Five fall camp storylines to watch

The calendar has flipped to August, which means the start of the college football season is finally here. Missouri will begin its first of 17 fall camp practices Friday morning. PowerMizzou will bring you extensive coverage from each day that is open to the media. Here are the five biggest storylines we will be monitoring in the 30 days before the Tigers kick off the 2019 season at Wyoming.

By far the biggest position of concern on Missouri’s roster at the outset of fall camp is defensive end. The Tigers got little pressure from the position group last season; only 6.5 sacks in 13 games were recorded by a defensive end. Clearly, someone needs to emerge as a fearsome edge rusher to make life easier for the rest of the pass defense. However, it’s still unclear who the best candidate might be.

The position got a bit of a boost Wednesday when Missouri announced that junior Tre Williams, the defensive end with the most sacks from last season’s roster, will rejoin the team. Until Tuesday, Williams had been suspended indefinitely after being charged with felony domestic assault in December. He had his charges reduced to a misdemeanor during a court appearance last month, making him eligible to return to the team. However, while Williams' return should add to the depth at defensive end, there’s the question of how long it will take him to get back into shape since he hasn’t worked out with the team since his arrest.

The coaching staff hopes the sophomore duo of Trajan Jeffcoat and Jatorian Hansford can make a bigger impact this season. Both players appeared in more than four games a season ago, but neither made much of an impact. With a full offseason to learn the plays and gain strength, the hope is that at least one of the pair can crack the starting lineup. Finally, junior college transfer Sci Martin possesses plenty of talent. Martin signed with LSU after putting up ridiculous sack numbers in high school, then spent two seasons at East Mississippi Community College before coming to Missouri. The question is whether Martin, who arrived on campus in June, can learn the defense quickly enough to play a regular role.

Odom and his staff have proven they aren’t afraid to give true freshmen an opportunity to earn playing time. Two seasons ago, eight of the Tigers’ 18 signees saw action during their first college season. Last year, 11 of 22 played in more than four games, thus using their first season of eligibility. Due to the new rule allowing players to appear in as many as four games while maintaining a redshirt, we won’t be certain of which true freshmen will use a year of eligibility until the season progresses, but fall camp usually provides the first indication of which newcomers will see the field. Running back Anthony Watkins, tight end Niko Hea and safety Jalani Williams figure to be among the newcomers who will have an opportunity to work their way into regular roles with solid performances during camp.

Missouri addressed a major need during the 2018 recruiting class by bringing in six wide receivers, and half of those players (Jalen Knox, Kam Scott and Dominic Gicinto) saw extensive action as true freshmen. Each showed impressive flashes last season; between them and the rest of the Tiger receiving corps, there’s plenty of talent to go around. However, last season also showed that, when top target Emanuel Hall was sidelined by injury, the team needed another player to step up and serve as a “go-to guy” in the passing game. The next four weeks should give us a clue as to which, if any, pass-catchers can fill that role for new starting quarterback Kelly Bryant.

There are several talented candidates for a breakout season at wideout, but each enters camp with something to prove. Knox twice earned SEC Freshman of the Week honors with big performances last season, yet he also looked like a true freshman at times, catching two or fewer passes in seven of 12 games last year. Scott also showed flashes of brilliance, averaging 26.8 yards per catch, but he was even more prone to disappearing for games at a time. He caught just eight balls on the year. Arkansas transfer Jonathan Nance caught 37 passes for 539 yards and five touchdowns in 2017 but then caught just one pass in four games before opting to transfer a season ago. Even senior Johnathon Johnson, who enters this season needing 882 yards to become Missouri’s all-time leading receiver, has struggled with drops and consistency at times over the past three years.

The good news for Missouri is that, regardless of the question marks at wideout, Bryant will have a unique weapon in tight end Albert Okwuegbunam. Okwuegbunam has hauled in 17 touchdowns in 18 games across the past two seasons, and as long as he’s healthy (he missed the final four games last year with a shoulder injury that kept him out of much of spring practices) it might not be crazy to expect him to lead the team in receptions.

It’s no secret that improving the special teams as a whole will be of urgent importance for the Missouri coaching staff, but it will be difficult to get a sense of how much the Tigers have improved in the third phase of the game until they line up against an actual opponent. The two questions that will be answered before then are which player will do the punting, and who will return punts and kickoff.

Punter Corey Fatony was one of the lone bright spots among Missouri’s special teams last season, but he has graduated after starting for the past four year. During spring practices, it didn’t look like the staff had found a suitable replacement. As a result, placekicker Tucker McCann is also listed as the starting punter on the team’s most recent depth chart. The coaching staff brought in several walk-on options to compete with McCann for the job during the summer, so we should find out relatively early in camp whether one of them earns the starting job. McCann punted in high school, but handling punting, placekicking and kickoff duties could be a lot to ask.

The returning positions, on the other hand, are generally determined later in camp, after the staff gets a chance to evaluate its many options. One thing is for sure: Missouri needs to improve its punt returning. The combination of Johnathon Johnson and Richaud Floyd ranked second-to-last nationally in punt return average a season ago.

Every year, it seems, at least one player suffers a major injury during fall camp and is forced to miss the entire season. The coaching staff will pray that Missouri’s key contributors avoid such bad luck. If someone like Bryant, Cale Garrett, Yasir Durant or Jordan Elliott were to go down with injury, the outlook for this season would change significantly.