Mizzou Football Notebook: Senior Day, McGuire's final season, NM State

Missouri (4-6) is looking to put its nightmarish week 11 performance in the past with a much better showing in when it hosts New Mexico State (4-5). It actually hasn't been that hard for the team to move pasts its 66-24 defeat at the hands of SEC East division foe Tennessee because not only is Saturday another chance to win a game, but it's Senior Day.

The Tigers will have 21 players who will be participating in Senior Day:

Jack Abraham

Barrett Banister

Kibet Chepyator

Tauskie Dove

Bobby Lawrence

Nathaniel Peat

Zeke Powell

Trent Sederwall

Richard Taylor

Connor Wood

DJ Coleman

Tyrone Hopper

Trajan Jeffcoat

Martez Manuel

Isaiah McGuire

Devin Nicholson

Darius Robinson

Jalani Williams

Jake Hoffman

Sean Koetting

"This is a big week," Missouri head coach Eli Drinkwitz said. "It's an opportunity for us to acknowledge and show our appreciation to all the seniors for all that they have done for our program whether they chose to be here for the last six months or if they've been here for the last five to six years."

There's been a lot of discussion about how this defense has improved significantly from a season ago and that the Tigers will only have to really focus on improving the offense in 2023. But with that list of seniors leaving there will have to be some improvements on both sides of the ball. Luckily for Drinkwitz and the Tigers, there are a number of senior players who have eligibility left due to the COVID season and will forego Senior Day this season. Meaning they'd potentially come back and play for Missouri next season.

Two players who are almost certainly returning in 2023 barring unforeseen circumstances are right tackle Hyrin White and linebacker Chad Bailey.

"My conversations with Hyrin and his parents are that we're going to apply for a medical redshirt for this year and we feel confident that the NCAA will grant that," Drinkwitz said. "We're very excited that if that's granted he would spend another year with us. Chad Bailey has another year of eligibility, so right now, he is not walking on Senior Day because he wants to finish out his opportunity to play football. So, really excited about that. A young man whose best football is still ahead of him and continues to improve and be a leader on our football team."

Other seniors that will not walk out for Senior Day this weekend are Xavier Delgado, Javon Foster, Realus George, Chuck Hicks, Josh Landry and Cody Schrader.

Although these players aren't walking on Senior Day, it doesn't mean they will necessarily return to the Tigers in 2023. While those decisions may have been made privately, nothing is certain. Likewise, just because a player does take part in the Senior Day ceremony doesn't mean he couldn't return. A number of those participating do have eligibility remaining if they choose to use it.

One senior did offer clarity on his future. McGuire will be walking out with his fellow seniors on Saturday as part of Senior Day. He does have another year of eligibility but has decided that his tenure in Columbia will be done at the conclusion of the Tigers' season.

"This is my last year here," McGuire said. "I mean it's time. The next level is there for me, but you know that's still in the future. For me, I just want to finish out the season riding with my teammates and going out on a victory."

Last season, McGuire racked up 55 tackles, 14 tackles for loss, six sacks, a forced fumble, a fumble recovery and a pass deflection and earned the team's defensive most valuable player award. This year, McGuire has put in another good season to be in the running for the award again with 34 tackles, 12 tackles for loss, 6.5 sacks and two forced fumbles with at least a pair of games to go.

McGuire's fellow defensive lineman, Darius Robinson, said he's happy for McGuire and that he believes it's the right time for him to take his talents to the professional level.

"I'm very glad he made it known that he's gone because he deserves it," Robinson said. "Like, you guys have seen it. He has been the best player on our defense for two years. If you watch the tape he is the best defensive end in the country."

For a number of seasons, Missouri was known for producing some special defensive lines season after season and got the nickname "D-line Zou." Some of those defensive linemen included future NFL Draft picks Michael Sam, Shane Ray, Charles Harris, Markus Golden and Aldon Smith.

McGuire, a native of Tulsa, Oklahoma, has been a part of the reinvigorated "D-line Zou," but for McGuire, it doesn't just date back to his tenure in the black and gold. It started back in 2014 when Missouri faced Oklahoma State in the Cotton Bowl.

"My dad went to Oklahoma State and he took me to that game. ... I believe that game was Shane Ray and Michael Sam and I never knew that I was going to be a part of that tradition here now. So, I got to thank God."

During the tail end of that game, up 34-31, Sam, that year's Co-Southeastern Conference Defensive Player of the Year strip-sacked Clint Chelf and Ray scooped the ball up and scored a 73-yard touchdown sealing a 41-31 win in what remains Mizzou's last bowl victory.

Mizzou defensive coordinator Blake Baker said that Trajan Jeffcoat, Robinson and McGuire have helped the rest of the defense buy into the scheme due to their leadership.

"I think those guys were huge for the development of this defense I think they bought in really quickly. I explained to them this is a defensive line's dream scheme. Anytime you have three senior leaders like that, especially big in stature, guys seem to follow. For those guys to buy into the scheme, myself, coach (Kevin) Peoples and coach Al Davis I think it's a trickle-down effect."

While McGuire has made his intentions known as to what he's going to do after the season Robinson has not.

"I haven't had any sure thoughts on if I want to leave or if I want to stay," Robinson said. "I'm just focusing on these next two weeks and hopefully a bowl game. I really am just cherishing these days, honestly just being around my teammates."

Robinson has had an up-and-down season that saw him start the first couple of games before being replaced by Kristian Williams in the starting lineup for a number of weeks before recently regaining the role.

This season, Robinson has produced 22 tackles, 3.5 tackles for loss and 2.5 sacks and Baker said he thinks one more year of seasoning at Missouri can make Robinson a draft pick in the top three rounds of the 2024 NFL Draft.

"He's a guy that's ascended the entire year," Baker said. "He's gotten better and better and to be honest I'm trying to get him to come back for another year. I truly believe that he can play himself into being a first or second-round draft pick because I've seen it firsthand, especially in this scheme. He's just starting to scratch the surface in this scheme and in the last two or three games he's played his best football."

Entering week 11, Missouri's defense was ranked 14th in the nation. Entering this week, it ranks 34th after giving up 66 points, 724 total yards and 33 first downs to the Volunteers.

Baker said there were a number of things that went wrong, but at the end of the day that the blame belongs to him.

"I think we've got to coach better and we've got to play better and that's the bottom line," Baker said. "We didn't play to our standard and we could've put our kids in better situations and could have executed better when making plays. We're looking to put this behind us and prove this was an anomaly."

Baker said that he's seen a lot of pride from the team at practice this week, especially from the defense, and that the team has a chip on its shoulder.

"I've seen a look of determination, not a look of sadness or frustration," Baker said. "Again, it all starts and stops with me. When we see the things that we can improve on fundamentally and schematically I think they see that Saturday wasn't us."

For the first time this season, two wide receivers (Jalin Hyatt and Bru McCoy) got over 100 receiving yards on Missouri and Baker explained that he didn't do enough to convey the game plan to the safeties.

"I didn't do a good enough job explaining to the safeties exactly what we wanted to be done — a lot of times we wanted more or less to make sure we had two guys on a slot," Baker said. "Again, that's not on the players that's on me that we didn't execute."

One play in particular that frustrated Baker more than any play that happened in week 11 was when Hyatt lined up as an H-back in the backfield and slipped out for a 68-yard touchdown when Missouri has just narrowed the lead to 28-24 on the prior possession.

"They ended up hiding Hyatt in the backfield and I should have called timeout," Baker said. That's the thing that kept me up Saturday night because I saw it and I'm trying to yell it out on the sideline in front of 100,000 people and they're (the officials) not going to hear that. I thought we executing the (halftime) adjustments well then they hit us on that and a run and that's kind of what broke the camel's back."

The 66 points were 11 shy of the record for most points allowed by a Mizzou defense, the 33 first downs were six shy of the record and the 724 total yards were 26 less than the record.

New Mexico State started the season 0-4 under its new head coach Jerry Kill, but has won its last four of five games including the last three against New Mexico, UMass and Lamar.

The Aggies enter week 12 with the 36th-ranked defense, just two spots below Mizzou, allowing just 347.6 yards per game and the 11th-ranked pass defense allowing only 175.1 yards per game.

"They are very multiple and play a lot of pressure and coverage," Drinkwitz said. "They do a lot of things on defense, they do a lot of things offensively that make it difficult for you, so we can't get caught up chasing a lot of scheme."

New Mexico State is void of a conference and is an independent with the ranked 94th strength of schedule, so its defensive rankings may be inflated slightly due to the competition it's playing.

The Tigers need to defeat the Aggies and Arkansas in week 13, but Drinkwitz insisted that the challenge ahead is the team it will face first on Senior Day.

"We definitely have our work cut out for us," Drinkwitz said. "I know our staff knows that. I think our players understand that. And again, that's why I've been preaching about we have to play to our standard. We can't just assume that this is a team that's going to come in here 一 I mean, they're going to want to make a name for their program and themselves. And they're playing at a high enough level to do that."

The theme for this week, besides it being Senior Day, is back to basics.

"We've got to block better, we got to have our hands inside, we have to have better tackling angles, we have to identify what our matchups are in man-to-man and make sure we have the right technique," Drinkwitz said. "We have to run our routes at the right depth. We have to get through our progressions at the quarterback position. So, all of those things are things that we've been doing since we've been here."

Defensively, Baker said that the defense will have to nullify New Mexico State's 81st-ranked rushing attack if the Tigers want to avoid an upset.

"They do a good job running the football," Baker said. "They're multiple in the run game which means schematically, they present you with some problems because they're not one-dimensional. I think that is their strength, but they're also explosive in the passing game when they do throw the ball. But more than anything it starts and stops with stopping the run."

Star Thomas leads the Aggies in rushing yards with 370 on 73 attempts (5.1 yards per rush) and three touchdowns.

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