Column:
Tigers lineup in limbo
Published Aug. 31, 2010
For those of you who may happen to see me this week, you may notice I have developed a slight twitch. As many Missouri sports fans are doing, I am eagerly awaiting the kickoff to football season.
So how does this year's team stack up? Here are some of the things I'll be looking at as the season progresses:
This preseason has already been difficult for the Tigers and the closer we get to kickoff, more and more questions are being asked, specifically off the field. Two players and a coach have been arrested for suspicion of driving while intoxicated, while another has been suspended indefinitely for alleged sexual assault.
Coach Gary Pinkel said yesterday he was "kind of embarrassed." Reading about players breaking the law doesn't sit well with the fan base either, and it goes without saying that Missouri athletes must stay out of legal trouble if the team wants to have any chance of success.
Back on the field, injuries are starting to pile up. Combined with Derrick Washington's suspension at tailback, De'Vion Moore's concussion and subsequent ankle injury have moved sophomore Kendial Lawrence up to the projected starter on the depth chart. Suddenly the position becomes pretty thin, with a trio of true freshmen behind Lawrence and the recovering Moore.
This is not to say Lawrence and Moore lack experience -- the two combined for 115 rushes and 477 yards last year -- but Washington's ten touchdowns favors quite comparably to Lawrence and Moore's combined one.
I'm looking forward to seeing which one elevates his game to be consistently named the starter, but it should be noted that neither weighs 200 pounds, leaving Missouri without any kind of power back at the beginning of the season.
Of course, no one confuses the Tigers with a running-oriented team and quarterback Blaine Gabbert will certainly have a plethora of receivers from which to choose. Problem is, of the active players (Jerrell Jackson is recovering from a fractured left wrist), only Wes Kemp caught more than eight passes last year.
Few people thought Danario Alexander would perform to the caliber he did a season ago. So it wouldn't exactly be unprecedented if one of the receivers steps up and takes advantage of Missouri's offensive schemes. The question is: Can someone like Kemp make that jump from obscurity? My answer is yes because if nobody does, then the team isn't going anywhere.
On the other side of the ball, improvements need to be made to a defense that was described as "awful" by Pinkel this summer. The Tigers ranked near the bottom of the country in pass defense and defending the rush didn't turn out so well against Navy in the Texas Bowl.
However, Missouri returns nine starters on defense, including all but one in the backfield. That would be the linebacker position vacated by the All-American Sean Weatherspoon. Look for sophomore Aldon Smith at defensive end, who was named to the Freshman All-American Team last year, to step up into a leadership role for the defense.
Although I'm not a proponent of soft out-of-conference schedules, Missouri will be thankful over the next month that they have the time to rest injured players and settle the issues from off the field. Once this team plays its first true road game against Texas A&M on Oct. 16, we should have more answers than questions.
