Friday Practice Report
Missouri was back on the practice field 24 hours after the second scrimmage of fall camp for another full pads workout. PowerMizzou.com has the rundown.
Advertisement
News and Notes
*L'Damian Washington and Rolandis Woodland are not yet cleared for contact drills, but both were upgraded to red pullovers for Friday's workout. Still, the Tigers are missing five receivers to injury right now.
*Braylon Webb was the only new injury on Friday morning. At the end of practice, there was no official word on the injury. Webb did scrimmage on Thursday, but sat out Friday's workout.
*I have seen Texas transfer Darius White make a few nice catches in practice the last few days, including one where he caught a back shoulder pass in the end zone against Randy Ponder this morning.
No matter how many receivers are injured this year, White has no chance to play as he has to sit out the season per NCAA rule. But he has the physical tools and I've seen him working for quite a while with T.J. Moe after practice the last few days as well. Sometimes, all it takes is a fresh start and maybe that's the case for White.
Although he was on campus for spring football, White is not being made available for interviews during camp as a first-year player.
*Another player I saw spending extra time after practice is offensive tackle Jordan Williams. He spent quite a bit of time working with Elvis Fisher after practice today. Williams has been working mostly at right tackle, but was lined up on the left side today, where Fisher is the starter.
Each day, we include some video of practice in our reports. Click the player below to watch some of Friday's action.
Depth Chart Analysis
Again, I stress that an official depth chart will not be released by Missouri until the Monday before the season opener against Southeast Louisiana. We can get a decent idea of the way things stack up by looking at the stretch lines. It is not official, but it's a good guideline. Here's what I saw on Friday morning.
OFFENSE
QB: James Franklin
TB: Kendial Lawrence
HWR: T.J. Moe
XWR: Marcus Lucas
Rolandis Woodland
ZWR: L'Damian Washington
YWR/TE: Eric Waters
(Sean Culkin injured)
RT: Justin Britt
RG: Jack Meiners
C: Mitch Morse
LG: Max Copeland
LT: Elvis Fisher
Jordan Williams
DEFENSE
DE: Kony Ealy
DT: Jimmy Burge
(Matt Hoch and Lucas Vincent injured)
DE: Michael Sam
OLB: Zaviar Gooden
MLB: Will Ebner
OLB: Andrew Wilson
CB: Randy Ponder
(Kip Edwards injured)
S: Matt White
(Webb injured)
CB: E.J. Gaines
Freshman Decisions
Based on Russell Hansbrough's work in the scrimmage and his movement up to an apparent No.3 on the depth chart, the chances look to be increasing that he sees the field this year. However, Gary Pinkel said that no official decision has been made on Hansbrough or any other freshman.
"No, we haven't done that with anybody yet. There are several guys we're looking at. We talked about that at great length, really we do that almost every day," Pinkel said. "He's moving up a little bit. He's obviously got some quickness. A lot of it has to do with maturity, a lot of other things too. We're very fortunate that we've got some depth there, got two real good freshmen and we'll kind of see how it shakes down.
Hansbrough ripped off a nice run against the first-team defense over the right side early in practice. During 11-on-11 at the end of practice, he took a screen pass in the left flat and weaved his way about 15 or 20 yards into the end zone on the first play of the drill. That one came with the number two offense against the number two defense.
Scherer is another freshman, along with Brantley, who look to be right on that decision line. Gibson, who made some noise early in camp, is listed fourth-string at corner. With the Tigers having established punt return men ahead of him, it looks like Gibson could be a player headed for a redshirt, though again, no decisions have been made.
Drill Work
Spent some time checking out one-on-one drills between the receivers and defensive backs/linebackers today. We posted video of those drills above, but here were some observations.
*Wesley Leftwich mad a couple of nice catches. I don't know if he will be able to fight his way up through a deep position, but he has had some good days in camp.
*Gaines won the head-to-head matchup with Sasser three straight times. I don't think it would be a stretch to call Gaines the best player on either side of the ball in camp.
*Levi Copelin made a pair of sliding catches. Again, I think he could be a player right on that decision line between playing and redshirting.
*Ernest Payton got beat by Darius White early in the drill, but came back to intercept a pass in front of Marcus Lucas at the end.
The Tigers have cancelled the afternoon practice today and will have meetings instead. Mizzou will be back on the field at 7:15 Saturday morning and we will have complete coverage of that workout.
Our camp coverage is sponsored by Big Brothers, Big Sisters of Missouri. More than 1,000 Little Brothers in Missouri need someone like you to show them what it's like to be Tiger fans. Become a Big Brother today! Click here or call (816) 777-2892 for more information on how to become a Big.
Click Here to view this Link.