Tuesday Tiger Notebook

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On Monday, Barry Odom confirmed what one of his players had said following Saturday’s win over Idaho. Missouri will be without its starting running back for the foreseeable future. Damarea Crockett had arthroscopic surgery on his right shoulder last Friday. Odom would only say that Crockett won’t play this weekend, but the Tigers are likely to be without him for a few weeks and potentially even the rest of the season.

In Crockett’s absence, Ish Witter was listed as the starter on this week’s depth chart. The senior has carried the ball 65 times for 348 yards and two touchdowns backing up Crockett this season. That includes a 139-yard effort in Missouri’s 40-34 loss to Kentucky.

Perhaps the most intrigue is in the player backing up Witter, true freshman Larry Rountree.

That 53-yard run was the highlight of Rountree’s 12-carry, 97-yard day in the 68-21 win over the Vandals.

“I don’t think he’s going to run out of bounds,” Odom said. “He’s a physical player and he was running really well behind his pads. That’s probably his style right now.”

“That’s kind of his M.O.,” running backs coach Cornell Ford said. “He looks for people to run over. Sometimes I wish he’d just kind of run around them, but he’s that kind of a player.”

Against Georgia, Rountree got a handoff on third and one. He came up short. Ford let him hear about it.

“We got on him pretty hard about that,” Ford said. “You’re supposed to get that by yourself. I don’t care what the offensive line does. So he wanted to make a point this game.”

Point taken.

Rountree isn’t the biggest guy around. He is listed at 5-foot-10, 205 pounds and Ford said he is about 210 now.

“He’s a back that plays big,” Ford said. “If you run into him, you feel it.”

A week ago, offensive coordinator Josh Heupel said he wasn’t sure who his third running back would be if Crockett didn’t play. The Tigers turned to walk-on Dawson Downing, who carried three times for 30 yards, including a 25-yard burst, late in the game.

“That’s a pretty good accomplishment to start and it’s the first step of hopefully many down the road,” Downing said.

Downing had scholarship offers to Southeast Missouri State and Northwest Missouri State and strongly considered heading to Maryville. But in the end, he walked on to play at the same school where his father Ken was a standout in the defensive backfield.

“I just decided it was best for me to walk on here and I wanted to prove I could play at this level,” the redshirt freshman said. “It’s felt like a long process even though I’m already on the field, but hopefully that just leads to more.”

Downing is not likely to have a heavy workload with Witter and Rountree in front of him, but he’s ready if the Tigers need it from him.

“He’s my ace in the hole,” Ford said. “If the wheels were to fall off, I would have no problem putting Downing in the ballgame. I know he’ll know who to block, he’ll know the right cuts, the right reads. He’s got it all down. He just needs the opportunities that’s all. We were able to give him some opportunities at the end of the game and I was proud of him.”

Missouri’s passing game has feasted on the weaker foes on its schedule. Against Missouri State and Idaho, Drew Lock has thrown for 988 yards and 13 touchdowns. Up next: Connecticut, which boasts the nation’s worst pass defense. The Huskies are giving up 373.4 yards per game, 46 yards more than the nation’s second-worst team.

UConn has allowed opposing quarterbacks to complete 67% of its passes. Only 11 teams are surrendering a higher completion percentage (one of them is Missouri). While Lock has obliterated the weaker teams on Missouri’s schedule, he has been on the upswing in general in his last four games, three of which have been against SEC competition.

Even taking away the Idaho game, Lock has 824 yards, nine touchdowns and just two picks in his last three SEC games. He will face an improving defense on Saturday. The Huskies gave up at least 38 points in four straight losses, culminating in a 70-31 beating by Memphis. But in the last two weeks, they’ve beaten Temple and Tulsa, allowing just 38 points combined.

“I think they’re young in what they’re doing defensively,” offensive coordinator Josh Heupel said. “That’s why you’ve seen them continually get better week to week. Drastically improved from where they were a few weeks ago. The kids play hard.”

The Tiger offense has improved with some changes instituted during the bye week after the loss to Auburn. The hope is that the same thing works on defense. Mizzou unveiled a handful of new looks in the game against Idaho.

Most notable were a three-defensive end package with Chris Turner moving inside and personnel moves in the secondary. True freshman Adam Sparks has started the last two games at cornerback, Kaleb Prewett has moved to safety full-time and Brandon Lee and Joshuah Bledsoe have taken over at the safety/linebacker hybrid position where Prewett used to play.

“The playbook looks great, but if you can’t get it executed with the right personnel on the field, then it’s of no use,” Odom said. It’s taken some time. Obviously longer than we wanted to, to get guys in the right spots we think. We think finally through the last two weeks of repetition, we’d finally feel comfortable doing some of it Saturday.”

The versatile Cam Hilton has found his way back into the rotation, playing about 15 snaps against the Vandals.

“I think he’s grown and matured a whole lot in the last month. On back to back plays he had a sack and he almost had a blocked punt,” Odom said. “He is athletic and he’s starting to play with the speed and confidence you need at that spot, the things we’re asking him to do. He can be a game-changer for us in the playmaking ability in a lot of different roles.”

“It’s a great feeling,” Hilton said. “I finally got back on course on and off the field. It just feels good to be back out there playing with my brothers.”

Hilton has taken practice reps at safety, cornerback and nickelback. He said he spends the most time in practice at corner because that’s where he’s got the most to learn.

“The reason why he got back out there is because of the attitude he had,” secondary coach Ryan Walters said. “I think his versatility is what helps us tremendously. I told him last week our defense is going to be as good as he is because he’s always on the field in crucial situations.”

“Anywhere I can help the team,” Hilton said, “That’s what I’m going to do.”

The defense looked better than it has in past weeks, giving up 21 points to Idaho. It was the first time this season Mizzou had held an opponent under 30. On the flip side, the Vandals have scored more than 21 just three times this season—against Sacramento State, Western Michigan and South Alabama, the last one coming in an overtime game. Connecticut should provide a bit more of a test. The Huskies rank 50th in the nation with 432 yards per game.

Odom used the final couple of minutes of his press conference on Monday to talk about the Showdown For Relief in which Cuonzo Martin’s team played Kansas on Saturday.

“There’s a lot of people that lose sight of the opportunity that we have to provide student-athletes with great experiences,” he said. “That’s gonna be one for those guys that got to participate in that yesterday, it was unbelievable, they’ll remember it forever.”

He then made a pitch for the two schools to play more often in more sports. At least that's who we think he was talking about: “They’re not asking me, but I think Missouri and the other team should play every year in every sport.”

This weekend’s game is part of the American Athletic Conference television package. It will air at 5:30 Central time on CBS Sports Network. Next Saturday’s home game against Florida was set for an 11 a.m. kickoff on ESPN2.