Damarea Crockett is the future of the Missouri run game ... and maybe the present, too

Here are today's Mizzou Links.

By Bill Connelly@SBN_BillC Sep 26, 2016, 5:01am CDT

So I've updated Mizzou's statistical profile, and while I might walk through it in more detail during Tuesday's Beyond the Box Score post (there really isn't much sense in going 'beyond' the Delaware State box score), one thing very quickly stands out to me.

Individual Rushing Stats

Player	Pos.	Ht, Wt	Year	Rushes	Yards	TD	Yards/ Carry	Hlt Yds/ Opp.	Opp. Rate	Fumbles (Lost)
Ish Witter	RB	5'10, 200	JR	57	209	2	3.7	2.7	21.1%	0 (0)
Damarea Crockett	RB	5'11, 220	FR	34	210	3	6.2	3.8	55.9%	2 (1)
Alex Ross	RB	6'1, 220	SR	20	72	0	3.6	1.6	25.0%	0 (0)

Opportunity rate = percentage of carries gaining at least five yards. Highlight Yards per Opportunity = basically how explosive your successful (i.e. five-yard) carries are. Damarea Crockett's highlight yardage is unimpressive (basically anything over 4 is decent, anything over 5 good), but it's the best of Mizzou's backs ... and he's more than twice as efficient as Ish Witter or Alex Ross have been so far. Those numbers benefited a hair from garbage time appearances, but ... he just looks like Mizzou's best back through four games. (That's not completely fair to Ross, who's missed most of those four games and maybe hasn't gotten a representative sample yet.)

Later today, Mizzou's depth chart will come out, and it will almost certainly list Ross and Witter as Missouri's top two backs, just as it has the last two weeks (despite Ross, you know, not actually playing). As this depth chart seems to never actually change to reflect reality, Crockett might remain unlisted all year ... while finishing as Mizzou's leading rusher. But once his fumbles are under control, he could end up one hell of a back.

The Trib: Damarea Crockett lifts Missouri's running game in lopsided victory over Delaware State

"Damarea has got a chance to be a really good player for us," MU Coach Barry Odom said. "He keeps improving. Even throughout this last week in practice, I saw a little extra gear as he starts to pick up the timing of some of the things that we are doing run-scheme-wise."

KC Star: MU running back Damarea Crockett breaks out against Delaware State

In speaking of ball security Saturday, Crockett said he thinks it’s held him back.

"I feel like that (it held me back) for sure because any mistake holds you back," Crockett said. "I just try to take it like a man up and own up to what and just get it done."

On Saturday, be it on cuts to the outside or runs between the tackles, Crockett was able to do just that.

What's On

Postgamers.

(Tramel and Ron have been doing a great job with these.

"After the injury, he realized it’s going to take a lot of work to get back — and Terry really matured up," Scherer said. "When you’re a freshman, highly touted, you can let things go by and not be mature. This summer, Terry grew a lot as a person, and that’s why Terry is doing so well this year.

"There was a time this (offseason), he was coming back from the knee injury, hadn’t conditioned much, and we’re doing really tough conditioning drills. He’s pushing a sled and (strength and conditioning coach Rohrk Cutchlow) wanted to help him. He’s dragging behind, but he said, ‘No coach, I got this.’ And that’s kind of when I knew that Terry had grown up."