Bring your Tigers football, basketball and recruiting questions, and talk to Eli Hoff in a live chat at 11 a.m. Thursday.
Transcript
Eli Hoff:ÌýHowdy all, and happy Thursday! Thanks for coming by this week's Mizzou chat. Feel free to drop any questions or takes you want to air out over the next couple of hours. Let's see what you've got!
µþ±ð±ð»å³Ü²ú:ÌýI like Mizzou's potential this year, but so far they've been their own worst enemy ... especially when it comes to penalties -- defensive penalties that extend the other teams' drives, offensive penalties that puts them in long unmanageable situations, hot head penalties (i.e., namely Luther Burden) that serve no purpose ... How can Drink clean these up? ... as much of these dumb penalties are based on emotion and reacting with "uncalled for anger" in the spur of the momentÌý
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Hoff:ÌýIt's definitely a concern, and I don't think it's fishing for negativity to say that it could be a problem down the road. The defense avoided penalties altogether during the first two games, but when the flags popped up against BC, you're right, it extended drives. The offense getting into a 2nd and 59-sized hole is unlikely to ever happen again — have you ever seen that before? — but that doesn't mean it isn't a problem.
I think Drinkwitz can handle and is handling the Burden penalties. He chewed Burden out on the sideline, and Drinkwitz told us the other day that Burden looked him in the eyes and said "yes, sir." Drinkwitz took that as Burden understanding that those flags just cannot happen.
Illegal formation-type penalties are also on the coaching staff. They need to be spotting that and avoiding that — or if it comes down to it, use helmet comms to get word into Brady Cook (if there are more than 15 seconds on the play clock). False starts and holds and defensive penalties will just happen. Frankly, I'm not sure they're as much of a problem if the "stupid" stuff gets cleaned up.
Evil Calvin:ÌýIs Burden going to get involved finally? Doesn't even remotely look like a 'Heisman' candidate.
Hoff:ÌýFirst, let's be clear: Burden isn't a Heisman candidate. He needed to have gaudy numbers to even have a chance, and the best opportunities to do that have likely come and gone. That doesn't diminish him as a player, it's just the reality of that award. It takes a perfect season and then some.
BenFred wrote a good column about the importance of getting Burden involved more. If the offense stalls, like it did for a bit against Boston College, it seems wide to feed him the ball. Sometimes, you have to manufacture touches for your stars. Look at how the game-breaking wideouts are used in the NFL. None of us (I think) are qualified to tell Kirby Moore how to call his offense, but that seems like a core tenet that you'd expect to be in place.Ìý
c_good:ÌýWhat happened to Brady Cook's deep ball? Last year, I thought it was a strength--and an impressive one at that. High arc, dropped right where it needed to be. Distance was shorter than NFL deep balls, but it looked to me like, well, a mini version of a great NFL deep ball.
Hoff:ÌýIt's still there, and it's not a strength issue. Most of his misses on the deep shots have been overthrows. It seems more like a timing or footwork problem. Drinkwitz diagnosed it as the latter after Week 1 — Cook was a little too bouncy, it seemed — but the connection hasn't returned even after it was an emphasis.
From a touch standpoint, I can tell you that that was an emphasis during Tuesday's practice. I watched several minutes of Cook lofting the ball "into the bread basket" for receivers in the end zone with a defender intentionally draped on them. Most of the incompletions in that drill were drops from the wideouts. Like you mention, the fact that Cook can make these throws is undeniable since he showed it last year, it's just about getting two or three of them to pop in a game. Maybe it's only a matter of time.
c_good:ÌýDoes it seem weird to you at all that, since arriving at Mizzou, Burden has been used primarily on screen passes, reverses, and the like? I get that broken tackles and RAC are strengths of his, but presumably he has others, too. I worry a bit that 1) he's a legitimate candidate to make it to the NFL and represent Mizzou well, Ã la Jeremy Maclin, but 2) he's mostly being used in somewhat-gimmicky college plays and won't be taken seriously as a route runner. He breaks SEC tackles, but he's no Tavon Austin, and Tavon Austin's career never took off in the way it might have.
Hoff:ÌýI don't think I'd say it's weird. I just mentioned how important it is to manufacture touches for Burden because of how dangerous he is with the ball in his hands, and the usage you mention is a good way to do that. NFL teams still call that stuff. Look at Deebo Samuel, for example.Ìý
Your point about Burden being taken seriously as a route-runner is interesting. I can't say I've delved deep into NFL Draft scouting reports yet, but you're right that Burden isn't known as a sharp route runner. I don't think that means he isn't one, but I hadn't really thought of it through that lens yet. I'll keep an eye on it over the next couple games and then be able to give you a better answer to that part of your question. Maybe scheme — there are a lot of flood concepts that come up in Mizzou's pass game — plays a role too.
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