After a 2022 season saw the Tigers topple 21 points just four times versus Power Five opponents, head coach Eli Drinkwitz knew he needed to take a step back from being the team's offensive coordinator and hire someone else to do that job.
That someone else was Kirby Moore.
In his first season in Columbia, Moore helped the Tigers become the 28th-best offense (434.6 total yards per game) and scoring offense (32.5) in the FBS.
He also helped develop quarterback Brady Cook into one of the better quarterbacks in the league and Cody Schrader, Javon Foster and Luther Burden III were named AP All-Americans.
In fact, Moore was so good that he was rumored to join Kalen DeBoer's staff at Alabama and had his name thrown around at other schools, but he decided to stay where he's happy and that's in Columbia.
"My family and I love it here in Columbia," said Moore during his Tuesday presser. "Obviously, tremendous staff that I get to work with on a daily basis and a great group of players coming back. (I'm) just looking forward to getting to work."
His return makes a lot of people happy but no one may have been happier than Cook, who was all smiles during his media availability on Wednesday when talking about Moore’s return.
“Yeah, (Moore’s return is) huge. I was worried he was going to Bama or something,” Cook said jokingly. But nah, he's staying and I'm happy about it and it's going to be be dangerous for sure.”
With Moore in place for the 2024 season, the Tigers and the second-year coordinator are focused on getting better. They're not resting on their laurels.
They helped the team go 11-2 but they want more and feel they need to improve if they're going to get into the 12-team College Football Playoff.
But before they can even think that far, they must focus on attacking spring ball correctly.
"We focus on three areas from an offensive standpoint," Moore said. "It starts with taking care of the football, which we did a fairly good job of, I think we ended up with nine turnovers on the season. If you look at two of the games that didn't go our way, unfortunately, we didn't win the turnover battle. So, that's something we can point to.
"We've got to continue to find ways to be explosive. That was something that I thought was a strength, and from a scoring (perspective) 一 scoring wins games. We've got to do a better job 一 I've got to do a better job calling plays within the red zone. We had a ton of opportunities down there. We just got to focus on scoring touchdowns instead of field goals."
One of the themes for spring ball is seemingly competition versus complacency. That's mostly been used when talking about the Tigers' wide receiver room that returns its top seven players from a year ago, but truthfully, it extends to the entire team.
Drinkwitz mentioned during his Monday presser that the team can't afford to take spring ball lightly. He feels the 2023 defense did that and that's why they got off to a slow start in the fall.
"The challenge is, what do you focus on to improve and what do you say no to? We can't do everything and we don't need to do everything," Drinkwitz said. "We need to focus on what is it exactly that we need to do to improve and how to say no to all the noise because sometimes when you have this much experience coming back you think like, 'I can do this.' So, he's (Moore) going to have a real challenge with that.
"Then he's going to have a challenge with making sure that people don't think spring means, 'Well, we're pretty good and we're going to show up in August.' I think the reality of it is that's kind of what our defense did last year, rolling into the first five games and so we are going to have to have a healthy foot in the backside of making sure that there is no complacency on what we're trying to accomplish this season. Because last year has nothing to do with this year."
Opportunities at almost every offensive position
Despite the offense returning eight starters, there is still plenty to figure out for each position group with the quarterback room taking precedence due to QB2 Sam Horn being out for the foreseeable future after undergoing Tommy John surgery earlier this month.
Currently, Mizzou has two scholarship quarterbacks in Cook and three-star signee Aidan Glover, but this spring seems like Glover and walk-ons Brett Brown, Tommy Lock and JR Blood will get more than their fair share of opportunity to display their talents.
"Those guys are going to get a ton of reps. And that's going to be an awesome opportunity for those guys," Moore said. "We're there for Sam going through this experience, and you look at the other quarterbacks, there is no better way to get better at the quarterback position than live seven-on-seven team learning through experience good and bad."
The offensive position that may have taken the biggest hit is running back after Schrader's and Nathaniel Peat's departures. However, it's possible the running back room as a whole could be stronger than it was in 2023.
The team nabbed Georgia State's Marcus Carroll and Appalachian State's Nate Noel from the transfer portal and they'll join Jamal Roberts and Tavorus Jones in spring ball.
Four-star signee Kewan Lacy will join the team in the summer.
"Yeah, I just think we were looking for the right fit," said Drinkwitz regarding getting Carroll and Noel. "You know, Nate Noel has got a lot of speed and is very familiar with our outside zone scheme. And then Marcus Carroll has a little bit more size and has been more of a durable back. But I would say this, that doesn't discount Jamal Roberts or T-Man (Jones) or anybody who wants to contribute.”
Even though Carroll was the nation's 10th-leading rusher with 1,350 yards and Noel is the Mountaineers' eighth all-time leading rusher with over 3,000 yards, Drinkwitz made sure to say this is an open competition because looks are deceiving as Schrader proved during his two-year stint with Mizzou.
"If our team hasn't learned their lesson from Cody Schrader two springs ago, (he) was the eighth man on the depth chart,” Drinkwitz said. “Nobody knows who he was, and he started Week 1 of that season. I mean, whoever ends up earning the job has earned the job. Much like we said last year, there are really no preconceived ideas. There are a lot of opportunities for players to figure out what their roles are going to be and how they're going to fit."
The Tigers have two massive holes (figuratively and literally) at left tackle and left guard, but seemingly have replaced at least one with Oklahoma transfer and Lee's Summit North alum Cayden Green replacing Foster in the lineup at left tackle.
When asked about having a top-15 transfer be on the roster, Moore just said "he's great and I look forward to getting out there and getting to work."
As far as left guard goes, Drinkwitz mentioned an open competition among Tristan Wilson, Jayven Richardson, Logan Reichert, Mitchell Walters, Brandon Solis and Caleb Pyfrom.
At receiver, the Tigers bring back their top seven receivers. So, every rep matters even more for that position group, but as previously mentioned, it's competition versus complacency.
Not only does Moore and Drinkwitz not want the receivers to be complacent with how well they did last year, but they also want them to realize the cornerback room feels it has a lot to prove with the departure of stars Kris Abrams-Draine and Ennis Rakestraw.
"It's competition versus complacency. And which one are they going to be? I think that's going to be the challenge for that room," Drinkwitz said. "Are they going to compete every single day to be better? Or are they going to be complacent and say, 'When the lights come on we will be good enough.'"
"Look, talk's cheap. It's going to be about who's going to be about that action and the star in one-on-ones because I know there's a real hungry group of corners (wanting) to prove themselves every single day in one one-on-ones and combatives and I know that wide receiver rooms going to have to meet that challenge head-on if they're going to have the success that they think they're going to have."
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