Let’s start with some good because, well, it was a win and why wouldn’t we start there?
1) Nick Bolton has reached absolute superstar status. The dude is playing out of his mind. He is everywhere. He was making tackles in the backfield and 20 yards downfield last night. He nearly (probably should have) had an interception. He did everything for Mizzou. Again. Bolton had 14 tackles, which is exactly twice as many as anyone else on the team. In seven games he now has 81 tackles, including seven for a loss and 56 solo stops. Bolton entered yesterday 13th in the country with 11.17 tackles per game and his performance against the Gamecocks bumped that number up to 11.57. Only two players averaging more tackles per game have played as many games as Bolton (oddly, both play for Arkansas: Grant Morgan and Bumper Pool). Someone asked me yesterday where I’d put Bolton on the list of Mizzou linebackers in the last 20 years. I can’t put him over Sean Weatherspoon. Spoon was a tackling machine and a three-time all-Big 12 player on the best teams Mizzou has had in 60 years. But I’d put Bolton second behind Spoon and ahead of Kentrell Brothers. He just seems like a guy that makes more plays to me. It’s fun when a guy who is hyped up to you before he plays a down actually lives up to that hype. Bolton has been everything the previous staff thought he was going to be. Enjoy the next four games. I can’t see a scenario where he stays beyond this year.
2) Bolton is the star, but when the defense plays as well as it did last night, there are contributors all over the place. Since the LSU game, I feel like Isaiah McGuire has really emerged. He’s a guy you notice. He’s a guy I think you can build around. For the second time this season, Missouri was woefully undermanned on the defensive line and McGuire made his presence known with five tackles and a TFL. I question any system in which Nick Bolton wasn’t the highest graded player on the defense, but PFF had McGuire with the highest mark. Martez Manuel was all over the place. I thought it was his best game, including a sack and a half. I’d like to see him jawing at the other team a bit less (that could really go team wide) but he played a hell of a game. You can definitely see it with Ennis Rakestraw. Corner is a tough position to play in the SEC, especially as a freshman and especially when the officials are throwing flags any time you breathe on a receiver wearing pants, but Rakestraw has looked like everything he was billed to be thus far.
3) Tauskie Dove gets starter’s reps the rest of the way at receiver. He had 57 last night, second only to Keke Chism (who also played his best game of the year). His touchdown catch to open the scoring was phenomenal (hell of a throw too). All he’s done is everything he’s been asked to do. His numbers—14 catches for 166 yards—aren’t going to blow you away, but he makes plays and he’s averaging a touchdown everY 4.67 catches. Dove’s PT came at the expense of Damon Hazelton. Here are the snap counts at wide receiver per PFF college:
Keke Chism 62
Tauskie Dove 57
Barrett Banister 35
Jalen Knox 32
Micah Wilson 5
Jay Maclin 3
Damon Hazelton 1
That’s pretty telling.
4) Let’s run through some of the young guys that were pressed into action and did some good things:
Maclin caught the first pass of his career.
Elijah Young got the first carry of his career and nearly put it in the end zone.
Luke Griffin played all 70 snaps and was Missouri’s highest graded offensive player by PFF college.
Jaylon Carlies got quite a bit of run at cornerback, logging 39 snaps after Jarvis Ware was banged up.
Cannon York, a walk-on defensive end, got the start and made the first tackle of his career.
5) Yesterday’s second half actually made me even more impressed with Eli Drinkwitz and his offensive approach. Make no mistake, the offense wasn’t good in the second half. Missouri ran 26 plays for 83 yards prior to two victory formation kneel downs after Devin Nicholson’s interception. If the Tigers scored one time (even a field goal) in the final 30 minutes, the game was going to be over. They couldn’t do it. But Drinkwitz knew the game he was watching. He knew he had a defense that was playing well. He knew he was facing an opposing offense that couldn’t complete anything downfield, that was going to take a lot of time off the clock even if it did manage to put together a drive of significance and that really didn’t have a way to gain yards other than having the quarterback break out of the pocket and take off. So he managed the game. He took time off the clock, he was patient, he punted twice from inside the opposing 45 yard line. It wasn’t pretty. It definitely wasn’t exciting. It left you feeling like you wanted more. But it was a win. And that’s literally the only thing that matters. They keep score because the goal is to have more points than the other team. Missouri did that. There are no style points.
Another thing here: Missouri has lost three games. They’ve all been blowouts. Missouri has played two-and-a-half close games (Kentucky was sort of close even though it didn’t really feel close). The Tigers have won all of them. The biggest complaint the last few years (among many) was the inability to close out close games. Missouri is doing that. There was the goal line stand against LSU. Then there was the Kentucky game, which if it was a video, would be a cartoon of the big brother holding his arm on the little brother’s head while the little brother swung furiously but simply didn’t have the reach to make contact. Then there was last night, a game in which it was clear for all 60 minutes that Missouri was the better team. Even the depleted version of his roster Drinkwitz had to trot out was clearly superior to what South Carolina had on hand. Drinkwitz knew it and managed the game to win.
1) Nick Bolton has reached absolute superstar status. The dude is playing out of his mind. He is everywhere. He was making tackles in the backfield and 20 yards downfield last night. He nearly (probably should have) had an interception. He did everything for Mizzou. Again. Bolton had 14 tackles, which is exactly twice as many as anyone else on the team. In seven games he now has 81 tackles, including seven for a loss and 56 solo stops. Bolton entered yesterday 13th in the country with 11.17 tackles per game and his performance against the Gamecocks bumped that number up to 11.57. Only two players averaging more tackles per game have played as many games as Bolton (oddly, both play for Arkansas: Grant Morgan and Bumper Pool). Someone asked me yesterday where I’d put Bolton on the list of Mizzou linebackers in the last 20 years. I can’t put him over Sean Weatherspoon. Spoon was a tackling machine and a three-time all-Big 12 player on the best teams Mizzou has had in 60 years. But I’d put Bolton second behind Spoon and ahead of Kentrell Brothers. He just seems like a guy that makes more plays to me. It’s fun when a guy who is hyped up to you before he plays a down actually lives up to that hype. Bolton has been everything the previous staff thought he was going to be. Enjoy the next four games. I can’t see a scenario where he stays beyond this year.
2) Bolton is the star, but when the defense plays as well as it did last night, there are contributors all over the place. Since the LSU game, I feel like Isaiah McGuire has really emerged. He’s a guy you notice. He’s a guy I think you can build around. For the second time this season, Missouri was woefully undermanned on the defensive line and McGuire made his presence known with five tackles and a TFL. I question any system in which Nick Bolton wasn’t the highest graded player on the defense, but PFF had McGuire with the highest mark. Martez Manuel was all over the place. I thought it was his best game, including a sack and a half. I’d like to see him jawing at the other team a bit less (that could really go team wide) but he played a hell of a game. You can definitely see it with Ennis Rakestraw. Corner is a tough position to play in the SEC, especially as a freshman and especially when the officials are throwing flags any time you breathe on a receiver wearing pants, but Rakestraw has looked like everything he was billed to be thus far.
3) Tauskie Dove gets starter’s reps the rest of the way at receiver. He had 57 last night, second only to Keke Chism (who also played his best game of the year). His touchdown catch to open the scoring was phenomenal (hell of a throw too). All he’s done is everything he’s been asked to do. His numbers—14 catches for 166 yards—aren’t going to blow you away, but he makes plays and he’s averaging a touchdown everY 4.67 catches. Dove’s PT came at the expense of Damon Hazelton. Here are the snap counts at wide receiver per PFF college:
Keke Chism 62
Tauskie Dove 57
Barrett Banister 35
Jalen Knox 32
Micah Wilson 5
Jay Maclin 3
Damon Hazelton 1
That’s pretty telling.
4) Let’s run through some of the young guys that were pressed into action and did some good things:
Maclin caught the first pass of his career.
Elijah Young got the first carry of his career and nearly put it in the end zone.
Luke Griffin played all 70 snaps and was Missouri’s highest graded offensive player by PFF college.
Jaylon Carlies got quite a bit of run at cornerback, logging 39 snaps after Jarvis Ware was banged up.
Cannon York, a walk-on defensive end, got the start and made the first tackle of his career.
5) Yesterday’s second half actually made me even more impressed with Eli Drinkwitz and his offensive approach. Make no mistake, the offense wasn’t good in the second half. Missouri ran 26 plays for 83 yards prior to two victory formation kneel downs after Devin Nicholson’s interception. If the Tigers scored one time (even a field goal) in the final 30 minutes, the game was going to be over. They couldn’t do it. But Drinkwitz knew the game he was watching. He knew he had a defense that was playing well. He knew he was facing an opposing offense that couldn’t complete anything downfield, that was going to take a lot of time off the clock even if it did manage to put together a drive of significance and that really didn’t have a way to gain yards other than having the quarterback break out of the pocket and take off. So he managed the game. He took time off the clock, he was patient, he punted twice from inside the opposing 45 yard line. It wasn’t pretty. It definitely wasn’t exciting. It left you feeling like you wanted more. But it was a win. And that’s literally the only thing that matters. They keep score because the goal is to have more points than the other team. Missouri did that. There are no style points.
Another thing here: Missouri has lost three games. They’ve all been blowouts. Missouri has played two-and-a-half close games (Kentucky was sort of close even though it didn’t really feel close). The Tigers have won all of them. The biggest complaint the last few years (among many) was the inability to close out close games. Missouri is doing that. There was the goal line stand against LSU. Then there was the Kentucky game, which if it was a video, would be a cartoon of the big brother holding his arm on the little brother’s head while the little brother swung furiously but simply didn’t have the reach to make contact. Then there was last night, a game in which it was clear for all 60 minutes that Missouri was the better team. Even the depleted version of his roster Drinkwitz had to trot out was clearly superior to what South Carolina had on hand. Drinkwitz knew it and managed the game to win.
