Grading Missouri’s offense, defense and special teams for the 2018 football season
Missouri’s football season came to an end on Monday with a 38-33 loss to Oklahoma State in the Liberty Bowl to finish the season 8-5. The season was a sign of progress for third-year coach Barry Odom, but the bowl game showed some glaring issues in a few places. Here are the grades for the year for MU’s offense, defense and special teams:
Offense: A
When Derek Dooley took over as offensive coordinator, a lot of the talk was about how enough starters returned (10) that the offense could run itself and that the unit was hard to screw up. Dooley backed that up. Missouri finished No. 13 in total offense despite being without top pass-catchers Emanuel Hall and Albert Okwuegbunam for large parts of the season. The Tigers’ offense struggled without Hall, but also saw the emergence of freshmen Jalen Knox and Kam Scott, which bodes well for the future. When freshman Messiah Swinson tore his ACL in fall camp, the tight end position saw Blue Springs graduate Daniel Parker go from defensive end to all-SEC freshman tight end. The future is set up for for MU and that’s without mentioning tailbacks Damarea Crockett, Larry Rountree and Tyler Badie, who all return next season. Both Crockett and Rountree have rushed for 1,000 yards in a season in one of their first two years at MU.
Defense: B-
Yes, the defense had some bad moments on Monday. Yes, the unit didn’t have much of a pass rush all season. But statistically speaking, MU’s defense is vastly improved from last year. In 2017, Missouri finished No. 83 nationally in total defense while having three coordinators in DeMontie Cross, Ryan Walters and Odom. For 2018, the Tigers are ranked No. 62 in the same category with Walters at the helm. Missouri jumped to No. 22 in rushing defense after being ranked No. 58 last year and shut down Benny Snell, Kentucky’s all-conference running back, among others during the season. Missouri’s secondary still needs plenty of work, but despite an awful performance on Monday, junior cornerback DeMarkus Acy had a good season. Missouri leaped 43 places in scoring defense from No. 93 to 50, and finished second nationally in opponent fourth-down conversions and No. 25 in third-down conversions. This still isn’t the top-five defense that Odom had in 2015 during his lone year as MU’s defensive coordinator, but it’s a step in the right direction.
Special teams: F
In its first year of having a full-time coach for special teams, Missouri got nothing out of the unit. The Tigers ranked second-to-last nationally among FBS teams in punt return and just No. 77 in kickoff returns. Tucker McCann had some highs, like his 57-yard field goal with 1:10 left against South Carolina. But he was inconsistent throughout the whole year. Special teams played a role in a few of Missouri’s losses, such as the punt-return touchdown given up to Kentucky and the missed field goals and miscommunications throughout MU’s game at South Carolina.
This story was originally published January 3, 2019 at 1:35 PM with the headline "Grading Missouri’s offense, defense and special teams for the 2018 football season."