Welcome back, college football.
No. 11 Missouri started off the 2024 season with a 51-0 demolition of Murray State that gave depth players plenty of time on the field.
Of the Mizzou offense's 83 plays run, no starter played more than 54. Defensively 33 out of 50 snaps was the most any player saw. That means there are lots of names to get to in this week's installment of MU football snapshots, which relies heavily on Pro Football Focus' snap counts and grades.
As a reminder, the grades come from PFF — not this writer. They're at times misaligned with what happened on the field, especially when there's a small sample size, like in this game. They're not worth getting worked up about.
PFF grades are based on NFL standards:Â 90-100 is elite, 85-89 is Pro Bowl caliber, 70-84 is starter level, 60-69 means backup, and anything between 0-59 is replaceable.
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Offensive line
- LT Marcus Bryant, 54 snaps, 61.2
- LG Cayden Green, 54 snaps, 61.9
- C Connor Tollison, 54 snaps, 84.1
- RG Cam'Ron Johnson, 54 snaps, 77.2
- RT Armand Membou, 54 snaps, 74.3
- RT Mitchell Walters, 32 snaps, 60.9
- LT Jayven Richardson, 29 snaps, 62.4
- C Drake Heismeyer, 29 snaps, 69.9
- LG/RG Logan Reichert, 28 snaps, 41.7
- RG Curtis Peagler, 16 snaps, 63.8
- LG Tristan Wilson, 15 snaps, 59.5
Depth, right?
Tollison was Mizzou's highest-graded offensive player, a reflection of how solid he is when snapping issues aren't present. Green and Membou each earned pass-blocking grades in the 80s, which is a positive.
The left side of the offensive line, made up of Green and Bryant when the starters were in, didn't grade out as well as the right side. That's probably to be expected given that both transfers were playing their first game together.Â
On the right side, Johnson excelled at run-blocking, creating the gaps for a couple of the Tigers' touchdowns.
Penalties were something of a concern with the offensive line. Green and Reichert were each flagged twice while Richardson, Heismeyer and Johnson also committed infractions.
Quarterbacks
- Brady Cook, 54 snaps, 67.2
- Drew Pyne, 29 snaps, 62.7
Before getting to any numbers here, this isn't a competition. Cook is the starter, Pyne is the backup.Â
Cook enjoyed a clean pocket on 30 of his 33 dropbacks. He averaged 2.41 seconds before the ball came out on his throws.Â
Accuracy, particularly on deep passes, was a challenge for Cook. He went 17 for 20 on throws to targets within 9 yards of the line of scrimmage. On throws to targets 10-19 yards away, he was 3 for 6. And on deep throws — those going 20 or more yards downfield — Cook was 0 for 4.
The average depth of target on those deep throws was 44.5 yards, so Cook was indeed heaving the ball. For a first game, that isn't particularly concerning. He was generally overthrowing versus underthrowing targets, so power isn't an issue.Â
Pyne kept things simple and closer to the line of scrimmage, with his longest pass being one to a target 10 yards away. Murray State blitzed him more than it did Cook, but he was 4 for 4 against the added pressure.Â
Running backs
- Nate Noel, 34 snaps, 69.3
- Marcus Carroll, 15 snaps, 76.5
- Kewan Lacy, 12 snaps, 74.4
- Jamal Roberts, 11 snaps, 67.0
- Tavorus Jones, 11 snaps, 64.9
This isn't the game to read too much into the snap counts. Lacy is far more likely to wind up redshirting than he is to be third on the team in carries. Roberts occupied the RB3 role in the first half when Missouri's starters were still in the game.
Noel, as expected, earned more work than Carroll with the starting unit. But will the ratio between their usage really wind up being more than 2:1 in favor of Noel? Carroll seemed viable enough to make it closer.
Carroll's 4.83 yards after contact per carry showed how much of a bruiser he can be, though Noel was also physical in earning 3.5 yards after contact per attempt. Carroll had the longest run of the day with a 20-yard effort.
Mizzou still favored zone to gap runs when it came to scheme, giving running backs the ball on 18 zone plays and 12 gap sets.Â
Interestingly, most of the Tigers' runs went up the gut. The two most frequent holes or gaps to hit were the ones between the center and right guard (11 attempts) and center and left guard (nine attempts). There were a couple more runs to the right than to the left, but rushing directions were very balanced — a change from last season's consistent leftward drift.
Wide receivers and tight ends
- WR Marquis Johnson, 39 snaps, 63.3
- WR Mookie Cooper, 37 snaps, 59.7
- WR Mekhi Miller, 36 snaps, 58.9
- WR Luther Burden III, 35 snaps, 64.9
- WR Theo Wease Jr., 32 snaps, 68.0
- TE Tyler Stephens, 30 snaps, 64.1
- WR Daniel Blood, 28 snaps, 73.7
- WR Joshua Manning, 27 snaps, 66.3
- TE Brett Norfleet, 22 snaps, 54.4
- TE Jude James, 17 snaps, 51.2
- WR James Madison II, 9 snaps, 55.0
- WR Logan Muckey, 7 snaps, 50.8
- WR Courtney Crutchfield, 6 snaps, 56.4
- TE Whit Hafer, 3 snaps, 50.6
Another pair of position groups to which snap counts don't mean a whole lot.
Burden only caught four passes but forced three missed tackles once the ball was in his hands. He lined up in the slot on 91.3% of his plays.Â
Blood, who had a strong preseason camp showing, led the Tigers in targets, with six.Â
Johnson was targeted seven times and was an average of 16.4 yards downfield when throws went his way.
The tight end room's usage was influenced by a pair of injuries. Norfleet left the game in the second quarter and did not return while Jordon Harris, who was considered questionable in the run-up to the game, dressed but did not play.
Defensive line
- DE Johnny Walker Jr., 22 snaps, 76.6
- DE Zion Young, 18 snaps, 65.2
- DT Chris McCellan, 17 snaps, 95.1
- DT Kristian Williams, 17 snaps, 78.4
- DT Sterling Webb, 16 snaps, 81.8
- DE Williams Nwaneri, 14 snaps, 63.9
- DE Jaylen Brown, 14 snaps, 71.4
- DE Eddie Kelly Jr., 14 snaps, 73.1
- DT Marquis Gracial, 14 snaps, 74.4
- DT Jalen Marshall, 12 snaps, 49.6
- DE Joe Moore III, 11 snaps, 76.2
- DT Sam Williams, 8 snaps, 53.5
- DE Jahkai Lang, 7 snaps, 50.5
- DT Elias Williams, 6 snaps, 34.5
- DT Justin Bodford, 6 snaps, 66.4
Now that's a lot of players. And — you might be starting to sense a theme here — don't view this as an accurate depiction of how the rotation will shake out at any of the four D-line positions.
McClellan was Missouri's highest-graded player at any position and was extremely efficient. He only rushed the quarterback on four plays but managed to bat down a pass and force a fumble with a sack, which made for a productive debut.Â
Kelly, Moore, Walker and Williams were the other defensive linemen to force a quarterback pressure.Â
Game film, more than this kind of number-crunching, is what will likely determine which of these depth players remain in consideration for rotational roles.Â
Linebackers
- Khalil Jacobs, 23 snaps, 67.2
- Corey Flagg, 18 snaps, 65.2
- Chuck Hicks, 14 snaps, 66.4
- Triston Newson, 13 snaps, 74.1
- Nicholas Rodriguez, 8 snaps, 73.2
- Brian Huff, 8 snaps, 64.6
- Jeremiah Beasley, 6 snaps, 67
- Brayshawn Littlejohn, 6 snaps, 86.2
There isn't much reason to think the linebacker rotation will contain more than the first four names on this list, and even then, it seems rather inverted. Maybe the 13 and 14 snaps played by Mizzou's two starting linebackers is a sign of how quickly this game turned into a blowout.Â
Flagg's performance is notable, given how versatile he seemed in both coverage and stopping the run. All three of his tackles were what PFF deems "stops," or plays big enough to have prevented the offense from finding any success.Â
Jacobs, who along with Flagg was making his MU debut, looked similarly versatile. He picked up a sack and also kept the two catches allowed against him to a total of two receiving yards.
Defensive backs
- CB Toriano Pride Jr., 33 snaps, 91.5
- S Marvin Burks Jr., 26 snaps, 77.1
- CB Dreyden Norwood, 24 snaps, 65.3
- S Tre'Vez Johnson, 23 snaps, 65.0
- STAR Sidney Williams Sr., 23 snaps, 66.4
- CB Nicholas Deloach Jr., 19 snaps, 68.3
- STAR Daylan Carnell, 17 snaps, 69.6
- S Joseph Charleston, 17 snaps, 65.2
- S Trajen Greco, 14 snaps, 64.1
- S Phillip Roche, 14 snaps, 56.4
- S Caleb Flagg, 14 snaps, 67.3
- CB Shamar McNeil, 8 snaps, 63.6
- CB Marcus Clarke, 8 snaps, 64.9
- CB Jaren Sensabaugh, 6 snaps, 63.0
- CB Cameron Keys, 6 snaps, 62.9
- S Nasir Pogue, 6 snaps, 62
Pride, who returned an interception for a touchdown in the first quarter, is the unsurprising leader when it comes to the secondary's grades. Murray State threw his way once every 2.8 snaps he was on the field for, but only one of those four targets turned into a catch.
While usage is again something of a wash with this position group, the three leading cornerbacks — Pride, Norwood and Deloach — shared the field at times in some prowler packages.
Burks also received a strong pass coverage grade from PFF.Â