. I'll be honest in saying Johnathon Johnson surprised me a little bit. I hadn't heard a ton about him either. That's what not seeing camp will do. Ray Wingo being on the depth isn't a surprise. I think he's one of the guys that's really going to benefit from the new staff and a fresh start.
Finally, Dominic Collins told me that he didn't finish camp as strong as he would have liked, but he felt good about his overall performance and is listed behind J'Mon Moore (note on Collins, he said his parents are making the trip from California to Morgantown to watch him play on Saturday which is pretty cool).
I was surprised not to see Keyon Dilosa's name anywhere. Also, just occurred to me Eric Laurent wasn't listed. Again, that's not really a shock, just kind of shows the folly of stressing over a depth chart guess in the first week of camp.
TE: Exactly what we expected. Sean Culkin, Jason Reese and Kendall Blanton will play. The freshmen probably won't.
OL: No surprises really. It lines up the way we expected.
DE: Credit to Jordan Harold. I thought someone would beat him out. Nobody did. Great story. Marcell Frazier and Spencer Williams will play. Josh Moore is probably the fifth guy. That means a redshirt for Tre Williams seems almost certain (and at this point, maybe one for Nate Howard too).
DT: Terry Beckner is listed as a second stringer and people are gonna freak out about that. I'd be willing to bet he plays at least half the snaps and if there's a down Missouri really needs a stop on third and short, I would expect Beckner to be in the game. The Tigers go four deep here (including Rickey Hatley, AJ Logan and Josh Augusta) with Markell Utsey as the fifth guy who isn't likely to play unless there's an injury.
LB: No surprises here either. If five play, Terez Hall and Cale Garrett are probably 4/5 in the order. Brandon Lee will help some as well.
CB: TJ Warren will eventually be a factor here, but it sounds like the plan is to work him in on special teams early and ease him into the defense. Christian Holmes is going to play. The surprise here was DeMarkus Acy, who we didn't realize had moved from safety. Odom said Acy can play all five secondary spots (including the nickel back) which is a big factor in him playing. Odom also said when they go nickel, they'd leave Donavin Newsom on the field as the first option and just put him in more of a "hybrid" position.
S: Maybe a mild surprise to see Ronnell Perkins name there, but last week when Anthony Sherrils missed a practice, Perkins was getting reps with the ones. Not seeing Greg Taylor means he's probably going to get special teams reps to start the season and have to leapfrog someone to get meaningful time on defense.
ST: Nothing too earth shattering here. Odom did say Tucker McCann would do kickoffs, but if the game had been yesterday, the decision on field goals would have come down to pre-game warmups. Not sure that inspires a ton of confidence. In the return game, Johnson and Black are both listed as starters. Odom said both would get opportunities against the Mountaineers.
Quick note on the depth chart overall. I broke down the average years on campus for each side of the ball (not total experience, for example, Alex Ross counted as 0 here, Marcell Frazier as 1...I was just using Mizzou experience). The maximum average would be 4.0 if every player was a redshirt senior who had started his career at Mizzou. Here's what the numbers were:
OFFENSE: 25 players, average of 1.32 years
DEFENSE: 23 players, 1.91 years
Both sides are pretty young. But offense is REALLY young. And maybe that's a good thing...if not for this year, at least for the future. I don't know if it means anything, just found it interesting.
Couple of WV links:
Holgerson says Mizzou is a mystery
WVU looking at LB platoon
8:37 AM UPDATE
*We take a look at three key matchups in this weekend's game when Mizzou is on defense
*A couple of recruiting notes. Mizzou has offered juco DE Michael Clemons:
*ICYMI, last night, Eric Bossi posted that 2019 Chicago PG Marquise Walker will visit September 24th, the weekend Missouri faces Delaware State in football.
We'll have plenty of stuff coming throughout the course of the day.
Last edited:
