Missouri has some buzz and ESPN’s Greg McElroy wants people to pay attention this summer, ahead of the 2024 college football season.
After winning the Cotton Bowl, McElroy expects this team to contend just like they did in 2023. If so, the Tigers might be a playoff team this coming fall.
With a lot of teams, it all starts with the quarterback and Missouri is no different with Brady Cook back under center.
“There’s a lot of buzz about this team … beating Ohio State in that Cotton Bowl,” McElroy said on Always College Football. “Currently, if you were to ask a bunch of people that are going to prognosticate on what the preseason rankings will look like, I think a lot of people have Missouri, probably within striking distance of the top 10. Maybe in some cases they have them in the top seven or eight. Understandable.
“They have so many pieces back on offense, Brady Cook is back. They’ve done a great job of making sure that he continues to get more comfortable and more accurate, more decisive, and I think he’s been really really good as the signal caller for the last couple of years.”
Cook can excel under Eli Drinkwitz and company, it’s just a matter of time according to McElroy. Not to mention all the weapons at his disposal.
“But now I think he’s approaching the point where he could be playing his best football knowing the talented weapons that he has,” McElroy said. “Wide receiver Luther Burden is elite, the best wide receiver in college football coming back this year. Theo Weese, among others, they’re in a great spot. Yes, it will be hard to replace the presence that was Cody Schrader in the run game.
“But they’ve done a pretty good job. Probably acknowledging they’re not going to take the bell cow approach this year. But you have a couple of running backs that you’re bringing in via the transfer portal that might play a sizable role in you recreating that balanced identity offensively.”
However, the questions with Missouri are on the defensive side of the ball. As long as that is squared away, this could be a dangerous football team.
“The big question mark from Missouri are all the pieces that they lost defensively,” McElroy said. “I’m not talking about just flat out difference makers, I mean, Darius Robinson, the end off the line of scrimmage last year, was a handful. Every single game you can almost count on two hands, the impact plays that he was going to make.
“But yes, they lost some really good play players in the backend. Lost a couple of really good secondary defenders, lost a couple of really good linebackers. But if you look at how the schedule sets up for Missouri, it would be a massive disappointment if they didn’t at least match what they were able to do last year.”
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