College Football News Preview 2020: Missouri Tigers Keys To The Season
Biggest Key To The Missouri Tigers Offense
The offense has to get moving again. There weren’t any problems over the first half of the season, but once the problems started to kick in, and once the schedule got a wee bit tougher, everything started to stall.
The Tigers converted 41% or more of their third down chances in all five games over the first half of the year against FBS teams, and didn’t get to 30% in any of the next five before picking things back up again against a hapless Arkansas.
On the season, they were 5-0 when converting 42% or more of their tries and was 0-6 when they were worse. How important is this? Mizzou is 1-26 going back to September of 2015 – a 40-37 win over Purdue in 2018 was the outlier – against FBS teams when it can’t convert 42% of its third down tries.
By the way, head coach Eliah Drinkwitz’s Appalachian State team last year converted 44.5% of its third down tries.
Biggest Key To The Missouri Tigers Defense
The D has to start coming up with more big plays again. It didn’t have a problem taking the ball away early on last year – with 14 takeaways in the first eight games – and it came up with just one in the final four.
Worst of all, the secondary picked off just one pass over the last seven games. It all had something to do with the lack of pressure into the backfield.
The Tigers came up with 12 of their 19 sacks in the first five games, generated four in the loss to Florida, and came up with a total of three in six of the final seven games.
Key Missouri Tigers Player To A Successful Season
QB Shawn Robinson Jr.
A terrific recruit for a TCU program that – at the time – was on a nice run of ultra-productive quarterbacks, Robinson brought the mobility and all-around game that was supposed to make him a difference-maker.
He was fine – hitting 59% of his passes for 1,518 yards and 12 touchdowns with eight picks and ran for 389 yards and three scores – but he claimed to be mistreated at TCU and transferred.
He waited a year while Clemson transfer Kelly Bryant handled the offense, and now he’s going to push for the starting gig along with junior Taylor Powell and sophomore Connor Bazelak. No matter who wins the job, the offense has to be far more explosive, efficient, and effective. Robinson has waited his turn.
Key Game To The Missouri Tigers Season
at South Carolina, Sept. 19
The Tigers got past the Gamecocks last year in a 34-14 win, and now they have to do it all again, but on the road. They lost three straight before that and are 3-5 in the series since joining the SEC.
With a trip to Tennessee coming up after this in a few weeks, and with a date at Florida later, Mizzou has to pull this off in Columbia – the South Carolina version – to have any hopes of being any sort of a factor in the SEC East race.
– Missouri Tigers Schedule Breakdown & Analysis
2019 Missouri Fun Stats
– 1st Quarter Scoring: Missouri 85 – Opponents 31
– Penalties: Missouri 83 for 808 yards – Opponents 69 for 627 yards
– Missouri points first six games: 233 – Missouri points last six games: 71