A look at the STAR position on the Mizzou defense
Missouri ran a 4-2-5 defense under Steve Wilks last season. Missouri will run a 4-2-5 defense under Blake Baker this season. Other than terminology and words, there may not be significant differences in the two. But the one immediate difference comes in the "5."
Wilks preferred the fifth defensive back in his system to be a slot cornerback. It was a position won by Kris Abrams-Draine, who ended up being perhaps Missouri's best defensive player a year ago. In Baker's system, that fifth defensive back is a safety who is also capable of playing outside linebacker.
"For us, it just kind of fits what we do," Baker said. "You have that hybrid guy who's big enough to play the run, but also fast enough to play the slot. That guy doesn't grow on trees."
During fall camp, senior Martez Manuel and redshirt freshman Daylan Carnell are the leading candidates to man that spot.
Manuel is a known commodity for Tiger fans. He has played in all 34 games, making 109 tackles and 15 tackles for a loss over the last three years. He's been a starter in every game except the Armed Forces Bowl in the last two seasons.
"I think it's a natural fit for Martez because he's able to play the run game, Blitz off the edge, also be able to be involved in the pass defense, but he's able to keep vision on the play and utilize his skills," head coach Eli Drinkwitz said. "I think Tez’s greatest strength is his motor and effort that he plays with."
Manuel missed spring football with an injury, but is full go in camp this year and has been mentioned as a team leader a few times during camp. The lesser known quantity is Carnell, who saw action in four games and made a pair of tackles as a true freshman last season.
While this position is new to everyone on the Tiger defense, it has provided Carnell a home after a year in which he moved all over the backfield.
"I was immediately moved to the nickel position," the 6-foot-2, 218-pounder said. "When fall camp came my freshman year, I moved to free safety and throughout the season I was playing safety, moving to nickel, even getting a little bit of corner. So really been playing anywhere and then when this past spring came up, they had me at the STAR position and I’m still there right now."
Carnell is only listed three pounds heavier than Manuel, but he is also two inches taller.
"Daylan's a bigger body," Drinkwitz said. "He's a guy that can be really big in the pass game, can play some man to man, can still play in the box and blitz off the edge."
Just a little more than a year into his college career, Carnell has already learned every secondary position there is in the Tiger defense. The experience has given him a chance to polish a lot of different aspects of his game.
"Corner, that helped me a lot with the corners playing a lot of man coverage," he said. "Free Safety really helped me with like my range and my ball skills because at STAR sometimes we'll drop back and be in the middle of the field sometimes. Nickel helped me in the slot, STAR we guard slot sometimes too. So it's really helped me with my overall game, helped me in a lot of aspects playing a lot of positions."
While the pair is playing the same position, each one brings a little bit of a different skillset. That could offer Baker and Drinkwitz the chance to switch between them based on the situation.
"With Tez there’s certain packages you’re probably calling," Drinkwitz said. "With Daylan Carnell, there's maybe different types of packages you can call. It provides position or call flexibility, scheme flexibility."
Expect both to be heavily involved at perhaps the most important position on the Tiger defense when Mizzou opens against Louisiana Tech in 16 days.
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