Mizzou is in the final week of fall camp. After the open practice on Saturday night, they'll go into Louisiana Tech game prep. Most of this week will obviously be focused on Mizzou football.
1) Eli Drinkwitz is really pushing the punting battle. Every time he's asked about a position battle that's got his attention, it's the punters. At the beginning of camp, Erik Link told me it would be a competition between Sean Koetting, Jack Stonehouse and Luke Bauer. Yesterday, Drinkwitz talked about the two guys battling for punter. I asked him if it had been reduced from three to two.
"I would say there's still a third punter involved. He hasn't been as consistent as the other two. And he's consistently get reps with a three. So for the sake of clarity, I think our top two guys are really battling right now. He could come on this week. I wouldn't say he's totally out of it, but trying to get a little clarity."
I don't know who's been eliminated, but I'm pretty confident Koetting is still involved. He'd be my pick to win the job. He's been here and a big part of the reason he came back for a sixth year was to be more involved and get a chance to punt. Assuming it's close, I'd think Koetting gets the nod.
2) The other position that's up for grabs is running back and there seems to be virtually no clarity there. Drinkwitz said both Tavorus Jones and Nate Peat have been out of practice a few days and Taj Butts had started to do some things, but then got slowed by a "soft tissue injury" (which seems to be the catch all term for camp injuries). Drinkwitz said Elijah Young has shown flashes but not enough consistency and he likes what he's seen out of Cody Schrader. He didn't mention BJ Harris by name, which may or may not mean anything. When asked specifically about Michael Cox, Drinkwitz said "Yeah, I mean, Mike's battling." That was it. That doesn't exactly give you a belief he's part of the discussion. I don't have a clue who starts week one. And the guy that starts week one may not be the guy that gets the most carries or starts week two. I think we're going to see a true running back by committee this year. Four or five guys could easily see significant carries early on I think.
3) Drinkwitz said Missouri has completed both of its scrimmages already. He said yesterday that the NCAA allows two practices where you spend more than half the time scrimmaging. Missouri has gone through both of those. I wish we could tell you more about them obviously, but the choice has been to keep them quiet. We should get a little more of a look on Saturday night at the open practice. We'll have full reports on what the depth chart looks like, who's getting reps, who looks good, etc. It's not obviously going to be a full picture and I don't expect the workout to be overly revealing or strenuous, but it will be our most complete look at the team prior to the season opener.
4) Here's a comment that stuck out to me from last week: Drinkwitz said there is enough depth that there are guys who have been starters for a year or two who aren't with the ones right now. I tried to think who that might be. Devin Nicholson certainly would be a candidate, although that wouldn't come as a surprise because he wasn't playing much the second half of last season. It's possible Ennis Rakestraw would be a guy that fits that category, but again, he was hurt in the first half of last season so it wouldn't be shocking if he isn't with the ones. Offensively, Xavier Delgado and Zeke Powell have been starters at times over the last couple of seasons, but not every week. But again, we don't get to see a lot, so there's much more possibility for a "Wow, didn't see that coming" moment against Louisiana Tech than maybe there has been in the past.
5) Even though Missouri has a starting quarterback, not everything at the position is settled. From everything I've heard, Brady Cook wasn't just the best QB in camp, he was the best QB by a fairly significant margin. And that seems to be backed up by the fact it barely took a week to name him the starter. The backup situation is going to be interesting. Sam Horn has the physical tools, but from what I've seen and heard, he isn't ready at this point. He might get some time in the Abilene Christian and New Mexico State games, but I don't think it's a situation where he's ready to go out and get a series in every game.
I don't think the QB depth chart will be very revealing. My guess would be that Jack Abraham and Tyler Macon are listed as "OR" at the backup spot. And honestly, Horn might be thrown in there too. I don't think they'll give anything away as far as who would play if Cook can't. Obviously, you hope not to find that out. The best case scenario is that Cook stays healthy and is productive and starts every game and takes every important snap. I don't know who would play right now if he couldn't.
The one thing I think you have to be fairly confident in is that all three of Cook, Macon and Horn won't be back next year. It's the nature of the position. Cook graduates in December. If something happens where he has lost the starting job during the year, he'll have options. Macon isn't likely to stick around to be a backup for a third year I wouldn't think. And what happens if Horn comes out of spring football still No. 3? I'm not saying he leaves, but you're ignoring what college football is these days if you don't at least acknowledge the possibility. Bottom line, you have to expect one of those three to transfer this offseason.
1) Eli Drinkwitz is really pushing the punting battle. Every time he's asked about a position battle that's got his attention, it's the punters. At the beginning of camp, Erik Link told me it would be a competition between Sean Koetting, Jack Stonehouse and Luke Bauer. Yesterday, Drinkwitz talked about the two guys battling for punter. I asked him if it had been reduced from three to two.
"I would say there's still a third punter involved. He hasn't been as consistent as the other two. And he's consistently get reps with a three. So for the sake of clarity, I think our top two guys are really battling right now. He could come on this week. I wouldn't say he's totally out of it, but trying to get a little clarity."
I don't know who's been eliminated, but I'm pretty confident Koetting is still involved. He'd be my pick to win the job. He's been here and a big part of the reason he came back for a sixth year was to be more involved and get a chance to punt. Assuming it's close, I'd think Koetting gets the nod.
2) The other position that's up for grabs is running back and there seems to be virtually no clarity there. Drinkwitz said both Tavorus Jones and Nate Peat have been out of practice a few days and Taj Butts had started to do some things, but then got slowed by a "soft tissue injury" (which seems to be the catch all term for camp injuries). Drinkwitz said Elijah Young has shown flashes but not enough consistency and he likes what he's seen out of Cody Schrader. He didn't mention BJ Harris by name, which may or may not mean anything. When asked specifically about Michael Cox, Drinkwitz said "Yeah, I mean, Mike's battling." That was it. That doesn't exactly give you a belief he's part of the discussion. I don't have a clue who starts week one. And the guy that starts week one may not be the guy that gets the most carries or starts week two. I think we're going to see a true running back by committee this year. Four or five guys could easily see significant carries early on I think.
3) Drinkwitz said Missouri has completed both of its scrimmages already. He said yesterday that the NCAA allows two practices where you spend more than half the time scrimmaging. Missouri has gone through both of those. I wish we could tell you more about them obviously, but the choice has been to keep them quiet. We should get a little more of a look on Saturday night at the open practice. We'll have full reports on what the depth chart looks like, who's getting reps, who looks good, etc. It's not obviously going to be a full picture and I don't expect the workout to be overly revealing or strenuous, but it will be our most complete look at the team prior to the season opener.
4) Here's a comment that stuck out to me from last week: Drinkwitz said there is enough depth that there are guys who have been starters for a year or two who aren't with the ones right now. I tried to think who that might be. Devin Nicholson certainly would be a candidate, although that wouldn't come as a surprise because he wasn't playing much the second half of last season. It's possible Ennis Rakestraw would be a guy that fits that category, but again, he was hurt in the first half of last season so it wouldn't be shocking if he isn't with the ones. Offensively, Xavier Delgado and Zeke Powell have been starters at times over the last couple of seasons, but not every week. But again, we don't get to see a lot, so there's much more possibility for a "Wow, didn't see that coming" moment against Louisiana Tech than maybe there has been in the past.
5) Even though Missouri has a starting quarterback, not everything at the position is settled. From everything I've heard, Brady Cook wasn't just the best QB in camp, he was the best QB by a fairly significant margin. And that seems to be backed up by the fact it barely took a week to name him the starter. The backup situation is going to be interesting. Sam Horn has the physical tools, but from what I've seen and heard, he isn't ready at this point. He might get some time in the Abilene Christian and New Mexico State games, but I don't think it's a situation where he's ready to go out and get a series in every game.
I don't think the QB depth chart will be very revealing. My guess would be that Jack Abraham and Tyler Macon are listed as "OR" at the backup spot. And honestly, Horn might be thrown in there too. I don't think they'll give anything away as far as who would play if Cook can't. Obviously, you hope not to find that out. The best case scenario is that Cook stays healthy and is productive and starts every game and takes every important snap. I don't know who would play right now if he couldn't.
The one thing I think you have to be fairly confident in is that all three of Cook, Macon and Horn won't be back next year. It's the nature of the position. Cook graduates in December. If something happens where he has lost the starting job during the year, he'll have options. Macon isn't likely to stick around to be a backup for a third year I wouldn't think. And what happens if Horn comes out of spring football still No. 3? I'm not saying he leaves, but you're ignoring what college football is these days if you don't at least acknowledge the possibility. Bottom line, you have to expect one of those three to transfer this offseason.
