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Generally, as June comes to a close and football programs around the country begin to gear up for fall camp, we have a pretty decent idea what to expect from Missouri’s team. That has never been less true than in 2020. Not only will Missouri debut a new head coach and new starting quarterback this season, the Tigers have had just three spring practices and little face-to-face contact since Eli Drinkwitz took over. Oh yeah, and as coronavirus cases continue to spike, no one can say for certain whether college football teams will play a full schedule, or any games at all, this fall.

For now, Missouri and the majority of FBS schools seem to be planning on having a football season on the usual timeline, with players having been on campus for voluntary summer workouts since June 8. So for the purpose of this story, we, too, are going to assume the Tigers play their full, 12-game regular season schedule in 2020. But what those games have in store for Missouri is still anybody’s (uneducated) guess. Here are seven key numbers that will help determine whether Drinkwitz’s debut season lives up to the hype.

Missouri’s defense was solid last season. As this list will indicate, most of the team’s room for improvement comes from an offense that faltered down the stretch under Derek Dooley in 2019. After averaging 38.2 points per game during the first six games of the season, the Tigers mustered just 11.8 per contest in the second half of the year. Drinkwitz completely revamped the offensive staff, including assuming offensive coordinator duties himself, and Missouri’s success in his first season will quite simply boil down to its ability to put more points on the scoreboard. Averaging 27.5 points per game shouldn’t be asking a ton. That would have ranked No. 75 nationally last season, and it would only be an increase of 2.2 points per game from 2019. However, it matters how Missouri gets to that number. The Tigers need to consistently score in the low- to mid-20s to give their defense some support rather than following up a few big weeks with a series of duds, like last season. Missouri went 6-1 in 2019 when it scored 24 points or more. The problem came when the Tigers had a five-game stretch that saw then score a grand total of 47 points.

So, we’ve established that Missouri needs to improve its offense from 2019. The easiest way to do so? Run the ball. There was perhaps no better barometer for the Tigers’ success last season than the ground game, as they averaged 204.5 rushing yards during wins and 98.8 during losses. Throw in the fact that Missouri should have a dynamic one-two punch at tailback in Larry Rountree III and Tyler Badie and that a strong running game is a new quarterback’s best friend, and this might be the most important stat to track this season. The biggest key to making that happen will be the play of the offensive line, which we’ll address shortly. The good news for Missouri fans is that Drinkwitz’s last two offenses have run the ball quite well, most notably last season, when Appalachian State averaged 231.4 yards per game on the ground.

Issues at nearly every position group contributed to Missouri’s offensive collapse a season ago. The wide receivers certainly weren’t immune from blame. The Tigers simply didn’t have a player who could consistently create big plays through the air. Missouri only got six touchdowns from its receiving corps in 2019, four of which came courtesy of Jonathan Nance, who has graduated. Among returning players who caught at least five passes, only Jalen Knox averaged more than 15 yards per reception. With tight end Albert Okwuegbunam also gone, the Tigers need to have somebody — or preferably a few somebodies — emerge as reliable downfield playmakers in 2020. The staff made that a clear emphasis during the offseason, adding graduate transfers Damon Hazelton, from Virginia Tech, and Keke Chism, from San Angelo State, to the roster. If those two and the rest of the receiving corps can generate some more points through the air this season, it should open things up for the entire Missouri offense.

“Negative plays” combine sacks and tackles for loss. After ranking among the top 20 teams in the country in both categories during the 2017 and 2018 campaigns, Missouri took a major downturn last season. The Tiger offensive line surrendered 27 sacks and 73 tackles for loss for an even 100 negative plays. Some of that can be chalked up to the Tigers slowing down from the fast-paced, spread style installed by Josh Heupel, but when you consider that Missouri surrendered just 65 negative plays in 2018 and 50 in 2017, it’s clear that last season’s issues went beyond scheme. Negative plays, especially on first and second down, make the offense one-dimensional and will increase the opportunity for whoever is playing quarterback for Missouri to make mistakes. New offensive line coach Marcus Johnson will have his work cut out to reduce the number of sacks and tackles for loss, as the Tigers lost three multi-year starters from last season’s line.

As mentioned above, Missouri has much more room to improve on offense than defense. But one glaring weakness remains on the defensive side of the ball: the ability to pressure opposing quarterbacks, especially from the edge. Missouri’s 19 sacks tied for 106th in the FBS last season. Even worse, only four of those sacks came from the defensive end position. Ultimately, a sack counts the same no matter who records it, and the good news for the Tigers is that leading sack man Kobie Whiteside will be back on the interior of the defensive line again this year. But Whiteside is going to face a lot of double- and triple-teams if an edge-rusher or two doesn’t step up, and that could force Missouri to blitz more, which leaves the defense more vulnerable to big plays. Note that 28 sacks would have tied for 61st in the country last season. That doesn’t seem like too much to ask.

While Missouri’s offensive regression clearly deserves most of the blame for the second-half slide last season, the defense did falter in one category: turnovers. Of course, it was almost impossible not to. The Tiger defense went on a historic takeaway tear for a few weeks in 2019, generating 10 turnovers in a four-game span (and scoring touchdowns on five of those). Still, only two of Missouri's 15 takeaways came in the last six games of the year, with none in the final four contests. No one is expecting the defense to score a touchdown per game like they did during the height of the 2019 campaign, but consistently creating momentum and a short field for the offense once or twice a game would go a long way.

Generally, if there’s only one individual player named in a list like this, you’d probably expect it to be the starting quarterback. But Bolton, Missouri’s stud junior linebacker, is almost certainly the most important player to the Tigers’ 2020 campaign. Not only did Bolton explode onto the scene with 103 tackles and two interceptions last season — resulting in him being the highest-graded linebacker in the country, according to Pro Football Focus — Missouri lacks proven options behind him on the depth chart. Personally, I think Bolton has a chance to blow past 100 tackles, but getting to triple digits would mean he’s on the field and effective for a full season, which will be vital for Missouri’s defense.