Preseason should test Mizzou football team's depth, toughness to start Eli Drinkwitz's fourth year

COLUMBIA, Mo. — To hit or not to hit? That’s the question college football coaches must ask themselves this time of year as preseason camps begin around the country. It’s no different at Missouri, where coach Eli Drinkwitz kicks off his fourth season Monday morning with the first practice of camp, one month out from the Aug. 31 season opener against South Dakota.
The Tigers are loaded with depth and experience on defense. They are full of question marks and open competitions on offense, especially along the line of scrimmage. Here’s the challenge Drinkwitz faces heading into the next month of practices: Do you risk injuries with hours of live tackling and full-contact drills for a veteran defense stocked with talent? Or does an offensive line still searching for its five best players need August’s physical pounding to separate the clear starters from the reserves?
There’s a balance somewhere along the trenches, and to get there, Drinkwitz’s staff has a plan, shaped around the NCAA’s preseason practice regulations.
“We are a deep, physical football team — and we’ve got to develop that physicality,” Drinkwitz said Sunday, the day the team’s full roster of players and coaches reported for the start of camp. “There’s a fine line between being tough and dumb tough. So we’ll err on the side of just being tough. And we don’t traditionally do live tackling 14 days (before) the first game. So first three weeks ... as we get acclimated, we’ll start breaking it in. But after that mock game, we won’t have any live tackling.”
Long gone are the grueling two-a-day sessions that once defined the sport’s most brutal month, and in May 2021, the NCAA passed rules placing further restrictions on preseason practices. Under the current rules, teams can only hold 18 contact practices before the season opens and must have at least seven days of practice in only helmets. Teams are prohibited from holding more than two consecutive days of full-contact drills, can’t go over 75 minutes of full contact in any practice, and can have no more than two live scrimmages before the first game.
That’s why defensive coaches usually worry about shoddy tackling the first couple weeks of the season. But in Mizzou’s case, with nine starters back on defense and 12 players overall who played 250 or more defensive snaps last fall, there’s less concern about the rigors of August.
Vanderbilt Commodores vs Missouri Tigers
Mizzou wide receiver Luther Burden III, left, takes the ball from quarterback Brady Cook on a reverse, going for a touchdown against Vanderbilt on Saturday, Oct. 22, 2022, in Columbia, Mo.
David Carson, Post-Dispatch
“Obviously, you want to be healthy,” defensive coordinator Blake Baker said. “I think it is essential that we do tackle because the only way you get better at tackling is to actually tackle. But you want to be smart at the same time. This spring, we really didn’t tackle often. And then obviously in the summer, you can’t (tackle). So I do think we need to get after it a couple of days and, again, just be smart. We know some of the guys actually already tackle really well. We just want to make sure they’re polished going into game week.”
Baker’s defensive front is stacked with veterans, especially at tackle, where the logjam of returning players will allow fifth-year senior Darius Robinson, the team’s top returning tackle, to play defensive end in certain matchups. Across the line of scrimmage, offensive coordinator Kirby Moore and offensive line coach Brandon Jones, both newcomers to the staff, face a different challenge. They’ve got four weeks to sort out their five best blockers — and then their best backups.
“I think it’s the deepest offensive line that we’ve had (with) probably eight or nine guys that could end up being the starters (after) 25 practices,” Drinkwitz said. “Watching that unfold, I think, will be really fun.”
“It’s ultimately up to us just to find the best five and then you start working on their chemistry,” Jones said. “As long as we know by the first game, that first week of prep, I think we’ll be fine.”
There might be fewer collisions and fewer live tackling drills, but Drinkwitz believes preseason camps are more important now than in past decades. And for one prime reason: The transfer portal has made rosters more fluid than ever before. A few critical additions to Drinkwitz’s roster arrived after spring practices, including former Houston offensive lineman Cam’Ron Johnson, the team’s projected starting center.
“These 25 practices you create the identity for who you are as a team,” Drinkwitz said, “because you’re solidified.”
Drinkwitz has set a series of what he called “micro goals” for the next month, starting with togetherness. The entire team will move into the South Hall dorms across from Memorial Stadium for the first week of camp.
“We’ll be there focusing on building that camaraderie and team spirit,” he said.
Inevitably, injuries will test Mizzou’s depth over the next month, but the Tigers are fortunate to open camp with just one player expected to miss extensive time. Safety Isaac Thompson, a redshirt freshman from St. Louis University High, will miss preseason camp after suffering what Drinkwitz called a lower-body injury.
Two of the leading candidates for the quarterback job missed all or parts of spring practices with setbacks, but Brady Cook and Sam Horn are fully cleared to take part in Monday’s practice. Cook, last year’s starter, underwent right shoulder surgery in January to repair a torn labrum suffered the second week of the season . He began a throwing regimen in April and gradually increased his workload. His throwing arm is stronger than ever, he said Sunday.
“Just because there’s been so much focus on (the shoulder), so many different exercises and treatment and rehab on it,” Cook said. “And then just such an emphasis on throwing. So I’ve probably thrown way more this offseason than last offseason. So I do think (the surgery) is going to actually help.”
Horn, moonlighting on the Mizzou baseball team last spring as a right-hander out of the bullpen, felt a tightness in his throwing forearm in a 25-pitch outing on Feb. 27 at Florida International. He came out of the game and, as a precaution, didn’t return to the mound for the rest of the season. Horn missed a couple of spring football practices but recovered in time to play in the team’s final spring scrimmage.
“From the beginning, they pretty much told me it’s nothing to really worry about,” Horn said. “I was a little disappointed, but I just didn’t want to risk anything. So it was a smart move just to make sure I was healthy on all angles for football and baseball and be ready for next season. Because I knew how big the season was going to be for me in football.”
Big season indeed. But first, a big month. For the Tigers, camp officially is here