| 09 August 2009
How great does it feel to once again be able to constantly hit the refresh button on Dave Matter’s blog in hopes of a fresh practice report? In case you’ve been living in a cave for the last eight months this season’s theme is all about the Tigers reproving themselves. A lot of “OK” players graduated from last year’s team and now some unproven guys have to step up if the Tigers are going to Threepeat as Big 12 North champs. Yep, lots of position battles and storylines to follow between now and September 5.
There’s the obvious things everyone is watching for: How is Blaine Gabbert going to handle the pressures of being QB1? What kind of numbers will D-Wash put up with opposing defenses gameplanning more heavily on stopping him? Will the secondary be able to stop Kerry Meier at least once?
But there’s also a lot of less talked about keys that will play a crucial role in whether or not the Tigers are able to continue their recent string of successful seasons. Here’s three less obvious storylines/position battles that I’m going to be watching very closely from now until the Tigers kickoff against the Illini.
1. How will Terrell Resonno and Dominique Hamilton do in attempting to fill Ziggy Hood’s shoes?
Dave Matter tackled this subject in Saturday’s Tribune. There’s a lot of hype about the group of D-ends that Coach Pinkel has this year (the Smith Bro’s and Chuck Norris Coulter). He’s already said they might be the best set he’s ever had and Mike DeArmond is apparently calling them a three-headed monster. I don’t think there’s any doubt that all three of those guys have what it takes to be major difference makers. There’s a good chance we see at least one of them getting drafted pretty highly in the NFL Draft some day. (I think it’s going to be Aldon.)
But I think Ziggy Hood might have been one of the most underappreciated stars Mizzou has had in a long time. He didn’t make a lot of highlights and his statistics weren’t overly impressive. But you constantly heard the coaches heaping praise on Ziggy for the work he did in a Tiger uniform. You always read about Ziggy being double-teamed by offensive linemen for entire games. I never played competitive football and consequently am not much of an X’s and O’s guy, but it seems like Ziggy was one of those very rare football players that was capable of making the guys around him better without many fans noticing it. Kind of like college football’s version of Shane Battier.
It’s not fair to ask Resonno or Hamilton to do what Ziggy did with the limited experience that they have. But they have to at least make offenses notice them. They can’t be pushovers. They have to do enough to allow the DE’s and Jaron Baston do their thing. Major question mark at this position.
2. What kind of production will we see out of Danario Alexander and Jared Perry?
This is a fairly obvious key but I might actually be more concerned about Mizzou’s two established receivers than I am about the untested freshmen and sophomores. I don’t think there’s any doubt that there’s talent in the underclassmen receiving corps. I’ve heard multiple people that have been able to watch a decent amount of Mizzou practices since last year rave about Wes Kemp’s ability. Everyone forgets that Jerell Jackson was one of the breakout stars in last year’s summer camp. Rolandis Woodland is a guy who also came to the program with some decent hype.
But I think we all know that we’re not going to have another Jeremy Maclin in that group. Best case we get one or two of these guys to play like Jared Perry circa 2006. I’d say expect at least one of these guys to put up numbers in between what Tommy Saunders put up as a sophomore/junior and what JP put up as a freshman/junior.
But we’ve never seen if JP and Super Danario are capable of consistently getting open when they’re the go-to guys. They’ve always had All-American caliber players like T-Ruck, Coffman and J-Mac lining up right across from them. Neither one has really ever been more than a fourth option. We’ve seen flashes of brilliance from both of them (particularly Danario) but we’ve also seen them completely disappear for weeks at a time. They don’t have to be J-Mac and Chase Coffman. But I wouldn’t mind a couple of Will Franklin clones.
3. How will the special teams unit perform?
It’s possible that the past few years the Tigers have had their most solid special teams units maybe ever with J-Mac returning kicks and Jeff Wolfert simply not missing field goals.
Wolfert’s another guy Mizzou fans probably took for granted despite his many accolades. Great kickers are so rare at the college level. Remember the Adam Crossett experience? Remember that feeling that we had to score a touchdown even if we were inside the 10-yardline just to guarantee that we got some points on the drive? Not fun. And I’ve seen much worse kickers than Crossett. Tanner Mills may or may not be a solid Big 12 kicker. But I’m going out on a limb and saying he’s not going to be the most accurate kicker in NCAA history. I’ll be more than happy if we can just count on him from 40-yards and in.
And don’t forget Maclin. He’s hardly a player that was underappreciated during his tenure as a Tiger but we probably have overlooked how many drives he set up without ever touching the ball. With Maclin returning kicks the Tigers were almost guaranteed to start a drive no further than their own 35. I wonder how many Mizzou touchdown drives over the last two years would have ended in punts or field goals had the other team not intentionally booted the kickoff out of bounds.
Dave Matter has pegged Jerrell Jackson as the early favorite to return kicks. And again, he might be good at it. He might even return a kick or two to the house. But I’m just guessing he’s not going to have quite the impact on special teams that No. 9 had.
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