Takeaways from Missouri football's appearance at SEC Media Days 2024

DALLAS 一 For the first time in about a decade, Missouri entered SEC Media Days with some substantial hype and expectations after it went 11-2 in 2023 and finished No. 8 in the final AP poll.

The hopes are high for Mizzou fans, and many people are intrigued by what the Tigers could do in 2024.

But the Tigers aren't worrying themselves about that. For them, it’s simple. If they do what they're supposed to, they'll live up to the expectations and accomplish their goals.

“It’s very easy. Expectations are external. Standards are internal,” Missouri head coach Eli Drinkwitz said. “We're not really worried about outside expectations of us. We're worried about the standards that we've created within the building and I attribute (strength and conditioning coach) Ryan Russell for developing an Elite EDGE standard with the way we operate on a daily basis.

"We clearly have a standard of what our goal is for our program, which is to chase two dreams, develop an Elite EDGE and play for championships. We have four core values that are standard. Always compete, build trust and respect, do more than what's expected and enjoy the journey. And if we stick to those standards, we'll have the success we want to have. If we're worried about outside noise, expectations and external factors, that's a recipe for disappointment.”

The reason for the expectation isn't just based on what the team did in 2023, but what their schedule may allow them to do in 2024.

With the Tigers’ biggest non-conference opponent seemingly being Boston College and the team missing out on playing the likes of Georgia, Tennessee, Ole Miss and Texas, all of which were top 20 teams at the end of the year, it appears Missouri could cruise to the 12-team playoff. However, quarterback Brady Cook said they’re not looking at it like that.

“The coaches have been stressing this. Coach Drinkwitz has been stressing this. It's one week at a time,” Cook said. “We don't get past Murray State (then) Buffalo doesn't quite mean as much Week 2. We don't take care of business early on, the Oklahoma game doesn't look quite as good, right? So, it's week by week. We started off with Murray State. That's our goal right now. It's camp, prepare, train, work our butts off and then go beat Murray State.”

Mizzou is on the precipice of reaching heights it hasn't ever reached but it's taking it one game at a time, one week at a time.

Week 1, Aug. 31: vs. Murray State

Week 2, Sept. 7: vs. Buffalo

Week 3, Sept. 14: vs. Boston College

Week 4, Sept. 21: vs. Vanderbilt

Week 5, Sept. 28: OPEN

Week 6, Oct. 5: at Texas A&M

Week 7, Oct. 12: at UMass

Week 8, Oct. 19: vs. Auburn

Week 9, Oct. 26: at Alabama

Week 10, Nov. 2: OPEN

Week 11, Nov. 9: vs. Oklahoma

Week 12, Nov. 16: at South Carolina

Week 13, Nov. 23: at Mississippi State

Week 14, Nov. 30: vs. Arkansas

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The defense has been a big talking point of the offseason for the Tigers with the loss of Ennis Rakestraw, Kris Abrams-Draine, Jaylon Carlies, Ty’Ron Hopper and Darius Robinson to the NFL.

There will be some work cut out for the program to replace those impact players but Drinkwitz isn’t as concerned about replacing the talent. He's far more concerned about who will step up from a leadership perspective and set the tone for the program moving forward.

“We lost some immensely talented players. There's no doubt about it,” Drinkwitz said. “But more importantly, we lost great leaders. We lost captains. Four captains drafted and really, all of them in my mind were captains and leaders of our football team. We’re not worried about replacing the talent. We’re worried about replacing the competitive character, competitive spirit and the physical toughness that each one of those guys presented on a daily basis. The buy-in those guys had for themselves but demanded from everybody else. So, that’s going to really be the challenge.”

Drinkwitz would go on to name players like Kristian Williams, who was in attendance at SECMD, Chuck Hicks, Johnny Walker, Daylan Carnell and a host of other vets he expects to take a step forward leadership-wise.

Williams, entering his third season with the Tigers, believes it’s his responsibility to help be a part of that new leadership brigade and help usher in the newcomers.

“I feel like it's my job as a brother to make sure that the younger guys, incoming freshmen or the newcomers are basically on the right track," Williams said. (That they) uphold the standard and just be more confident in themselves because everybody on the team is a leader."

When Cook talked about the defense from a talent perspective, he was confident in what the defense could do this year. He believes the unit has the talent and depth to maintain the standards the defense has set the past two seasons as a top-40 defense.

“I think I've seen guys step up. I think Johnny Walker Jr. is a big leader in that room. Zion Young and Darris Smith have really stood out to me pass rush-wise. The linebacker room has some vets. Chuck Hicks, Triston Newson, Khalil Jacobs just got in the portal. That room has some experience.

“Secondary-wise, I think we're in a good spot. I think Tre’Vez Johnson is going to be awesome this year. Joe Charleston is experienced. He’s been in the program for a while. Cornerbacks, we’ve got Toriano Pride. I mean, he's a dog you know, I saw it in spring ball. I could see the way he played. So, you know, we have guys on that side of the ball. I know we lost some production, lost some of our leaders on that side, but I'm confident in those guys. We're collaborating and we're talking. There's leaders on that side. So, Death Row defense isn't going anywhere.”

It’s not just the loss of leadership and talent on the field for the defense, it’s the loss of defensive coordinator Blake Baker, EDGE coach Kevin Peoples and defensive assistant Jake Olsen, too.

They departed for LSU this offseason with Corey Batoon coming from South Alabama to be the defensive coordinator, Brian Early leaving Houston to be the EDGE coach and Jacob Yoro departing Hawai’i to be a defensive analyst.

“Blake Baker, Jake Olsen and Kevin Peoples are great men and good football coaches," Drinkwitz said. "But I'd like to really focus on what the additions of Corey Batoon and Brian Early and Jacob Yoro are. … It was really an opportunity for us to go out and improve our staff and really build a cohesive unit with guys. So I'm very excited about those guys, and I'm very excited about what the new look Death Row defense is going to be with those guys at the forefront.

When talking about Batoon in particular, Drinkwitz reaffirmed his sentiments from the spring that Batoon would run the defense in place and add his elements to the playbook as the year goes on.

However, Drinkwitz is more than okay with letting the 34-year coaching veteran handle the defense how he sees fit.

“To me, play callers are a type of artist, and each artist paints his own picture,” Drinkwitz said. “So obviously, he'll have a few wrinkles of his own. But for us, it's still going to be about stopping the run, confusing, harass, hitting the quarterback and winning situational football, which is two-minute, third downs and red zone defense.

“I think Corey is very analytical in his approach and is very good at understanding what other teams are trying to do against him and he's trying to stop that (and) make you play left-handed so to speak. And he does that multiple ways. He does that with pressure. He does that with coverage. He does that with multiple fronts. So, each game will be a unique challenge and he'll figure out what's the best approach."

In the six months that Batoon has been on campus, he’s typically been described as detail-oriented. This time, Williams described him as a situational master alongside Early.

“Coach Batoon is a person that thrives on being a situational master and also Brian Early does as well. And as a player, you will want that,” Williams said. “You want to be able to be in those harsh environments in those tough situations and know that you can fall back on your preparation more. On top of that, as far as just being a situational master, it just teaches you how to play faster. It teaches you what's going on, when it's going on, and what are you supposed to do to get through it easier. So I mean, they have been key pieces to our organization."

It'll be hard to tell just how much change Batoon has brought to the Tigers but what is very much apparent is how much the team believes in his approach to coaching and the new heights he can take them to.

Missouri has a little more than 70% of its production from a season ago returning in 2024.

So, there aren’t too many holes on the roster that need to be filled which meant there wasn't as much talk about position battles on Tuesday. But there was one position that came up quite a bit throughout the day on Tuesday, and Drinkwitz even alluded to it himself in his opening statement, and it's the running back position.

For the second time in three seasons, Mizzou lost an All-American running back. The first time was Tyler Badie after his record-breaking 2021 season, and the second time was this offseason losing Cody Schrader, who had a record-breaking season himself in 2023.

"Running back also has a lot of question marks for us," Drinkwitz said. "In the last three years, Mizzou has had the SEC's leading rusher with Tyler Badie and Cody Schrader. And it's not as easy as just replacing Cody Schrader's production on the field. His impact in our locker room, through the toughness demonstrated day in and day out, the way he performed, his leadership in the locker room and positive, contagious energy is going to be very difficult to replace."

Much like the losses on defense, Drinkwitz is more focused on replacing Schrader's intangibles than his talent. But the Tigers made plenty of moves via recruiting and the transfer portal to fill out the depth in the running back room.

Nate Noel rushed for 834 yards and five touchdowns for Appalachian State in 2023, and was all the hype in spring ball for his speed, familiarity with the run scheme and receiving chops.

Meanwhile, Carroll, who ran for 1,350 yards and 13 touchdowns last season, had a nice camp, too but his play style between the tackles as a bruiser isn't conducive to the lighter spring practices. His time to shine will be when the pads come on for fall camp in about two weeks.

Nonetheless, Cook is a fan of both players.

"It's been fun. They both got here in January. So we've had some time to get to know each other and see them play in spring ball," Cook said. "I think Nate Noel has really stood out as being that lightning-fast -- speed. His hands have really stuck out. And I think he can play a big role in the passing game. So Nate has been awesome. Marcus has been too. Marcus is a bigger back which could complement really well. He runs it really well. He strides it really well and I'm excited about both of them."

In addition to the pair of transfers, the team signed four-star Lancaster (Tex.) prospect Kewan Lacy, who has a great blend of speed and power, in the recent signing class to join the Carroll, Noel, Tavorus Jones and Jamal Roberts.

For now, it appears the rivalry that Tiger and Sooner fans have on social media will be just that.

Oklahoma (along with Texas) joined the conference earlier this month, and despite the former not playing Mizzou since 2011, there has been plenty of intersection between the programs in recent years.

Most notably for Mizzou, Burden originally committed to the Sooners before committing to Missouri in the fall of 2020. Wide receiver Theo Wease spent four years in Norman before joining the Tigers last offseason.

The Tigers won the bidding war for five-star EDGE prospect Williams Nwaneri last summer and this past winter, Nwaneri's former high school teammate, guard Cayden Green transferred to Mizzou.

Despite all of that, Drinkwitz was steadfast that this is just another good team on the schedule. Nothing more, nothing less.

"We have competitive recruiting battles with everybody in the SEC," Drinkwitz said. "I mean, whether it was a verbal commitment that we had two weeks ago that had just about every SEC school in this room offered up, I think there's too much made of it.

"In the SEC, there are only about 100 players that you can actively recruit that are good enough to play in this league, and maybe not even that many based on each position. So, you're going to be in battles against each other, and we don't ever take those personally. So, it's great for the fans and it's great for social media, but for us, it's another quality opponent on our schedule that we're going to have to play at our absolute best in order to have any type of opportunity to win."

While the Tigers don't think there's more fuel to the fire like the fan bases suggest, that doesn't mean they're not excited to face off against their old foe.

Cook grew up watching the rivalry as a Missouri fan and is eager to be a part of it but he still knows that they have to handle business in the games that precede the teams' Week 11 encounter in Columbia for the game to live up to the hype.

"I'm excited. When I think of Oklahoma, I think about the College GameDay game (in 2010) at Mizzou when fans rushed the field," Cook said. "We beat the No. 1 overall team. That's what I go back to in my mind because obviously that was a big memory for me as a fan.

"I'm looking forward to this year's game. It's going to be fun. But like I said earlier, we have to go and prove it week to week. If we get to the Oklahoma game and we have a couple of losses on the schedule, that game won't feel quite as nice. So, we've got to go prove it Week 1, Week 2, Week 3, and we'll get to Oklahoma when it happens."

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