COLUMBIA, Mo. — Just before Missouri football kicked off the preseason with its first practice of fall camp on Monday, coach Eli Drinkwitz gave his assistants a homework assignment. For each player in their position group, the assistants wrote down one sentence — no more, no less — about what they wanted that player to improve during the first seven days of camp.
It was a small task in the grand scheme of the football program’s operations, but the Mizzou position coaches took it seriously.
“It makes you think about each player individually,†defensive tackles coach David Blackwell told the Post-Dispatch. “You can’t coach them all the same. They’re all different with things they need to work on and improve on. It makes you sit down and think a little bit as a coach, when I’m preparing my drills, how can I help everybody get where they need to get to?â€
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Those drills began Monday morning with the first practice of camp, held in the Tigers’ indoor facilities because the 90-degree temperatures outside made clear that it’s “fall camp†in name only.
The point of the coaching staff’s one-sentence goals for each player is to get into the finer details. Offensive line coach Brandon Jones, who joked that he had to write the most sentences because of how many linemen MU has, said his sentence for left guard Cayden Green was about “his second step in the run game.â€
Detailed, indeed.
Coaches didn’t think they would be surprising any players with what they wrote, either.
“What’s unique about, I think, our guys and our team is a lot of them already know what that is,†special teams coordinator Erik Link said. “... We’re with these guys all year round, and we’re working on improving.â€
“That self-awareness is a really big thing,†edge rushers coach Brian Early said. “What we put on that paper for those guys, it’s not going to be any secret. Those guys are aware of those things. We have open conversations about those things. And I think it’s really good, what Coach Drink’s doing there, just to try to help us narrow the focus.â€
A fairly singular focus fits the start of camp, when players are still adjusting to the intensity and tangibility of the preseason compared to practices at other points in the year.
In pre-camp conversations with the Post-Dispatch, multiple assistants deployed the same catchy line for why they needed to whittle improvement down to just one sentence: “If you chase two rabbits, you catch none.â€
“If we’re giving them too many things to get better at, (they’re) not going to get better at anything,†wide receivers coach Jacob Peeler said.
In Drinkwitz’s eyes, his assignment will help coaches give equal attention up and down the depth chart, whether a player is headed to a starting role or a redshirt.
“Coaches love to coach good players,†he said. “Great coaches coach them all. We want to coach them all. We want to coach every one of those guys in that room and see how much better we can get them. We’ll see how good that makes us at the end of the year.â€
Observations from Monday’s practice
Mizzou’s first practice of fall camp proceeded a lot like past ones. Reporters were allowed to observe a little over a half-hour’s worth of the session, which included warmups and some individual drills.
It was hardly the portion of practice that would reveal or dictate much when it comes to a marquee battle like the quarterback competition, and coaches were aware that the media was watching when they structured drills for something of an audience.
At quarterback, Sam Horn took more first-team-adjacent reps than Beau Pribula. The starting offense never took the field together, but Horn took snaps from starting center Connor Tollison while Pribula worked with backup Tristan Wilson. Horn also tended to go first in drills.
That’s far from a significant indicator of who will start for the Tigers, though, and may very well flip come Tuesday. Maybe it’s more of a suggestion that Horn, who signed with the Los Angeles Dodgers on Sunday but is still playing football this fall, is a true contender for the starting quarterback role. Maybe it means nothing.
As far as other positional battles go, Toriano Pride Jr. appeared to earn more first-team reps than Nick Deloach Jr. and Stephen Hall in the race to be the second starting cornerback alongside Drey Norwood. The offensive line’s practice regimen did not reveal any pecking order at left tackle.
When the defense broke loosely into first, second and third teams, Zion Young and Damon Wilson II were the first two defensive ends onto the field. Darris Smith and Nate Johnson made up the second unit.
Josiah Trotter and Triston Newson were the first-team linebackers, with Khalil Jacobs and Nicholas Rodriguez behind them.
