Missouri will return almost all of its offensive production in 2017. Defense? Not so much.

On Friday, The Trib’s Blake Toppmeyer took a look at some potential breakout stars for Missouri’s defense in 2017. My own picks, assuming we can’t really count Terry Beckner Jr. (even if he’s never completely broken out): Nate Howard, T.J. Warren, or Ronnell Perkins.

But we’ll have plenty of time to discuss that in the weeks and months ahead. I wanted to share a little tidbit from the Excel sheets.

This week I’ll be putting out my initial 2017 S&P+ projections. They are basically derived from three loose categories: recent history (I’ll be discussing trends in five-year history today at SB Nation ... and Mizzou’s trends aren’t that hot, as you would expect), returning production, and recruiting.

Obviously the recruiting piece will come on Thursday, after National Signing Day, but the most interesting part of the equation to me will come tomorrow.

Last year I tinkered with a way of measuring actual returning production instead of simply saying “They return X starters.” This method told us that returning production at quarterback, receiver, and defensive back was more valuable than other areas, and more weight is given to those areas as a result.

Missouri's experience totals were distinctly average in 2016 -- based on my weighted equations, the Tigers returned 64% of their offense (70th in FBS) and 63% of their defense (71st).

SPOILERS: This year Missouri returns 89% of its offense (a total that would have ranked 10th last year) and 54% of its defense (which would have ranked about 99th).

Those figures correspond with an improvement of about 3.2 points per game on offense and a regression of about 1.9 points on defense.

That sets the bar in an interesting place for 2017. A head coach’s second year is the best time for an overall team surge, and all indications are that the offense should continue to improve moving forward (and at a rate stronger than the defense’s regression). But last year’s defensive collapse isn’t guaranteed to turn around based on returning experience alone, and we’ll have to see if coaches and players are seeing more eye-to-eye about assignments and culture than they were this past fall. I’m an optimist, so I immediately lean toward yes, but ... that’s quite obviously far from a given.

More Links

There should be at least a couple of football recruiting updates coming later this morning, but in the meantime...

• Mizzou has retained the services of the law firm of Bond, Schoeneck & King to assist with the investigation into Yolanda Kumar’s academic fraud allegations. The investigation “could last several years, a source told The Star, depending on how cooperative witnesses are with the NCAA and Mizzou.” YEARS. FANTASTIC.
• Brian Smith isn’t into moral victories, but his Tiger wrestlers looked pretty good against No. 1 Oklahoma State, falling 20-16 on Friday night. Not good enough, but pretty good. More here from The Trib and Post-Dispatch.

• Ben Askren was in town for the Friday night dual, and surprise, surprise, he had things to say.
• Kim Anderson still finds joy in his work. I guess that’s something. Regardless, it was an 0-fer January.
• Mizzou Women’s Hoops attempts to turn a four-game winning streak into a five-game winning streak tonight at Mizzou Arena against 15-6 Kentucky (6 pm CT, SEC Network). Joe Walljapser writes that this year’s surge is even more impressive than last year’s.
• Gymnastics lost by a point to No. 12 Georgia on Friday in Athens. Next up: No. 2 LSU. Good lord, the SEC is a ridiculous gymnastics conference.
• Oh hey look, Karissa Schweizer won a race.
• Bryce Montes de Oca is healthy! Now we’ll see if he can control that hand cannon a bit.
• Mizzou Tennis is 1-0!
• Next Saturday: Black & Gold softball game inside Devine Pavilion. Free admission!