Missouri head coach Barry Odom and offensive coordinator Derek Dooley met with the media on Friday. It basically served as Dooley’s introductory press conference.

Fun fact: in the history of football, no new offensive coordinator has ever said anything particularly interesting or revealing in his introductory press conference. Dooley didn’t break that streak. He appeared likable enough, but the proof will very, very much be in the pudding with this one. And the pudding’s a ways off.

Dooley missed the SEC

At least, he can say that after some time away.

“Getting back into the crosshairs is a little bit more my personality,” Dooley said Friday, his first news conference as Missouri’s new offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach. “It’s easy to stay removed from the firing line. You guys (the media) have the ammo and you’re firing away. That’s OK. That’s your job. But there’s a lot of personalities (in coaching) that don’t like that. And that’s OK. They’re great coaches. But I guess that’s not mine.

“I’m a glutton for punishment.”

He evidently wanted to be a little less comfortable.

“I had a good job, and I’m really thankful for Jason Garrett, who hired me, and the Jones family — they were phenomenal for me,” Dooley said in an introductory press conference Friday at the Missouri Athletics Training Complex. “But (Missouri) Coach (Barry Odom) talked about the chip on my shoulder and all that. I didn’t really want to be in this comfortable place. It was a good job; I was in a routine.

Multiple ... flexible ... BINGO!

Every offensive coordinator in the history of football has also used those words.

Dooley was coy about his offensive plans with the Tigers but seems set on bringing that sort of offense to Missouri and building it around the Tigers’ personnel.

“We’ll have elements of the pro-style, and there’ll be elements of the uptempo and spread,” he said. ... “We’re going to be multiple enough and flexible enough to where we can handle every situation and do what we think is best to win.”

Finally the truth

I’ve long complained that the words “pro-style” don’t actually mean anything anymore (if they ever really meant something). A guy who spent the last five years coaching in the pros agrees.

“Pro-style basically means you run everything, I guess,” he said. “I don’t even know what pro-style means anymore. We incorporated tempo into a pro-style system. I think there will be elements of the pro-style and elements of the college tempo and spread it.”

I guess this is easy to say in hindsight

There are basically two gears when it comes to tempo. The first is using it selectively, or after a big play to take advantage of certain matchups and make sure the defense can’t substitute. Just about everybody in college football does that at least a little at this point, even the two heavyweights in Monday’s national title game. The second gear is what Mizzou did these past two seasons. Safe to say, Mizzou in 2018 will be more first-gear than second.

We’ll see what Drew Lock can handle

So basically...

1. Selective tempo.
2. More for Drew Lock to think through and more of the field to use.
3. “Pro style” is a load of crap.

Now we wait for the pudding.

This weekend’s Mizzou schedule:

• Wrestling: EMU at Mizzou (Saturday, noon CT)
• Basketball: Mizzou at Arkansas (Saturday, 5 pm CT)

That’s about it. Slow weekend.