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Set aside the X’s and O’s, for a moment, and give the Jimmies and Joes your full consideration.

Missouri’s preseason camp has plenty of scheme installation, particularly with a new defensive coordinator in Corey Batoon entering the fold, but the few weeks of practices leading up to the first game of the season are also about personnel.

More specifically, Mizzou is working out which players will see regular playing time in 2024 and which will be positioned as key backups.

Coach Eli Drinkwitz and the rest of the Tigers staff will designate starters, yes, but their mission — and list of players they’ll use — leads them deeper into the depth chart than just 11 players on each offense and defense.

“So much, now, for football is different just because of the rotational amount of players. Really besides quarterback and offensive line, everybody else is playing snap counts,” Drinkwitz said over the weekend. “I feel pretty confident that we’re two deep at just about every position.”

Based on the roughly 120 players listed on Missouri’s roster, Drinkwitz has a number in mind of how many playing-time-ready options he needs to find.

“For us, it’s about continuing to establish that competitive depth at special teams and making sure that 35-50 are able and ready to win in the SEC,” he said.

After observing portions of a handful of preseason camp practices and interviews with most of Mizzou’s assistant coaches and more than a dozen players, the Post-Dispatch is ready to predict the Tigers’ depth chart ahead of the 2024 college football season.

This is your position-by-position guide to who’s likely to play for Missouri this fall, with a couple of asterisks.

First, this is wholly unofficial and based on anecdotal observations from the limited portions of practice that are open to media, which mostly includes individual drills. Interviews and players' past stats were also factored into these determinations. Second, this is a prediction or a projection, not an argument for or against this version of the depth chart.

On to the good stuff.

Quarterback

Starter: Brady Cook, senior

Backup: Drew Pyne, sophomore

This is arguably the biggest difference from Mizzou’s depth chart at this time last year: Cook is the undisputed starter. That’s a first for the signal-caller entering his final college season, and his confidence has been palpable during practices. He’s taking first-team reps himself, and there’s no talk — forced or legitimate — of anyone usurping him for the QB1 role.

Pyne has impressed since arriving in Columbia after a late transfer meant he wasn’t with the Tigers for spring practices. His experience — Pyne and Cook are in the same class — is evident, and his reps have been crisp. Strong scrimmage performances suggest Pyne’s schematic transition to MU is going well, which makes sense given that working with offensive coordinator Kirby Moore was a selling point for the former Notre Dame and Arizona State quarterback. Should Cook miss time at any point this season, Pyne is the clear QB2 for the Tigers. His preseason has raised his stock for the likely quarterback competition that will precede a Cook-less 2025 season.

Beyond Cook and Pyne, Mizzou’s quarterback options are tougher to reckon with. Sam Horn, last season’s backup, is out for the season after undergoing Tommy John surgery. True freshman Aidan Glover looks more settled since a shaky spring but is inexperienced. JR Blood, a transfer from Southern, is a veteran — albeit one who hasn’t played at the Southeastern Conference level. Brett Brown and Tommy Lock have had capable practice reps but weren’t brought into the team to compete for the starting job.

Running back

Starters: Nate Noel, senior; Marcus Carroll, senior

Backups: Jamal Roberts, redshirt freshman; Tavorus Jones, sophomore

Noel and Carroll, who have 1,000-yard seasons on the books at Appalachian State and Georgia State, respectively, transferred to Missouri to be part of an experienced “thunder and lightning” backfield tandem. Carroll fits the bruiser role, while Noel flashes more potential on the perimeter and in the passing game. Coaches have compared them to the former MU duo of Larry Rountree III and Tyler Badie. Noel seems to get slightly more first-team reps than Carroll does, though that could be the Tigers trying to limit contact, which is a core part of Carroll’s game. They seem likely to receive similar workloads at the start of the season, which could evolve as the campaign progresses.

Roberts, who may well have seen a role last season if Cody Schrader had not assembled a record-setting season, has another year of training under his belt. His versatility as both a north-south rusher and a pass-catcher makes him appealing as an RB3. Jones has received more buzz during this preseason than the last, but the running back room is crowded ahead of and around him.

The speed and talent of freshman Kewan Lacy made him one of the jewels of this year’s recruiting class. Getting up to speed with an SEC program has been a process, and a soft-tissue injury has limited him at times during preseason camp. Austyn Dendy, another true freshman, switched from safety to running back over the weekend. He performed well in a scrimmage but is positioned as an emergency tailback for now.

Left tackle

Starter: Marcus Bryant, senior

Backup: Jayven Richardson, sophomore

Bryant and Richardson, transfers from SMU and Hutchinson Community College, respectively, entered preseason camp in a competition for the starting left tackle job. As expected, Bryant won that battle after a week and change. His size fits in at the SEC level, and the Missouri staff recruited him by telling him he was the final piece of the offensive puzzle. While Richardson’s experience has come mostly at left tackle, he seems like a candidate for the Tigers’ swing tackle or “sixth man” role, which was occupied by Marcellus Johnson last season. Even with the entire O-line healthy, Richardson could see the field in some six-linemen heavy formations.

Left guard

Starter: Cayden Green, sophomore

Backup: Logan Reichert, redshirt freshman

When Green transferred to MU from Oklahoma, the question was not whether the young lineman would start — it was where. He spent the spring at tackle, his more natural position in the eyes of some, but Bryant’s arrival pushed Green to the interior as a means of getting what coaches see as the best five linemen onto the field together. Green and Reichert are the same year, and both hail from the Kansas City area. Reichert, nicknamed “Big Show,” remains the heaviest player on the team at 369 pounds (he's also 6-foot-6). His gains over the course of a redshirt season and offseason seem to have centered around refining technique.

Center

Starter: Connor Tollison, junior

Backups: Drake Heismeyer, senior; Tristan Wilson, sophomore

Tollison struggled with consistency when it came to snapping the ball this season but didn’t shy away from those errors, something that has led to better performance through spring and preseason practices. Grading services like Pro Football Focus tab Tollison as one of the best run blockers in the nation at his position. Like with Cook, he’s unchallenged as a starter this season after defending his position atop the depth chart last year.

Heismeyer has been with the Tigers for the entirety of Drinkwitz’s coaching tenure but was played almost exclusively on special teams. Wilson’s snapping work appears to be a newer development. In a pinch, right guard Cam’Ron Johnson or freshman Talan Chandler could also be center options.

Right guard

Starter: Cam’Ron Johnson, senior

Backup: Curtis Peagler, sophomore

Johnson came to MU from Houston alongside offensive line coach Brandon Jones to push Tollison at center but wound up starting at right guard. Eleven penalties mucked up an otherwise solid first season in the SEC for Johnson. Peagler, who did not make it onto the field in his first two seasons, seems poised to begin pushing those higher up the depth chart for snaps.

Right tackle

Starter: Armand Membou, junior

Backup: Mitchell Walters, senior

There aren’t many college football players at any position who are more athletic than Membou. MU strength coach Ryan Russell that Membou has squatted 650 pounds, benched 425 and hit 20 mph running down the field. What does that mean for Mizzou’s right tackle spot? An easy decision about who to start. Walters was a starter at times in the 2021 and 2022 seasons but has settled into a backup role. He’s been with the program since 2020, making him a veteran option should the Tigers need him.

Slot wide receiver

Starter: Luther Burden III, junior

Backups: Mekhi Miller, junior; Daniel Blood, sophomore

Does writing Burden’s name in Sharpie under this position need any justification? The East 50�Ȼ���Ƶ product who’s landing on preseason All-America teams is one of the best wideouts in the country — if not the best. His move into the slot last year was productive. Expect Moore to keep Burden moving around so that other teams struggle to consistently cover him the same way.

Miller battled injuries last season but popped up in big ways when he was on the field, including the first touchdown of the 2023 season. Blood leveraged a strong offseason and brings an ability to pick up yards after the catch, which appeals to coaches.

Wide receiver

Starters: Theo Wease Jr., senior; Mookie Cooper, senior

Backups: Marquis Johnson, sophomore; Joshua Manning, sophomore

Both Wease and Cooper chose to come back for another season of college football and reprise their starting roles from last season. The strengths of Wease, a former Oklahoma wideout, in red zone and contested catch situations are well-documented by this point, but he shows a sneaky quickness that can catch opponents by surprise. Cooper, who spent a year at Ohio State before transferring to his home-state school, can run routes out of a variety of locations and will still see a healthy share of targets, even as the third wide receiver on the field.

Johnson’s freshman season backed up his nickname, “Speedy,” with the first-year player finding opportunities to burst over the top of the defense for big plays. That kind of role isn’t going away, but coaches have challenged him to expand his route tree to merit more snaps and targets. Manning has taken first-team reps over Wease and Cooper at times during preseason camp, though that may be a case of load management or experimentation. Still, he has the size to match Wease’s role and seems likely to get a few targets in his second season.

Freshmen Courtney Crutchfield and James Madison II have impressed at times during preseason camp but face an uphill battle for any significant number of snaps because of the crowded, experienced wideout room.

Tight end

Starter: Brett Norfleet, sophomore

Backups: Jordon Harris, sophomore; Tyler Stephens, senior

Norfleet and Harris have been absent from practices lately as they recover from injuries, though both are expected to return to camp action near the end of this week. Norfleet’s ascendance during his freshman season flew under the radar, but assuming he takes an expected step forward as a blocker, he should be a consistent starter. What’s less clear is how many targets will go to him and the Tigers’ other tight ends, given the depth and prowess of the team’s wide receivers.

Stephens has experience but struggled with drops in the back half of last season, eventually leading to Norfleet’s promotion into a starting role. Harris didn’t get as much playing time behind that duo but could be a factor this season.

One freshman to watch here: Francis Howell product Jude James has taken more reps with Norfleet and Harris sidelined and is an intriguing H-back-type option. Whether that will make it off the practice field, though, remains to be seen.

Defensive end

Starters: Zion Young, junior; Johnny Walker Jr. (joker), senior

Rotation: Joe Moore III, senior; Eddie Kelly Jr., junior

Backups: Jahkai Lang, redshirt freshman; Williams Nwaneri, freshman

Here’s where the rotational aspect of constructing a depth chart — and the Tigers’ biggest injury of the preseason to date — come into play. If recent trends hold true, Mizzou will turn to four edge rushers each game, mixing them in and out fairly frequently. Darris Smith, a transfer from Georgia, likely would have been No. 3 in that rotation, but after a season-ending injury, he’s off the depth chart.

Walker will start once again and play a similar role to last season — except now his position is called the joker. That means there may be a little bit of pass coverage responsibility from time to time. Young, who transferred from Michigan State, will be the more traditional defensive end.

Moore looks likely to reprise his role as a part of the D-end rotation, and the experience of Georgia Tech transfer Kelly suggests that duo will be the group that comes off the bench. Lang may be younger but has taken some second-team reps during preseason practices, so he may well end up ahead of Kelly. There’s plenty of external demand for in-game Nwaneri reps, but Missouri is not inclined to rush him onto the field. For the time being, playing time given to the freshman would stand to be developmental for him rather than necessary for the team, but Smith’s injury means this position group has a little less depth to work with.

Defensive tackle

Starters: Kristian Williams, senior; Chris McClellan, junior

Rotation: Sterling Webb, junior; Marquis Gracial, sophomore

Backups: Jalen Marshall, sophomore; Sam Williams, redshirt freshman

For a bit, it seemed like Mizzou might target one more defensive tackle in the transfer portal, but Drinkwitz and Co. are sticking with this group to comprise another likely four-man rotation in the trenches. Williams is the only returning member of last year’s defensive tackle group and looks to be its leader in terms of snaps. McClellan has SEC experience from his time at Florida, which has helped him take command of the other tackle spot.

Westminster graduate Webb is making the jump from New Mexico State to a much more physical league, which could be quite the transition. Gracial was a highly rated recruit out of St. Charles and now seems poised for playing time after two seasons of limited action. Marshall and Williams have taken reps alongside the second-team defense at times during preseason camp.

Middle linebacker

Starter: Chuck Hicks, senior

Backup: Corey Flagg, senior

Hicks is back for a whopping seventh year of college football and is a projected starter after filling in for Chad Bailey for most of last season. Hicks brings stability to the core of a defense that’s otherwise seeing some significant turnover. Flagg transferred in from Miami ahead of spring practice and seems geared for a spot at middle linebacker, though he might find other opportunities when the Tigers want a blitz-prone option in the center of the field.

Outside linebacker

Starter: Triston Newson, senior

Backups: Khalil Jacobs, junior; Brayshawn Littlejohn, redshirt freshman

Like with Hicks, Newson saw some significant playing time as a fill-in last season, albeit for Ty’Ron Hopper in Mizzou’s outside linebacker role. Newson will likely be asked to step up his pass-rushing capabilities, but he’s a sound tackler who has been serviceable in coverage as well. Jacobs, a transfer from South Alabama, seems to have slotted in at the outside position more than the middle. Littlejohn saw some special teams action as a freshman, but that hasn’t translated to a clear path to defensive playing time this season, barring an injury.

Cornerbacks

Starters: Dreyden Norwood, junior; Toriano Pride Jr., junior

Backups: Nicholas Deloach Jr. redshirt freshman; Marcus Clarke, senior

Norwood and Pride are both new starters, though they’ve both got some experience. Norwood filled in at times last year and was smooth in coverage. He started the Tigers’ Cotton Bowl win over Ohio State, setting up his path to a starting role this year. Pride didn’t see a massive role at Clemson, his first stop, but brings a physicality — and trash-talking — to the secondary that has him poised for key snaps in 2024.

Cahokia's Deloach has been one of preseason camp’s most surprising breakouts, actually splitting first-team reps with Pride during some drills. Clarke is experienced and was a backup cornerback last season, too, but doesn’t seem to be in the mix for any starts beyond those required by an injury.

STAR

Starter: Daylan Carnell, junior

Backup: Sidney Williams Sr., senior

Carnell has become synonymous with Missouri’s hybrid safety role, which blends secondary and linebacker responsibilities. A pick-six highlighted his 2023 campaign, but this year, Carnell’s versatility could be one of Batoon’s most intriguing weapons when it comes to crafting pass coverages and blitzes.

Williams, like the rest of Mizzou’s safeties, can fill in at a variety of positions but has spent most of preseason camp working with the STAR room.

Safeties

Starters: Joseph Charleston (field), senior; Marvin Burks Jr. (boundary), sophomore

Backups: Tre’Vez Johnson (field), senior; Caleb Flagg (boundary), junior

Charleston returns the most tackles of any MU defender and retains his starting position from a year ago. Burks (Cardinal Ritter), who earned playing time as a freshman, is a young starter replacing Jaylon Carlies.

Johnson can play either safety position as needed but has tended to replace Charleston when the second team takes the field. Flagg, who was the defensive MVP of Missouri’s spring game, wasn’t expected to be a force in the competition for playing time but seems to be the primary backup after impressing in camp.

Kicker

Starter: Blake Craig, redshirt freshman

Backup: Nick Quadrini, sophomore

Consistency is the key for Craig, who has the leg to be one of the better kickers in college football but is still settling into making routine kicks look, well, routine. The ball comes off his foot as it should for a kicker. He’s never attempted a field goal or extra point in a game before. Quadrini has been the second kicker to take the field during camp.

Punter

Starter: Luke Bauer, junior

Backup: Orion Phillips, sophomore

Bauer (De Smet) seems likely to keep the starting job after it was handed to former punter Riley Williams at times last season. The punting competition hasn’t been a dominant part of preseason camp, but Bauer seems like the more likely option. Both he and Phillips may boot the ball away during the first games of the season, though, if coaches feel a need to continue the battle.

Long snapper

Starter: Trey Flint, senior

Backup: Brett Le Blanc, sophomore

If you made it this far, congratulations. There doesn’t seem to be a long snapper battle during camp. Flint, who took over snapping duties last season, looks consistent.

Mizzou Sports News

How Joshua Manning, Daniel Blood are pushing for targets in Mizzou’s crowded wide receiver room

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Mizzou Sports News

Hoff: Mizzou’s Eli Drinkwitz supports mandated injury reports in the SEC — as he should

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Mizzou Sports News

Read the full transcript of Mizzou beat writer Eli Hoff's sports chat

• Eli Hoff

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On this week's episode of the Eye on the Tigers Podcast, Eli Hoff and Ben Frederickson break down a season-ending injury for defensive end Darris Smith and what it means for Missouri's defense. They also ponder key questions facing Mizzou and its College Football Playoff hopes, from defensive transfers to the line of succession at running back to what record will be necessary for a spot in the 12-team CFP.

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COLUMBIA, Mo. — Missouri edge rusher Darris Smith will miss the entire 2024 season after suffering a knee injury during Tuesday’s practice.

The nature of the junior defensive end’s injury is not known, but it will keep him sidelined for the full season, the program said Wednesday.

“We are devastated by the injury to Darris,” Mizzou coach Eli Drinkwitz said in a statement. “He was having an outstanding camp and was poised to have a great year. We will support Darris in his recovery and look forward to him returning stronger than before.”

Losing the Georgia transfer is a preseason blow to the Tigers defense, which seemed likely to feature Smith as one its more dangerous pass rushers off the edge. Smith was a probable candidate for a key spot in MU’s defensive line rotation.

Mizzou Sports News

Mizzou football 2024 depth chart projection: Who makes the 2-deep at every position?

• Eli Hoff

Listed at 6-foot-5, 240 pounds and hailing from Baxley, Georgia, Smith displays the lean build often favored in modern edge rushers.

His injury came during part of a Tuesday morning practice that was open to the media. During a one-on-one drill that resembled a punt coverage player trying to shed a block, Smith was going against another defensive end but stumbled to the Memorial Stadium turf during his rep. He stayed down on the field for a minute or two before being helped toward Missouri’s locker room, visibly limiting the weight on his left leg.

The likes of Joe Moore III, Eddie Kelly and Jahkai Lang are likely to see bigger roles with Smith out.

Jeff Gordon

Gordo: Mighty SEC dominates AP Top 25 preseason football poll, as it should

• Jeff Gordon

Mizzou Sports News

How Joshua Manning, Daniel Blood are pushing for targets in Mizzou’s crowded wide receiver room

• Eli Hoff

Jeff Gordon

Tipsheet: Experts give Mizzou, Drinkwitz much preseason respect

• Jeff Gordon

Bring your Tigers football, basketball and recruiting questions, and talk to Eli Hoff in a live chat at 11 a.m. Thursday.

Transcript

Eli ��Ǵڴ�:��Hi all, and welcome to another Mizzou chat. Feel free to drop any questions you've got about preseason camp, takes you want out in the world, or whatever else is on your mind. One programming note for today's chat: A handful of player interviews are scheduled for noon, so I'll be ducking over to the stadium and back around that time. Rest assured that I'll get questions answered, though, so drop them in at any time. I'll keep the chat open 'til about 2 p.m. today because of that gap.

I do want to make sure one story is on your radar: This morning, my projections for Mizzou's full two-deep (plus some) depth chart went online. It's 3,000 words of what I've seen and heard during camp, so I think it's worth your time if you want to get the full picture of how this year's Missouri team is stacking up.

Mizzou Sports News

Mizzou football 2024 depth chart projection: Who makes the 2-deep at every position?

• Eli Hoff

Also, I'll tease a story that will be coming your way tomorrow: I sat down with Brad Larrondo, who's the new CEO of Every True Tiger Brands — Mizzou's NIL agency. I know a lot of y'all have questions about how NIL works, and we talked a lot about both MU's current model and where things could be headed. Keep an eye out for that tomorrow.

�ѳ�:��How does Mizzou's NIL risk compare to other SEC institutions? Are they more or less aggressive?

��Ǵڴ�:��Risk is tough to evaluate. There's inherent risk in investing significant chunks of money into young people whose brains aren't fully developed yet. It's even true of pro athletes. Things happen. I don't think Mizzou is overly or underly risky when it comes to being willing to compensate players. One thing you'll see in tomorrow's Q&A is that they're diligent about making sure players uphold their end of NIL bargains. The idea of "legitimate NIL" vs. "pay to play" is emerging more often, and Mizzou wants to be sure it can fall in the former and avoid suggestions of the latter. That's the safe route. But in general, MU's model to shift from reliance on a collective and instead create a branding agency is quite progressive in the NIL space and one of the like paths forward for a lot of schools.

bigron: Eli, appreciate your keeping us up to date on what's happening at Mizzou...where is the men's Bball team as far as what's going on with the pre-season workouts?

��Ǵڴ�:��The men's basketball team has had some time off recently between the end of summer practices and the start of school (classes start Monday, which you can tell by the platoons of U-Hauls driving around Columbia today). That's not to say there haven't been players in the gym, but organized practices have taken a break. They'll start ramping back up soon. I count 11 and a half weeks until the first game of the season.

����:��I'm devastated for Darris Smith. I was really looking forward to watching him play. Two questions, will he be able to retain his eligibility for this year via medical redshirt? Does this open a pathway for Nwaneri to have a more significant role than expected?

Thanks for your work, Eli. The articles leading up to the season have really gotten me excited. Especially loved the piece on Toriano Pride

��Ǵڴ�:��Thanks, Lu. Pride is a fun guy to talk to, so I enjoyed writing that piece. 

Preseason injuries are just horrible. Doesn't matter the team, the player, the sport. You're talking to a Vikings fan who's still grappling with the potential franchise QB of the future missing his entire rookie season after just a few drives in a preseason game... but I won't bog y'all down with my Minnesotan misery. 

Yes, this should allow Darris Smith to get another year of eligibility, since he won't play a snap this year. If he has NFL ambitions, his goal might not be to use that and instead return next year and parlay that into a decent draft spot, but 2026 will be on the table for him.

It does technically open the pathway for Williams Nwaneri to get more action. There's one fewer player ahead of the freshman in the rotation. That said, I don't think it changes the coaching staff's view of how they want to handle Nwaneri this season. If they're dictating his role off his readiness, they still have that luxury. Johnny Walker Jr., Zion Young, Joe Moore III and Eddie Kelly Jr. can be the four-man rotation, Jahkai Lang can be the reserve (or replace one of those), and then Nwaneri can slot in when they want him to. It's not a need. I go back and forth with how much I think Nwaneri will see the field this year, but I feel confident in saying Smith's injury doesn't actually do a ton to change that probability. 

�Ҷ�:��You think Burden gets in Heisman talk this year?

��Ǵڴ�:��Yes, but not seriously. In 2020, Alabama's DeVonta Smith was the first wideout to win the Heisman in a looooong time. Desmond Howard in 1991 had been the last to do it. Smith's season-long stats were 117 catches for 1,856 yards and 23 touchdowns. Not that it was a factor in the Heisman, but Alabama won the CFP that year — they were the No. 1 seed, so that was clear when the award was handed out.

Can Luther Burden III do that? Probably, but I don't see that happening in reality. I mean, 23 touchdowns is just a wild statistic. That's just under two per game. He's the betting favorite for the Belitnikoff, which goes to the top wide receiver, but it's just difficult for a wideout to win the Heisman. Again, I could see some buzz, but his position diminishes real chances of taking home the big one.

Mizzou Fan: Eli - There is a lot of talk, as there should be, about our receivers being the strength of this team. However, we don't seem to mention Brett Norfleet and the upside he has to be an all SEC tight end. Is it because our talent at wide outs and of course Luther Burden? Thank You.

Hoff: The breadth of talented wideouts is certainly part of it. Mizzou doesn't necessarily need to have much in the way of a pass-catching tight end with how many other receiving options there are. Of the 352 passes MU threw last season, just 33 of them targeted a tight end. That's 9.4%. The Tigers are bringing back those wideouts, and you assume running backs will remain involved in the passing game, so the math doesn't need to change a whole lot. Every target given to someone is a target taken from, like, four or five other players who you could make the case to get them. That's the challenge facing Kirby Moore this season.

It's going to take Norfleet demanding more targets for him to really get them, I think. And I don't mean pounding his fists in Moore's offense, but showing a reason for him to get them. That's absolutely possible for him to do, and his ceiling remains very high. You just also have to put him in the context of the rest of the talent in this offense.

It's kind of like when people debate who's a top 5 or 7 or 10 quarterback in the NFL. It always seems like people will readily say 9 different guys are a top 7 QB, and that's just not how it works. Mizzou is going to leave talented receiver options without as many targets/touches as they/fans/etc might like to have. That's the nature of this depth, and the definition of a good problem to have.

Ed from Idaho: Greetings from Idaho. Do you think our FB defense is good and deep enough to deliver a two loss or less season?

��Ǵڴ�:��Hello to Idaho! I have been there twice in my life and had both a magical huckleberry milkshake several summers ago and some surprisingly tasty pizza when I was there for a wedding this summer, so I trust you're dining well up there.

I'm going to say I don't know the answer here, which is kind of a cop out, but I'll justify it by saying nobody knows, and anybody who thinks they know doesn't. There are too many newcomers and players in new roles to really know what Missouri is working with defensively, plus a new coordinator. It's not even like watching a scrimmage in preseason camp (which I haven't been able to do, to be clear) would show that much. A fully respectable defense might get beat often by this Mizzou offense just because of the O's talent.

And, to be honest, I don't know when the answer will be clear. Maybe Boston College and a mobile QB test it a little bit, but if Mizzou has learned anything about its defense through those first four games of the season (Murray St., Buffalo, BC, Vanderbilt), it's probably not anything positive. So buckle up for the kind of start to the semester where you don't actually learn anything until October...

����������:��Hi Eli, thank you for your response to my email a few weeks back. I felt like last year, Missouri was a better team than Old Miss. Considering Missouri has a more experienced and more accomplished QB, along with so many key starters returning, why is Mississippi ranked higher and frankly held in higher regard by more publications over Missouri? And if we're being honest, if Lane Kiffin's last name was Smith, he wouldn't have received so many opportunities after he flopped so hard earlier in his career. Missouri has a big edge on coaching. What am I missing?

��Ǵڴ�:��The Mizzou-Ole Miss parallels fascinate me. I wrote about that at SEC media days, and it's kind of uncanny in some regards. Brady Cook and Jaxson Dart had remarkably similar stats last year, both teams had the same record, there are even some similarities between the coaching styles of Eli Drinkwitz and Lane Kiffin. 

That said, I don't really know why the Rebels get buzz that the Tigers don't. My current hypothesis is that it has to do with Missouri having some higher profile losses in Cody Schrader, Darius Robinson and other defensive players. Maybe seeing so much talent depart catches the eye of national folks who gravitate toward the additions that Ole Miss picked up — though again, even those have similarities to Mizzou. So I don't think you're really missing anything, it's just a byproduct of talking season being what it is. Sometimes the hype train picks up on things it should or shouldn't or gives weight to the wrong ones. Frankly, Drinkwitz and co. might be happier to be in this position. Keeping the "something to prove" motto is a lot easier to do in an underdog role...

����������:��If you were going to rewrite the conferences to make sense geographically, and for rivalries and other factors I should be considering, who would Missouri be in a conference with and would you have divisions in each conference? And, should there be conference championship games? And would you return the Thanksgiving tradition of Nebraska vs. Oklahoma or is that traditional dead and buried?

Hoff: If you're prioritizing rivalries, you're pretty much prioritizing history, which would mean the Big 12. Or really, the Big Eight. If you had Mizzou play those seven schools — Kansas, K-State, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Iowa State and Colorado — I think people would get their rivalry itch good and scratched. That conference would be too small to make divisions worthwhile and you could easily have every team play every other team, so you might not need a championship game. I think all traditional games should be on the table. 

You could make the Big 8 a division in a 16-team conference with a Big 12-type footprint that mixes in some SEC/Southwest/Big 12 members for geography's sake — like Texas, Texas A&M, Arkansas, Tech, Baylor, SMU, Rice, TCU — and then have a few divisional cross-over games to maximize rivalries. That allows Texas-OU to take place, and you could keep Mizzou-Arkansas, if you fancy it. 

If you're willing to toss aside rivalries, I (and my dad) would love to see Mizzou in the Big Ten (not this new transcontinental version), but I know that won't be a popular take. I just want to see the Tigers play the teams I grew up watching.

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The Associated Press preseason Top 25 Poll reminds us that the Southeastern Conference should rule college football as usual.

Georgia ranks No. 1 as it looks to avenge last season’s College Football Playoff snub. The SEC is Kirby Smart’s world now that sourpuss taskmaster Nick Saban has conceded the throne and moved on to media work.

The preseason AP poll featured eight more SEC teams in the top 20 slots, including four in the top six. This should be a conference season to savor — especially for fans around here, as Missouri is ranked No. 11.

These are unusually heady times for Truman. The Tigers hadn’t earned a Top 25 preseason ranking since 2015, and they earned their highest preseason ranking since 2008.

Coach Eli Drinkwitz has veteran quarterback Brady Cook and star receiver Luther Burden III driving his offense. The Tigers have a soft nonconference schedule, plus a favorable SEC slate featuring three certain also-rans.

The Tigers should be 4-0 when they play at No. 20 Texas A&M on Oct. 5. Their two biggest tests come at No. 5 Alabama on Oct. 26 and at home to No. 16 Oklahoma on Nov. 9.

But there are few easy weeks in the SEC. Texas (No. 4 in the AP poll) and Oklahoma make an already formidable league tougher.

With those powers coming from the Big 12 and Missouri in peak form, Auburn and Florida could fall well back into the pack, along with Kentucky, South Carolina, Arkansas and Mississippi State.

As for poor Vanderbilt’s chances this year — oof.

Georgia should get back in the national title chase, but it won’t be easy. The Bulldogs open against Clemson on Aug. 31 in Atlanta, and they play Sept. 28 at Alabama, Oct. 19 at No. 4 Texas and Nov. 9 at No. 6 Ole Miss.

They have no worries at quarterback with Carson Beck or with their offensive line, but the Bulldogs will need more production from receivers like former Missouri standout Dominic Lovett. Fortunately, the NFL-caliber Georgia defense leaves the offense some margin for error.

Texas should make noise after dominating the Big 12 on its way out the door. After years and years and years of big talk, that program finished 12-2 for just its second double-digit victory total since 2009.

Given their history of big-timing Big 12 rivals, the Longhorns drew extra attention as they crossed into the SEC.

“I’ll show the preseason poll and I’ll show the preseason All-SEC team and I’ll probably show four or five headlines of articles of how great we’re supposed to be,” Texas coach Steve Sarkisian said earlier this year. “Then I’ll probably show another seven or eight articles of headlines or quotes from Coach Saban saying we’re not going to run the SEC, just as a reminder that people’s opinions of us before we ever even play a game really don’t matter. What we do is what matters.”

And the Longhorns should do a lot this season. Their Sept. 7 game at No. 9 Michigan against the ethically challenged Wolverines will tell us much.

Alabama can still be Alabama with Kalen DeBoer replacing Saban. The Crimson Tide got its lowest AP preseason ranking since 2009, but running backs coach Robert Gillespie, a Saban holdover, insists the program still has allure.

“I’ve coached a lot of places and been received differently at different places. When you walk into a school and you’re at Alabama, Alabama is still a logo and a brand that everyone knows and loves,” Gillespie told 247 Sports.

But the Crimson Tide has especially tough games Oct. 19 at No. 15 Tennessee, Nov. 9 at No. 13 LSU and Nov. 23 at Oklahoma.

After winning 11 games at Ole Miss last season, new-and-improved coach Lane Kiffin rounded up better defenders through the transfer portal. The Rebels could be 6-0 when they play at LSU on Oct. 12.

LSU coach Brian Kelly is in Year 3 of his regime, so he should have traction. He must replace his Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback, but he loaded up more offensive skill and hired defensive coordinator Blake Baker from Mizzou to fix that side of the ball.

Coach Josh Heupel should have Blur Ball back to warp speed with Nico Iamaleava at quarterback for No. 15 Tennessee. The Vols can make an early statement against No. 24 North Carolina State on Sept. 27 in Charlotte.

Oklahoma will bring a sturdy defense into the conference, but the Sooners must face a gauntlet. They play six ranked SEC teams, plus Auburn.

Texas A&M is moving on from the unfortunate Jimbo Fisher Era. The Aggies should be defensively stout under new coach Mike Elko, but their offense lost running back Rueben Owens II to injury.

The Aggies will get an immediate test when they host Notre Dame on Aug. 31. Among their newcomers is offensive lineman Ar’maj Reed-Adams, a Kansas transfer who recently summed up the essence of the SEC.

“Some of the same bodies that you look at at Kansas in the Big 12, and you look at here, it’s just way different,” he said. “And just the fire in a lot of these guys, man. They’re all big-time football players, and they feel that way about themselves and very confident. So just being around a bunch of alphas.”

SEC football: It’s just more mean.

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COLUMBIA, Mo. — Missouri’s wide receiver room is in a unique situation. It looks just about the same as last season.

Almost, anyway — there are a couple of new freshmen in the No. 11 Tigers’ wideout ranks. But put them aside, and the receivers on the roster this year were also on the roster last year.

In the age of the transfer portal and ready-made exits in pursuit of more playing time, though, it might be better to tout the novelty of Mizzou’s receiving corps in the inverse: The wide receivers who were on the roster last year are also on the roster this year.

MU coach Eli Drinkwitz recognizes the strangeness of that phenomenon. It gives Missouri one of the highest-regarded groups of wide receivers in the nation, buoyed at the top by the likes of Luther Burden III and Theo Wease Jr.

“Very talented,” Drinkwitz called them recently. “As skilled as any group I’ve ever seen from 1 through 11.”

Having an entire position group come back, though, creates a bit of a pickle. Without the usual bit of turnover from season to season, the Mizzou receivers who found themselves buried in the depth chart last year don’t have a natural climb to more prominent roles this time around. Even with the creativity of second-year offensive coordinator Kirby Moore, only so many mouths can realistically be fed.

So Drinkwitz is pairing a unique situation with a unique ask of his wideouts.

“The challenge for them is to be uncommonly unselfish,” he said. “Wide receivers tend to want the game to be played through them.”

How the Tigers divvy up targets among a deep group of receivers will be a trend of interest during the 2024 season. Last year, Burden received 120 of the 352 targets, or 34.1% of the available looks, according to Pro Football Focus.

That specific number might change, but the idea that Burden would get roughly a third of the passes thrown his way doesn’t seem like the sort of offensive tenet that will shift astronomically. Wease received 78 targets, or 22.1%. Next came Mookie Cooper, rounding out the starting wide receivers with 45 targets for 12.8% of the total allotment.

The next two highest targets last year were running back Cody Schrader and tight end Brett Norfleet. Schrader may be gone, but Missouri will undoubtedly still look to incorporate running backs into the passing game. Norfleet is also returning and could merit more of a role in his second season.

Then comes the depth receiver options. Mekhi Miller earned 21 targets last season while Marquis Johnson picked up 16 as a true freshman. The former’s experience and the latter’s speed would make it a challenge for coaches to decrease the opportunities given to them.

But two second-year wide receivers are looking to present exactly that kind of challenge.

Joshua Manning, a former four-star recruit from Lee’s Summit, has impressed through spring practices and preseason camp. He was the offensive MVP of the Tigers’ spring game and stood out in their weekend scrimmage.

“Josh is very consistent,” Drinkwitz said. “I think he does a really good job of finding a role in special teams. The challenge to everybody is embrace your role, put the team first, find a place that you can help us. He’s always helping us in special teams, but he’s done a great job in the wide receiver room.”

Manning didn’t receive a target during his freshman season but did play prominently in a special teams capacity, appearing in 12 games. Preseason practices suggest that will remain consistent, perhaps with a few route assignments to run as well.

The transition from dominating high school games to sitting near the bottom of the depth chart with a Southeastern Conference program was something of a wake-up call for Manning.

“I learned that it’s really hard to play at this level,” he said. “I felt like I wasn’t good enough last year. I feel like I’ve put in the work to be good enough this year.”

That work entailed catching 100 passes from a JUGS machine each day during the offseason, Manning said, in addition to more lifting and a focus on his movement at the top of a receiving route.

Similarly pushing for playing time is Daniel Blood, who’s also entering his second season with the Tigers.

Like Manning, Blood’s freshman appearances came mostly on special teams, where he played in 10 games. Blood did receive three targets as a receiver, though, including one that turned into a vital 3rd down catch against Louisiana State.

“He’s been really good. Very consistent yards after the catch,” Drinkwitz said. “Been doing a great job with his punt return. (He’s) another utility guy.”

Whom Mizzou will use for punt returns is yet to be determined, but practices have shown that Blood is clearly in the mix. His offseason training regimen centered around the ability to advance the ball after it’s in his hands.

“My coach challenged me on yards after the catch,” Blood said, “and I think I really proved to him that I can do that.”

It seems to be paying off. Cooper said Blood was a standout in MU’s first scrimmage of preseason camp for one acronymic reason: “Lot of YAC.”

DE Darris Smith suffers practice injury

Missouri’s preseason camp received an injury scare when edge rusher Darris Smith left Tuesday morning’s practice with an injury. He fell to the turf during a one-on-one drill that seemed like a simulation of a punt coverage player shedding a blocker and was helped to the locker room while limiting the weight on his left leg.

The severity of Smith’s injury will likely not be clear until Drinkwitz next addresses local reporters, which is scheduled to take place Tuesday.

Smith, a transfer from Georgia, has been competing for a spot in Mizzou’s defensive end rotation.

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COLUMBIA, Mo. — It’s rare that a new rule in college sports can be called a no-brainer.

Some feel rushed or rash, coming with plenty of unintended consequences. Others feel like — in a metaphor I heard last week and liked — feeble attempts to stuff toothpaste back in the tube.

But for once, a college sports entity looks set to institute the kind of policy that is so obviously necessary it comfortably can be called a no-brainer.

Starting with this football season, the Southeastern Conference is preparing to require teams to provide standardized injury reports before each game, . The initiative stemmed from discussions at the league’s spring meetings and reportedly is quite close to reality.

Because the point of this rule would be to bring clarity to the muddy world of player availability, it’s important to be abundantly clear about one thing: College football needs this, surely and sorely.

Missouri coach Eli Drinkwitz agrees.

“I think it’s a great thing,” Drinkwitz recently said. “We were doing it last year because I think transparency within a program, to try to eliminate the people needing information,” would be beneficial “especially when we’re talking about betting. Obviously, that’s what this is for.”

I wish this were a noble argument about the value of transparency for transparency’s sake. It’s not. It’s about betting and money and information, which is to say that it’s about the new, sometimes sketchy, face of college sports.

Maybe the industry just needs the underbelly to be the driving force of some high-minded change.

The rule is not some overhaul of how coaches or teams operate. Assuming it is put in place, teams will have to make simple designations of players’ statuses using familiar terms such as “out” and “questionable” — maybe “probable” and “doubtful” if there’s room for nuance. The Big Ten already is doing that, and the NFL has been for years.

Drinkwitz’s only gripe is having to release that information each of three days leading up to a game, plus game day itself — so Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday in a typical week. That “seems like a little bit of a to-do list,” he said, though he countered his own complaint with the reality that he’ll turn the task over to someone else.

That four-day format hasn’t been reported, so it’s either new information or something that might be subject to change before the rule is finalized. Regardless, if that’s the biggest complaint a head coach has, it seems like more fuel for the no-brainer label.

Other SEC coaches have fallen in step with Drinkwitz on this, too. Texas’ Steve Sarkisian of having mandated injury reports “because now we don’t have to worry about leaks out of our building, and as it pertains to this new idea of online gambling.”

Alabama’s Kalen DeBoer and said he “get(s) why it could be necessary.”

Here’s a Mizzou-centric example of “why.”

Last year, Drinkwitz and Mizzou largely were consistent with releasing injury reports before games, usually early on Thursday nights. When those releases came, they were official and thus informative for the press and the public.

But there were gaps. Take the Tigers’ game against Tennessee: Whether through oversight or a competitive slight directed at the Vols, no injury report came out that week.

Star MU wideout Luther Burden III’s availability had been in question in the run-up, so his was a name to watch for on the injury report. He probably would have been listed as questionable or probable, not making anything that much more certain, but the reports exist to provide confirmation so those kinds of assumptions aren’t necessary.

Instead, Burden’s status came out in the form of leaks. The day before the game, the recruiting service On3 reported that Burden was “set to play.” Early in the morning of the game, ESPN quoted Drinkwitz as saying Burden was “going to play.”

Sportsbooks responded with confusion. According to the Action Network’s , the price for Burden scoring a touchdown at any point against Tennessee ranged from -185 (a $10 bet pays out $15.41) to +500 (a $10 bet pays out $60).

That’s a big difference and one you could have exploited or been exploited by, depending on what you knew.

In fairness, it could have been a glitch. And to some degree, the risk of placing such a bet is on the bettor — and maybe this anecdote is more about why proposition bets for individual player performances are a bad idea than it is about why mandated injury reports are a good one.

I think it shows a flawed system, one in which the information fueling betting markets could come not from official sources but from anonymous ones. It’s cause for some trepidation in my profession. Like any good reporter, I value getting scoops, but I don’t like to think that they could have that kind of influence — that reporting, or not reporting, some sort of injury news has this kind of financial sway.

So yes, there is an element of this argument that is personal for those of us on a college football beat. Maybe it’s even a little bit selfish of me to advocate for a rule like this. But what we, as reporters, know has value in the sports betting universe. Just ask the sportsbooks.

Just last month, an “odds monitoring and injury alerting” software created by a “pro sports bettor” that “gives sports bettors an advantage” sent me a long note intended to pitch me on providing them with information. They said they were after “clearer and faster information on players at the collegiate level.”

I didn’t entertain the conversation long enough to learn the specifics of what they were asking me to provide or what I’d receive in exchange — I shut them down, of course. The cynic in me assumes they wanted the sort of things we observe or hear of in off-the-record capacities or reportable information before I’d published it anywhere else. I know the same company contacted other journalists on the Mizzou beat, too. I don’t know if anyone agreed to work with them.

That should be cause for concern beyond just our industry, and it’s why the institution of mandated injury reports is so important.

It’s not just me who sees this particular reason. The parts of the sports betting industrial machine that scour beats and locker rooms for information to get ahead of sportsbooks or bettors are on the radar of coaches such as Drinkwitz, too. Add that to the reasons why he’s in favor of the likely new rule.

“If it keeps the shadowy figures out of the locker room,” Drinkwitz said, “I’m all for it.”

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A season of big expectations for Missouri’s football team will begin with The Associated Press ranking the Tigers above cut line for schools that qualify for the College Football Playoff field, which is being expanded from four to 12 participants this year.

While the AP (media) poll does not set the field — it is determined by a committee — it serves as a barometer, and Mizzou is No. 11 in the preseason rankings, which were released Monday. That’s the Tigers’ highest spot in the initial listings since 2008, when they were No. 8 en route to a 10-4 finish. The last time they were ranked to start a season was in 2015, when they were No. 24 but ended up at 5-7.

This year, Mizzou has many key players returning from a team that was 11-2 and finished eighth in the final AP poll a year ago. MU also is No. 11 in the USA Today (coaches) initial poll, which came out last week.

Georgia is No. 1

Georgia is No. 1 in the AP initial rankings for the second straight year as the superconference era begins with the Southeastern and Big Ten conferences dominating the top 10 slots. Georgia will try to become the 12th team since the AP preseason poll started in 1950 to start No. 1 and finish No. 1. The last was Alabama, in 2017.

The Bulldogs received 46 first-place votes and 1,532 points, and the SEC powerhouse finished comfortably ahead of No. 2 Ohio State (15 first-place votes and 1,490 points) of the Big Ten.

New Big Ten member Oregon is No. 3, receiving one first-place vote from the panel of 62 media members who cover college football. Texas, which has departed the Big 12 conference to join the SEC, is fourth.

The Big Ten and SEC each have four teams in the top 10.

Conference realignment has reduced the Power Five to the Power Four, with the Pac-12 whittled to just two schools. The Big Ten now has 18 schools. The Atlantic Coast Conference has 17 football teams, and the SEC and Big 12 each have 16.

All the movement created an unprecedented preseason poll with just four conferences represented: The SEC leads with nine ranked teams. The Big Ten has six, the Big 12 has five and the ACC has four.

Alabama, in its first season without coach Nick Saban since 2006, starts No. 5. No. 6 Mississippi gives the SEC half the top preseason top six.

Independent Notre Dame is the highest ranked team from outside the SEC and Big Ten at No. 7.

No. 8 Penn State and No. 9 Michigan give the Big Ten four top 10 teams. Florida State from the ACC is No. 10.

Title game finalists

The defending national champion Wolverines said goodbye to coach Jim Harbaugh, quarterback J.J. McCarthy and 12 other players who were selected in April’s NFL draft. All that attrition led to Michigan receiving the lowest preseason ranking for a reigning national champion since 2011, when Auburn was No. 23 after the departure of Cam Newton.

Before that, the last time a defending national champion was ranked worse than No. 7 in the following preseason poll was Colorado at No. 13 in 1991.

Washington, which lost to Michigan in the College Football Playoff championship game, took an even bigger fall after losing its coach (Kalen DeBoer replaced Saban at Alabama), star quarterback and a mountain of talent to the draft and transfer portal. The Huskies are the first team to reach the CFP and be unranked the following season, and the first team to be unranked after finishing the previous season No. 2 in the AP poll since Army in 1951. The rankings were a Top 20 then.

The only team to finish No. 1 and start the next season unranked was Minnesota in 1961, but the AP poll was only a Top 10 then.

Top-ranked ‘Dawgs

Georgia started last season at No. 1 in pursuit of a record third straight national championship. Coach Kirby Smart’s Bulldogs stayed there the whole regular season, and then missed the four-team playoff by losing the SEC title game to Alabama.

“We’re dealing with new challenges this year,” Smart said at SEC media days. “We don’t have a chip on our shoulder in terms of people trying to use that as motivation. I’ve never used a failure from the previous year as motivation and never used the success of a previous year as motivation; we won’t do that this year. That’s not who we are. We want to recreate ourselves to stay in the best light we can.”

There will be more room for error this season with the playoff field tripling.

The Bulldogs are 42-2 over the last three seasons and loaded again. Quarterback Carson Beck leads the offense and edge rusher Mykel Williams is in line to be the next defensive star at Georgia.

Beck is a rarity in college football these days, a star quarterback in his fifth season with the same school who waited three years to become starter. Beck completed 72% of his passes last year, with 24 touchdowns and six interceptions.

“He is a great elder for us and great example of resiliency in college football,” Smart said.

Repeating as preseason No. 1 is a recent trend. Going back eight seasons, Alabama had separate streaks of three (2016-18) and two (2021-22) years as preseason No. 1. Clemson was top-ranked in the 2019 and ‘20 preseason rankings.

Other tidbits

No. 18 Kansas State and No. 22 Kansas are ranked in the same preseason poll for just the second time. The last was 1996. KU is in the preseason rankings for the first time since 2009 and only the seventh time in program history.

• No. 12 Utah is making its sixth straight appearance in the preseason poll. The Utes had only been ranked in the preseason twice (2009, ’04) in their history before 2019.
• No. 13 Louisiana State has been left out of the preseason Top 25 just once (2022) since 2001.
• No. 14 Clemson has its worst preseason ranking since 2014 (No. 16) and first outside the top 10 since 2015 (No. 12).
• No. 15 Tennessee has two straight preseason top-15 rankings for the first time since 2003-04.
• No. 16 Oklahoma has appeared in 24 straight preseason rankings, but this is the first time during that streak the Sooners have started outside the top 10 in consecutive seasons.
• No. 17 Oklahoma State in two of the last three seasons (2021 and ’23) has started the season unranked and finished ranked. In between (2022), they started the season No. 12 and finished unranked.
• No. 19 Miami has not started ranked and finished ranked in a season since 2017. This is the Hurricanes’ fifth appearance in the preseason poll during that time.
• No. 20 Texas A&M has now appeared in six straight AP preseason polls, but the Aggies have only finished ranked once (2020) since 2019.
• No. 21 Arizona is ranked in the preseason for the first time since 2015.
• No. 23 Southern California’s coach, Lincoln Riley, formerly was at Oklahoma and has started the last seven seasons with a ranked team. Last year’s was the first to finish unranked.
• No. 24 North Carolina State has its second preseason ranking in three seasons after just six appearances previously.
• No. 25 Iowa has appeared in five straight preseason polls, matching the best streak in program history (1957-61).

A season of big expectations for Missouri's football team will begin with The Associated Press ranking the Tigers above cut line for schools that qualify for the College Football Playoff field, which is being expanded from four to 12 participants this year.

While the AP (media) poll does not set the field — it is determined by a committee — it serves as a barometer and Mizzou is No. 11 in the preseason rankings, which were released Monday. That's the Tigers' highest spot in the initial listings since 2008, when they were No. 8 en route to a 10-4 finish. The last time they were ranked to start a season was in 2015, when they were No. 24 but ended up at 5-7.

This year, Mizzou has many key players returning from a team that was 11-2 and finished eighth in the final AP poll. MU also is No. 11 in the USA Today (coaches) initial poll, which came out last week. 

Georgia is No. 1

Georgia is No. 1 in the AP initial rankings for the second straight year as the superconference era begins with the Southeastern and Big Ten conferences dominating the top 10 slots. Georgia will try to become the 12th team since the AP preseason poll started in 1950 to start No. 1 and finish No. 1. The last was Alabama, in 2017.

The Bulldogs received 46 first-place votes and 1,532 points and the SEC powerhouse finished comfortably ahead of No. 2 Ohio State (15 first-place votes and 1,490 points) of the Big Ten.

New Big Ten member Oregon is No. 3, receiving one first-place vote from the panel of 62 media members who cover college football. Texas, which has departed the Big 12 conference to join the SEC, is fourth.

The Big Ten and SEC each have four teams in the top 10.

Conference realignment has reduced the Power Five to the Power Four, with the Pac-12 whittled to just two schools. The Big Ten now has 18 schools. The Atlantic Coast Conference has 17 football teams, and the SEC and Big 12 each have 16.

All the movement created an unprecedented preseason poll with just four conferences represented: The SEC leads with nine ranked teams. The Big Ten has six, the Big 12 has five and the ACC has four.

Alabama, in its first season without coach Nick Saban since 2006, starts No. 5. No. 6 Mississippi gives the SEC half the top preseason top six.

Independent Notre Dame is the highest ranked team from outside the SEC and Big Ten at No. 7.

No. 8 Penn State and No. 9 Michigan give the Big Ten four top 10 teams. Florida State from the ACC is No. 10.

Title game finalists

The defending national champion Wolverines said goodbye to coach Jim Harbaugh, quarterback J.J. McCarthy and 12 other players who were selected in April’s NFL draft. All that attrition led to Michigan receiving the lowest preseason ranking for a reigning national champion since 2011, when Auburn was No. 23 after the departure of Cam Newton.

Before that, the last time a defending national champion was ranked worse than No. 7 in the following preseason poll was Colorado at No. 13 in 1991.

Washington, which lost to Michigan in the College Football Playoff championship game, took an even bigger fall after losing its coach (Kalen DeBoer replaced Saban at Alabama), star quarterback and a mountain of talent to the draft and transfer portal. The Huskies are the first team to reach the CFP and be unranked the following season, and the first team to be unranked after finishing the previous season No. 2 in the AP poll since Army in 1951. The rankings were a Top 20 then.

The only team to finish No. 1 and start the next season unranked was Minnesota in 1961, but the AP poll was only a Top 10 then.

Top-ranked 'Dawgs

Georgia started last season at No. 1 in pursuit of a record third straight national championship. Coach Kirby Smart's Bulldogs stayed there the whole regular season, and then missed the four-team playoff by losing the SEC title game to Alabama.

“We’re dealing with new challenges this year,” Smart said at SEC media days. "We don’t have a chip on our shoulder in terms of people trying to use that as motivation. I’ve never used a failure from the previous year as motivation and never used the success of a previous year as motivation; we won’t do that this year. That’s not who we are. We want to recreate ourselves to stay in the best light we can.”

There will be more room for error this season with the playoff field tripling.

The Bulldogs are 42-2 over the last three seasons and loaded again. Quarterback Carson Beck leads the offense and edge rusher Mykel Williams is in line to be the next defensive star at Georgia.

Beck is a rarity in college football these days, a star quarterback in his fifth season with the same school who waited three years to become starter. Beck completed 72% of his passes last year, with 24 touchdowns and six interceptions.

“He is a great elder for us and great example of resiliency in college football,” Smart said.

Repeating as preseason No. 1 is a recent trend. Going back eight seasons, Alabama had separate streaks of three (2016-18) and two (2021-22) years as preseason No. 1. Clemson was top-ranked in the 2019 and '20 preseason rankings.

Other tidbits

No. 18 Kansas State and No. 22 Kansas are ranked in the same preseason poll for just the second time. The last was 1996. KU is in the preseason rankings for the first time since 2009 and only the seventh time in program history.   

• No. 12 Utah is making its sixth straight appearance in the preseason poll. The Utes had only been ranked in the preseason twice (2009, ’04) in their history before 2019.

• No. 13 Louisiana State has been left out of the preseason Top 25 just once (2022) since 2001.

• No. 14 Clemson has its worst preseason ranking since 2014 (No. 16) and first outside the top 10 since 2015 (No. 12).

• No. 15 Tennessee has two straight preseason top-15 rankings for the first time since 2003-04.

• No. 16 Oklahoma has appeared in 24 straight preseason rankings, but this is the first time during that streak the Sooners have started outside the top 10 in consecutive seasons.

• No. 17 Oklahoma State in two of the last three seasons (2021 and ’23) has started the season unranked and finished ranked. In between (2022), they started the season No. 12 and finished unranked.

• No. 19 Miami has not started ranked and finished ranked in a season since 2017. This is the Hurricanes' fifth appearance in the preseason poll during that time.

• No. 20 Texas A&M has now appeared in six straight AP preseason polls, but the Aggies have only finished ranked once (2020) since 2019.

• No. 21 Arizona is ranked in the preseason for the first time since 2015.

• No. 23 Southern California's coach, Lincoln Riley, formerly was at Oklahoma and has started the last seven seasons with a ranked team. Last year’s was the first to finish unranked.

• No. 24 North Carolina State has its second preseason ranking in three seasons after just six appearances previously.

• No. 25 Iowa has appeared in five straight preseason polls, matching the best streak in program history (1957-61).

2024 College Football Playoffs national championship game photos

That had to be a typo, right?

Heck of a place to make a typo, too — but right on the Mizzou player’s jersey, his last name read: “WILLIAMS SR.”

But it turned out, last season, Sidney Williams was only a junior by school classification.

See, the Mizzou safety is a father.

And so, by having “SR.” on his jersey, “It just connects (us) and lets people know that I have a kid,” said Sidney Williams Sr., who will be a senior safety this year for the Tigers. “I’m really just excited to let people know that I have a kid and I’m willing to show the generations.”

Sidney Harold Williams Jr. is 1. Turns 2 in March.

“He’s full of life — very, very observant,” Mizzou’s Williams said. “Paying attention to everything. So I wanted to bring him here to Columbia and show him a lot of love. … He still wakes up at 4 in the morning, 5 in the morning. But I play ball, so I’m pretty much used to getting up around that time (for workouts) anyway.”

Williams, who is part of Mizzou’s defensive back rotation, was born in New Orleans and raised in Mobile, Alabama. Akeria Jones is the mother of his son, and she moved to Columbia this summer, along with Junior.

And so, Mizzou’s Williams is double majoring in football and life. Oh, and he’s apparently doing well in actual school — he was named to the 2023 Fall SEC Academic Honor Roll.

“That’s something that’s always hard, to juggle those things — those are real things that pull at you,” said Corey Batoon, Mizzou’s defensive coordinator. “And it’s (about) being able to peel that away and understand — this is who I am at heart, but I also represent more than just what’s on the front of the chest. On the back of the jersey means something. It’s kind of cool, man. I mean, everybody’s in different situations. And those guys that have those other blessings outside of the building, what a neat opportunity. Really a neat thing that Sidney has been able to accomplish. That is part of what his walk is right now.”

At first, Williams admitted, it was “a little weird” seeing “SR.” on the back of his jersey. But “it grew on me — it’s a good fit,” he said.

Junior visited Mizzou for one game last season. Now in 2024, the plan is for him to attend as many home games as is doable.

And just a couple days before Mizzou’s media day in July, Williams brought his son to the football facility.

“I want him to really get to experience being with his father and an atmosphere like this,” said Williams, who originally played for Florida State. “Nothing but love out here, it’s quiet out here, it’s a blessing. … When I first got here, the coaches, the players, everybody was just accepting me as a person and as a player, too. Every day, I always have some Mizzou on. I really cherish where I’m at and where my feet are right now.”

There is a special camaraderie among the Mizzou safeties, teammate Daylan Carnell explained. But also a fierce competition for playing time. Williams spent time last year at the linebacker-safety position called STAR, as well as at a traditional safety spot. He totaled 25 tackles, as well as two sacks and 2 ½ tackles for loss.

No. 3 on defense tallied five tackles in the win at Kentucky, six and a sack in the win against Arkansas and three in the Cotton Bowl win against Ohio State.

“Sidney is, first and foremost, a high-energy guy,” said Batoon, who knows Williams well — Batoon was recently a defensive coordinator at South Alabama in, yup, Mobile. “So, I’ve known a lot about him. His high school program (Vigor High) is one of the better programs in Mobile.

“But he’s really good, really a pleasure to coach. Very much like a sponge, wants to learn, wants to absorb things. He played a lot of football, played linebacker at Florida State. … He’s one of those guys that always has a smile on his face. Always ready to work. Always gives it — anything that you ask and more. And so, from that standpoint, he’s good to be around. He’s a benefit to our room.”

And Williams feels he fits in the defense because “coach Batoon gives us safeties a (chance) to put a little flavor to it. He doesn’t try to say, ‘We need it this way always or that way always.’ We can pretty much be ourselves, bring our own swag. And that’s what I really appreciate about coach Batoon.”

Becoming a father gave Williams a perspective on life he couldn’t have imagined. And he takes pride in passing his name down. In being Senior.

“You just know — Sidney loves his son,” Carnell said. “He always is talking about him. I mean, if you just walk around the facility and you see Sidney, he’s probably on FaceTime and it’s his son on FaceTime with him. So you can tell by how he walks around — he’s proud to be a father.”

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