While talk of Missouri's defensive scheme dominated Monday afternoon at media day, one thing Barry Odom noted could help the Tigers was improvement on the other side of the ball.
"We've got to play more consistent offensively and defensively," Odom said. "It's never good on offense you go three and out, especially when you're playing with tempo. That doesn't serve well for your football team. Our best chance right now offensively is to try to play fast."
Missouri held the ball for just 17 minutes and 27 seconds against LSU and ran only 60 offensive plays. The Tigers ran for 77 yards on 22 carries, an average of 3.5 per carry...which actually exceeded Odom's expectations.
"Ran it a little better maybe than I thought we were going. Don't confuse it with where it needs to be yet," he said. "I don't know that we would be very efficient if we lined up in a huddle and came out of it and tried to play power football. That's not what our roster is right now. It may be some day, but it's not today."
Make no mistake, this offense will be carried by the right arm of Drew Lock. The sophomore quarterback assessed his own play on Monday afternoon.
"I would put it as average," Lock said. "I wouldn't put it below average, but I wouldn't put it above average either. Maybe with a little different outcome in the Georgia game and the way I played the second half, I could possibly put it above average, but there's a couple quarters I'd like to have back obviously. This seven-game stretch that we have, I have a lot of opportunities to change that."
Odom expects defenses to continue to shut down the Tiger passing game.
"If I was calling against our offense, I would," the head coach said. "Try to take away what they do best. I would think they are."
BYE WEEK ACTIVITY
With no game last week, Mizzou's coaches took the opportunity to hit the recruiting trail. Barry Odom was on both sides of the state, taking in high school football in St. Louis and Kansas City. We listed the rest of the staff's activity we were able to track in The Chamber last Friday.
"We were able to get on the road and get a number of evaluations done recruiting, which will help us down the road," Odom said. "Found out a couple years ago, I'm a really good coach when I've got real good players. So recruiting's pretty important for us. Our guys did a really good job on the road recruiting. They were back in town and had practice (Sunday) night."
Missouri players were happy to have the week off, which Odom said came at an ideal time in the season for them.
"I loved having the bye week," defensive tackle Rickey Hatley said. "My body was banged up. Just try to get some stuff together this week, watch more film, just recover. We wanted to see what we can do to fix it here on out...Finish the season strong."
INJURY UPDATE
Odom said the Tigers were as healthy as they've been all season long. He noted that cornerback Logan Cheadle may not be ready for the Florida game this weekend. Cheadle is still nursing an ankle injury.
"He's going to have to show some improvements here in the next couple days to show that he's ready," Odom said.
Wide receiver Nate Brown is also unlikely to play.
"He started running, I guess, a week-and-a-half ago and straight ahead speed looked pretty good," Odom said. "Straight ahead speed and then being able to function as a wide receiver are two different things. He's ahead of schedule on where he's at. We'll look at it here. We've got to do a great job seeing him the next two weeks."
Odom has discussed the possibility of a redshirt with the sophomore wide receiver.
"As a student-athlete when I was coming off of an injury, we challenged our guys to expect to get back. That was the approach I tried to take," Odom said. "Every day out at practice he comes out and he rehabs. He does everything right. A's and B's in the classroom. He's a mature kid. You don't ever want anybody to get hurt, but the way he's responded has kind of been a model for guys who have an injury and how they work to maybe get back in a position to be able to play."
In non-injury roster news, cornerback Aarion Penton and safety Cam Hilton are back in good graces, both listed first on the depth chart.
FLORIDA TIGERS
Missouri has a number of players from the Sunshine State on their roster who had concerns for their families dealing with the presence of Hurricane Matthew last week.
Wide receiver Chris Black said on Monday that it appeared everyone's family made it through the storm safely. The Jacksonville native's main concern now is lining up enough tickets for an expected 30 family members to come see him play in Gainesville on Saturday afternoon.
"Man, the whole team. I promise the whole team," Black said. "Probably started two weeks ago, just trying to get people prepared that I was going to ask them."
ODOM ON EARLY SIGNING DATES
Last week, the NCAA raised the possibility of incorporating early signing dates for high school players. There is no set plan, but the proposal is for a 72-hour signing period beginning the last Wednesday in June and another in mid-December, when junior college early enrollees currently sign. National Signing Day on the first Wednesday in February would remain intact.
Barry Odom shared his thoughts on Monday: "I've got a lot of opinions on it. I don't know how many I should say. Number one, I want the high school coaches to be able to be high school coaches. I think that's important that we don't take out the importance of kids being able to be kids. I know recruiting has changed so much in the last three years, seven years, ten years, whatever it is, and is going to continue to do that. We'll have to adjust and really make sure with the evaluations that we get to know everything we need to know about the kid. The earlier you move that up and then you're judged on the results on the field, plus your APR ranking, plus your graduation rate, you better do a great job on finding out information on that kid before you accept a commitment, before you make an offer and accept a commitment. It just speeds everything up a little bit more.
"It's worked pretty good for a long time where it's at. I wouldn't mind bringing up that model and seeing if that could work for a few more years. I just worry about kids being kids and having the opportunity to enjoy your high school career."
SATURDAY KICKOFF INFORMATION
Mizzou and Florida will kick off at 4 p.m. local time (3 p.m. Central) in Gainesville on Saturday afternoon. The game will be televised on the SEC Network with Brent Musberger, Jesse Palmer and Kaylee Hartung again on the call. Mike Kelly, Howard Richards and Chris Gervino have the radio call on the Tiger Radio Network. Mizzou leads the all-time series 3-2 with Florida winning last year's game 21-3 in Columbia. The Tigers took the last meeting in Gainesville 42-13 despite just 119 yards of total offense.
