Camp notebook: August 9

The Missouri football team took the field without pads for a short practice Friday morning in preparation for the first scrimmage of fall camp Saturday (more on that below). Just as yesterday was the “defensive line notebook,” our focus today is on the cornerbacks and the newest member of the Tiger coaching staff, David Gibbs.

Even before he hired Gibbs during the offseason to coach the Missouri cornerbacks, Tiger head coach Barry Odom talked about him as a turnover guru. At each of his past two stops prior to Missouri, Gibbs’ defense has excelled at taking the ball away. He served as the defensive coordinator at Houston when the Cougars led the nation with 43 takeaways in 2013 and tied for 11th nationally with 30 the following season. His defenses at Texas Tech recorded 29 takeaways in 2017, which tied for sixth in the country, and 18 a season ago.

Despite his success at generating turnovers, however, Gibbs claims he doesn’t have a secret blueprint or “magical pill” to do so.

“There’s no magical pill,” he said. “If there was, I’d be a billionaire and I wouldn’t be coaching anymore.”

While it may not be that easy, Missouri’s defensive backs have noticed some new techniques used by Gibbs to put them in position to take the ball away from opposing offenses. It starts, junior cornerback Christian Holmes said, with his vocabulary. Holmes said Gibbs talks about turnovers constantly.

“Preaching turnovers, preaching turnovers, preaching turnovers,” Holmes said. “(He’s always) talking about interceptions, different techniques to get the interceptions.”

Gibbs doesn’t just stop at talking about turnovers, though. Fellow junior Adam Sparks said he has introduced new techniques that should allow the cornerback group to have better chances at intercepting passes or punching the ball out of an opponent’s hands. Specifically, Sparks said Gibbs has taught the group to read quarterbacks’ eyes and take different angles when breaking on a pass.

“We have different techniques now to allow us to get more picks and play with the quarterbacks’ eyes,” Sparks said. “It’s a lot of ways we can get the ball.”

After at one point having the nation’s longest active streak of games with a turnover, Missouri has struggled a bit to take the ball away from opponents the past two seasons. In 2017, the Tigers recorded 17 takeaways, which tied for 81st nationally. That number shrunk to 16 last season, which tied for 91st. Both years, the team has finished with a negative turnover margin, meaning it has turned the ball over more than it has taken it away.

Gibbs hopes to rectify that by making turnovers an identity for the cornerback group.

“It’s gotta be an identity,” he said. “It’s gotta be a part of your culture. ... So just getting the kids to buy into it and live it and do it every day.”

For the record, the defense had one turnover in the 11-on-11 portion of Friday’s practice, but it didn’t come from a cornerback. Senior linebacker Cale Garrett picked off an errant pass from Kelly Bryant and returned it down the sideline for a touchdown, sending his defensive teammates into a frenzy.

Senior DeMarkus Acy and, to a lesser extent, Holmes are Missouri’s headliners at cornerback. Acy started all 13 games last season and was voted to the all-SEC second-team while Holmes entered the starting rotation midway through the season and performed well. Both will likely being the season atop the depth chart this year, but not without significant competition from a surprisingly deep crop of corners. Sparks and Holmes both said the unit is deeper than at any point in their college careers.

“Our one’s and two’s could even be starters, and then our threes could work in and still get like a lot of reps,” Sparks said. “And we’re still young, too. We only got one senior in the whole cornerback room.”

A few factors have contributed to the Tigers’ cornerback depth. For one, after missing the final five games of last season and nearly all of spring practices with a stress fracture in his shin, Sparks is back. As a precaution, the coaching staff has held him out of a couple practices so far during camp, including Friday, but Sparks said he feels back to full speed.

“I’m ready to go,” he said. “I’m just ready to get back out there. They’re taking it slower, so I practice two days, maybe not practice one day just to watch it since I’m just getting back. But I feel good.”

In addition, the coaching staff switched senior Richaud Floyd from wide receiver to cornerback prior to the spring, and he has caught on well at the new position. He could be in line to see playing time with the starters in nickel and dime packages. Finally, sophomore Jarvis Ware has continued to impress, to the point that it wouldn’t be stunning to see him steal a starting spot.

“He’s flying around making plays,” Holmes said of Ware. “... Every day come out here and get better and try to win the job, and I think everybody in the room knows it.”

The benefits to having such depth are multiple. Holmes said more players are willing to speak up in position meetings than years past, which results in better feedback for each individual. Odom said the number of game-ready players “is going to allow us to do some things coverage-wise that maybe we haven’t been able to in years past.” Sparks said it has forced everyone to bring his A game during practice to try not to get passed up on the depth chart.

“If I see, say, Jarvis go make a play, I’m like, okay, I gotta make a play now,” Sparks explained. It’s going to be me and Jarvis made a play, so Acy going to say the same thing. So it’s a lot of competition around the whole practice. So when we bring that to the game it’s going to be real good.”

In another illustration of Missouri’s depth at cornerback, a player not included in the discussion above rotated in with the starters Friday. True freshman Chris Shearin took Sparks’ place in the rotation since Sparks sat out of practice. Both Gibbs and Holmes had positive things to say about Shearin’s development afterward.

“He practiced the first half of spring ball before he got hurt and did a good job, and he’s just continued to work hard all offseason,” said Gibbs. “Sparks didn’t practice today and Chris got a chance to step up and go with the ones and made a couple plays, did a great job.”

“He was flying around today making a lot of plays,” Holmes said. “So it’s good to see him grow in a lot of areas. ... Corner, nickel, dime, he’s making a lot of plays everywhere.”

Several new players donned red pullovers during Friday’s practice indicating an injury, but none is expected to miss significant time. Freshman wide receiver C.J. Boone missed his second practice in a row due after having a tooth extracted on Wednesday. Freshman safety Jalani Williams, too, underwent a dental procedure after being hit in the mouth during Thursday’s practice and was limited Friday as a result. Junior safety Tyree Gillespie was limited as well due to a muscle strain in his hip area, according to Odom. Slot receiver Johnathon Johnson sat out most of practice after a teammate stepped on his foot Thursday, but Odom said “he’ll be fine.” Defensive end Trajan Jeffcoat once again watched practice from the sideline with a wrap and a brace around his left arm. He has been out since Aug. 2 with a strained elbow.

Missouri will take the field in what Odom called a “controlled scrimmage” Saturday morning. Media will have access to the scrimmage and PowerMizzou will provide full coverage.

“It’ll be good,” Odom said. “Great evaluation piece to see kind of where we’re at for some of our young guys.”