10/18/2023 football Edit

Missouri Football Notebook: Things to work on, freshmen class impressing

Jarod Hamilton • PowerMizzou

Staff Writer

No. 20 Missouri (6-1) looks to keep the momentum going through Homecoming Week when South Carolina (2-4) makes the trip west to Columbia, Missouri for its Week 8 matchup.

There are a lot of things to be happy about if you're a Mizzou fan, but there are still some things the team has to work on, and Eli Drinkwitz doesn't think now is the time to be drinking the Kool-aid and relishing their accomplishments.

"We can't be an emotionally driven team that relies on the emotional ups and downs of the team. I really challenge our guys to refrain from searching out the praise on social media and becoming numb to improvement," Drinkwitz said on Tuesday during the team's Media Day. "You know, we really have to improve. And I think what happens is you go looking for pats on the back instead of being critical or hard on yourself and saying, 'I need to be uncomfortable to continue to grow,' and that's really what our team needs to do to have success this week."

Drinkwitz harped on the team's poor start against Kentucky, mentioning how the offense didn’t run the ball well, turned the ball over, didn’t capitalize on takeaways and settled for field goals.

Defensively, the Tigers didn't fit the run well, adjust to motions and didn't have their eyes in the right places at times, while special teams had a blocked field goal.

Playing complementary football has been one of the points of emphasis for the last two weeks, and while the team did that in the final three quarters versus Kentucky it hasn't really played complementary football most of the year.

There's been troubles with special teams for most of the year. The offense has played well most of the season but then there were the many aforementioned struggles the unit had in Lexington and the defense has been inconsistent, to say the least. Sometimes showing flashes of a defense reminiscent of the 2022 squad's 34th-ranked defense and other times the team's 2021 113th-ranked defense.

Drinkwitz realizes that and alludes to the idea that striving for improvement is a never-ending process because playing a complete game in all three phases of the game is a lot harder than people think.

"It's hard to play a complete game. I think back to my head coaching career (and) I can think of maybe two or three (games) where a team completely played complete for four quarters," Drinkwitz said. "There's always going to be ebbs and flows and ups and downs. But I do think that there's still a significant amount of improvement that we can make as a football team."

Marquis Johnson and the freshmen class

So far this season, eight true freshmen have played snaps for the Tigers with six of them already eclipsing the four-game redshirt plateau.

Those six players are wide receiver Marquis "Speedy" Johnson (seven), safety Marvin Burks (seven), wide receiver Joshua Manning (six), tight ends Jordon Harris (six) and Brett Norfleet (six), and safety Phillip Roche (five).

"I think this class has been very effective. They're made of the right stuff," Drinwkitz said. "I've been very impressed with their mentality, whether they're on the show team (practice squad) or getting reps, but I think the foundation is really strong, and I think we're clearly identifying guys that we know can help us.

"We knew this class wasn't ranked very high because we didn't take a whole lot of high school players. But when you look at individual players alone, we knew we had some really talented guys, and that's showing up."

Roche had a strip-sack last week in his first big defensive play of his career.

Norfleet did well in his first start in the same game with four receptions for 40 yards and has retained the starting role moving forward.

However, no one may have had a more memorable play and start to the season than Johnson, who caught a 39-yard touchdown on a fake punt to change the tide in Lexington and begin a 38-7 run for the Tigers.

But it wasn't an ordinary fake touchdown. Kentucky played a punt-safe style defense on the play, so it was a little different than how the Tigers had been running the play in practice.

"So, the whole week of practice, we executed it. We talked about it. We thought that the defense was going to just let us go by and score, but he locked on to me, and he just played it and I just had to go and make a play," Johnson said. "(Punter) Luke (Bauer) threw an amazing ball. So, he threw it out there for me to go get it, and I did it, and it just created momentum for our team."

It's not hard to believe that Kentucky knew something was up when Johnson was on the field.

The receiver commonly referred to as "Speedy," has only played 55 snaps this season but has made his presence known via explosive plays.

He's recorded a reception of 39 or more yards in five straight games and has nine receptions for 268 yards and three touchdowns this season.

"It always feels like I'm faster than everybody. The games feel like it's normal speed for me, but it looks like I'm jogging, but I'm not," Johnson half-jokingly said.

His impact isn't always something that shows up in the box score. Sometimes, it's being a decoy and allowing some of his teammates to get in on the fun, too. Like, when he cleared the left side of the field on one third-quarter play last week that allowed Norfleet to catch a wide-open pass and run up the left sideline for a gain of 22 yards and a near touchdown.

"It feels good knowing I can do that (draw attention on the field). And then knowing my teammates can go do what they can do and have fun and score, too," Johnson said. "Like, on one play, I had drawn the defense, and we threw the ball to Brett, and I threw my arm up because I thought we were going to score. But yeah, it's special to do that for me and my team."

Johnson is just one of a very talented 2023 freshman class, but so far the former three-star prospect is looking like the steal of the class for Drinkwitz.

Injury updates

The Tigers don't anticipate too many names on their injury report when it is released later in the week, but one player we know for sure who will be listed as out for this week’s game is starting MIKE linebacker and team captain Chad Bailey, who will miss his third game of the season.

"(I) just realized that he's not where he needs to be from a health standpoint and need to give him a week, hopefully really two weeks, with the bye coming up to try to get his core injury better," Drinkwitz said.

This is the same injury that limited Bailey for most of fall camp and forced him to miss the first two weeks of the season.

He wasn’t a participant during Tuesday’s practice.

Bailey has recorded 17 tackles, a sack, a tackle for loss, a pass deflection and a forced fumble this season in four games.

Cornerback Ennis Rakestraw has been dealing with a groin injury that dates back to at least Week 4, and he will be questionable. He was a late scratch for the Week 4 contest against Memphis and the game against Kentucky.

His week of practice will determine if he plays this week, although Drinkwitz said on Tiger Talk that he had a good practice Tuesday. He just has to prove he can stack good practices to play.

It wouldn't be a surprise if the team decided to sit him this week and then capitalize on the bye week like it's doing with Bailey.

Drinkwitz said running back Cody Schrader will also be questionable with a quad issue that's been lingering for a while and caused him to not finish the game in Week 7.

Now, with the Tigers up 14-17 points down the stretch, it just seemed like a way to get Nathaniel Peat some more touches to put the game away and not have Schrader take any unnecessary hits.

That’s an interesting comment because not finishing the game because he physically can’t and not finishing the game because they don’t want him to risk aggravating the injury is different.

He was a full participant on Tuesday.

He recorded 20 carries for 71 yards and a touchdown in Week 7.

For the second week in a row, defensive end Darius Robinson said his calf strain injury isn't 100% healed and where he wants it to be, but he didn't seem to have too much of a problem with it last week.

A week after Drinkwitz thought Robinson played his most dominant game versus LSU, he was named the Southeastern Conference Defensive Player of the Year for Week 7 after recording six tackles, two sacks, 2.5 tackles for loss and six pressures. All were team highs.