After Saturday’s improbable loss at Vanderbilt, the Missouri football team finds itself in a familiar position under head coach Barry Odom: with its back against the wall.
The Tigers went to Nashville as 21-point favorites but sputtered offensively and committed 12 penalties in a 21-14 loss. It marked the second time this season that the Tigers have lost as a three-score favorite. All the chatter about Missouri contending for the SEC East title that swirled prior to Saturday, rightfully, dissipated as a result of the performance.
Yet, Odom and his players seemed almost chipper as they addressed reporters following their Tuesday practice. Players stressed that the team learned from the loss at Vanderbilt and that it still controls its own fate in its division.
“We control our own destiny,” said quarterback Kelly Bryant. “We just gotta take it one game at a time and just not try to look forward, what could be in the future, but we just have to hone in on this week and be ready for Kentucky.”
Perhaps the team has taken confidence from the fact that it has overcome similarly painful losses under Odom. In 2017, Missouri started the season 1-5 before reeling off six consecutive wins to reach bowl eligibility. Last year, the Tigers rebounded from a deflating loss to Kentucky on the final play with the best win in Odom’s tenure, a 21-point beatdown of No. 13 Florida in Gainesville. And after losing to Wyoming to begin this season, Missouri won five straight games by an average of 28.8 points.
Odom said the key to rebounding from adversity is open, honest self-assessment. After assessing the loss to the Commodores, he said the entire team could have performed better, including the coaches. Offensive coordinator Derek Dooley, whose unit mustered just one scoring drive longer than six yards, echoed a similar sentiment, saying the loss served as a wake-up call for the entire offense, himself included.
“We weren’t really good at anything,” Dooley said of the performance at Vanderbilt. “So the only real positive that came out of it is it’s a reminder of how you’re one week away from being embarrassed when you play college football, and certainly in our league. ... I could have done a better job getting out guys ready, could have had a better game plan, could have called plays better, could have executed better. We just, the whole unit, we didn’t play very well.”
By Tuesday, the Vanderbilt post-mortem had ended and focus had shifted to the next test: beating Kentucky for the first time since 2014. No player on the Missouri roster was in college the last time the Tigers beat the Wildcats, and, as mentioned above, Kentucky handed Missouri its most painful loss of the 2018 season, overcoming an 11-point fourth-quarter deficit to win 15-14 on the final play.
At 3-4, Kentucky has crashed back to earth a bit this season, in large part to multiple injuries at the quarterback position. Returning starter Terry Wilson suffered a season-ending injury in Week Three, then his replacement, Troy transfer Sawyer Smith, injured his shoulder two weeks later. As a result, wide receiver Lynn Bowden Jr. has lined up behind center the past two games.
The Missouri coaches said they are prepared for Smith to return to the lineup, but they’ve also developed a gameplan to stop Bowden’s legs. Bowden has rushed for 195 yards and two touchdowns the past two games combined. He has only completed 12 of 30 passes for 134 yards on the season, including a two-for-15 performance last week at Georgia, but Missouri defenders said they can’t totally sell out against the run when Bowden is in the game.
“(Bowden) is special with the ball in his hands,” defensive coordinator Ryan Walters said. “He throws well enough to keep you honest, and they do a good job with what they ask him to do in the pass game. Then obviously with (Smith) back there, it's normal offense, and we got to have a plan for both.”
Missouri saw Bowden’s playmaking ability firsthand last season. He cut the Tiger lead to five points with 5:18 remaining on a 67-yard punt return touchdown. Odom said he expects Kentucky offensive coordinator Eddie Gran to find creative ways to get Bowden the ball Saturday, no matter where Bowden lines up in the formation. Preventing him from breaking off an explosive play will be key to slowing down the Wildcat offense.
“It'd be pretty foolish to think that they're going to shut it down completely,” Odom said of Bowden. “... They're going to try to feed him the ball, would be my guess, and you got to be great tacklers, you got to use your leverage the correct way.”
Missouri’s defense has largely defended the run well this season, with the exception of the season-opener, but running quarterbacks have given the Tigers a few issues. Wyoming’s Sean Chambers rushed for 120 yards, including a 75-yard touchdown, in Week One. Two weeks ago, Ole Miss’ John Rhys Plumlee racked up 143 yards and two scores on the ground despite having a long run called back due to penalty.
Linebacker Nick Bolton said a running quarterback makes an offense more difficult to defend because when the quarterback carries the ball, it gives the offense an extra blocker and generally forces a defender to execute a one-on-one tackle. He believes Missouri is equipped to stop Bowden as long as it fills the proper gaps and wraps up.
“You just gotta be assignment sound, locked in on your assignment every play to stop the QB run game.”
Missouri confident in Manuel as he makes first start
Freshman safety Martez Manuel generally likes to fly under the radar. Manuel, who grew up in Columbia and played high school football at Rock Bridge, said he has enjoyed the transition from one of the area’s most visible high school athletes to a college freshman.
“Sometimes if my confidence wasn't there, I wouldn't play to the best of my ability because I got the name by me, Mizzou commit,” Manuel said of his high school days. “Now I'm just at the bottom of the fish tank again, where I like to be because I don't have to prove anything to anybody. I get to write my own story.”
But when Missouri takes the field Saturday night, Manuel will find himself squarely in the spotlight. Odom confirmed Tuesday that Manuel will start in place Tyree Gillespie, who is suspended for the first half of the game due to a targeting penalty he drew in the third quarter against Vanderbilt.
Manuel, his teammates and his coaches believe he will be ready for the moment.
“He's going to prepare extremely well, he has up to this point, and he's earned the opportunity now that his number's called,” Odom said.
“Martez is ready,” said senior cornerback DeMarkus Acy. “We talk to him as much as we can, try to stay on beat with him, take him under our wing and let him see how the ropes is. I feel like he'll step up.”
Manuel, the only true freshman on Missouri’s roster who has played in all seven of the team’s game this season, played the majority of the second half after Gillespie was ejected against Vanderbilt. Walters said he was pleased by Manuel’s performance.
“There was no real dropoff which was exciting to see,” Walters said. “The moment wasn't too big for him. He was obviously in there for some critical moments and I think he missed one tackle, but other than that he played well.”
Manuel said he has received a few extra reps in practice this week in preparation for his first start, but he’s used to splitting practice snaps with Gillespie, so it hasn’t been a big adjustment. He’s trying not to overhype the start in his own mind, but he said when the game kicks off and he takes the field with the first-team defense, he’ll be excited.
“Not trying to get too wide-eyed about it, too big about it,” he said. “Just trying to take on everything day by day, and then when the opportunity comes on Saturday, I’m going to show the world what I got."
Odom not giving up on McCann
Missouri’s execution woes extended to the kicking game against Vanderbilt, as senior Tucker McCann missed both of his field goals, one from 50 yards and one from 48. McCann technically missed a third kick, as well, but it got wiped off the board due to a penalty. The week prior, against Ole Miss, McCann missed two extra points.
McCann attributed the struggles to his kicking mechanics, specifically his follow-through, but said he’s confident he can put the struggles behind him.
“If you prepare the way you know you should, if you put your all into it, which I have been, then I won’t lose confidence,” McCann said. “I’ll just learn from it and get better.”
Odom didn’t hold back in articulating how damaging it can be for an offense to drive into field goal range only to come away with zero points, but he also shared McCann’s belief that he will snap out of his current funk.
“Trust me, Tucker's gonna find his way,” Odom said. “We're going to need one. Just like we did last week we're going to need (a kick) to win the game."
Colon-Castillo comes to coaches' defense
While Odom and Dooley were both eager to put the blame on their own shoulders for the Vandebilt loss, junior center Trystan Colon-Castillo turned heads Tuesday when he lashed out at fans criticizing the coaching staff. Colon-Castillo said the coaching staff prepared the team well enough to win the game; that he and the other leaders of the team deserve the bulk of the blame for the loss.
""I've been on social media and everyone calling for coach Odom's head,” Colon-Castillo said. “I think it's bulls---. ... Fans trying to come after coach Odom, you can come talk to me.
“I take the blame. As a leader on the team, I apologize for not getting everyone to have that right mindset. ... The coaches are preaching it. ... It's our job as players and leaders to make sure it shows up."
Odom wants Kansas series renewed
Attention shifted away from the gridiron a bit on Monday night when Missouri announced that it will revive its heated rivalry with Kansas in men’s basketball. The two teams will play six games against one another starting in the 2019-2020 season, with two games apiece in Columbia and Lawrence and two at the Sprint Center in Kansas City.
Asked about the news Tuesday, Odom broke into a grin. He lauded the administration at each school for renewing the series and said he hopes it leads to an annual football matchup between the Tigers and the Jayhawks.
“I think Missouri and Kansas should always play,” Odom said. “I think they should play in every sport. … That rivalry, it's still there. It goes back for generations and it's going to continue to go to generations forward. And, you know, it's something that I think would would benefit our student athletes, the experience that they have in college, and it also would would be great for both fan bases.
“I want my sons, the one's a freshman and one's an eighth grader, I want them to be able to play Kansas.”
