SPRING CLEANING: MISSOURI

Missouri finished 2021 with a 6-7 record and finished 4th in the SEC East. Overall, not a terrible year. However, they ended the season by starting Brady Cook at QB in their bowl game over season-long starter Connor Bazelak. Bazelak came into 2021 with some high expectations and projections by some. He followed it up with an average year. Apparently, it wasn't quite good enough and head coach Eli Drinkwitz decided to give Cook a shot in the bowl game. Shortly after the bowl game, Bazelak was already in the transfer portal.

OFFENSIVE NOTES

+ QUARTERBACK BATTLE

With the aforementioned Bazelak now out of the picture, the current battle is between Brady Cook and Tyler Macon. The wrinkle that could really throw a wrench into things is the possibility of former 5-star QB, JT Daniels, landing at Missouri as a transfer. Until that is all sorted out Missouri will look to be headed into 2022 with Cook as their starter. Both Cook and Macon bring more athleticism to the table than Bazelak did. Cook is known to be more of the polished passer and his nearly 80% competition rate from a year ago backs that up. Granted that was in very limited action, just 58 attempts.

Both quarterbacks threw a pretty bad interception during the spring game. Cook's shown below may suggest more about true freshman Luther Burder Jr. than it does about Cook. Burden was the most impressive player in the game and we'll get more into him later. However, Cook appears to be absolutely locked into throwing Burden the ball no matter what on this play and the safety made the very easy read with Cook not even trying to look him off.

+ REPLACING TYLER BADIE

Tyler Badie was quietly one of the best/most productive running backs in the nation a year ago. Badie racked up over 1,600 yards and 14 touchdowns. A lot of production to replace for the Tigers in 2022. It appears Stanford transfer, Nathaniel Peat, will begin the season as the starter. Peat ended last year with just over 400 yards on 79 carries for the Cardinal. He and the rest of the running backs looked great during the spring game. Unfortunately, that may not be a good thing since the Tigers had one of the worst run defenses in the nation last year and early signs suggest that may not change.

+ ENTER LUTHER BURDEN JR.

The 5-star WR out of East St. Louis essentially stayed home and became the 2nd highest-rated recruit ever for Missouri (Behind Dorial Green-Beckham). The #1 WR in the 2022 class was easily the most exciting part of the Mizzou spring game. Announcers are already comparing him to former South Carolina standout, Deebo Samuel, with how Missouri will be looking to use Burden in multiple ways. At 6'0" and already 200 pounds as a true freshman, Burden showed the ability to finish plays and use that weight to make contested catches. Missouri showed off his versatility all game with jet sweeps and he was even lining up to return punts, however, they were not live. He appears to be WR1 for the Tigers from the jump, but he is just one of a pretty deep WR room. Tauskie Dove returns after racking up over 500 yards in 2021. Other receivers who will be filtered in all year include Dominic Lovett, Chance Luper, Barrett Banister, and former Ohio State Buckeye, Mookie Cooper.

DEFENSIVE NOTES

+ MORE DEFENSIVE STRUGGLES AHEAD?

With all these glowing offensive notes above, slightly suggest that the defense will struggle again for Mizzou in 2022. Missouri was missing a few pieces on defense during the game, particularly in the secondary. The large concern however was once again defending the run. Gashing runs were a common thing during the spring game where tackling was not even the issue because there was no one there to tackle the back.

Missouri brought in 4 Power5 transfers within the box that could help with this issue. Jayden Jernigan from Oklahoma St and Ian Matthews from Auburn will look to bolster the defensive line. A pair of Hopper brothers, Ty'Ron from Florida and Tyrone from North Carolina will bolster the linebacker unit. On top of those 4 transfers, Mizzou also brought in safety Joe Charleston from Clemson and CB Dreywood Norwood from Texas A&M. Adding 6 Power5 players just on defense is a good sign of realizing the issue from a year ago and is the quickest way to remedy that.