When Florida defensive tackle Chris McClellan entered his name into the transfer portal after two seasons with the Gators, he immediately became a highly-coveted name across college football as a three-star transfer prospect. 

The 6-foot-4-inch, 325-pound Oklahoma native had been the top recruit in the state in 2022, and he drew interest in the portal from schools like Colorado. However, he made the decision to join the Missouri Tigers, largely due to the likelihood of quickly becoming a respected voice on the team.

“At Florida, I didn’t really have a leadership role,” McClellan said. “As soon as I got here, post-spring ball, I was kind of thrown into a leadership role.”

Although he entered the program as an upperclassman with leadership goals, transferring to a new program meant learning a new set of ropes — different traditions and coaching methods unique to Missouri.

Fortunately for McClellan and the extensive list of fellow transfers who came to Columbia for the 2024 season, Missouri’s “Something To Prove” culture has been instilled from the top-down.

“Kristian Williams, with him being the main guy for defensive tackles, he helped me stay on track when I first got here,” McClellan said. “Coach [Eli Drinkwitz] and Coach [Al Davis] …was a big part of that as well, just trying to change my mindset.”

After spending two years in Gainesville, McClellan is no stranger to the high expectations that come with playing on the sport’s biggest stages. In 25 games as a Gator, he stockpiled 46 tackles and two sacks. His first career sack came against Missouri, where he added three tackles in his fourth career game. 

McClellan did not face the barrier of sitting behind older players on a Florida team that only had one senior defensive lineman during his freshman year. He saw meaningful action early in his career — a luxury that earned him an impressive résumé by the time he stepped into Missouri’s practice facility for the first time. Despite that, McClellan began his training with the team as if he were fighting for a roster spot, a mentality that earned him respect among his new teammates.

“[McClellan] came in strictly on business,” linebacker Corey Flagg Jr. said. “He came in heavy and dropped his weight quickly. He’s been putting in work daily and competing… all those guys have, but specifically [McClellan]; he just came in and put in work.” 

That tenacity has paid immediate dividends for McClellan, who has already set career highs in tackles and sacks during his season at Missouri. He hit the ground running, registering a sack and three tackles against Murray State in his very first game as a Tiger.

He has 35 tackles and 2.5 sacks in 10 games for Missouri and has been especially effective in SEC play, recording at least three tackles in every SEC game so far. This includes a career-high seven tackles in the double-overtime win against Vanderbilt.

“That’s just one of those wins, it’s a nail-biter, very high-intensity, and it was just a good time all around,” McClellan said. 

McClellan needed to hone in on the smallest of details to break into a career year. The minutiae of the defensive line position is what Davis, the interior defensive line guru of Drinkwitz’s staff, focused on improving with McClellan in the offseason. 

“He’s just been way more technical in his movements and his stance and how he operates during the game,” Kristian Williams said. “Coach Davis always talks to us about being the most physical guys on the field [and] being the most technical guys on the field… I feel like I’ve seen it a lot with him from the time he stepped here to now.”

While Florida did not have many older defensive linemen during McClellan’s time, the opposite is true at Missouri. In the 2024 season opener versus Murray State, McClellan was part of an all-upperclassman defensive line, with only three freshmen and sophomores listed on the defensive line depth chart. The defense as a whole follows that pattern — in the same game, the only underclassman starter was sophomore safety Marvin Burks Jr. 

With so many older players holding down the roster spots, Missouri’s young defensive talent has to wait their turn to see the field. 

Freshman defensive end Williams Nwaneri is one such player that has yet to consistently receive meaningful playing time. Nwaneri had high expectations, coming in as five-star recruit who was rated as Missouri’s third-highest recruit of all time. Along with Nwaneri are players like four-star freshman Jaylen Brown, and former three-star Jakhai Lang, who have appeared in a combined 13 games in their time with Missouri.

In the current college sports environment it is increasingly more common to see young, talented players turn to the transfer portal if they are unsatisfied with their playing time. The portal has made it difficult for teams to build the type of cohesiveness that takes years to cultivate.

Now a part of the team’s leadership, McClellan is one of the many Tigers working to continue building the necessary culture for long-term success. That starts by assuring players that their dedication will be rewarded in time.

“One of our things that we say here is that we have to leave the place better than we found it,” McClellan said. “To leave your legacy, you have to implement those characteristics into the next generation of players. That’s why I think it’s important to help them be their best selves.”

The seeds of McClellan’s leadership may have been planted during spring camp, but it wasn’t until he saw his first action at Faurot Field that he was able to elevate himself to being a respected voice in the locker room. 

“It’s really hard for transfers to come in and start out as leaders, because they don’t necessarily have the play on the field that backs it up,” Drinkwitz said in a press conference. “At the end of the day, a group of men are going to listen and respect people, but they’re really going to listen and respect when your play on the field is elite.”

With seniors like Williams and Flagg set to graduate after this season, McClellan projects to be one of Missouri’s top players and voices for the 2025 season. 

McClellan’s second year as a Tiger will also be Corey Batoon’s second year as Missouri’s defensive coordinator. The defensive tackle will be one of the players that Batoon relies on heavily to continually install the schemes and culture of Missouri’s self-proclaimed “Death Row Defense.”

For McClellan, each day presents an opportunity to get better. While his time at Missouri has just begun, he has made an impact every time he stepped on the turf at Faurot Field.

“I just hope I leave a legacy of somebody that came in, bought into the program and tried to do everything right,” McClellan said. “[I] try to live by the standard and just be somebody that somebody could look up to.”

Edited by Dylan Heinrich | dheinrich@themaneater.com 

Copyedited by Caroline Sweet and Hannah Taylor | htaylor@themaneater.com

Edited by Emily Skidmore | eskidmore@themaneater.com