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So it’s come to this. A whole season of charting Missouri snap counts and offensive and defensive formations synthesized into one final, MAMMOTH post
I’m going to keep the into short, since the body is so long. But players in italics are ones who -- as of this very moment — are not going to be back with the team next year:
Offense
Quarterback
Drew Lock -- 865
Marvin Zanders -- 80
——
Running Back
Ish Witter -- 443
Damarea Crockett -- 337
Alex Ross -- 67
Nate Strong -- 60
Ryan Williams -- 14
Dimetrios Mason -- 7
Ray Wingo -- 1
——
H-Back
Sean Culkin -- 223
Kendall Blanton -- 99
Jason Reese -- 71
Tyler Hanneke -- 62
Josh Augusta -- 17
Dimetrios Mason -- 2
Chris Black -- 1
Johnathon Johnson -- 1
——
Wide Receiver
J’Mon Moore -- 789
Dimetrios Mason -- 504
Johnathon Johnson -- 388
Emanuel Hall -- 385
Chris Black -- 231
Richaud Floyd -- 168
Sean Culkin -- 104
Ray Wingo -- 80
Kendall Blanton -- 72
Eric Laurent -- 70
Jason Reese -- 64
Keyon Dilosa -- 44
DeSean Blair -- 14
Tyler Hanneke -- 14
Jake Brents -- 11
Justin Smith -- 9
Steven Spadarotto -- 7
Ish Witter -- 5
Dominic Collins -- 4
Drew Lock -- 4
Alex Ross -- 4
Marvin Zanders -- 4
Damarea Crockett -- 2
---
Tight End
Kendall Blanton -- 169
Sean Culkin -- 135
Jason Reese -- 30
Tyler Hanneke -- 5
Johnathon Johnson -- 1
J’Mon Moore -- 1
——
Line
Kevin Pendleton -- 904
Paul Adams -- 882
Tyler Howell -- 832
Samson Bailey -- 613
Adam Ploudre -- 609
Alec Abeln -- 426
Jonah Dubinski -- 210
Tre’Vour Simms -- 113
Kyle Mitchell -- 55
A.J. Harris -- 41
Michael Stannard -- 24
Thomas Grossman -- 8
Adam Roland -- 8
——
Two-Deep -- Snaps (% Total)
QB: Drew Lock -- 869 (92.0)
Marvin Zanders -- 84 (8.89)
RB: Ish Witter -- 448 (47.4)
Damarea Crockett -- 339 (35.9)
WR: Dimetrios Mason -- 513 (54.3)
Emanuel Hall -- 385 (40.7)
WR: Johnathon Johnson -- 390 (41.3)
Chris Black -- 232 (24.6)
Richaud Floyd -- 168 (17.8)
TE: Sean Culkin -- 462 (48.9)
Kendall Blanton -- 340 (36.0)
LT: Tyler Howell -- 832 (88.0)
Tre’Vour Simms -- 113 (12.0)
LG: Kevin Pendleton -- 904 (95.7)
A.J. Harris -- 41 (4.34)
C: Samson Bailey -- 613 (64.9)
Jonah Dubinski -- 210 (22.2)
RG: Adam Ploudre -- 609 (64.4)
Alec Abeln -- 426 (45.1)
RT: Paul Adams -- 882 (93.3)
Kyle Mitchell -- 55 (5.82)
——-
% Snaps By Class
Sophomore: 41.9
Junior: 31.5
Freshman: 17.3 (True -- 9.29; Redshirt -- 8.01)
Senior: 9.31
% Snaps Scheduled to Return: 90.3
Defense
End
Charles Harris -- 510
Spencer Williams -- 296
Marcell Frazier -- 274
Jordan Harold -- 180
Terry Beckner -- 22
Nate Howard -- 11
Josh Moore -- 11
Rickey Hatley -- 6
A.J. Logan -- 5
Josh Augusta -- 1
Markell Utsey -- 1
—-
Tackle
Rickey Hatley -- 575
A.J. Logan -- 489
Josh Augusta -- 374
Terry Beckner -- 236
Markell Utsey -- 84
Jordan Harold -- 38
Nate Howard -- 22
Josh Moore -- 19
Charles Harris -- 10
Spencer Williams -- 8
Marcell Frazier -- 7
Tyrell Jacobs -- 6
—-
Rush End
Charles Harris -- 206
Marcell Frazier -- 175
Spencer Williams -- 97
Jordan Harold -- 68
Josh Moore -- 17
Rickey Hatley -- 4
A.J. Logan -- 4
Nate Howard -- 2
Markell Utsey -- 1
——
Linebacker
Donavin Newsom -- 623
Joey Burkett -- 468
Michael Scherer -- 405
Cale Garrett -- 354
Eric Beisel -- 312
Brandon Lee -- 260
Terez Hall -- 166
Grant Jones -- 3
Jacob Trump -- 3
——
Nickelback
T.J. Warren -- 216
DeMarkus Acy -- 26
Cam Hilton -- 22
Greg Taylor -- 22
Thomas Wilson -- 17
Aarion Maxey-Penton -- 14
Logan Cheadle -- 13
John Gibson -- 3
Ronnell Perkins -- 1
Anthony Sherrils -- 1
——
Cornerback
Aarion Maxey-Penton -- 812
John Gibson -- 693
Logan Cheadle -- 198
DeMarkus Acy -- 111
T.J. Warren -- 26
Christian Holmes -- 13
Anthony Hines -- 3
Finis Stribling IV -- 3
Thomas Wilson -- 2
——
Safety
Thomas Wilson -- 513
Anthony Sherrils -- 492
Cam Hilton -- 466
Ronnell Perkins -- 417
Brock Bondurant -- 3
Tavon Ross -- 3
———
Two-Deep -- Snaps (% Total)
DE: Charles Harris -- 726 (76.5)
Jordan Harold -- 286 (30.1)
DT: Rickey Hatley -- 585 (61.6)
Terry Beckner -- 258 (27.2)
DT: A.J. Logan -- 498 (52.5)
Josh Augusta -- 375 (39.5)
DE: Marcell Frazier -- 456 (48.1)
Spencer Williams -- 401 (42.3)
LB: Joey Burkett -- 468 (49.3)
Cale Garrett -- 354 (37.3)
LB: Michael Scherer -- 405 (42.7)
Eric Beisel -- 312 (32.9)
LB: Donavin Newsom -- 623 (65.6)
Brandon Lee -- 260 (27.4)
NB: T.J. Warren -- 242 (25.5)
CB: Aarion Maxey-Penton -- 826 (87.0)
DeMarkus Acy -- 137 (14.4)
CB: John Gibson -- 696 (73.3)
Logan Cheadle -- 211 (22.2)
S: Thomas Wilson -- 532 (56.1)
Ronnell Perkins -- 418 (44.0)
S: Anthony Sherrils -- 493 (51.9)
Cam Hilton -- 488 (51.4)
——--
% Snaps By Class
Junior: 38.2
Senior: 33.6
Sophomore: 16.2
Freshman: 12.0 (True -- 5.65; Redshirt -- 6.38)
% Snaps Scheduled to Return: 59.4
———-——-
Whole Team
% Snaps By Class
Junior: 34.8
Sophomore: 29.0
Senior: 21.5
Freshman: 14.7 (True -- 7.46; Redshirt -- 7.19)
% Snaps Scheduled to Return: 74.8
Heres and Theres
- Look upon those 90-percent eligible returning snaps on offense and drool, Missouri fans. Look, ye, also upon the 24 players on the two-deep and see that only two of them -- Black and Culkin -- are out of eligibility.
- Dangggggggggg.
- That line that came out of left field to be one of the strongest units on this year’s team? Set to lose a whopping 0.5 percent of their snaps going into next year.
- Pendleton, Adams and Lock are your ironmen, playing more than 90 percent of the offensive snaps. Shoutout, too, to J’Mon Moore for playing 83.6 percent of the wideout snaps, a full 54 percent more than his next closest receiver, Mason.
- I always like to see the H-back/Tight End/Wideout split for the Tigers’ nominal tight ends. Culkin’s was 48-29-23, Blanton’s was 29-50-21 and Reese’s was 43-18-38. So does that mean Reese will take over Culkin’s role as a plurarlity H-back while Blanton keeps playing attached more often? And can Brendan Scales and/or Albert Okwuegbunam snipe some of those HB/TE/WR snaps?
- Missouri’s heralded graduate transfers combined to play about 16 percent of the Tigers’ snaps.
- The six starters leaving on defense are going to hurt. Five of them played at least 61 percent of the team’s defensive snaps -- and let’s marvel, one more time, at a defensive lineman, Charles Harris, playing more than 3/4 of the snaps — and the other (Scherer) played about 90 percent of the snaps when he was around.
- Also interesting to me that Missouri stood Frazier up a lot more often on the edge (39 percent) than Harris (29 percent). One wonders if that’s going to be something that carries over to next year, as he becomes the featured edge rusher, or whether his secondary edge threat becomes the stand-up guy.
- The Tigers are losing 81 percent of their cornerback snaps. Whole lot on the shoulders of Cheadle, Acy, Holmes et al.
- In contrast, nobody (so far) is gone from the safeties. And, as you can see by their very close snap margins, Missouri never really figured out what to do with these four. And you add Kaleb Prewett to that mix next year.
- So what to do with him? And T.J. Warren, who was a better nickelback than a corner this season. Do you try Warren at corner and hope for the best? Bump one of the safeties (Hilton?) to corner and hope he competes? Sacrifice the snaps of whoever steps into the strongside linebacker role (Burkett? Terez Hall? Lee?) and run Warren or Prewett out there at nickelback more often?
- There’s levels to this...
Offensive Set Success
3-WR/2-RB
Run: 227 for 1465 (6.45 avg.), 12 TD, fumble lost
Pass: 91-of-160, 1436 yards (8.98 avg.), 11 TD, 4 INT, fumble lost
Sack: 3 for -20 (-6.67 avg.)
Total: 390 plays, 2881 yards (7.39 avg.), 23 TD, 6 TOs
——-
3-WR/1-TE/1-RB
Run: 160 for 805 (5.03 avg.), 8 TD, 2 fumbles lost
Pass: 57-of-97, 828 yards (8.54 avg.), 8 TD, 4 INT, 2 fumbles lost
Sack: 3 for -21 (-7.00 avg.)
Total: 260 plays, 1612 yards (6.20 avg.), 16 TD, 8 TOs
——-
4-WR/1-RB
Run: 52 for 198 (3.81 avg.)
Pass: 83-of-165, 1072 yards (6.50 avg.), 4 TD, 2 INT, 2 fumbles lost
Sack: 6 for -48 (-8.00 avg.), fumble lost
Bad Snap: 2 for -19 (-9.50 avg.), fumble lost
Total: 225 plays, 1203 yards (5.35 avg.), 4 TD, 6 TOs
——-
2-WR/1-TE/2-RB
Run: 19 for 65 (3.42 avg.)
Pass: 8-of-14, 100 yards (7.14 avg.), 2 TD
Bad Snap: 1 for -15
Total: 34 plays, 150 yards (4.41 avg.), 2 TD
——-
JUGGERNAUT
Run: 16 for 44 (2.75 avg.), 4 TD, 2 fumbles lost
Pass: 1-of-1, 16 yards
Total: 17 plays, 60 yards (3.53 avg.), 4 TD, 2 TOs
———
5-WR
Run: 1 for 2
Pass: 5-of-6, 45 yards (7.50 avg.)
Total: 7 plays, 47 yards (6.71 avg.)
——-
Victory
Kneel: 5 for -8 (-1.60 avg.)
-----
2-WR/3-RB
Run: 2 for 24 (12.0 avg.)
Pass: 1-of-1, 3 yards
Total: 3 plays, 26 yards (8.67 avg.)
-----
Punt Shenanigans
Run: 1 for 14
Pass: 1-of-1, 11 yards
Bad Snap: 1 for -22
Total: 3 plays, 3 yards (1.00 avg.)
--——
2-WR/1-RB
Pass: 1-of-1, 18 yards
--——
2-WR/2-TE/1-RB
Pass: 1-of-1, 17 yards
-----
4-WR/1-TE
Pass: 0-of-1
Defensive Set Success
4-3
Run: 197 for 1263 (6.41 avg.), 8 TD, fumble recovery
Pass: 68-of-122, 911 yards (7.47 avg.), 3 TD, 6 INT
Sack: 7 for -30 (-4.29 avg.)
Kneel: 4 for -11 (-2.75 avg.)
Total: 330 plays, 2133 yards (6.46 avg.), 11 TD, 7 TOs
——-
3-4
Run: 114 for 758 (6.65 avg.), 6 TD, 2 fumble recoveries
Pass: 58-of-102, 782 yards (7.67 avg.), 4 TD, 4 INT
Sack: 4 for -23 (-5.75 avg.)
Bad Snap: 1 for -16
Total: 221 plays, 1501 yards (6.79 avg.), 10 TD, 6 TOs
——-
Nickel
Run: 112 for 619 (5.53 avg.), 4 TD
Pass: 58-of-96, 654 yards (6.81 avg.), 5 TD, 4 INT
Sack: 9 for -74 (-8.22 avg.), fumble recovery
Kneel: 2 for -6 (-3.00 avg.)
Total: 219 plays, 1193 yards (5.45 avg.), 9 TD, 5 TOs
--——
2-front
Run: 30 for 133 (4.43 avg.), TD, fumble recovery
Pass: 25-of-39, 197 yards (5.05 avg.)
Total: 69 plays, 330 yards (4.78 avg.), TD, TO
——-
Dime
Run: 7 for 50 (7.14 avg.)
Pass: 12-of-26, 149 yards (5.73 avg.), INT
Sack: 4 for -25 (-6.25 avg.)
Total: 37 plays, 174 yards (4.70 avg.), TO
—-
3-3-5
Run: 10 for 104 (10.4 avg.), TD
Pass: 15-of-25, 240 yards (9.60 avg.), 3 TD
Sack: 1 for -6
Total: 36 plays, 338 yards (9.39 avg.), 4 TD
-----
4-4
Run: 21 for 54 (2.57 avg.), 5 TD
Pass: 3-of-5, 17 yards (3.40 avg.), TD
Sack: 1 for -10
Total: 27 plays, 61 yards (2.26 avg.), 6 TD
—-
5-front
Run: 4 for 8 (2.00 avg.), 2 TD
Pass: 1-of-1, 2 yards, TD
Total: 5 plays, 10 yards (2.00 avg.), 3 TD
——
3-2-6
Run: 1 for -1
Pass: 1-of-2, 10 yards (5.00 avg.)
Total: 3 plays, 9 yards (3.00 avg.)
-----
4-5
Run: 1 for 2, TD
——
5-4-3
Run: 1 for -1
Illegal Substitution Penalties: 1
- This is the biggest change Josh Heupel made. Missouri was a four-wide majority team for at least the past three years, since I’ve been keeping track. Maybe more. This year, that set saw only 24 percent usage, behind three-wide/tight end attached (28 percent) and three-wide/tight end in the backfield (41 percent).
- So not only did Heupel use tight ends more frequently -- Culkin, Blanton and Reese averaged 80.6 snaps per game — but he used them much more frequently as fullbacks and tight ends rather than split out wide. And to greater effect, to boot. Three-wide sets averaged 6.91 yards a play while four-wides averaged 5.35.
- Part of that was the predictability. The 3-1-1 and 3-0-2, combined, were a 60-40 run set. Not the most balanced, but not terrible. The 4-0-1 was a 76-24 pass set.
- Alas, poor JUGGERNAUT. The end result was OK — 3.5 yards a play, a score on about a quarter of the snaps. But keep in mind that two plays netted 45 of those yards. The other 15 plays earned 15, with two fumbles. And the set sort of wilted at the end of the year.
- Just proves that it’s true. Nothing gold can stay.
- On defense, the Tigers showed a 4-3 look about 35 percent of the time and displayed the Nickel and 4-3 personnel with a standing rush end about equal — 23 percent of the time each.
- So that’s 81 percent of the Tigers’ defensive plays. And look at those yards per rush allowed -- 6.41, 6.65, 5.53. Bad news bears, man.
- In the Nickel and Dime, when they were able to turn their pass-rushers loose, the Tigers got to the quarterback 13 times in 122 pass attempts, or once every 9.38. In 4-3 personnel, they got there once every 20.4 (11 in 224).
- The Nickel and Dime, maybe not coincidentally, are the sets in which the Tigers did their most experimenting with the front as well, what with the Cheetah and shifting the ends inside and the tackles outside.
- (Short sidebar: what would that one be called? Bulky on the outside. Sleek on the inside...I’m coming up empty.)
Well, I guess that’s about all I got. I hope you found this feature educational and (at least a little) entertaining?
If you didn’t, don’t tell me. I spent about 100 hours on these all told this year and I just might cry.
Then again, if you want to see a grown man cry, then go ahead and tell me you hated it.