Welcome to the offseason version of Four Down Territory.
It’s going to be a little different than it was in-season. I'll post one weekly during the season, which for me is from SEC Media Days through Missouri's final game.
During the offseason, I’ll post every other week.
I don't want to post a Missouri football-based column and not write about the team. Now, if something happens on a week it's not scheduled to come out, I'll change course and post a column.
1. Missouri's defensive coordinator search.
It has been a little over two weeks since Blake Baker decided to join the Bayou Bengals, and Mizzou's search for its fourth defensive coordinator in five years has stalled, I guess?
Maybe that's not the right word or phrase. But it's taken a little longer than anyone has expected.
We made a hot board of candidates and created profiles to go with them, but it appears Missouri has other plans.
Recently, it seemed like former Maryland head coach D.J. Durkin might've been in the driver's seat to fill the position. Now, it appears California defensive coordinator Peter Sirmon is among the leaders.
Sirmon played seven seasons in the NFL, has over 15 years of coaching experience and has been at Cal since 2018.
Stuff like this is why this column, originally designated to be an in-season column, will continue because college football really is year-round.
We'll see if Sirmon is the guy, but for now we just know he's a guy in contention.
I don't think there's a need to panic yet Mizzou fans. Has it been an odd amount of time doing this coaching search? Yes.
I'm sure seeing other Power 5 schools hire defensive coordinators hasn't made it any better. But a coaching search, especially for a coordinator, isn't easy.
There could be a litany of reasons as to why there hasn't been a hire, but it's better for Missouri to do its due diligence than to make a hasty and quick decision for the sake of making one.
If the search stretches into February, then there can be a different conversation, but for now, patience is key for Tigers fans.
2. The running back room is promising.
I want to transition into talking about something that kind of popped up in my head doing the newcomer profiles for the recent signing class, and that’s Mizzou’s running back room.
It’s strong, it has potential and I think fans should be excited for the position.
We could get into spring ball in March and things could be worse but we will cross that bridge if and when we get to it.
Let’s quickly go over the scholarship backs.
Marcus Carroll was the 10th leading rusher in the FBS last season after gaining 1,350 yards. The former Georgia State back is similar to the nation’s third-leading rusher Cody Schrader. Literally, the thing separating these guys is maybe five pounds. They’re both about 5-foot-9 and they’re like bowling balls.
No one will ever confuse these guys to be 4.3 40-yard dash guys but they can move. Carroll has great contact balance, excellent vision and won’t be brought down by arm tacklers.
As we saw from Schrader last year, ball carrier vision is a vastly underrated attribute. Schrader doesn’t run for over 1,600 yards if he doesn't have great vision. It’s not the sexiest attribute but it’s one of the most important and best because you don’t have to be uber-athletic (relative to their SEC counterparts) to rack up yardage and that’s Schrader and Carroll.
Nate Noel is a 5-foot-10, 190-pound transfer from Appalachian State and he seems to be fitting the Nate Peat role or the “dash” to Carroll’s smash.
Simply put, he’ll be the change of pace back for the Tigers.
Noel has wheels. He can scoot and he’s very elusive in the open field, which makes him hard to tackle.
He’s been a 1,000-yard rusher in his career, he’s started in 25 of 44 games played and he’s the Mountaineers’ eighth all-time leading rusher.
Kewan Lacy is a four-star out of Lancaster (Tex.) and he looks like a stud on tape. At 6-foot and 198 pounds, he doesn’t really have to put on much more weight. Of course, he will naturally put on 10-15 pounds probably but he doesn’t have to bulk up the way a lot of other players fresh out of high school do.
He’s fast and powerful and has an array of traits that can lead to him being an every down back in the future. I’ll stop now because I don’t want to spoil his profile (coming out later this week).
But I was wondering if Carroll and Noel are smash-and-dash. Then Lacy and Jamal Roberts could be smash-and-smash?
Roberts, who will be a redshirt freshman in the fall, is similarly built to Lacy and he has the making of an every-down back as well.
He’s really fast and his acceleration is great. He’s a bruiser so when he gets a head of a steam he’s not afraid to run over defenders, although he has some wiggle that allows him to put defenders on skates if he chooses to, and that’s if he doesn’t just simply outrun them.
He bursts through run lanes impressively and is not going to be an easy player to get down.
Sitting behind Schrader could’ve only really helped him, but he’s a guy I know the Tigers have been high on from the jump.
Ironically, the smash-and-smash duo has more than enough speed to be a dash-and-dash duo but they’re so physical in stature and in play that you can’t ignore it.
Carroll and Noel probably lock up the top two spots in the rotation but Roberts and Lacy will be competing with former four-star, Tavorus Jones for that third spot.
Jones, is an explosive player as well, who very well may be the fastest back on the roster or a close second. He just has to put it all together. Regardless, there’s good reason to be excited for this position group in 2024, and beyond.
It’s going to be a little different than it was in-season. I'll post one weekly during the season, which for me is from SEC Media Days through Missouri's final game.
During the offseason, I’ll post every other week.
I don't want to post a Missouri football-based column and not write about the team. Now, if something happens on a week it's not scheduled to come out, I'll change course and post a column.
1. Missouri's defensive coordinator search.
It has been a little over two weeks since Blake Baker decided to join the Bayou Bengals, and Mizzou's search for its fourth defensive coordinator in five years has stalled, I guess?
Maybe that's not the right word or phrase. But it's taken a little longer than anyone has expected.
We made a hot board of candidates and created profiles to go with them, but it appears Missouri has other plans.
Recently, it seemed like former Maryland head coach D.J. Durkin might've been in the driver's seat to fill the position. Now, it appears California defensive coordinator Peter Sirmon is among the leaders.
Sirmon played seven seasons in the NFL, has over 15 years of coaching experience and has been at Cal since 2018.
Stuff like this is why this column, originally designated to be an in-season column, will continue because college football really is year-round.
We'll see if Sirmon is the guy, but for now we just know he's a guy in contention.
I don't think there's a need to panic yet Mizzou fans. Has it been an odd amount of time doing this coaching search? Yes.
I'm sure seeing other Power 5 schools hire defensive coordinators hasn't made it any better. But a coaching search, especially for a coordinator, isn't easy.
There could be a litany of reasons as to why there hasn't been a hire, but it's better for Missouri to do its due diligence than to make a hasty and quick decision for the sake of making one.
If the search stretches into February, then there can be a different conversation, but for now, patience is key for Tigers fans.
2. The running back room is promising.
I want to transition into talking about something that kind of popped up in my head doing the newcomer profiles for the recent signing class, and that’s Mizzou’s running back room.
It’s strong, it has potential and I think fans should be excited for the position.
We could get into spring ball in March and things could be worse but we will cross that bridge if and when we get to it.
Let’s quickly go over the scholarship backs.
Marcus Carroll was the 10th leading rusher in the FBS last season after gaining 1,350 yards. The former Georgia State back is similar to the nation’s third-leading rusher Cody Schrader. Literally, the thing separating these guys is maybe five pounds. They’re both about 5-foot-9 and they’re like bowling balls.
No one will ever confuse these guys to be 4.3 40-yard dash guys but they can move. Carroll has great contact balance, excellent vision and won’t be brought down by arm tacklers.
As we saw from Schrader last year, ball carrier vision is a vastly underrated attribute. Schrader doesn’t run for over 1,600 yards if he doesn't have great vision. It’s not the sexiest attribute but it’s one of the most important and best because you don’t have to be uber-athletic (relative to their SEC counterparts) to rack up yardage and that’s Schrader and Carroll.
Nate Noel is a 5-foot-10, 190-pound transfer from Appalachian State and he seems to be fitting the Nate Peat role or the “dash” to Carroll’s smash.
Simply put, he’ll be the change of pace back for the Tigers.
Noel has wheels. He can scoot and he’s very elusive in the open field, which makes him hard to tackle.
He’s been a 1,000-yard rusher in his career, he’s started in 25 of 44 games played and he’s the Mountaineers’ eighth all-time leading rusher.
Kewan Lacy is a four-star out of Lancaster (Tex.) and he looks like a stud on tape. At 6-foot and 198 pounds, he doesn’t really have to put on much more weight. Of course, he will naturally put on 10-15 pounds probably but he doesn’t have to bulk up the way a lot of other players fresh out of high school do.
He’s fast and powerful and has an array of traits that can lead to him being an every down back in the future. I’ll stop now because I don’t want to spoil his profile (coming out later this week).
But I was wondering if Carroll and Noel are smash-and-dash. Then Lacy and Jamal Roberts could be smash-and-smash?
Roberts, who will be a redshirt freshman in the fall, is similarly built to Lacy and he has the making of an every-down back as well.
He’s really fast and his acceleration is great. He’s a bruiser so when he gets a head of a steam he’s not afraid to run over defenders, although he has some wiggle that allows him to put defenders on skates if he chooses to, and that’s if he doesn’t just simply outrun them.
He bursts through run lanes impressively and is not going to be an easy player to get down.
Sitting behind Schrader could’ve only really helped him, but he’s a guy I know the Tigers have been high on from the jump.
Ironically, the smash-and-smash duo has more than enough speed to be a dash-and-dash duo but they’re so physical in stature and in play that you can’t ignore it.
Carroll and Noel probably lock up the top two spots in the rotation but Roberts and Lacy will be competing with former four-star, Tavorus Jones for that third spot.
Jones, is an explosive player as well, who very well may be the fastest back on the roster or a close second. He just has to put it all together. Regardless, there’s good reason to be excited for this position group in 2024, and beyond.
