Mizzou's new coach

[ozark trout fisher]

The Barry Odom hire....I just have no idea how it's going to work out. On one hand, as many have pointed out, he's been amazing at almost every coaching job he's ever gotten his hands on. On the other, he's a first time HC in a conference where first-time HCs tend to get their butts handed to them. There's no telling.

The team next year has a chance to be decent, but with a non-conference game against West Virginia and a game at LSU in cross-divisional play, will it matter? I honestly don't know. The offense literally cannot be worse (they flirted with last in most offensive categories in all of college football in 2015) and in theory, the defense shouldn't take a huge step back.

I see a modest rebound in 2015 regardless of coaching. Even if the offense only improves to 80th to 90th, and even with a harder schedule, the defense probably gets us back to bowl eligibility. But that's about all you could ask in Barry Odom's first season. 6-6 and a bowl game. Anything else is gravy.

[stlfisher]

I think they will be much better than 6-6.  Tough schedule, but the defense is going to be even better. I mean our DL is unreal.  Even a marginal offense and this team will be good.  This last year reminded me a bit of 2012 and 2013 turned out to be one of our best teams ever.  We played a lot of true freshman this year on offense.  We saw why even the elite schools have very few true freshman play and only a select few have an immediate impact.  I was guilty of expecting too much from Lock as a freshman. At least some of the freshman will improve.  Cam Hilton looks like a player.  Johnathon Johnson tore his ACL, but he has Jeremy Maclin like talent. He will be a big impact receiving and returning kicks. I am not sure about Moore or Brown, but we have enough receivers like 6 foot 7 Justin Smith who redshirted this year.  Emmanuel Hall will be good. Trevon Walters, who most haven't heard off was out this year with an ACL tear.  He will compete for the starting running back job against Strong, Doherty, and (gulp) Witter. The OL will be interesting and that could be a big issue.  We will see what new coaching does there. 

 

I don't see the doom gloom.  This is not rebuild situation.  I predict everyone will be pleasantly surprised next year.

 

[Al Agnew]

I think next year depends upon the offensive line.  It was putrid this year, and there were a lot of seniors playing.  They'll be gone (maybe a good thing), but do they have anybody to replace them that is any better than they were?  This year has been like 2012 in that the offensive line was the biggest issue, but the difference was that in 2012 the line was decimated by injuries.  This year they mostly stayed healthy but just weren't any good.

If the new offensive coordinator can come up with an offensive scheme that plays to whatever strengths the offense has and minimizes the weaknesses (cough--offensive line), then yes, the offense should be better and the defense should be very good.  They will definitely miss Brothers on defense, though.  D-line should be even better than this year, secondary should be as good or better, linebackers a bit of a question.

[joeD]

The quarterback position will be weak, at best, running backs, not too much better. That's assuming a healthy, stellar offensive line. I think you guys are delusional in thinking Mizzou has any chance of being a decent football team next year. When it comes to men's college football and basketball, talent invariably wins out. And Mizzou just doesn't have enough of it. 

[Al Agnew]

Pretty tough to say Lock is weak at best based upon the season.  No running game, no protection, receivers that dropped passes that hit them in the hands and couldn't get open much of the time.  Lock was inaccurate, but how many quarterbacks would be lights out in that situation?  Running game is up in the air...depends upon whether any of the new guys step up and if the o-line can block.  Still comes back to the o-line...if they are good it gives everybody a chance to be good.

[joeD]

Lock isn't good Al. Neither is Maty Mauk, who is, actually, available. I get the fact that Lock was put in a bad situation, but, in my eyes, he doesn't inspire any confidence in me. So he can scramble and make a wildly improbable throw. Big deal. Dime a dozen. Not a leader, not a good decision maker. Paper tiger.

[stlfisher]

No one thought that James Franklin was any good in 2012, but he turned out to be great in 2013.   I don't think you can throw in the towel on Lock at all.  He clearly wasn't ready, but most football people smarter than you and I think Lock is going to be very good.  I think you will be surprised next year.  As I said there is a reason very few freshman play and we saw why. NFL guys like Chase Daniel and Blaine Gabbert did not play much the first couple of years and they turned out great. 

It easy to dump coming off a bad year, but this team wasn't that far away from being a good team. Even improving to an average offense would drastically change our record.  We gave up 30 points 1 time.  That is really good.

Odom has already landed a 4 star out of Texas and flipped a quickly rising 3 star 317 pound OL from ESTL.  Everyone that knows Odom believes he is going to be a success and he is an excellent recruiter.  I feel really good with what I have seen and read so far.

[Smalliebigs]

16 hours ago, joeD said:

The quarterback position will be weak, at best, running backs, not too much better. That's assuming a healthy, stellar offensive line. I think you guys are delusional in thinking Mizzou has any chance of being a decent football team next year. When it comes to men's college football and basketball, talent invariably wins out. And Mizzou just doesn't have enough of it. 

It all comes down to recruiting.....Pinkle couldn't even come close to sealing the borders of our state for D1 talent and it showed.....yeah they won  a few times and choked big time when it came down to playing Oklahoma for the Big12 title.

   If Odom can recruit they will be fine........the SEC is about talent and right now Missouri doesn't have much......Gary's last two classes sucked and he is leaving the program high and dry in that respect.

[ruthead]

Don't think high and dry can be determined for another 3 or 4 years. Then we can look back and se the impact of Pinkles last classes. Lock made freshman mistakes compounded by bad O-line play. If we can not put him in bad situations and let him learn to play without ahving to bail most of the time I think we'll be happy with him. Somebody does have to catch the ball though.

[ozark trout fisher]

On 12/14/2015 at 0:58 PM, stlfisher said:

I think they will be much better than 6-6.  Tough schedule, but the defense is going to be even better. I mean our DL is unreal.  Even a marginal offense and this team will be good.  This last year reminded me a bit of 2012 and 2013 turned out to be one of our best teams ever.  We played a lot of true freshman this year on offense.  We saw why even the elite schools have very few true freshman play and only a select few have an immediate impact.  I was guilty of expecting too much from Lock as a freshman. At least some of the freshman will improve.  Cam Hilton looks like a player.  Johnathon Johnson tore his ACL, but he has Jeremy Maclin like talent. He will be a big impact receiving and returning kicks. I am not sure about Moore or Brown, but we have enough receivers like 6 foot 7 Justin Smith who redshirted this year.  Emmanuel Hall will be good. Trevon Walters, who most haven't heard off was out this year with an ACL tear.  He will compete for the starting running back job against Strong, Doherty, and (gulp) Witter. The OL will be interesting and that could be a big issue.  We will see what new coaching does there. 

 

I don't see the doom gloom.  This is not rebuild situation.  I predict everyone will be pleasantly surprised next year.

 

I'm not particularly gloomy. I just think the offense is still going to be pretty young next year. You don't go from dead last in a whole lot of categories to being a top-50 offense, and honestly, I'd take a top-100 performance given the fact that we have to replace almost the whole ( admittedly crappy) o-line.  The defense will be really good, but improving on a top-5 defense is never a given, especially when there are coaching changes. The team will be better, and I think they'll get to a bowl against a brutal schedule, which is fine for year 1.

 

I think 2017 is the year that potentially sets up to be really good. Lock will be a junior (and hopefully an NFL prospect) , as will most of our current receivers, much of the defensive line should still be more or less intact....with Beckner terrorizing opposing offenses. If you're Barry Odom, you're probably seeing that year as your chance to get back to the top of the SEC East and perhaps even be in the playoff talk for a minute or two. 2016 should just be about making offensive improvements and getting back to the postseason.