Tuesday Tiger Notebook

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News that comes out during a bye week is nearly always negative. Missouri was no exception last week. Starting wide receiver Dimetrios Mason is no longer with the program, as first reported by PowerMizzou.com on Saturday morning.

Mason had 119 receiving yards, 19 rushing yards and had been Missouri’s primary kickoff return man this season. On the depth chart released on Monday, junior Emanuel Hall is slated to start in Mason’s spot.

"It was really a 50-50 situation before," wide receivers coach Andy Hill said. "He's a top end speed guy, got a good body frame. Really good athlete. That's probably his strength. He can catch the deep ball and make some plays for us."

Hall was unavailable to reporters on Tuesday at Missouri's media session.

Offensive coordinator Josh Heupel said the adjustment should be no issue for Hall, who has played plenty in the last couple of seasons. He has five catches for 104 yards this season. Last year, he caught 19 passes for 307 yards and two touchdowns. His backup will be Nate Brown, who redshirted last year after a season-ending injury and has played sparingly so far this season.

"He's practiced his best the last three or four weeks. I think early in training camp coming off the injury, it was clear he was not a hundred percent," Heupel said. "He's playing really well right now."

"The confidence was there, but at the same time your mind and your body have to be on the same page," Brown said. "I was coming off two surgeries, but I found my second wind."

Brown was Mizzou’s second-leading receiver with 27 catches for 326 yards and four touchdowns in 2015. He's looking forward to regaining a meaningful role for the Tigers.

"You definitely don't want to see a teammate off the team or anything like that," Brown said. "But, yeah, I'm excited. Ready to get back out there. It's definitely been too long."

Beyond the six receivers on the two-deep, wide receiver is a giant question mark for the Tigers. Justin Smith remains sidelined with a knee injury suffered during camp. Ray Wingo missed all of camp due to academics and has not seen the field so far this season. That’s the entire contingent of scholarship receivers.

"Really seven or eight guys that we can play and then our tight ends need to become more active as well," Odom said. "We've got to do a good job on making sure that we get those guys, whatever positions they line up, there are a lot of interchanging parts there."

"I think we're okay right now with the guys that we've got," Heupel said. "If we continue to sustain injuries at that position, then depth will become a problem."

"Let's don't go there," Hill said. "All right?"

Speaking of injuries, Odom said on Monday the team was as healthy as it’s been since the start of the year. Smith, Aubrey Miller and Christian Holmes are out, but Odom said offensive linemen Kevin Pendleton and Yasir Durant healed up over the bye week and the Tigers are in good shape headed to Lexington to face Kentucky.

"Didn't have any new additions to that, which is nice," Odom said. "I would say we're probably as healthy as anybody else, really, if you look around at where we're at in the season."

Pendleton was clearly hobbled in the last two games, limping off the field just two plays into the loss against Auburn.

"Football's a contact sport. You've got to be a tough dude to play it," Pendleton said. "Injuries are going to happen. You're going to be banged up, but you've got to go out there and put your best effort. You got to do whatever you can to help the team and that's what I did.

"I feel a lot better. Let's just say that."

Speaking of Kentucky, the Cats are 4-and-1. They won close games over Southern Miss, Eastern Kentucky and Eastern Michigan plus a 23-13 victory over South Carolina. The lone loss was a 28-27 stunner to Florida in which Kentucky left a receiver completely uncovered for the game-winning touchdown with 43 seconds to go and then missed a 57-yard field goal that would have saved the victory.

"They left a guy uncovered a couple times," Heupel said. "I assume that they're going to get that corrected."

Heupel is plenty familiar with Kentucky head coach Mark Stoops. The Tigers’ offensive coordinator coached tight ends at Arizona in 2005 when Stoops was the Wildcats’ defensive coordinator. And, of course, Heupel was a player and assistant coach for Stoops’ older brother, Bob, at Oklahoma.

"We were on the same staff together. Our wives knew each other," Heupel said. "He's found a way to flip that program. Was it easy in the beginning? No, but he's a good leader, believes in what he's doing.

"His kids bought into it. It's a process and he's been able to get it on the right track."

Perhaps the strongest part of the Kentucky team so far has been the run defense. The Cats are giving up just 2.62 yards per carry and 74 yards per game through the first five weeks. Those numbers rank fifth and third in the country, respectively.

"Kentucky's playing solid football in every aspect. They're finding ways and making ways to win football games," Odom said.

Missouri is averaging 166.5 yards per game and getter than five per carry on the ground so far this season. The Tigers ran for 124 against Auburn, the second-most Auburn has given up this season. Crockett still ranks 33rd in the country in rushing, despite being very limited for a game-and-a-half due to a bruised tailbone.

Crockett declined interview requests on Tuesday. Heupel said freshman Larry Rountree III would continue to earn more opportunities to carry the ball as well.

None of the stats or matchups are likely to matter if Missouri doesn’t fix its own mistakes. The Tigers have spent plenty of time beating themselves over the last three weeks. The South Carolina game featured costly penalties and special teams mistakes. The kicking game has been cleaned up the last two weeks, but the Tigers are still averaging five penalties for 44 yards per game.

"At this point, if we haven't learned from the mistakes we've made, then it's too late," Pendleton said. "It's time to move on. Hit the reset button. Fresh start. New month."

All of that pales in comparison to the turnovers. Missouri is dead last in the country with a minus-2.25 per game margin. The Tigers have given it up 12 times and taken it away only three through the season’s first four games.

"We all know where that is in the country. There's not anybody below us," Odom said. "That's not just the offense turning it over, that's the defense not getting it back. If we could get that switched, that's gonna make our life a lot easier.

"I believe very, very firmly and with strong conviction that the attitude and the mindset can control a lot of things. We spend time talking about that, we spend time in practice putting them in adverse situations and see how they respond."

Saturday’s game against the Wildcats will kick off at 7:30 Eastern time, 6:30 in Missouri. It will be televised on the SEC Network.

The following week’s game against Georgia has been set for the same time slot and channel.