Notebook: Mizzou readies for high-octane Florida offense
Statistically, Missouri’s defensive performance in the Tigers’ 20-10 win over Kentucky last week was one of the best the program has seen in a long time. The Wildcats threw for just 50 yards, the fewest by an FBS program against Missouri since Kansas passed for 37 in 2011. Kentucky’s 145 total yards were the fewest the Tigers have allowed to an FBS team since Kansas’ 137 in 2011. Of course, a big factor in those numbers was the fact that Kentucky ran just 36 plays — the fewest by a Missouri opponent in 54 years, since Kansas State ran 36 plays in 1966.
Head coach Eli Drinkwitz knows those numbers aren’t likely to turn into a trend given who’s next on the schedule. Saturday, Missouri will travel to No. 10 Florida. Although the Gators have been sidelined for the past two weekends due to a COVID-19 outbreak, when they’ve played this season, Dan Mullen’s team has had little trouble moving the ball, especially through the air.
Florida ranks 10th nationally and second in the SEC in scoring offense, averaging 42.3 points per game. Led by quarterback Kyle Trask, the Gators are also 10th in the country in passing offense, throwing for 342 yards per game across their first three contests. Trask completed two-thirds of his passes and threw for 330 yards against Missouri’s otherwise solid passing defense last season, the highest completion percentage and yardage the Tigers allowed all year.
Since a season-opening win against Mississippi, Florida hasn’t had a ton of success on the ground, but Drinkwitz said stopping the run will still be priority one for the defense.
“They run the ball well, which establishes what they want to do and their identity, and that's always been what Coach Mullen teams do, is run the football,” Drinkwitz said. “... And then they create matchups.”
Drinkwitz identified senior Kadarius Toney, who lines up at both wide receiver and running back, as one player Florida uses to try to create mismatches against opposing defenses. Toney has gained 297 yards and scored four touchdowns on 23 touches this season. But the primary weapon on Florida’s offense has been tight end Kyle Pitts. The likely first-round NFL Draft pick recorded an absurd stat line of eight catches for 170 yards and four touchdowns during Florida's season-opener. Pitts leads all tight ends nationally with 91.3 receiving yards per game. His seven receiving touchdowns on the season not only lead his position, but rank tied for third nationally among all pass-catchers — despite the fact that he’s only played three games.
Drinkwitz said Mullen has proven adept at getting Pitts one-on-one matchups, using him like San Francisco 49ers tight end George Kittle or the Kansas City Chiefs’ Travis Kelce.
“(Mullen) utilizes Pitts like they do Kittle and like they do Travis Kelce and some of the other great ones, where they line him up (as a) single receiver to the weak side and ... make you isolate him with no underneath coverage. They do a good job of getting him matched up on MIKE linebackers in the middle of the field.”
The task of covering Pitts will fall largely on the plate of sophomore safety Martez Manuel, although defensive coordinator Ryan Walters will likely try to provide Manuel some help whenever possible. Manuel has been solid in his first season as a starter, recording 24 tackles and a pass break-up.
The good news for Missouri is that, after a shaky start to the season, its defense has excelled at stopping the run during the past two games. LSU and Kentucky combined to rush for 144 yards across the past two games, averaging 3.4 yards per carry between them.
The two performances are certainly impressive on their own, but even more so considering they came on the heels of Tennessee gashing Missouri for 232 yards on the ground in Week Two — and with defensive tackles Kobie Whiteside and Darius Robinson both out due to injury. Defensive tackle Markell Utsey and defensive end Tre Williams both said Tuesday that the improvement has resulted in players buying into the defensive system and performing their assignments.
“Everybody’s just buying into the system,” Williams said. “Before, you got guys hopping out of gaps and trying to make plays individually. Instead of doing that, we’re playing more as a team and making some of those rally tackles. Like you look at some of the highlight tape, you see a lot of guys, so many people around the ball.”
Coaches keep coy about absences
The biggest factor in determining the outcome between Missouri and Florida might not be how the Tiger defense matches up with Pitts or how quarterback Connor Bazelak deals with Florida’s pressure-happy defense, but who is available to play for the Gators. Florida reported six new COVID cases on Tuesday, bringing its total to 37 across the past three weeks, but it’s currently unknown how many or which players will be absent Saturday. During his Monday press conference, Mullen would only say that Florida will have more than 53 scholarship players, established as the minimum by the SEC to play this season.
In response, Drinkwitz decided to be similarly withholding about who Missouri might not have on the field for Saturday’s matchup. Drinkwitz said the Tigers currently have no players in quarantine due to COVID-19, although that could always change prior to kickoff. But he said Missouri was down to 64 scholarship players as of Tuesday due to injuries, opt outs and transfers. That’s two fewer players than the Tigers had available against Kentucky. Three starting offensive linemen — left guard Xavier Delgado, left tackle Zeke Powell and right tackle Larry Borom — left the Kentucky game due to injury and did not return.
Asked to elaborate on who would be absent, Drinkwitz declined, taking a jab at Mullen in the process.
“I watched a press conference yesterday where there wasn't much reporting done, so I'll just keep mine (a secret),” Drinkwitz said. “I'll let y'all figure that out on Saturday, too.”
Florida resumed practicing Monday for the first time in two weeks, although it wasn’t quite back to business as usual for the Gators. Due to SEC protocols, Florida will go through a four-day phased resumption, which won’t allow the team to practice fully until Thursday, at the earliest. Even though it’s fair to expect the Gators will not have a full roster available and might be a tad rusty after two weeks without practicing, Drinkwitz said he’s game-planning as if Florida will be at full strength.
“There’s no way to know, as we know, in the SEC,” Drinkwitz said. “There’s no way to know. So you just go in assuming that they’ll be at full strength, and we know the challenges they have, we know what schemes they’re going to try to run, and we’ll adjust while we’re in the game.
Rountree closing in on school history
Saturday represented a career individual performance for Larry Rountree III. The senior tailback handled a whopping 37 carries against Kentucky, eight more than he’d received in any other game of his college career.
This coming Saturday figures to be historically significant again, even if Rountree doesn’t get nearly as many touches.
Rountree needs just 55 yards to pass Zack Abron as Missouri’s all-time rushing leader by a non-quarterback. Rountree moved into third place on the rushing list, behind Abron and Brad Smith, with his 126 yards against Kentucky. He passed Brock Olivo during that matchup. Rountree has recorded at least 67 yards in every game so far this season.
Rountree was not made available to the media this week, but his teammates raved about his work ethic, saying he deserves to occupy the top spot among all Missouri running backs.
“There’s a reason why he’s passing those names,” Williams said. “It’s because Larry puts in the work, and he shows it on the field.”
Drinkwitz praised Rountree’s humility Tuesday and personality Tuesday, saying he has “an infectious smile.” He also said even as one of the most accomplished tailbacks in school history, Rountree is open to receiving coaching and working on his game. Combine that with his willingness to handle a workload like 37 carries, and you get rare production.
“There's got to be a humility to being coached and being coachable and understanding that in order to become the best version of yourself, you have to allow people to have constructive criticism,” Drinkwitz explained. “And it's not always going to be roses and pie in the sky and balloons. … The reality of it is, when you want to improve, you have to improve your weaknesses, and you’ve got to look at your weaknesses and say, ‘how do I build these up?’ And Larry's willing to do that.”
Massey dismissed from team
Monday, PowerMizzou confirmed that Missouri had dismissed redshirt wide receiver Maurice Massey from the program. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch first reported that Massey had been arrested over the weekend on suspicion of third-degree domestic assault, fourth-degree assault and first-degree property damage.
Drinkwitz said he had not talked with the St. Louis native since he announced his decision to opt out of the 2019 season in September, nor was Massey allowed to access team facilities since he opted out. Asked whether it will be a team policy that an arrest results in a dismissal, Drinkwitz said not necessarily.
“Just felt like it was in the best interest of our program to move on, based on the violation of the opt-out,” Drinkwitz said of Massey. “Each situation is handled differently. There's no hard and fast rule. We really have two rules in our programs. Number one is be on time, number two is the team comes first. And we operate under those two rules. So that’s what we did. Wish him all the best.”