Missouri holds first open spring football practice, but don’t look for a depth chart
By all accounts everybody knew where they were supposed to be at Missouri’s first open spring football practice on Saturday. They know where to line up with what group.
That’s true even though Tigers coach Eli Drinkwitz doesn’t believe in depth charts in spring practice.
“When competition is open you get the best out of people,” Drinkwitz said. “Once you set a depth chart people can get complacent...The reality of it is, not matter how you good you are in spring, if you don’t bring your A-game in fall camp you’re not going to start for us. It’s just not going to happen.
“Are there people you know are going to be the starters? Yeah, you’ve got a pretty good feeling. But there are four months (until fall camp) and a lot can happen in four months that can dramatically change a football team.”
Those type of things didn’t seem to happen on Saturday as Missouri ran through drills, emphasized the red zone offense and had assistant coaches catching punts to end the two-hour workout on a sun-splashed day where Drinkwitz said the defense was ahead off the offense.
Individually, fans got a first look freshmen wide receivers Dominic Lovitt and Mookie Cooper flashed speed, and Case Cook, who played both guard positions last season, took snaps at center. Drinkwitz said freshman defensive lineman Travion Ford would miss spring practice because of an injury.