Mizzou’s Justin Efebera leads the team onto the field before the game against North Texas on Saturday, Oct. 9, 2021 at Faurot Field in Columbia, Mo. Mizzou held the lead during the game and ended up winning 48-35.
With MU students currently in the thick of fall semester midterms, Missouri football finds itself at its own halfway point. With a 3-3 record featuring three non-Power 5 wins and three Power 5 losses, the Tigers’ track record isn’t the sharpest resume in the conference.
But the barometer for Missouri coach Eli Drinkwitz’s second season in Columbia isn’t an SEC Championship Game appearance, especially since he’s primarily playing with former coach Barry Odom’s recruits. If Missouri wins at least half of its six games to end the season, the team will be bowl-eligible.
So far, 2021 has featured some performances that merit a 4.0 grade point average, and others aren’t far from failing. Here’s how each position group grades out.
Quarterbacks: B+
In his first full season as starting quarterback, redshirt sophomore Connor Bazelak has improved his playmaking ability in getting the ball into the end zone, but he remains an average SEC quarterback.
Bazelak is a reliable arm who has remained consistent with his completion percentage and yards per attempt hovering around where it was last year.
He opened conference play with four touchdown passes and only one interception against current No. 11 Kentucky, but his overall Power 5 touchdown-to-interception ratio is 5:5. In non-Power 5 games, he threw for seven touchdowns with no picks.
The signal caller out of Dayton, Ohio, has made good throws downfield when called on. He can be spotty with accuracy on some by overthrowing some middle-length routes.
Freshman Tyler Macon and redshirt freshman Brady Cook each made brief yet meaningful appearances against SEMO, collectively logging a 7-8 passing performance with 94 yards and a pair of touchdown passes in relief of Bazelak.
Running backs: B+
After three-year starter Larry Rountree III left for the greener pastures of the NFL, senior running back Tyler Badie is one of the biggest revelations for the Tigers. His all-purpose playmaking fits nicely within Drinkwitz’s offense that tries to get the ball into the flat.
Badie ranks fifth in the nation in yards from scrimmage with 887 and is tied for the lead in all-purpose touchdowns with 12. He also paces the team in receptions and rushing attempts.
“He’s probably the least talked-about great player in the country right now,” Drinkwitz said. “The guy’s playing at an extremely high level.”
But sometimes numbers are deceiving.
Most of the damage Badie has done came against non-Power 5 opponents. His highest rushing total against a Power 5 opponent came in a 72-yard performance against Boston College on Sept. 25. He only averages 58 rushing yards per game with 3.3 yards per carry against Power 5 defenses. However, he surpassed 100 yards from scrimmage in two of the three contests against Power 5 opponents due to his pass-catching ability.
Badie has 49 more carries than Missouri’s other running backs combined. Sophomore Elijah Young, redshirt freshman Michael Cox, freshman BJ Harris and graduate Dawson Downing have 321 rushing yards combined, meaning the burden is mostly on Badie to improve the run game.
Wide receivers/tight ends: B+
Six receivers — seven players total when you include Badie — have caught at least 10 passes this season, a claim only Mississippi State and Alabama can match in the SEC.
Still, the wide receiver group’s potential hasn’t been fully explored through Drinkwitz’s horizontal, swing pass-heavy offense. The wide receivers are capable of making big plays on seam or post routes, and each man plays with plenty of speed. Highly-touted redshirt freshman Mookie Cooper and freshman Dominic Lovett both have the wheels to challenge opposing defensive backs, but many of the passes they catch are screens around the line of scrimmage.
Graduate Keke Chism led the team in receptions and yards last season and has only built off his first year with the Tigers. From there, redshirt freshman Chance Luper and redshirt junior Tauskie Dove have seen their roles increase more this year with 15 and 17 receptions, respectively.
As for tight ends, junior Niko Hea and senior Daniel Parker Jr. combined for 17 catches and three touchdowns through six games, already surpassing their joint total from last fall.
Offensive line: A-
When the Missouri offensive line clicks, it makes life vastly easier for the groups mentioned above.
Against Central Michigan, the Tigers’ line gave up 13 tackles for loss, but played a key role in Badie’s 203-yard rushing effort. In a loss against Tennessee, the Volunteers got through the line and made eight tackles for loss, effectively shutting down Missouri’s rushing attack.
But in the other four contests, Missouri’s offensive line has done a solid job protecting Bazelak and carving holes for the running backs. Opposing rushers only sacked Bazelak five times in six contests — less than one sack per game — while playing quite well against Power 5 opponents.
In its contests against Kentucky and Boston College, Missouri’s offensive line only permitted four tackles for loss.
The unit will face big tests next month as Georgia and Florida both rank at the top of the conference in sacks.
D stands for defensive line
For five weeks, opposing offensive lines bullied the Tigers’ front four all game long.
The unit played so poorly to start the season that Drinkwitz fired defensive line coach Jethro Franklin five games into the season. Missouri currently allows 288.8 rushing yards per contest, 20 yards worse than the second-worst program.
The linemen haven’t done the defense any favors in stopping the ground game. They’ve accounted for 10.5 tackles for loss over the first five games, and the team ranks eighth in the conference in tackles for loss per game.
“We’re capable of doing it and we know that we just gotta put it on film,” freshman lineman Mekhi Wingo said.
With Al Davis bumped up from his role as defensive analyst to defensive line coach against North Texas, the Tigers’ defense improved considerably. It allowed under 200 rushing yards for the first time since Week 1, while the defensive line accounted for six of the 10 tackles for loss.
Linebackers: B
Graduate transfer Blaze Alldredge and junior Devin Nicholson took the lion’s share of the linebacker snaps through the first five games of the season. They rank first and third respectively on the team in total tackles.
Alldredge played a standout first game in black and gold with 10 tackles, 3.5 sacks and six tackles for loss against Central Michigan. While it’s unreasonable to expect a performance like that every Saturday, the former C-USA first-team selection has only picked up another half-sack and two tackles for loss in the last five games. Redshirt junior Chad Bailey also took most of the workload Saturday against North Texas.
Nicholson has played consistent football all year, racking up five games of at least five tackles with a pair of sacks and a forced fumble to his name.
The two primary linebackers have the ability to be disruptive in the backfield when they’re on their game, but their consistency will be tested with three of their final six opponents ranked in the top 40 in rushing yards per game.
Defensive backfield: C
Missouri ranks eighth in the conference in opposing yards per game and sixth in opponent completion percentage midway through 2021. The defense recorded an interception in all but one game and is tied for third in the conference with seven interceptions on the season.
But the defensive backfield’s ability to play lockdown defense each down is still up for debate.
The unit hasn’t faced a high-level quarterback this season and have still allowed several big plays. Take, for instance, all four touchdowns North Texas’ sophomore quarterback Austin Aune threw on Saturday: the secondary gave the receiver ample breathing room as they caught the ball on each throw.
Luckily for the Tigers, the SEC doesn’t have many high-level quarterbacks they need to worry about as big-game threats. Four of the final six quarterbacks the unit will face had worse quarterback ratings than Bazelak entering the week. But this doesn’t mean those signal callers can’t damage vulnerable zone coverage.
Special teams: A
Missouri’s midterm report card ends on a high note with the most consistent unit of the team, which has done everything it can to aid the offense and defense.
Graduate punter Grant McKinniss and sophomore kicker Harrison Mevis have provided bright spots on days when the Tigers’ defense couldn’t stop the run and the offense couldn’t click. McKinniss ranks sixth in the conference in gross yards per punt, and the Tigers limit opposing returners to a conference-best 1.80 yards per return. 15 of McKinniss’ 23 punts were downed inside the 20-yard line.
His field goal-kicking counterpart, Mevis, is a perfect 6-6 on field goal attempts and 23-23 on point after tries. Mevis possesses the clutch gene, making two of those field goals when the Tigers needed them most. His 53-yard make in the season opener against Central Michigan broke a 14-14 tie seconds before the half, while his career-long 56-yarder tied Boston College at the end of regulation in Week 4.
Sophomore defensive back Kris Abrams-Draine returned a kick 100 yards to the house against Tennessee in one of the few silver linings from that contest.
The only mistake to note came in Saturday’s action when redshirt senior kicker Sean Koetting booted the ball out of bounds to start off North Texas’ second series of the game, but that didn’t amount to anything for the Mean Green. If the rest of the team plays up to the special teams down the stretch, all of Missouri’s units should earn passing grades by the end of the season.
Edited by Kyle Pinnell | kpinnell@themaneater.com