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Just jumping in? Here are the previous rounds of the Missouri Tigers Football Draft:
Welcome, Tiger fans, to #PeakOffseasonContent. Despite a lack of championships, the Missouri Football Tigers have had some excellent players throughout the years, both at the college and professional levels. There have been excellent ambassadors on and off the field, as well as some that changed the program or revolutionized a position. So what better time than now to draft a hypothetical team of these exquisite athletes?
BK and I will build a team of 22 starters (sorry, specialists!) to craft a team to play against the other. For simplicity’s sake, we’re limiting our selections to guys who played on the 2000 team going forward, including the current roster in 2020. Each Round will alternate who goes first and we’ll provide our reasonings/explanations/defense afterwards.
At the end, you all will be able to vote for who you think has the best team! And of course, we’d love to hear your picks for each round as well and why we are dumdums who don’t know what we’re talking about.
11th Round starts....now!
Round XI, Pick 21: BK selects DT Lorenzo Williams
How many Mizzou defensive tackles in the last 20 years have more career sacks than Lorenzo Williams? Exactly zero.
How does that happen for a former linebacker recruit? It’s a good question. Zo was a 3-star linebacker recruit out of Oklahoma that bulked up right away, sliding down to defensive end as a freshman before ultimately kicking inside as a defensive tackle where he found a home at Mizzou.
Zo burst onto the scene right away as a first team freshman All-Big 12 selection. He followed it up with 5.5 sacks as a sophomore, six sacks as a junior and another 7.5 sacks as a team captain in his senior season, resulting in a first team All-Big 12 selection.
Maybe most importantly, he was part of the play that sealed the victory for Mizzou against kU at Arrowhead in 2007.
Welcome to the club, Zo.
My picks:
Round 1: QB Chase Daniel
Round 2: LB Sean Weatherspoon
Round 3: WR Jeremy Maclin
Round 4: DE Aldon Smith
Round 5: CB E.J. Gaines
Round 6: DE Markus Golden
Round 7: WR Justin Gage
Round 8: RB Henry Josey
Round 9: LB Kentrell Brothers
Round 10: C Evan Boehm
Round 11: DT Lorenzo Williams
Round XI, Pick 22: Nate selects CB Carl Gettis
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BK said it best when he drafted E.J. Gaines in the fifth round: Missouri’s talent at cornerback is...lacking. Sure there have been some stand out names here and there but, for the most part, the best corners are guys who got a lot of experience getting burned for two years and finally became competent in their junior and senior years. Gaines was a rarity in that he was an excellent contributor for four years but he wasn’t the only one.
Carl Gettis was the first freshman cornerback of the Pinkel era who started for four full years. He cracked the rotation in 2007 while spelling Darnell Terrell and Castine Bridges and became the full time starter in 2008, maintaining that position until he graduated in 2010. Gettis only snagged four interceptions in his career but what really set him apart, particularly in the Matt Eberflus-coached defenses, was his usage in run support. Gettis contributed 235 tackles from his corner position, 9 of those for loss. And it wasn’t just “he let his man catch the ball and then tackled him” variety, he swatted away nearly 40 passes while also being able to sniff out a run to his side quickly.
The 2010 Tiger secondary was, quietly, one of the best Mizzou has seen, thanks to fielding an experience-heavy rotation lead by Gettis himself. He might not have had the star power, or the NFL career, of E.J. but Carl was a preeminent contributor from a position that tends to get the most negative impressions.
As an added bonus...if you remember the 2009 Border War, Dezmon Briscoe was tearing up the Missouri secondary but fumbled twice to keep Missouri in the game. The guy who forced those fumbles? Caaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarl.