1) We are a week into fall camp and 24 days from the start of the 2022 Missouri football season. Eli Drinkwitz said on Friday that he expects to have a starting quarterback by the time this week ends. He did not say he would tell us who it was, necessarily, but he said he expects to know by then. Every indication I've gotten leads me to believe that quarterback is likely to be Brady Cook.
I've said all summer that unless you're a family member, there's no real reason to be rooting for anyone in particular to win the starting QB job other than the best guy. And I still believe that. The only rooting interest fans should have is for Drinkwitz to put the best guy out there. That said, Cook is going to be an easy dude for you to root for if he does win the job (not that Tyler Macon, Sam Horn or Jack Abraham wouldn't be). Cook is kind of an anomaly in Power Five college football these days. He got an offer from the school he wanted an offer from and he took it early. Through a coaching change, he stuck with Missouri. Through two years of not really playing, he stuck with Missouri (even though most of us on the outside were baffled at why he wasn't getting a shot when Mizzou's QB play last year was going a bit off the rails). Through an offseason of his coach scouring the country for a transfer who would be favored to replace him, he stuck with Missouri. There have been so many chances for him to leave and he didn't. Before camp started, I asked him why:
"I've always wanted to come and play at Mizzou," he said. "I figured, this is my opportunity. I want to stick it out, I want to make it work at Mizzou. This is where I want to be great. That's why I made that decision and I plan to make it work out."
To me, that's an easy story to get behind for Mizzou fans.
2) Quarterback is obviously the offensive position we've all put our energy into watching. What's the most important position on the defense? It's pretty easy to make an argument for three of them.
Defensive End: If Missouri can get the Isaiah McGuire of last year and the Trajan Jeffcoat of two years ago and have a couple of guys solidify themselves as the primary backups, they could be pretty good here.
Defensive Tackle: Missouri had a ton of experience coming into last year and then just got run all over. They've got quite a few older experienced players this year, there's not a lot of experience at Mizzou. I wrote about that group this morning, led by Jayden Jernigan.
Linebacker: This is actually where I come down on the most important position. And it's because I think it has by far the most room to improve. Missouri's linebacker play was really poor for the first 1/2 to 2/3 of last year. It got better in the final few games when Chad Bailey started playing more. He's back and Ty'Ron Hopper should start next to him. There's reason to think that's a good starting group. My question is more about whether Missouri has anything behind them. Blake Baker told me on Sunday that he would like to have five linebackers he's comfortable playing on Saturdays. I'm going to write about the candidates here tomorrow. It's a combination of a guy looking to bounce back from a tough year (Devin Nicholson), a guy looking to prove himself at a higher level (Chuck Hicks) and some young, unproven players. If Missouri can be above average at linebacker, I'll share the optimism of fans that this defense can be a whole lot better than it was a year ago.
3) I took a peek at opening week lines a couple of days ago. I was a little bit surprised to see that Missouri is a 20.5 point favorite over Louisiana Tech, after opening at about 18. Don't get me wrong, I don't think Mizzou should have a whole lot of trouble winning that game by any means. But the number was a little bigger than I expected. Louisiana Tech wasn't good last year at 3-9. But they lost by one point to Mississippi State in a game they blew a huge lead, lost by two to a good SMU team and lost by a touchdown to a ranked NC State team. Five of Tech's nine losses were by a touchdown or less. It's not a good omen if Missouri has a lot of trouble in that game, but it's also not a game you can just roll the helmets out and be playing backups in the third quarter I don't think.
4) It's getting close to time we should start paying attention to some other teams. Courtesy of my colleagues at various sites, here's the latest out of fall camp from Mizzou's major opponents
Georgia
Florida
South Carolina
Kentucky
Tennessee
Vanderbilt (this is a podcast as the practice reports are on the premium message board)
Arkansas
Auburn
Kansas State
5) I know this is not a unique thought, but the closer we get to the season, the bigger the Kansas State and Auburn games are. For this year to be considered successful, I think Mizzou absolutely has to win one of the two. It's very, very difficult to see a seven-win season--and almost impossible to see more than that--if Missouri loses both of those games. Georgia is a near certain loss. Florida, Tennessee, Kentucky and Arkansas are not games that Mizzou has no chance in, but they will be underdogs in all of them. Throw in South Carolina as a game that is going to be a toss-up and the importance of the K-State and Auburn games is easy to see.
But they're not just important from an overall win total perspective. They're gigantic for the fan base and the enthusiasm around the program. We can talk till we're blue in the face about what attendance should be, etc, but the fact is, the Missouri fanbase is looking for a tangible reason to be excited. Winning a Power Five road game in the first month of the season would give them that reason. But if Mizzou loses at K-State and Auburn, it's almost certainly going to go to Gainesville 2-3 in a game it absolutely has to win...maybe to even qualify for a bowl game. If that's the case, you guys know the casual fan is going to check out and start tweeting about "same ol' Mizzou." You absolutely know it's going to happen. A win in one of those games gives the season some juice and the fans some optimism. Lose them both and a good portion of this fanbase is going to check out and use it as an excuse to stay home. Outside of Georgia (which will get a boost because Georgia travels well), I don't think Mizzou will draw 50K for a game after the opener if they lose in Manhattan and Auburn.
No pressure, Eli...
I've said all summer that unless you're a family member, there's no real reason to be rooting for anyone in particular to win the starting QB job other than the best guy. And I still believe that. The only rooting interest fans should have is for Drinkwitz to put the best guy out there. That said, Cook is going to be an easy dude for you to root for if he does win the job (not that Tyler Macon, Sam Horn or Jack Abraham wouldn't be). Cook is kind of an anomaly in Power Five college football these days. He got an offer from the school he wanted an offer from and he took it early. Through a coaching change, he stuck with Missouri. Through two years of not really playing, he stuck with Missouri (even though most of us on the outside were baffled at why he wasn't getting a shot when Mizzou's QB play last year was going a bit off the rails). Through an offseason of his coach scouring the country for a transfer who would be favored to replace him, he stuck with Missouri. There have been so many chances for him to leave and he didn't. Before camp started, I asked him why:
"I've always wanted to come and play at Mizzou," he said. "I figured, this is my opportunity. I want to stick it out, I want to make it work at Mizzou. This is where I want to be great. That's why I made that decision and I plan to make it work out."
To me, that's an easy story to get behind for Mizzou fans.
2) Quarterback is obviously the offensive position we've all put our energy into watching. What's the most important position on the defense? It's pretty easy to make an argument for three of them.
Defensive End: If Missouri can get the Isaiah McGuire of last year and the Trajan Jeffcoat of two years ago and have a couple of guys solidify themselves as the primary backups, they could be pretty good here.
Defensive Tackle: Missouri had a ton of experience coming into last year and then just got run all over. They've got quite a few older experienced players this year, there's not a lot of experience at Mizzou. I wrote about that group this morning, led by Jayden Jernigan.
Linebacker: This is actually where I come down on the most important position. And it's because I think it has by far the most room to improve. Missouri's linebacker play was really poor for the first 1/2 to 2/3 of last year. It got better in the final few games when Chad Bailey started playing more. He's back and Ty'Ron Hopper should start next to him. There's reason to think that's a good starting group. My question is more about whether Missouri has anything behind them. Blake Baker told me on Sunday that he would like to have five linebackers he's comfortable playing on Saturdays. I'm going to write about the candidates here tomorrow. It's a combination of a guy looking to bounce back from a tough year (Devin Nicholson), a guy looking to prove himself at a higher level (Chuck Hicks) and some young, unproven players. If Missouri can be above average at linebacker, I'll share the optimism of fans that this defense can be a whole lot better than it was a year ago.
3) I took a peek at opening week lines a couple of days ago. I was a little bit surprised to see that Missouri is a 20.5 point favorite over Louisiana Tech, after opening at about 18. Don't get me wrong, I don't think Mizzou should have a whole lot of trouble winning that game by any means. But the number was a little bigger than I expected. Louisiana Tech wasn't good last year at 3-9. But they lost by one point to Mississippi State in a game they blew a huge lead, lost by two to a good SMU team and lost by a touchdown to a ranked NC State team. Five of Tech's nine losses were by a touchdown or less. It's not a good omen if Missouri has a lot of trouble in that game, but it's also not a game you can just roll the helmets out and be playing backups in the third quarter I don't think.
4) It's getting close to time we should start paying attention to some other teams. Courtesy of my colleagues at various sites, here's the latest out of fall camp from Mizzou's major opponents
Georgia
Florida
South Carolina
Kentucky
Tennessee
Vanderbilt (this is a podcast as the practice reports are on the premium message board)
Arkansas
Auburn
Kansas State
5) I know this is not a unique thought, but the closer we get to the season, the bigger the Kansas State and Auburn games are. For this year to be considered successful, I think Mizzou absolutely has to win one of the two. It's very, very difficult to see a seven-win season--and almost impossible to see more than that--if Missouri loses both of those games. Georgia is a near certain loss. Florida, Tennessee, Kentucky and Arkansas are not games that Mizzou has no chance in, but they will be underdogs in all of them. Throw in South Carolina as a game that is going to be a toss-up and the importance of the K-State and Auburn games is easy to see.
But they're not just important from an overall win total perspective. They're gigantic for the fan base and the enthusiasm around the program. We can talk till we're blue in the face about what attendance should be, etc, but the fact is, the Missouri fanbase is looking for a tangible reason to be excited. Winning a Power Five road game in the first month of the season would give them that reason. But if Mizzou loses at K-State and Auburn, it's almost certainly going to go to Gainesville 2-3 in a game it absolutely has to win...maybe to even qualify for a bowl game. If that's the case, you guys know the casual fan is going to check out and start tweeting about "same ol' Mizzou." You absolutely know it's going to happen. A win in one of those games gives the season some juice and the fans some optimism. Lose them both and a good portion of this fanbase is going to check out and use it as an excuse to stay home. Outside of Georgia (which will get a boost because Georgia travels well), I don't think Mizzou will draw 50K for a game after the opener if they lose in Manhattan and Auburn.
No pressure, Eli...
