Welcome to Four Down Territory where I’ll give you three thoughts on Missouri football or college football in general. Then, the last thought will be whatever I want it to be.
1. The margins only get smaller.
The first week of fall camp is already in the books. Time moves fast. Head coach Eli Drinkwitz talked to the media on Saturday and told us how the team is progressing.
One of the big things Mizzou wanted to work on was red zone offense. Despite finishing third in the nation in red zone offense, the team wants to turn more field goals into touchdowns.
For one, something that's been noticeable this offseason are the margins are smaller. A lot of teams could finish top three in red zone offense and tell themselves that with the same offensive coordinator and eight starters they're fine in that area.
Of course, every team practices everything even if they're the best at something, but if you know you're good at something you typically want to attack something you're not good at.
When you're a good team and good at many things you have to turn good into great. That's not just on the field that's the roster too.
It's cool that Mizzou has Brady Cook but what if he can't play? You need a quality backup. Enter Drew Pyne, who has already won the QB2 position.
Look at linebacker. The Tigers seemingly had two starters for this season with Chuck Hicks and Triston Newson and still got three quality linebackers in the portal.
Anyway back to the red zone work. Drinkwitz said it's going well.
"I thought it's been good," Drinkwitz said. "Obviously, it serves to protect our players from over-usage and get them acclimated to the yardage. It causes everybody to play quicker because everything happens quicker in the red zone. The breaking points of routes, the ball has to come out, the rushing (and) the blitzes.
"It's been good for our guys to feel that intensity and urgency. Obviously, it's not always executed the way you want to because it's the first three out. But they've got a great foundation of what it is and what we're trying to do and then it's just about continuing to add on and build to it."
If the red zone offense is going well and Mizzou can turn more field goals into touchdowns, this will take a top 30 offense into a top 15-20 offense quickly.
2. The new guys who have caught Drinkwitz's eye.
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