The five biggest questions facing Missouri entering spring football
Tuesday, the Missouri football team will take the field in pads for the first time since the Texas Bowl. The Tigers enter their third spring under head coach Barry Odom with the same headliners as a year ago — namely, quarterback Drew Lock and defensive tackle Terry Beckner Jr., who both passed on the NFL Draft to return for their senior seasons. As always, there’s also some new elements to this year’s team, particularly offensive coordinator Derek Dooley, who replaces now-Central Florida head coach Josh Heupel.
As the Tigers begin their campaign to build on last year's bowl berth, here are the five biggest storylines we will be watching over the next six weeks:
Who will emerge as the starters at safety — and what will it take to find those starters?
Missouri will start spring practice without its two starting safeties from a year ago. Anthony Sherrils graduated, and Kaleb Prewett was suspended indefinitely in January. He is not expected to rejoin the team. Ronnell Perkins and Cam Hilton both saw playing time a season ago, but neither has exactly inspired confidence that he is the team’s future at the position. As a result, defensive coordinator Ryan Walters talked during the offseason about the possibility of moving cornerback DeMarkus Acy to safety, the position at which he was originally recruited. Avy, however, started all of last season at cornerback, so moving him would create another hole there. If the Missouri coaches need to move Acy, or another defensive back, to fill the void left by Sherrils and Prewett, they likely will do so. But the team figures to be better off if two of its returning safeties can step up and claim the starting spots.
Will a dominant edge rusher take over the reigns at defensive end?
Missouri earned the nickname “D-Line Zou” because of the succession of excellent pass-rushing defensive ends the program has churned out. The past two seasons, Marcell Frazier has emerged as that player, with 15.5 sacks in 15 games over that span. Now that Frazier and fellow starter Jordan Harold are gone, Missouri will look for a new edge rusher to compliment Beckner on the defensive line. Columbia native Tre Williams had the most sacks among any returning defensive ends a year ago; if he can serve as an edge threat and demand help from opposing offensive lines, that would free up room for the Tigers’ strong corps of interior linemen, and could make Missouri’s 2018 defensive front one of the strongest in the SEC.
Will the three junior college transfers put themselves in position to contribute right away?
Seven members of Missouri’s 25-man 2018 recruiting class have already enrolled in school and will participate in spring practice. Three of those players are junior-college transfers, who, by virtue of their collegiate experience, should be better equipped than most newcomers to contribute right away. Two of those junior college transfers, wide receiver Harry Ballard III and defensive tackle Antar Thompson, could potentially work themselves all the way to the top of the depth chart by Missouri’s season-opener. Ballard plays a position of particular need (more on that shortly), so the Tiger coaching staff will hope his transition from Jones Country Junior College to the Division I level progresses swiftly. The other “ju-co” transfer, quarterback Lindsey Scott Jr., will spend this year behind Lock, barring injury, but could use this season to establish himself as Lock’s successor at the position.
Will a new go-to guy emerge in the passing game to replace J’Mon Moore?
We mentioned Ballard earlier; he was one of six wide receivers signed by Missouri in this year’s recruiting class. That high number was a result of the Tigers signing a grand total of two wide receivers in the 2016 and 2017 recruiting classes, neither of whom are still with the program. Missouri’s wide receiver corps is now thin, and after the graduation of Moore, who led the team in receiving yards each of the past three seasons, it is also lacking a clear number-one receiver. Last year, Emanuel Hall was a potent deep threat, Johnathon Johnson got involved in creative ways out of the slot, and tight end Albert Okwuegbunam was a monster in the red zone, but none showed the consistency and versatility of Moore. For Lock to live up to the hype he generated with his record-breaking 2017 campaign, he will likely need one of those players to emerge as a viable threat all over the field.
How will Lock and the rest of the offense adjust to Dooley’s scheme?
This is undoubtedly the biggest question facing Missouri between now and the season-opener. Under Heupel, last year’s Tiger offense led the SEC in points and yardage per game. But when Heupel left for Central Florida, Odom decided to make a stylistic change by hiring Dooley, who spent the past five years as the wide receivers coach of the Dallas Cowboys. Speaking at a recruiting reception on Feb. 22, Dooley was fairly vague in his description of the scheme he plans to implement, but he said it would be a combination of principles that Missouri used a season ago and pieces he brings from the NFL and his time as a head coach at Tennessee. Exactly what that offense will look like, and how Lock and company adjust to the change, will begin to be answered during the spring. Another standout season for Lock could vault him into the first round of the NFL draft and lead Missouri to another bowl game. If the offense fails to mesh and the Tigers struggle, it would eliminate any job security for Odom.
2018 spring football positional previews: