Past or present: Comparing Missouri's 2023 & 2024 linebackers
Spring ball and the spring transfer portal are long behind us, which means Missouri's roster is taking more of a definitive shape. So now is as good a time as any, to compare the 2023 team to this year's team.
PowerMizzou will make a position-by-position comparison. Next up, are the linebackers. We'll do just the top four scholarship players on the depth chart for this group.
| 2023 | 2024 | Advantage |
|---|---|---|
|
Chad Bailey |
Chuck Hicks |
2024 |
|
Ty'Ron Hopper |
Triston Newson |
2023 |
|
Chuck Hicks |
Corey Flagg Jr. |
2023 |
|
Triston Newson |
Khalil Jacobs |
2023 |
Since we're only comparing the 2023 team to the 2024 team, Chuck Hicks gets the nod over Chad Bailey fairly easily. The latter only appeared in five games in his final season with the Tigers due to a lingering core injury that plagued him since the start of the summer.
Hicks got a lot of Bailey's snaps at middle linebacker due to this and performed well.
He had 53 tackles (27 solo), 11 tackles for loss, (second most on the team), two sacks, a pass deflection, a forced fumble and a fumble recovery in 13 games (nine starts). It was a career year across the board for Hicks whose tackles, tackles for loss, pass deflections and forced fumbles marked career highs.
The 27 solo tackles he had in 2023 tied his career-high 27 total tackles in 2020 at Wyoming.
It would be fairer to compare Hicks' 2023 season to Bailey's 2022 campaign when the latter racked up 57 tackles, 8.5 tackles for loss, 2.5 sacks, three pass deflections, a forced fumble and a fumble recovery.
Ty'Ron Hopper would be the third of six Tigers to be drafted in the 2024 NFL Draft, going 91st overall to the Green Bay Packers. Last season, Hopper racked up 55 tackles, 6.5 tackles for loss, three sacks and three pass deflections in 11 games.
An injury kept Hopper out of the last three-and-a-half games and paved the way for Triston Newson to enter the lineup in his place.
After being the rave of spring ball, Newson struggled throughout fall camp and the early parts of the season. By the time he entered the lineup, he was finding his footing and finished the season strong.
In the last four games, Newson recorded 41 tackles, 5.5 tackles for loss and two fumble recoveries, which included a 15 tackle, two tackle for loss and two fumble recovery performance against Arkansas that earned him SEC Defensive Player of the Week honors.
He finished the season with 51 tackles, seven tackles for loss and two fumble recoveries.
Despite Hopper and Newson producing similar stats, it's a bit hard to imagine Newson will have the same impact as a top-100 pick even though he may eclipse Hopper's stat totals.
Hicks and Newson will go into fall camp as the starting linebackers but the Tigers brought in a couple of transfers to make them work to keep those starting spots.
First, the team brought in former Miami Hurricane Corey Flagg Jr., who recorded 48 tackles, six tackles for loss and a forced fumble in 12 games (two starts) a year ago. He has played 43 career games (24 starts) and has 179 tackles, 23.5 tackles for loss, 5.5 tackles for loss, a pass deflection, an interception, a forced fumble and a fumble recovery.
It would be hard for him to put up better numbers in 2024 than Hicks did simply because Hicks as LB3 got to start nine games. Unless Flagg usurps Hicks this year or the latter is unavailable, it will be unlikely he will record better numbers than Hicks' 2023 campaign.
The same thing can be said for Khalil Jacobs having a better campaign than Newson's 2023 season.
Jacobs recorded 56 tackles, 8.5 tackles for loss, three sacks, three forced fumbles and an interception at South Alabama last year.
It might be hard for him to have a better season than Newson last year with the depth at the position but having played for defensive coordinator Corey Batoon last year may lead to a bigger role being carved out for him than a typical LB4 sees.
Other scholarship defensive ends: Brayshawn Littlejohn (R-Fr.), Jeremiah Beasley (Fr.), Brian Huff (Fr.), Nicholas Rodriguez (Fr.)
Overall advantage: 2023
Due to injuries, four players were considered starters and when they were on the field they played liked it. When a team's starter(s) goes down, they’re hoping that there isn't a dramatic drop off at the position. Newson and Hicks turned it up and became huge impact players on the way to a Cotton Bowl win.
This year's group is talented, though. So talented it wouldn’t be a surprise if they ran somewhat of a by committee type of unit. This group may be more ready to have all four linebackers play going into the new season than last year's group had entering 2023.
Other comparison profiles
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