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Now that the 2018 season has run its course, I thought it would be a good time to consolidate all of the Tigers’ snap count data and present it in a way that’s (hopefully) digestible and able to reinforce/challenge notions of who played too much, who didn’t play enough, what worked, what didn’t, etc.
Only plays that officially counted are counted — so, no penalties — and special teams trick plays/botched snaps are not counted either. In the offensive and defensive set numbers at the bottom, kneels are also excluded. Because, come on.
The values in the parentheses next to the players’ snap numbers are his snaps per game played and the percent of the team’s total offensive or defensive plays in which he was active this year, minus the snaps we discussed above (penalties and special teams shenanigans).
Italicized players are ones who we know, at this time, will not be returning next year. All “starters” listed on top of the line at each position are determined by players who saw more than 40 percent of the team’s snaps for the season.
Quarterback
Drew Lock — 942 (72.5; 93.7%)
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Taylor Powell — 48 (9.6; 4.78%)
Micah Wilson — 15 (7.5; 1.49%)
The name of the guy getting 94 percent of the quarterback snaps next year, in all likelihood, will rhyme with “Jelly Pliant.”
Running Back
Larry Rountree — 447 (34.4; 44.5%)
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Damarea Keener-Crockett — 293 (26.6; 29.2%)
Tyler Badie — 235 (19.6; 23.4%)
Simi Bakare — 19 (6.3; 1.89%)
Dawson Downing — 18 (4.5; 1.79%)
Crockett’s surprise departure opens a big opportunity for Badie to step into a true No. 2 back role behind Rountree, with some snaps and carries opening up for Bakare and other young backs. Rountree got a touch on 53.5 percent of his snaps, Crockett on 54.3 and Badie on 43.0.
Receiver
Johnathon Johnson — 591 (45.5; 58.8%)
Jalen Knox — 552 (46.0; 54.9%)
Emanuel Hall — 402 (44.7; 40.0%)
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Nate Brown — 321 (45.9; 31.9%)
Kam Scott — 312 (24.0; 31.0%)
Richaud Floyd — 130 (21.7; 12.9%)
Dominic Gicinto — 129 (10.8; 12.8%)
Barrett Banister — 98 (9.8; 9.75%)
Alex Ofodile — 90 (9.0; 8.96%)
Khmari Thompson — 23 (7.7; 2.29%)
Hall and Brown’s injury troubles opened up opportunities for Knox, whose snap share jumped from 46.4% at the halfway point to 54.9. The other guy with big upward mobility? Banister. His snap share jumped from 2.67 to 9.75 percent. By the end of the year, he and Gicinto were just about interchangeable as the fourth wideout in the Tigers’ 4-0-1.
Tight End
Kendall Blanton — 474 (47.4; 47.2%)
Albert Okwuegbunam — 472 (52.4; 47.0%)
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Daniel Parker — 261 (26.1; 26.0%)
Samson Bailey — 159 (14.5; 15.8%)
Brendan Scales — 33 (5.5; 3.28%)
Logan Christopherson — 30 (10.0; 2.99%)
Cameron Wilkins — 3 (3.0; 0.30%)
Missouri’s TEPS (Tight Ends Per Snap) ended up at 1.36 for the year. A little bit down from the midway point, but solid nonetheless. If we’re talking split wide/attached/in the backfield splits, Blanton’s was 26/58/16, Okwuegbunam’s was 40/40/19 and Parker’s was 6/33/61. Isn’t that interesting? Blanton ended up being much more likely to line up attached, Okwuegbunam’s split wide percentage was way out of the ordinary for the rest of the group, and Parker was much more frequently used in the backfield than the other two. If Okwuegbunam stays around, he can fill that attached/split wide role with Parker reprising his H-back/attached niche from this season. If he leaves, Missouri’s going to have to seek out a receiving/route-friendly tight end who can also block. Oh, and Parker’s snap share raised from 5.54 percent to 26.0. Significant.
Line
Paul Adams — 956 (73.5; 95.1%)
Tre’Vour Wallace-Simms — 944 (72.6; 93.9%)
Trystan Colon-Castillo — 928 (71.4; 92.3%)
Yasir Durant — 904 (69.5; 90.0%)
Kevin Pendleton — 807 (67.3; 80.3%)
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Case Cook — 166 (20.8; 16.5%)
Hyrin White — 101 (14.4; 10.0%)
Jonah Dubinski — 65 (10.8; 6.47%)
Larry Borom — 49 (9.8; 4.88%)
Mike Ruth — 25 (12.5; 2.49%)
Xavier Delgado — 12 (12.0; 1.19%)
Adams is your offensive (and team) Ironman, playing 95.1 percent of the Tigers’ offensive snaps. Really no movement in this group all year, except for Pendleton definitively seizing left guard from Cook as the year progressed. It’s a nice luxury to have all five of your original starting linemen end up playing at least 80 percent of the team’s offensive snaps.
End
Chris Turner — 490 (37.7; 55.4%)
Tre Williams — 423 (35.3; 47.9%)
Akial Byers — 356 (27.4; 40.3%)
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Nate Anderson — 316 (24.3; 35.7%)
Trajan Jeffcoat — 130 (11.8; 14.7%)
Franklin Agbasimere — 48 (6.9; 5.43%)
Jatorian Hansford — 29 (4.1; 3.28%)
Myles Eaddy — 4 (2.0; 0.45%)
Even if Williams makes it back into the team’s good graces, he may not have a starting spot waiting for him when he returns. Going into the Oklahoma State game, Byers’ snap share had raised from 18.7 to 37.8, and Williams’ had fallen from 55.4 to 52.5. So he was trending down a bit, at least, before the suspension. Of course, if he does come back, it would make it so that the Tigers return four of the five guys who saw more than 10 percent of the snaps at end, rather than three.
Tackle
Terry Beckner — 564 (43.4; 63.8%)
Jordan Elliott — 374 (28.8; 42.3%)
Walter Palmore — 372 (28.6; 42.1%)
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Kobie Whiteside — 164 (13.7; 18.6%)
Rashad Brandon — 149 (16.6; 16.9%)
Markell Utsey — 27 (9.0; 3.05%)
Antar Thompson — 18 (4.5; 2.04%)
Tyrell Jacobs — 17 (5.7; 1.92%)
Missouri is going to miss Beckner’s sheer steadiness in the middle. Even if he never put 16-TFL, 10-sack type numbers, the reliability of an interior lineman who can go out and play 64 percent of the game for you in a quality manner each week is not easy to come by. Elliott’s snap share surged to 42.3 from 39.9 at the midway point, and he barely eked out Palmore at year’s end. Whiteside’s, meanwhile, fell from 25.6 to 18.6 as Brandon usurped him on the depth. Looking at this, tackle should be a bit worrisome to coaches going into 2019. It’s Elliott and...who exactly? Kind of the same as it was going into 2018 (Beckner and who?), but I feel like there were more potentially quality replacement options at this point last year.
Linebacker
Terez Hall — 757 (58.2; 85.6%)
Cale Garrett — 744 (57.2; 84.2%)
Brandon Lee — 499 (41.6; 56.4%)
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Ronnell Perkins — 241 (21.9; 27.3%)
Nick Bolton — 97 (13.9; 11.0%)
Jamal Brooks — 37 (6.2; 4.19%)
Jacob Trump — 22 (4.4; 2.49%)
Tavon Ross — 18 (3.6; 2.04%)
Aubrey Miller — 13 (6.5; 1.47%)
Roderick Winters — 4 (4.0; 0.45%)
Hall leaving is going to hurt, but Perkins stepping in for the bowl game makes Lee’s loss look at little more palatable, at least. Plus, Bolton showed well in limited settings and Garrett, if he continues his trajectory, should put together a whale of a senior season.
Cornerback
DeMarkus Acy — 752 (57.8; 85.1%)
Christian Holmes — 561 (43.2; 63.5%)
Adam Sparks — 422 (52.8; 47.7%)
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Terry Petry — 81 (10.1; 9.16%)
Jarvis Ware — 68 (11.3; 7.69%)
Finis Stribling — 4 (4.0; 0.45%)
This depth chart looked a little more aspirational before the bowl game. Then Acy had a career-bad day and, all of a sudden, a set cornerback depth doesn’t seem like the best thing. Holmes came on strong toward the end (and, truthfully, Acy had too before...the unpleasantness...), but there seems to be a need for someone (anyone?) to push those top two and raise the play of them all. Maybe a healthy Sparks can do that.
Safety
Cam Hilton — 546 (42.0; 61.8%)
Khalil Oliver — 501 (38.5; 56.7%)
Joshuah Bledsoe — 479 (39.9; 54.2%)
Tyree Gillespie — 399 (30.7; 45.1%)
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Jordan Ulmer — 14 (7.0; 1.58%)
Dominic Nelson— 4 (4.0; 0.45%)
Safety ended up being a jumble. Some of that had to deal with the fact that, with Sparks’ injury, Missouri’s Dime looks down the back half of the season featured all four of those above-the-line safeties on the field at the same time. The big gainer was Gillespie (25.9 percent at the halfway point to 45.1), but the fact that all four of them were shuffling in and out pretty willy nilly by the end could indicate that Jalani Williams has a nice, flexible depth chart waiting for him when he gets to campus.
Experience Breakdown
Team
Senior — 35.1%
Sophomore — 27.3%
Junior — 25.8%
Freshman — 11.9% (True: 9.11%; Redshirt: 2.76%)
Offense
Senior — 36.7%
Junior — 27.3%
Freshman — 18.7% (True: 14.2%; Redshirt: 4.45%)
Sophomore — 18.7%
Defense
Sophomore — 38.5%
Senior — 33.2%
Junior — 24.1%
Freshman — 4.16% (True: 3.33%; Redshirt: 0.83%)
These didn’t end up moving much from the midpoint: the juniors made up a little bit of ground at the expense of the freshmen. Sophomores still reigned supreme for the Tigers on defense which, maybe, bodes well for getting firmly into the top third of the country on that side of the ball in 2020? Or maybe not. Experience isn’t everything.
Top 5 Offensive Sets
4-WR/1-RB (Usage: 25.8%)
Run: 58 for 337 (5.81 avg.), 2 TD
Pass: 128-of-193, 1395 yards (7.23 avg.), 7 TD, 6 INT, fumble lost
Sack: 6 for -35, fumble lost
Total: 257 for 1697 (6.60 avg.), 9 TD, 8 TO
3-WR/1-TE/1-RB (Usage: 25.2%)
Run: 138 for 749 (5.43 avg.), 4 TD
Pass: 66-of-109, 933 yards (8.56 avg.), 5 TD, 2 INT, 3 fumbles lost
Sack: 4 for -44, fumble lost
Total: 251 for 1638 (6.53 avg.), 9 TD, 6 TO
3-WR/2-RB (Usage: 18.4%)
Run: 104 for 572 (5.50 avg.), 5 TD
Pass: 51-of-79, 604 yards (7.65 avg.), 7 TD
Sack: 1 for -6
Total: 184 for 1170 (6.36 avg.), 12 TD
2-WR/1-TE/2-RB (Usage: 14.8%)
Run: 117 for 555 (4.74 avg.), 3 TD
Pass: 15-of-30, 191 yards (6.37 avg.), 4 TD
Sack: 1 for -2
Total: 148 for 744 (5.03 avg.), 7 TD
2-WR/2-TE/1-RB (Usage: 10.8%)
Run: 84 for 387 (4.61 avg.), 4 TD
Pass: 13-of-24, 358 yards (14.9 avg.), 4 TD
Total: 108 for 745 (6.90 avg.), 8 TD
The 4-0-1 overtook the 3-1-1 as the Tigers’ main offensive set, but both of them slid in usage percentage, from a total of about 60 percent of the time at the midway point to 51 percent of the time by the end. The main beneficiary? The 2-1-2, which saw its usage balloon from 5.39 to 14.8 percent thanks to big outings against Vanderbilt (24.4), Tennessee (40.5) and Arkansas (33.3). These were, perhaps not coincidentally, the first games after Okwuegbunam went out and the Tigers started emphasizing more power sets, with Blanton attached and Parker in the backfield at the same time. The 3-1-1 (55-45 run) and 3-0-2 (56-44 run) were pretty even sets, while the 4-0-1 (77-23 pass), 2-1-2 (79-21 run) and 2-2-1 (78-22 run) were skewed in pretty predictable ways. When Missouri did pass out of the two-wide sets, though, it was pretty lethal: 28-of-54 for 549 yards and eight touchdowns combined.
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Top 4 Defensive Sets
4-3 (Usage: 66.2%)
Run: 321 for 1396 (4.35 avg.), 8 TD, 2 fumbles lost
Pass: 154-of-254, 2113 yards (8.32 avg.), 17 TD, 5 INT, fumble lost
Sack: 10 for -45, fumble lost
Total: 585 for 3464 (5.92 avg.), 25 TD, 9 TO
3-4 (Usage: 14.0%)
Rush: 59 for 271 (4.59 avg.)
Pass: 33-of-63, 400 yards (6.35 avg.), 4 TD, INT
Sack: 2 for -34, fumble lost
Total: 124 for 637 (5.14 avg.), 4 TD, 2 TO
4-1-6 Dime (Usage: 9.16%)
Run: 10 for 94 (9.40 avg.)
Pass: 28-of-63, 392 yards (6.22 avg.), TD, 3 INT
Sack: 8 for -68
Total: 81 for 418 (5.16 avg.), TD, 3 TO
3-2-6 Dime (Usage: 8.03%)
Run: 9 for 35 (3.89 avg.)
Pass: 30-of-57, 437 yards (7.67 avg.), 2 TD, INT
Sack: 5 for -31
Total: 71 for 441 (6.21 avg.), 2 TD, TO
Missouri ran out of its base personnel (4-3 or 3-4) about 80 percent of the time, then was in one of two Dimes (3-2-6 or 4-1-6) another 17 percent of the time. The 4-1-6 worked much better on a per-play basis (5.16 avg.) than the 3-2-6 (6.21) and, perhaps as a result, saw its usage increase to 9.16 percent from 6.16 at the halfway point while the 3-2-6 decreased slightly from 8.62 to 8.03. The 3-2-6 was especially dreadful against Kentucky (14 plays, 99 yards), Tennessee (four for 43) and Oklahoma State (seven for 59), while the 4-1-6 was especially potent against Florida (13 for 22) and Arkansas (11 for 14)...but also dreadful against Vanderbilt (18 for 182). Which should serve as your semiregular reminder that, while Missouri was pretty sporty on third downs this year, it was still prone to hemorrhaging explosive plays out of its specialty looks. Thirteen sacks in 120 pass attempts out of the Dime ain’t too shabby, though.