1) We do our best to give you guys as much insight into every game as we possibly can. But there are always things that are going to slip through the cracks. Maybe they don't fit in a story, maybe some of you don't spend your Sundays or Mondays reading or watching every bit of content. So I wanted to start out by highlighting a very cool story that might not have gotten the attention it probably deserves from Saturday.
You all know Cody Schrader's story. He ran for 3,084 yards and 35 touchdowns in four seasons at Division II Truman State. That included 2074 yards and 25 scores in his redshirt junior season in 2021. He then shot his shot and walked on at Missouri. All he's done since then is run for 1552 yards and 18 touchdowns in 21 games, including an average of 101 yards a game and 1.1 touchdowns this season. He is currently leading the SEC in rushing yards.
But this is about more than Schrader. In 2022, Mario Anderson was a Division II all-American at Newberry College, a Division II school in South Carolina. He ran for a school record 1560 yards and 19 touchdowns and was a finalist for the Harlan Hill Trophy, given to the nation's best Division II player. Anderson transferred to South Carolina for the 2023 season. He's not exactly having Schrader's season (396 rushing yards, 47 receiving yards, 3 total touchdowns) but he's the Gamecocks' starting running back. Schrader was asked about playing against Anderson on Saturday.
"We got to share a special moment just kind of talking about how a lot of people don't understand what we had to go through to get here," Schrader said. "You see it on the TV and you get to see kind of the results of all the work we've put in, but coming from Division II where we came from, everybody kind of counting us out, hopefully, what we were kind of talking about, hopefully we're encouraging and inspiring kids that don't get these opportunities to just bet on themselves, put the work in. You can go to a DII school, be successful and then hopefully make an impact at an SEC program or any Division I school."
A bunch of us counted Cody Schrader out. I was one of them. I continually thought, it's a really cool story, but if he's your best back, you're in trouble. Well, he's going to probably be a first-team all-SEC running back, he's going to probably have a 1,000 yard season and he's doing it for a team that's going to be ranked among the top 15 in the country a week from today. What a story. Truly one of the best I've had a chance to watch in 21 years covering college sports.
2) There are reasons to believe Missouri's defense has turned a corner. There are also reasons to wait and see for at least one more game before you completely buy into that. In its last seven quarters, the Missouri defense has given up 435 yards on 106 plays. That's an average of 4.1 yards per play. That number would rank 4th in the country for the season. On the year, Mizzou is now 47th, giving up 5.2 yards per play. If you just take out the LSU game (I understand you can't do it, but Missouri's not playing anybody else that good on offense this season), the number drops to 4.78, which would give Missouri the 20th best defense in the country in terms of yards per play.
Last year, Mizzou allowed 5.28 yards per play and finished 45th. So the truth is, the most important defensive statistic says that the Tigers have actually been incrementally better defensively this year than they were last year (if you want to argue points allowed are more important than yards per play, I can live with that, but whatever).
Anyway, the defense has looked incredible the last seven quarters. It's given up a total of 19 points in 20 drives in those seven quarters. The South Carolina game was the first since November 2020 (41-0 over Vanderbilt) that Mizzou didn't allow a touchdown.
So what's the holdup? Missouri has played two one-dimensional teams to get there. Kentucky is 105th in passing offense this season. South Carolina is 124th in rushing offense (and after watching that offensive line, it's somewhat of a miracle the Gamecocks aren't worse). You play who you play and I'm not trying to denigrate the Missouri defense at all. I'm just saying the tests are going to get a little bit tougher. In the last four weeks, Missouri faces three offenses more competent than what they've seen the last couple of weeks. Georgia is 3rd in the country in total offense, Tennessee 34th, Florida 46th (Arkansas is 121st and just fired its offensive coordinator).
Bottom line: Missouri's got a solid defense. We find out in the next two or three games if it's really good or if it's just solid.
3) The win over South Carolina moved Missouri to 7-1, which is the fourth best start in school history through eight games. Some perspective:
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