1. Josh Heupel spoke to the media on Friday
The Trib (David Morrison): A Few Good Minutes with...Missouri OC Josh Heupel
What’s your vision for an offense?
"Score a lot of points. There’s a million different ways to do it. That’s not the sexy answer for you guys. I prefer to play up-tempo, with a bunch of pace. Throw the ball effectively. I do think you have to run the ball efficiently to win, at any league, at any level. If you want to chase a championship, you’ve got to be able to run the football. My first couple years calling it, we finished in the top five in the country in passing. I had an experienced quarterback, good skill players. That’s how we were able to play. The former boss (Oklahoma Coach Bob Stoops) wanted to make the change philosophically. He wanted to be able to run the football, get in the quarterback run game, wanted to steal 60 to 80 yards in the quarterback run game, so we did that. With injuries, in every year, if your personnel changes over the course of the season with injuries -- quarterbacks, whatever it might be -- you’ve got to find a way for those guys to operate and be effective. I had offenses in the top five in the country in passing, had one in the top 10 in rushing. We went from averaging 3.3 yards per carry the year before I took over as a coordinator at Oklahoma and ended up at 6.2 yards per carry.
The Trib: Heupel gets first looks at Tigers
When Heupel met with Maty Mauk and Drew Lock, he did not deviate from the message he’s been sending the rest of his new players: There are no givens.
"They all have histories. I know some of their pasts, and our other coaches will, as well," Heupel told reporters in the Memorial Stadium press tower Friday. "But that has no bearing on who and what they are moving forward. Everybody starts with a clean slate. I don’t care if you started every ballgame last year or you were running scout-team reps.
"You’re going to earn it every single day."
The Missourian: New Missouri offensive coordinator has experience with Odom family
While the offensive coordinator at Utah State during the 2015 season, Heupel mainly saw the Tigers' struggling offense while watching games on TV. When watching Missouri's Drew Lock, Heupel said he saw the traits of a young quarterback.
"His eyes and body weren’t in the same place," Heupel said. "As a quarterback, if you don’t have a great understanding of what’s going on, versus variations of defenses, you look very bad very fast."
Post-Dispatch: Heupel hopes to revive Mizzou offense
"He’s found creative ways to get yards on the ground," Odom said last month. "That’s important to me."
But it wasn’t good enough for Stoops. Last January, Heupel was fired in a staff shakeup after the Sooners went 8-5 — even though Heupel’s offense scored at least 30 points in three of the five losses. Heupel, 37, spent the 2015 season as Utah State’s coordinator and quarterbacks coach.
"At the end of the day, what did I learn?" Heupel said. "Trust yourself and be who you are schematically every minute of every day. And compete."
Post-Dispatch: Heupel on Mizzou offense: 'We've got to run the ball'
Q: Not sure how much film you’ve watched of last season, but having played the position how much do you know of Drew Lock and Maty Mauk?
A: Maty: Winner, competitor, tough, finds a way to extend, make plays.
Drew: Great talent, quick hands, which sounds weird when you’re talking about a quarterback, but he’s got quick hands and the ability on run-pass options to catch (the snap), get the laces into the mesh, read a guy, pop out of it and get the ball out of your hands is extremely important in today’s game. Quick arm just on drop backs. The ability to get it out. Can throw from different angles, body positions. Arm talent. Both of those guys are extremely skilled.
Where have you recruited? Texas mostly?
"I recruited Texas, the east side of the Metroplex into East Texas for a long time. A little bit of Louisiana for a year when we decided to make that a region at Oklahoma, then we got back out of it and went more national recruiting. Those have been my primary spots. I recruited Arizona and parts of Utah this past year. My last two years at Oklahoma, 90 percent of my time was spent recruiting offensive linemen. We were real thin there after my first two years as coordinator so in the spring and in fall recruiting I helped the offensive line coach there majority of the time."
Is that a focus for you right now too?
"Offensive line? Yeah. I think we’ve got some young guys in this program that can play at a high level. I don’t know all of them as well as I should because I haven’t seen them out on a game field, you know what I mean? But there’s some guys that have a chance to develop. They’ve got to have great, it’s true of all of our guys, I think January, February, March leading into spring ball, that first quarter of your four quarters of your calendar year, that’s a pivotal part of us becoming a team that can compete and win week in and week out. There’s a lot of strides that we need to make physically."
2. Beast...
The Trib: Smith hopes Mayes, Tigers 'wake up' and learn from lackluster victory
Smith basically called Lavion Mayes a diva in that Trib article. Kinda funny (since it happened in a "lackluster" 26-point win).
3. Beauty...
MUtigers.com: No. 23 @MizzouGym Downs No. 15 Illinois, 195.350-195.075, in Season Opener