8/9/2022 football Edit

Improved linebacker play a key for Mizzou in 2022

Gabe DeArmond • PowerMizzou

Publisher

Gabe has covered the Tigers for PowerMizzou.com since August of 2003 and been the site's publisher since 2006.

At the risk of damning with faint praise, Missouri's defense did get better during the 2021 season. It wasn't great in the final six games, but it wasn't awful. And that marked progress for the Tigers last year.

Here are Missouri's numbers in the first seven games of the season compared to the final six:

Table Name

Games	Carries	Rush Yards	Yards/Rush	Total Yards
1-7	326	2005	6.15	3417
8-13	231	950	4.46	2058

Through the first seven games, Missouri allowed 286.4 yards per game on the ground. Nobody had fewer than 174 rushing yards and five of the Tigers' first seven opponents went for more than 275, including 791 combined yards on 101 carries by Tennessee and Kentucky. On average, teams ran the ball 46.6 times for 6.15 yards per attempt in the first seven games of the year.

In the final six games, the Tigers gave up just 158.3 yards per game, 128 better than the first half of the year. Only one team carried the ball more than 38 times, only one team had more than 211 yards and the per carry average dropped to 4.46. Missouri actually held South Carolina and Florida under 100 yards rushing apiece.

Here's what else happened after game seven: Chad Bailey started playing a whole lot more. Bailey played 135 snaps in the Tigers' first seven games, including just 60 in the first five weeks. Twice in those five weeks, he was on the field for fewer than ten defensive plays. In the final six games, Bailey averaged nearly 60 snaps per contest.

The Class of 2018 four-star prospect out of Texas should be a starter this year for the Tiger defense. He is expected to line up alongside Florida transfer Ty'Ron Hopper, who turned Mizzou's eye with 13 tackles and two quarterback pressures in the Gators' overtime loss in Columbia last season.

The duo should be an upgrade over Missouri's starting linebackers a season ago. Blaze Alldredge came on in the second half of the season, but Devin Nicholson saw his time dwindle as Bailey came on. Nicholson played just 124 of his 516 snaps in the final six weeks. Over the last five games, he was on the field for just 56 total defensive snaps. He comes into fall camp this year not as an established starter, but as a player trying to earn reps over players ahead of him.

"I just feel like every camp you really got to go in with the best mindset to be the best player that you can personally be," Nicholson said. "And so I don't feel like it's been much of a change, just always trying to give as much as you can.”

Nicholson said he's focused on being more physical and taking every bit of coaching he gets this offseason. New defensive coordinator Blake Baker was complimentary of Nicholson this week, saying he has "definitely progressed" throughout the offseason. But Baker also said he wants five linebackers with whom he is comfortable even though Mizzou will play only two at a time. That means the depth behind Bailey and Hopper is still a question mark.

Along with Nicholson, Chuck Hicks is in position to be one of those key backups. Hicks was ineligible for the first half of last season after a late transfer from Wyoming, He saw 14 defensive snaps in games against Georgia and Arkansas while seeing some action on special teams.

"I knew I was gonna work," Hicks said of last season. "To get the opportunity to actually compete and get on the field, it meant everything to me."

If the Tigers' employ a fifth linebacker, it will likely be one who hasn't seen much action in college...and possibly seen none. Redshirt freshmen Zachary Lovett and Dameon Wilson played in three and two games, respectively, a season ago. Xavier Simmons and Carmycah Glass are true freshmen at the position.

"DayDay Wilson he’s been a pleasant surprise," Baker said. "I think he’s playing really, really well. I think he’s changed his body over the summer and is one of the more improved players over the summer on our defense."

"The redshirt guys under us, you got Zach and DayDay, they've been doing what they have to do, making plays," Hicks said. "Along with Xavier Simmons and Carmycah Glass, I feel like everybody, we're coming together. It's a faster process of learning and overall I feel like we're doing really good."

The Tigers are focused now on forgetting 2021 and being better in 2022, regardless of exactly who's responsible for that improvement.

"I feel like you can always use it as fuel to become better but at some point you got to stop dwelling on the past," Nicholson said. "Nothing's going to change from the past. So we got to be able to control the controllable and try to be the best for the future that we can be."

The proof will ultimately be revealed on 12 days over the next four months. The opener is just 23 days away.

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