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Mizzou was the SEC’s biggest overachiever in 2023 and has plenty going for it in ’24:
- A tenured quarterback, Brady Cook
- The single most worth-the-price-of-admission playmaker in America, Luther Burden III
- A solid incoming recruiting class that capitalized on last year’s unexpected momentum
- And a relatively friendly schedule
All of which culminates in a rare appearance in the top half of the preseason AP poll, at No. 11, an my projection of finishing 7th in the SEC.
Life is good in the glow of last year’s surge, but Mizzou has had its moments before. Staying power has been harder to come by.
Prior to last year, the Tigers had spent nearly a decade hovering at or near .500 with no apparent end in sight. The talent level has clearly improved under Eli Drinkwitz, but in this conference, all that guarantees you is a fighting chance from one Saturday to the next.
Tigers at a Glance …
2023 Recap: 11-2 (6-2 SEC; won Cotton Bowl; 8th AP)
Best Player: WR Luther Burden III
Best Pro Prospect: Burden
Best Addition: OL Marcus Bryant (SMU)
Best Names: QB Harold Blood Jr. … WR Daniel Blood
Most Grizzled: DB Joseph Charleston (6th year; 31 career starts at Mizzou and Clemson)
Emerging Dude: Senior LB Triston Newson
Biggest strength: A deep and dynamic bunch of wideouts. Beyond Burden at the top of the rotation, holdovers Theo Wease, Mookie Cooper and Marquis Johnson combined for 1,512 yards and 9 TDs last year on 15.4 yards per catch. Wease and Cooper are former blue-chip recruits in their own right who began their careers at Oklahoma and Ohio State, respectively, and have a ton at stake in their final season on campus.
Nagging concern: Cornerback is a void following the exit of a couple long-tenured starters, Ennis Rakestraw (second-round pick) and Kris Abrams-Draine (first-team All-SEC, fifth-round pick). Into the breach: Former portal additions Toriano Pride Jr. and Dreyden Norwood, both of whom began their career with 4-star billing at Clemson and Texas A&M, respectively, but have yet to have a chance to prove it.
Looming question: Where’s the pass rush coming from? Last year’s resident terror off the edge, Darius Robinson, went in the first round after earning first-team All-SEC. The other bookend, Johnny Walker Jr., is back — brace yourself for the whiskey puns — but the highest hopes are for incoming freshman Williams Nwaneri, the No. 1 edge rusher in the entire 2024 class.
The schedule: Not a cakewalk, but under the circumstances, the Tigers couldn’t have drawn up a much friendlier path to another 10-2 regular season if they’d done it themselves. The nonconference lineup is essentially safe; they also benefited from an SEC slate that dropped 4 projected wins in their lap (Arkansas, Mississippi State, South Carolina and Vandy) while giving them a pass against Georgia, Texas, Ole Miss and LSU. Yes, there are prove-it dates with Oklahoma, Alabama and Texas A&M, the latter two on the road. Take care of business against the rest, though, and passing just one of those tests could be all it takes to punch their ticket to the Playoff.
RELATED: Predicting every Mizzou game in 2024
The upshot
Missouri would have crashed a 12-team Playoff field in 2023, and the stars are aligned for another sustained run. When will they be able to say that again after Cook and Burden move on? If there’s not a sense of urgency to make this opportunity count, there should be.
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Matt Hinton, author of 'Monday Down South' and our resident QB guru, has previously written for Dr. Saturday, CBS and Grantland.
