As usual, we'll start with what you might have missed last night or this morning.
Schiffer's story on recent offer Keisean Nixon
Assistants talk after practice
Missouri sent out a flurry of offers yesterday. Here are the ones we know about:
2018 OT Ollie Lane
2018 LB Jesse Luketa
Trio of offers out in LA
2018 Center Dan Dawkins
Missouri is being aggressive. One thing we can tell you about this staff, they offer much earlier than Pinkel's. And they offer more, let's say, casually. Pinkel's staff had to all be on board to send out an offer and once they sent out an offer, largely, it was an actual committable offer. This staff does things much more the way the vast majority of college football does them. There's an art to offering. You offer everyone you think might be able to play. But they can't all commit. Then down the road, if you decide they really can play (or if you miss on your top targets and have to move on to plan B or C) you can tell a kid "We were with you all along man. We offered you back in September of your junior year." I know it seems a little sketchy, but it's how virtually all major programs do it.
Also in recruiting, 2018 St. Louis DT Michael Thompson was offered by LSU and Miami yesterday. That brings him to at least 15 offers, the vast majority Power Five offers. The 2018 St. Louis class (with Thompson, Trevor Trout, Kamryn Babb, Ronnie Perkins, et al) is just absolutely loaded. It would be fantastic for Missouri if one would jump on board and be the ring leader. But we don't get the sense any of these kids are going to end the process early. The Tigers will stay involved throughout. They need to do decently on the field, but more than that, this staff needs to take the relationships in St. Louis to a level they haven't been at. Larry was better than those before him, Pinkel was better than Larry. But there's still some work to be done in certain pockets of the city. You can get mad, you can say that's not how it should be, you can not believe me if you want to. But it's true. Barry Odom's staff has made strides forward. But there are more to be made.
Yesterday, we looked at three defensive questions facing the Tigers. Today, we'll tackle three offensive questions.
1. Are we all on the same page here? Now, I'm not trying to make this some big scandal or controversy because it isn't one. But when the head coach says they messed up the quarterback substitution and I ask the offensive coordinator about it and he says fairly sternly, "I wouldn't do anything differently" it's at least enough to raise an eyebrow. Josh Heupel made it pretty clear that he's the one in charge of substituting the QBs during the game and he was comfortable with what they did. I've always gotten the sense that he and Odom have a great relationship, are fully pulling in the same direction. And I don't think that's changed. It's fine for two guys to disagree. Odom has backed Heupel, said he's going to let him run the offense. He might go to him behind closed doors this week and say "Hey, if Drew's led us down the field twice in a row, let's leave him in and see if he can score next time." Or maybe he won't. But bottom line, I really don't think this is an issue in any way.
2. Who backs up the iron men up front? Missouri played 100 snaps on offense. The starting five offensive linemen played all 100 of them. I'm going to have a story on this group tomorrow, but in talking to them and to Glenn Elarbee this week, I asked if there were some reinforcements on the way. All said there were backups who were coming along and could help out. I think if Eastern Michigan had been last week, you'd have seen a good number of them play. Elarbee said he wanted to give those guys another week to get comfortable. Odom said on Monday he expected a couple more true freshmen to play in addition to those who did last week and Trystan Castillo is certainly one of those. So Missouri's starting five is set...but those five won't play every snap of the season.
3. Is the running game still a problem? Cornell Ford was fairly blunt when I talked to him yesterday. He said the running backs were "okay." I asked about how you make sure Damarea Crockett's confidence isn't shaken by an early fumble and he said, "If I put his butt in there, I expect him to do the job." Like the line, he said that there are four backs who he expects to contribute. West Virginia, you don't put your fourth string tailback in usually, but I expect someone else to get a look. What I don't know is who it is. When he said he thought he had a fourth guy ready, I asked "Is Nate Strong that fourth guy?" And Ford just said "Nate's in the mix." So I don't know if it's him or Ryan Williams or somebody else. Will be interesting to see who else gets carries this week. Whoever it is, they need to be more productive than a week ago. Some of it's on the line...but I thought there were a few plays to be made that the backs didn't make too.
One last offensive note: The pace you saw Saturday isn't going to be an outlier. In fact, Missouri wants to go faster. Every person we talked to this week said they went fast, but they can increase it. Mizzou ran a play every 15.5 seconds. Paul Adams said they'd like to run 5-6 per minute. 100 plays? Apparently maybe more. Gonna be tough to keep up with.
Schiffer's story on recent offer Keisean Nixon
Assistants talk after practice
Missouri sent out a flurry of offers yesterday. Here are the ones we know about:
2018 OT Ollie Lane
2018 LB Jesse Luketa
Trio of offers out in LA
2018 Center Dan Dawkins
Missouri is being aggressive. One thing we can tell you about this staff, they offer much earlier than Pinkel's. And they offer more, let's say, casually. Pinkel's staff had to all be on board to send out an offer and once they sent out an offer, largely, it was an actual committable offer. This staff does things much more the way the vast majority of college football does them. There's an art to offering. You offer everyone you think might be able to play. But they can't all commit. Then down the road, if you decide they really can play (or if you miss on your top targets and have to move on to plan B or C) you can tell a kid "We were with you all along man. We offered you back in September of your junior year." I know it seems a little sketchy, but it's how virtually all major programs do it.
Also in recruiting, 2018 St. Louis DT Michael Thompson was offered by LSU and Miami yesterday. That brings him to at least 15 offers, the vast majority Power Five offers. The 2018 St. Louis class (with Thompson, Trevor Trout, Kamryn Babb, Ronnie Perkins, et al) is just absolutely loaded. It would be fantastic for Missouri if one would jump on board and be the ring leader. But we don't get the sense any of these kids are going to end the process early. The Tigers will stay involved throughout. They need to do decently on the field, but more than that, this staff needs to take the relationships in St. Louis to a level they haven't been at. Larry was better than those before him, Pinkel was better than Larry. But there's still some work to be done in certain pockets of the city. You can get mad, you can say that's not how it should be, you can not believe me if you want to. But it's true. Barry Odom's staff has made strides forward. But there are more to be made.
Yesterday, we looked at three defensive questions facing the Tigers. Today, we'll tackle three offensive questions.
1. Are we all on the same page here? Now, I'm not trying to make this some big scandal or controversy because it isn't one. But when the head coach says they messed up the quarterback substitution and I ask the offensive coordinator about it and he says fairly sternly, "I wouldn't do anything differently" it's at least enough to raise an eyebrow. Josh Heupel made it pretty clear that he's the one in charge of substituting the QBs during the game and he was comfortable with what they did. I've always gotten the sense that he and Odom have a great relationship, are fully pulling in the same direction. And I don't think that's changed. It's fine for two guys to disagree. Odom has backed Heupel, said he's going to let him run the offense. He might go to him behind closed doors this week and say "Hey, if Drew's led us down the field twice in a row, let's leave him in and see if he can score next time." Or maybe he won't. But bottom line, I really don't think this is an issue in any way.
2. Who backs up the iron men up front? Missouri played 100 snaps on offense. The starting five offensive linemen played all 100 of them. I'm going to have a story on this group tomorrow, but in talking to them and to Glenn Elarbee this week, I asked if there were some reinforcements on the way. All said there were backups who were coming along and could help out. I think if Eastern Michigan had been last week, you'd have seen a good number of them play. Elarbee said he wanted to give those guys another week to get comfortable. Odom said on Monday he expected a couple more true freshmen to play in addition to those who did last week and Trystan Castillo is certainly one of those. So Missouri's starting five is set...but those five won't play every snap of the season.
3. Is the running game still a problem? Cornell Ford was fairly blunt when I talked to him yesterday. He said the running backs were "okay." I asked about how you make sure Damarea Crockett's confidence isn't shaken by an early fumble and he said, "If I put his butt in there, I expect him to do the job." Like the line, he said that there are four backs who he expects to contribute. West Virginia, you don't put your fourth string tailback in usually, but I expect someone else to get a look. What I don't know is who it is. When he said he thought he had a fourth guy ready, I asked "Is Nate Strong that fourth guy?" And Ford just said "Nate's in the mix." So I don't know if it's him or Ryan Williams or somebody else. Will be interesting to see who else gets carries this week. Whoever it is, they need to be more productive than a week ago. Some of it's on the line...but I thought there were a few plays to be made that the backs didn't make too.
One last offensive note: The pace you saw Saturday isn't going to be an outlier. In fact, Missouri wants to go faster. Every person we talked to this week said they went fast, but they can increase it. Mizzou ran a play every 15.5 seconds. Paul Adams said they'd like to run 5-6 per minute. 100 plays? Apparently maybe more. Gonna be tough to keep up with.
