@MizzouFootball Opens 2018 With UT Martin
8/27/2018 2:53:00 PM | Football
Tigers and Skyhawks meet at 3 p.m. on SEC Network (alt)
| Mizzou Opens 2018 Campaign at James Madison Invite | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| OPPONENT | LOCATION | DAY | TIME (CT) | WATCH | STATS |
| UT Martin | Columbia, Mo. | Saturday, Sept. 1 | 3 pm | SEC Network (alt) | Stats |
#ShowMe Mizzou Game Notes
The Matchup
- Mizzou Football opens its 128th season this Saturday as it welcomes Tennessee Martin of College Football's Championship Subdivision for a 3 p.m. (CT) kickoff at Memorial Stadium. The game is set to air on SEC Network (alternate).
Mizzou in Season Openers
- In its previous 127 season openers, Mizzou has won more than two-thirds of them, going 82-40-5 all-time (66.5%). Included in that win total was a 14-year win streak in season openers, but that string was broken in 2016 when the Tigers faced a tough test opening on the road at West Virginia, falling by a 26-11 count.
Mizzou in Home Openers
- In home openers, Mizzou's all-time record is a tick better, with an overall mark of 92-31-4 (74%), and that includes an active home opener win streak of 12, dating back to a 45-35 loss to New Mexico in 2005. Mizzou won last year's home openers vs. in-state foe Missouri State, 72-43.
Mizzou in Memorial Stadium Openers
- Since 1926, when Memorial Stadium opened, Mizzou is 62-27-3 all-time in home openers (69.0%), and it has won 19-of-21 dating back to 1997.
Mizzou vs. FCS Teams
- Mizzou is a perfect 17-0 against FCS teams in its history. In Mizzou's last 14 games against FCS opponents, the Tigers have outscored their foes by an impressive 728-to-139 margin, good for an average score of 52.0-to-9.9 in such games. This is the first meeting between Mizzou and UT Martin.
Keep It Rolling
- Mizzou enters the third season under head coach Barry Odom trying to 'keep it rolling' after winning its final six regular season games a year ago to earn a spot in the Texas Bowl, the first bowl appearance under Coach Odom. He became just the fifth Mizzou coach to take a team to a bowl by year two of his tenure and the first to do so since Warren Powers did so during his first season in 1978.
More on Last Year's Streak
- Since 2000, no team in SEC history that started 1-5 finished with more than three wins, meaning Mizzou is the first SEC team this century to start 1-5 and even get to four wins, not to mention seven that it finished with a year ago. Mizzou has started 1-5 or 0-6 in just 10 years of its storied history and had never won more than four games in one of those seasons until last year. In eight of the previous other nine seasons, Mizzou earned no more than three wins and won just one game in four of those seasons. Mizzou was just the 13th team in FBS history to start 1-5 and make a bowl game. The last Power 5 team to do so was Texas Tech in 2012. The only SEC team to ever start 1-5 and qualify for a bowl was the 1983 Ole Miss team that wound up in the Independence Bowl, but lost to Air Force, 9-3. Mizzou is the first SEC team to start league play 0-4 and finish 4-4.
A Loaded Offense
- Mizzou returns 10 starters on an offense that led the SEC and ranked eighth nationally in total offense (502.2 yards per game) and 14th nationally in scoring offense (37.5 points per game). With 10 starters back, Mizzou returns nearly 58 percent of its rushing yards from a year ago (1,447 of 2,516) and gets a healthy Damarea Crockett back, who was the team's starter at the spot of the first seven games before a shoulder injury sidelined him for the rest of the year. Mizzou also returns all of its 4,012 passing yards and 2,445 of 4,012 receiving yards (61 percent).
#H3ISMAN
- The key returning cog in Mizzou's loaded offense is senior QB Drew Lock, who turned down a chance to enter the NFL Draft to return to Mizzou for his senior season. Lock turned in one of the most prolific seasons in school and SEC history a year ago, thanks to his record-setting 44 passing touchdowns, breaking the single-season record for both, and a total which also led the nation in 2017. He ended the season with 3,964 yards on 242-of-419 passing and his season passing efficiency mark of 165.67 broke the Mizzou single-season record of 159.4 set in 2008 by Chase Daniel, and it ranked as the nation's fourth-best for the season. Lock also led the SEC in several other statistical categories, including passing efficiency, passing yards, total offense, passing yards per game (304.9 avg.), yards per completion (16.38 - also a nation-leading mark) and points responsible for (270). Most importantly, Lock will be remembered as the leader of a team that rebounded from a 1-5 start to post six-straight wins to close the regular season and reach a bowl game for the program's first time since 2014. In Mizzou's six-game win streak, his numbers were ridiculous - a touchdown-to-interception ratio of 26-to-5, an efficiency rating of 193.76, as he averaged 328.7 yards per game while completing 63.2 percent of his passes (117-of-185) during the stretch. He had at least three TD passes in all six wins during that stretch. Lock is on five preseason award watch lists and has been labeled as a Heisman Trophy candidate by many national pundits. In addition, NFL Draft experts have him on a short list of players who could be the first QB selected in next year's draft.
CROCKETT RETURNS
- Lock will have a dual-headed rushing attack joining him in the backfield in 2018, highlighted by the return of former 1,000-yard rusher Damarea Crockett, who missed the final six games of 2017 with a shoulder injury suffered at Georgia, despite being on pace for likely a second consecutive 1,000-yard season. As a true freshman in 2016, Crockett took the SEC by storm and set Mizzou freshman records for rushing yards in a season (1,062), rushing yards in a single game (225), rushing touchdowns in a season (10) and tied the school record with four rushing TDs in a single game vs. Middle Tennessee (10/22). He finished the 2016 season ranked sixth in the SEC in rushing yards per game (105.8), tops among SEC freshmen. His 7.3 yards per carry ranked third among all qualified rushers in SEC games and tops among freshmen and he led the nation's freshmen in rushing (96.5 yards per game). To put Crockett's production into perspective that year, he was the first SEC true freshman to rush for more than 1,000 yards since both Georgia's Nick Chubb and LSU's Leonard Fournette did so in 2014. Both of those players are now in the NFL.
RECORD-BREAKING O-LINE
- Over the last two seasons, there has been no offensive line unit better at limiting negative plays than Mizzou's group. Two years ago in 2016, Mizzou allowed just 3.00 negative plays per game, which was the lowest mark in FBS since the NCAA began archiving the stat. As an encore last season, Mizzou was even better as the O-Line paved the way for Mizzou to again lead the nation, this time averaging just 2.85 negative plays per game. That means that over the last two seasons, Mizzou's offensive line has produced the two best single-season marks in FBS history when it comes to limiting negative plays. Mizzou returns all five starters and 61 of 65 starts from a season ago as it should once again be one of America's meanest, nastiest and most physical offensive line units in 2018. Below is a breakdown of how Mizzou's offensive line has limited negative plays over the last two seasons:
| Year | TFL/Game Allowed-Rank | Sacks Allowed/Game-Rank |
| 2016 | 3.00 - 1st | 1.08 - 11th |
| 2017 | 2.85 - 1st | 1.00 - 5th |
| TOTAL | 2.92 per game | 1.04 per game |
- As you can see, Mizzou has allowed just 26 sacks over the last two seasons and had just 73 negative plays. Over those two seasons, Mizzou has run 1,864 offensive plays and just 73 of those have been negative - just 3.9 percent of Mizzou's total plays have lost yardage under coach Barry Odom.
- To put that mark into perspective, in 2015 alone - the year before Odom took over the program - Mizzou had 88 negative plays among 770 offensive snaps, which is 15 more than it has had over the past two years combined while running 1,094 more plays in that span. Mizzou's improved offensive line play has been a key reason for Mizzou's offensive explosion over the last two seasons.
- Mizzou is one of just 18 schools nationally to return all five starters along the offensive line and joins Florida and Vanderbilt as the SEC schools able to make that claim.
RETURN TO TIGHT END U
- Mizzou's 2018 offensive attack will feature a pair of weapons at the tight end position. Highlighted by Preseason All-SEC pick and Mackey Award Watch List honoree RS sophomore Albert Okwuegbunam (29 catches, 415 yards, 11 TDs last year) and senior Kendall Blanton (six catches, 138 yards, one TD), Mizzou features one of the nation's best 1-2 threats at the position. Okwuegbunam (or just Albert O for those who have to say it over and over again) led all tight ends nationally a year ago with his 11 TD grabs and runs a 4.6 40-yard dash at 6-5, 255 pounds, making him a matchup nightmare while having NFL scouts salivating at his potential. Blanton also has an NFL type skillset at 6-6, 265. Looking at those two players, it's easy to see why the tight ends have reemerged as a force in Mizzou's offense under third-year TE coach Joe Jon Finley. Below is a look at the increase in production from that group over the past two seasons:
| Year | Catches | Yards | TDs |
| 2017 (13 gms) | 40 | 687 | 15 |
| 2016 (12 gms) | 48 | 540 | 5 |
| 2015 (12 gms) | 33 | 276 | 1 |
| 2014 (14 gms) | 21 | 186 | 1 |
| 2013 (14 gms) | 9 | 78 | 0 |
| 2012 | 4 | 27 | 0 |
DEEP THREATS IN THE PASSING ATTACK
- Mizzou's offense got untracked last year, going vertical often and effectively. The key reason for that was preseason Biletnikoff Watch List honoree Emanuel Hall and dynamic slot receiver Johnathon Johnson. Hall exploded onto the scene a year ago, using Mizzou's fifth game of the year at Kentucky as a coming-out party. During that game, he caught four passes for 129 yards and a score. From there, he ended the season with 817 yards on 33 catches with eight scores. He ranked third nationally in catches of 40+ yards (nine) and had six catches of 50+ yards. His 24.8 yards per catch led the SEC and ranked second nationally while his 612 yards on deep passes are the most of any returning receiver in the SEC. Keep in mind, Hall missed much of the Texas Bowl with a sore hamstring and had just five catches for 104 yards through the first four games of the season. Over an eight-game span from week six through the conclusion of the regular season, Hall caught 28 passes and amassed 713 yards (25.5 yards per catch) and eight scores. It's no coincidence that Mizzou went 6-2 in those eight games and averaged 47.3 points per game.
- Johnson brings a similar skillset from the slot as he finished the year with 41 catches for 724 yards with six scores, including an average of 17.77 yards per catch. Of his 724 yards, 395 came on deep passing plays, which are the third-most of any receiver retuning to the SEC in 2018.
LOADED AT LINEBACKER
- Mizzou Football returns all three of its starting linebackers from a season ago in seniors Terez Hall (weakside) and Brandon Lee (strongside) and junior Cale Garrett (middle). Mizzou is the only school in the SEC East to bring back all three starting linebackers from a season ago. The trio combined to make 232 tackles last year (26 percent of the team's total). Garrett led Mizzou with 105 stops last year while Hall finished second on the team with 85 and graded as the top Mizzou player all season at any position according to ProFootballFocus.com. Lee totaled 42 stops to rank sixth on the team.
- With Garrett and Hall returning, it marks the first time since 2015 that Mizzou has brought back each of its leading tacklers from a year ago. That year, it was Michael Scherer and Kentrell Brothers who ended up leading the nation in tackles by the end of his senior season.
TBJ RETURNS
- Mizzou DT Terry Beckner, Jr., a former No. 1 recruit nationally, turned down a chance to go the NFL last season and returned to Mizzou for his senior year. After suffering a pair of season-ending knee injuries during his first two seasons, Beckner completed a full 13-game slate a year ago and finally began to look like the No. 1 player that he was tabbed as coming out of high school. Beckner posted very productive numbers for an interior lineman, including career-highs in tackles (38), tackles for loss (11.0), sacks (7.0), quarterback pressures (5), and also made a huge highlight-reel interception on the goal line at Vanderbilt that he returned 49 yards that helped seal Mizzou's bowl-clinching win in November. He had a big three-game stretch versus Idaho, UConn and Florida that helped serve notice he was all the way back physically. He made a season-best six tackles versus Idaho, with two sacks, and followed the next week at UConn with four stops, 2.5 TFLs with one sack and one pass break up. Beckner closed the productive stretch against Florida by making five tackles, including 2.0 TFLs with one sack and one quarterback pressure. Beckner figures to be the next in a long line of Mizzou defensive linemen selected in the NFL Draft next spring.
DOOLEY TAKES OVER OFFENSE
- Veteran coach Derek Dooley joined the Mizzou staff in January 2018. Dooley, who has been part of record-setting offenses all throughout his 20-year coaching career – including six years of collegiate head coaching experience, takes over this season as Mizzou's offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach. For the past five seasons, Dooley has been with the National Football League's Dallas Cowboys as wide receivers coach, where he coached wideout Dez Bryant to three Pro Bowl selections. In Dooley's Dallas tenure, the Cowboys reached the NFL Playoffs twice. Dooley was of course the head coach of SEC East foe Tennessee from 2010-12. He takes over Mizzou's offensive play-calling this season as the OC and was the key reason why Drew Lock returned for his senior season.
Players Mentioned
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