The Missouri football team held its final spring game scrimmage of the year last Saturday morning at Faurot Field.
As has been the case throughout spring ball, the defense impressed with its aggressive style of play, which led to a handful of opportunistic turnovers.
Redshirt freshman defensive end Kony Ealy and redshirt junior defensive end Brad Madison continued their strong springs as each recorded a sack to go along with a forced fumble, while Ealy also contributed on special teams with a blocked field goal attempt.
Elsewhere defensively, the secondary would appear to be a weakness because of the departures of starters Carl Gettis, Jerrell Harrison and Kevin Rutland, but the unit as a whole had a strong showing as they were never once beat deep and tallied four interceptions on the day, including two returned for touchdowns.
Coach Gary Pinkel, who recently signed a two-year contract extension to keep him at MU through 2017, came away very encouraged by what he saw from the secondary.
“Kip (Edwards) and E.J. (Gaines) played an awful lot last year, and Kip was basically a starter,” Pinkel said. “We have a lot of depth there. They all run real well. There’s just a lot of competition there, and it will be interesting to see how that position plays out.”
As is typical for spring practice, the defense outperformed their offensive counterparts, as neither sophomore quarterback James Franklin or redshirt freshman Tyler Gabbert, younger brother of Blaine, separated himself as the number one guy.
Offensive coordinator David Yost doesn’t foresee a starter to be named anytime soon.
“It’s been a very competitive situation. I don’t envision this competition ending anytime soon,” Yost said. “Both Tyler and James have been very competitive going back and forth splitting a lot of the reps. We see flashes of things we need at the quarterback position, but then we see a lot of things that have to be fixed.”
Gabbert saw majority of the first-team reps Saturday, while Franklin mostly handled second-team duties.
That said, Franklin made the most of his opportunity when guiding the first unit. The sophomore led the Tigers to end-zone on three of his four drives with the first unit while Gabbert failed to guide the Tigers on a scoring drive.
Franklin supplied one of the more exciting plays of the day. On fourth down with six seconds remaining on the clock, the pocket collapsed, sending Franklin to his left, he darted up the sideline and into the end-zone for the 12 yard score. The effort caught the attention of Yost as the offensive coordinator ran down the sideline and leapt into his quarterback’s arms to celebrate.
On the day, Franklin was 19 of 30 for 222 yards with two total touchdowns and one interception. Gabbert finished the day 14 of 26 for 103 yards with an interception.
Junior wide receiver T.J. Moe has been encouraged by the overall progression of the young quarterbacks.
“They’re getting better everyday,” Moe said. “James led those nice touchdown drives, and Tyler’s been improving all spring. He looks like a totally different player. He’s really doing some good things. They’re starting to get the ins and outs of the offense, which is making it easier on the rest of us.”
The quarterback battle will continue to unfold this Saturday afternoon at Faurot Field as the Tigers hold their annual Black and Gold game.
