Defense aims to gain experience for 2007
Behind a solid offense, the defense plans to step it up for next year.
Published April 24, 2007
Although expectations for the Missouri football team are high as it heads into the 2007 season, a major question during this month's spring practice was how the defense would hold up after losing six of its 11 starters from last year.
A 72-27 loss in the Black and Gold Game didn't look good on paper, but the starters looked solid against an offense that is expected to be one of the best in the Big 12.
Coach Gary Pinkel said the linebackers and outside linemen have shown more promise during the past few weeks.
"They're improving fast," he said. "They're doing good things."
But after the starting core, Pinkel said the defense lacks experience, and on Saturday, it struggled to stop the rush. Junior running back Tony Temple caught a short pass in the flat during the second string and easily took it 21 yards for a touchdown.
"Our depth is young," he said. "I expect it to get better this summer, but there's different kinds of runs we have to stop. The challenge is to get consistency on defense."
The lone returning starter, junior linebacker Brock Christopher, said the front seven has to get stronger this summer.
"We all just have to get in the weight room," Christopher said. "The backup strings let through big chunks of yardage."
It was hard to get much of a sense of how the starting defense played because Pinkel held the starting defense to just 15 snaps, but most of the snaps were against the second-team offense, led by junior quarterback Chase Patton. They weren't scored on and only faced three rushes.
"They didn't really test us against the run," sophomore and new starting linebacker Sean Witherspoon said. "They know not to run against the starters."
But the starting string didn't force any turnovers, which junior defensive tackle Ziggy Hood said he noticed.
The lone interception came from senior third-string free safety Travis Cardoza, who intercepted Patton in the third quarter.
"More takeaways will help," Hood said. "We gave all we've got today, but we need to force turnovers."
Although the outside linemen, which are slated to be Stryker Sulak and Tommy Chavis, are in their first full year as starters, they got significant playing time at the end of last season following a season-ending injury to senior Brian Smith.
Senior nose tackle Lorenzo Williams said in a strange way, Smith's injury was almost a blessing.
"I don't want to say Brian Smith getting hurt was good," he said. "But at the same time, we now know how to work without him."
Both the linemen and linebackers said all the strings of the defense need to improve their speed and reaction time.
"We really have been slow in some respects," Witherspoon said. "We have got to react faster and get to the ball more."
Hood said the team needs to use this summer to get stronger so in 2007 the Tigers don't become a team that relies on the offense.
"We have to hold our own," he said. "Everybody's going to improve. We have just got to stay hungry and get big this summer and we'll be fine."