I've missed the hell out of football threads! I can't bring myself to care about MU hoops right now. Finally got around to watching the Spring Game. I am coaching a new team this season and I've been pretty busy.
I think the talent Mizzou has coming back along with the portal talent coming in should make it pretty clear we will at least be a little more talented than last year. Just look at our defense alone. Hopper, McGuire, Jeffcoat, and maybe Jernigan all look like all-SEC guys to me. If we stop overrunning inside runs (our Achilles heel of run defense in 2021), we will raise a lot of eyebrows. Offensive struggles in the spring game were because of how darn good our defense played.
Offensively, we certainly have concerns on paper. We lose Badie, yes. We don't have a definite answer at QB, yes. But some of you don't understand how the offense is designed. I learned the offense from Curtis Luper & Marcus Johnson in a KC Glazier Clinic. Our offense is designed to NOT be flashy. We do not want to score on 2-play drives. If we do so, great! But we want to meat grind people with 10 outside zone runs per game, 5 boots, 2-3 jet sweeps, and the occasional flea-flicker. We will run outside zone to the left side and pop for big runs in the 4th quarter. Rountree did it, Badie did it, now it's time for Nate Peat to pop off. It's a Mizzou tradition at this point.
Here's some of my spring game takeaways:
I think the talent Mizzou has coming back along with the portal talent coming in should make it pretty clear we will at least be a little more talented than last year. Just look at our defense alone. Hopper, McGuire, Jeffcoat, and maybe Jernigan all look like all-SEC guys to me. If we stop overrunning inside runs (our Achilles heel of run defense in 2021), we will raise a lot of eyebrows. Offensive struggles in the spring game were because of how darn good our defense played.
Offensively, we certainly have concerns on paper. We lose Badie, yes. We don't have a definite answer at QB, yes. But some of you don't understand how the offense is designed. I learned the offense from Curtis Luper & Marcus Johnson in a KC Glazier Clinic. Our offense is designed to NOT be flashy. We do not want to score on 2-play drives. If we do so, great! But we want to meat grind people with 10 outside zone runs per game, 5 boots, 2-3 jet sweeps, and the occasional flea-flicker. We will run outside zone to the left side and pop for big runs in the 4th quarter. Rountree did it, Badie did it, now it's time for Nate Peat to pop off. It's a Mizzou tradition at this point.
Here's some of my spring game takeaways:
- Tyler Macon looked rough out there. My lord. He needs some development. I know it's only spring and he hasn't had a fall camp to sink his heels in, but he looked pretty indecisive when carrying the football and not good at all throwing it. He can still develop into a solid player, but I personally think he is not the answer. If we don't get J.T. Daniels in the portal, Cook will be under-center vs. LA Tech. Which is not a bad thing. Cook clearly has the moxie and respect of his teammates. His physical shortcomings are clear, but that is a guy who competes his heart out every snap. I think Horn will eventually overtake the position by the end of the season or at least get meaningful reps.
- What is there not to say about Isaiah McGuire? The guy looks like a freak! He's got quick-twitch and a relentless motor. Him and Jeffcoat will have a zip code in SEC backfields this year. I think our DL will be fine, even in a new system. We're still running a 4-2-5 base with a 3 and a 2i/1-tech. The techniques for them should carry over pretty seamlessly. I can't even fault Javon Foster for struggling with him. His play made me think of Nick Saban talking about Tim Williams in their spring game a few years back - "he ruined the scrimmage!"
- I really like how B.J. Harris and Nate Peat run the football. Peat may be more of a speed guy, but runs thick and doesn't dance. If we trot out Elijah Young vs. LA Tech and he gets all the carries this year, I will be pretty disappointed. Don't sleep on Cody Schrader, either! Like most outside zone teams, we aren't exactly running back by committee. It's such an expensive play for the backs that you need a guy who has an ungodly amount of reps reading it. Plus, it's what I would consider an "FTS" - "Feed the Studs" kind of play. Outside zone coaches are perfectly fine running stud left/stud right all night if you can't stop it. With that said, I think this is the year to have a RB by committee approach just due to the depth we have back there. If we don't, I won't be heartbroken, but I think we've got some horses back there.
- Luther Burden will be a freak this year. I wonder if he'll be the X or the Z. The Z in our offense is the guy we usually feed on our jet sweeps. Burden seems like he'd be pretty good at that. But he seems like he's pretty good at a lot of things. Him and McGuire looked like the best players on the field. I'm looking forward to what LB3 will do to some of these SEC defenses. I'm sick and tired of hearing about how Mizzou won't be good on offense this year. I expect Drink to use him in as many ways as he can. He'll be our Deebo Samuel prototype this season.
