2020 Team Preview: What Can Eli Drinkwitz Do In Year 1 At Missouri?

The Missouri Tigers got hammered in the offseason. How? Read more to find out, as this program tries to survive in the cutthroat SEC this fall.

Offseason Changes

The Tigers fired head coach Barry Odom and replaced him with Eli Drinkwitz, who has quickly risen up the coaching ladder the past three years. He had been on the staff at North Carolina State as an assistant, but he was hired as head coach by Appalachian State a year and a half ago. He promptly won the Sun Belt Conference championship with ASU, and he used that breakthrough season to grab the Missouri job after Odom was sent packing. Drinkwitz benefited from the fact that App State was a senior-laden program with a lot of experience and seasoned players. Nevertheless, Missouri thought it had a great choice in Drinkwitz, who will now test his coaching skills against the rest of the SEC.

On the field, Missouri loses three of its high-workload receivers from last season but gets Virginia Tech and Ball State transfer Damon Hazelton to pick up the slack.

The Tigers lose three starting offensive linemen from 2019. They lose only one significant core member of their defensive front four from last year, tackle Jordan Elliott.

Missouri’s two safeties return from 2019, but the cornerbacks will be new. Missouri will not have DeMarkus Acy or Christian Holmes.

Punter and placekicker Tucker McCann is no longer with the program. Punt returner Richaud Floyd will not be on the 2020 Tigers, either.

The Tigers Will Succeed If…

They find a quarterback. The lack of spring practice, due to the pandemic, deprived Drinkwitz and his coaching staff of testing their quarterbacks well before the season and installing their new offense. Four quarterbacks have been part of the mix for 2020: TCU transfer Shawn Robinson, longtime backup Taylor Powell, redshirt freshman Connor Bazelak, and freshman Brady Cook. One of these four players has to emerge and give Drinkwitz consistency and reliability. Missouri’s starting quarterback, whoever it turns out to be, doesn’t have to be spectacular, just solid. A low-turnover quarterback who can steadily complete short passes and make the right reads will give the Tigers a reasonably good chance of competing against the SEC.

The Tigers Will Fail If…

Their back seven crumbles. The Tigers return their starting safeties from last season, as noted above, but their losses at cornerback and linebacker are worrisome. The offenses in the SEC East this season aren’t very good, but a defense which fails to smother those offenses represents a big liability. Missouri has to be able to create a shutdown-level defense which can impose its will on opponents, and the current back seven has to show it can meet a relatively high standard.

Prediction

The Tigers got the short end of the stick when it comes to the SEC schedule, the 10-game set of conference-only games which emerged from the pandemic. Every SEC team plays its six divisional games plus four games in the other division. Two of Missouri’s four games against the SEC West this year are against Alabama and LSU, arguably the two best teams in the whole conference. With Georgia and Florida in the SEC East, that’s four games Missouri has practically no chance of winning. It would actually be a somewhat decent season for Missouri if it can finish with a 4-6 record. The schedule is that nasty.

Prediction: 6th in SEC East