Missouri football’s defense is nowhere near where first-year coordinator Steve Wilks wants it to be.
While the pass defense ranks in the top half of Division I with 186.3 passing yards allowed per game and a 52.5% completion rate, the run defense is a weakness for the Tigers during the first quarter of this season. With 269.3 rushing yards allowed per contest, Missouri ranks as the fifth-worst run defense in college football and worst among Power 5 schools.
Enter Boston College, Missouri’s Week 4 opponent. The Eagles rushed for 205.7 yards per game in their first three contests and rank 30th in the nation. And while coach Jeff Hafley’s offense hasn’t faced a Power 5 team this season, the offensive line tends to dominate most of its competition regardless of who it’s facing.
Wilks compared Boston College’s offensive line to Missouri’s Week 2 opponent, Kentucky, who spearheaded an offense that put up 340 rushing yards in the Tigers’ 35-28 loss in Lexington.
“When you look at their offensive line, it somewhat compares to Kentucky,” Wilks said. “Very big, very massive guys up front. [There’s] a lot of NFL potential there.”
“Big” and “massive” is an understatement for an offensive line where every starter stands at least 6-feet-3-inches tall with an average weight of 310 pounds. Led by preseason All-ACC selections graduate center Alec Lindstrom and graduate offensive guard Zion Johnson, the Eagles offensive line is fully intact from last season.
A trio of running backs take advantage of the space created by the offensive line. Pat Garwo III leads the unit with 238 yards on 6.8 yards per carry, but the Eagles also roster two graduate running backs in Alec Sinkfield and Travis Levy, both of whom have the jets to take it to the end zone if they find a crease.
“We just got to do a great job of really trying to set edges, getting downhill, get the double teams off and make sure that we execute our assignments,” Wilks said.
The quarterback the offensive line will protect is different than who most people expected entering the season. Redshirt junior quarterback and potential first-round draft pick Phil Jurkovec injured his wrist in a Week 2 victory over in-state opponent UMass, and redshirt senior Dennis Grosel has taken over in his absence.
Grosel has starting experience from the last two seasons, including when he tied a school record with 520 passing yards against Virginia in the 2020 season finale. Wilks points to that contest as an indicator of what Grosel is capable of in place of Jurkovec.
“He was very impressive in that game so he’s very capable of running the offense and putting the ball where it needs to be,” Wilks said. “They do a great job getting out on the perimeter with the boots and play action. He’s great with his feet, as you saw last week where he ran a couple of times there, so he’s very effective in all areas.”
Grosel’s mobility could pose a problem for the Tigers, who have only recorded 3 sacks in their last two games after getting home 9 times in the opener against Central Michigan. Wilks said that the lack of pressure starts with him calling plays more conservatively.
“I think that starts with me and based on how I call the game,” Wilks said. “When you go back and look at Central Michigan, [we were] a little bit more aggressive, and then you come back with the Kentucky game, we weren’t as aggressive right there.”
The Tigers are at a critical point in the season, as seven out of the final eight games after Boston College will be against SEC opponents. The defense feels it worked out the kinks since the Kentucky game after Wilks moved to the press box last Saturday and “focus[ed] a little bit more on calling plays.” To go along with that, junior defensive back Martez Manuel said the defense ran its two best weeks of practice since that contest. Saturday will show how prepared Missouri is to rebound and compete in the SEC East.
“We felt in the Kentucky game that we truly let our offense down drastically,” said Manuel. “It’s just been such a pride thing that’s been motivating us to work harder. I think stopping the run has been a huge mindset difference, and I’m just really excited to just shut everybody up.”
Edited by Kyle Pinnell | kpinnell@themaneater.com