Instant impact: Inside Mizzou's true freshman success

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Most mornings during the summer, the players new to the Missouri football program gather at 6 a.m. for a meeting. Years ago, when head coach Barry Odom was working his way up through the coaching ranks at Missouri, the gatherings would have centered around a chalkboard as the coaching staff offered a crash course in the team’s scheme. But now, Odom said, the chalkboard has gone the way of the dodo, replaced by “Powerpoint and explosions.”

“It’s hard to keep them dialed in to a 30 minute talk by me,” Odom said. “I better have Powerpoint, explosions. ... The old draw on the chalkboard, this is how you run the power play, it’s not real effective any more.”

Speaking to reporters last week, Odom pointed to the changes in how he and his staff teach players as a side effect of not just society as a whole, but the youth movement afoot in the Tiger football program. In each of Odom’s first three years as head coach, the number of true freshman making an impact has increased. Eight freshmen used their first year of eligibility in 2016, then 10 did so in 2017, then 11 last season. Don’t be surprised when a handful of new faces see the field this year as well.

“Most of the guys that we’ve recruited, in some capacity, they can help us early on,” Odom said.

It’s difficult to find data to confirm this, but Odom doesn’t think the increase in true freshmen contributing is unique to Missouri. He believes football players in general are better-trained and more physically developed coming out of high school than they were even five years ago. An increase in the number of players enrolling in school a semester early has contributed, as well. The Tigers saw 10 of 25 newcomers, including seven true freshmen, enroll in classes in January so they could participate in spring practices.

However, the number of true freshmen who have seen the field under Odom is noteworthy. For one, it’s a drastic increase from the end of the Gary Pinkel era. Last season, half of the 22 freshmen who made it to campus appeared in more than four games, thus using their first season of eligibility. Compare that with Missouri’s 2013 signing class, when only two of 17 freshmen played a single down. It’s worth noting that the 2013 team featured an abundance of upperclassmen, but the numbers still suggest Odom has been more willing to play true freshmen than his predecessor.

During Pinkel’s final three years at Missouri, nearly three-quarters of freshmen (45 of 61) redshirted during their first year on campus. So far during Odom’s tenure, less than half (27 of 56) have done so. That doesn’t include the handful of freshmen who played in four games or fewer last season, thus preserving a year of eligibility under the new NCAA rule allowing players to do so.

Missouri’s reliance on true freshmen is high relative to its SEC peers as well, though not unheard of. Last season, two SEC teams saw more true freshmen burn their redshirt than Missouri. Auburn played 12 true freshmen in five or more games, while Georgia set the pace with 14. The median number of freshmen to use a year of eligibility among teams in the league was 7.5. Mississippi State only played two true freshmen in more than four contests.

It’s not like Missouri’s newcomers were thought to be more college-ready than those attending other SEC schools, either. Rivals ranked the Tigers’ 2018 signing class 13th out of 14 schools in the league. Odom believes the difference is the coaching staff’s mindset: it evaluates players based on their performance in practice, not year in school.

“Our approach on that is once they get here, let’s take the tag of what year they are in school off of their name and let’s coach them and teach them and get them in position to try to understand the position of what we’re trying to get out of that,” Odom said, “and they’ve been able to help us.”

The position most impacted by newcomers during Odom’s tenure has been running back. In the past three seasons, Damarea Crockett, Larry Rountree III, Tyler Badie and Simi Bakare have all used their first year of eligibility as true freshmen. Crockett set the school’s single-season rushing record for a freshman in 2016, while Rountree and Badie both earned spots on the SEC all-freshman team. Running backs coach Cornell Ford, who has coached at Missouri since 2001, said the current staff has balanced giving newcomers opportunities with making them earn playing time.

“We don’t care about seniority, this guy’s a senior, we could care less about that,” Ford said in December. “The guys that produce are the guys that are going to play. ... We’re going to go through a meat grinder, you’re going to go through a lot of tough days, but if you can get through it and we trust you when you come out of here that you can be a Tyler Badie that can go in against a Purdue at the end of the game, and the game’s on the line and we got you on the field.”

There are some clear benefits of getting players on the field as soon as possible. Most obvious, some freshmen, like Rountree and Badie, can fill an important role right away. Additionally, it’s easier to sell immediate playing time on the recruiting trail when you can point to recent examples. At the same time, some players need a year to adjust to college ball, and throwing them into the action before they’re ready can prove detrimental. Missouri safety Jordan Ulmer, who started the 2017 season-opener as a true freshman and has hardly played at safety since, serves as one cautionary tale.

Ultimately, Odom said, the decision hinges on the readiness of the individual and the depth chart at his position. While the Tigers may not always play as many newcomers as last season, look for Odom and his staff to continue recruiting players they believe can make an immediate impact and giving those players every opportunity to earn a role as true freshmen.