Missouri Tigers Positional Preview: Defensive Line

The position has been the calling card of the Missouri Tigers for years. But this year I expect to see the weakest group at this position in years.

There have been plenty of notable defensive linemen that have come through Mizzou in recent memory. Justin Smith went on to have a long NFL career with the Cincinnati Bengals and San Francisco 49ers after his stay in Columbia. Aldon Smith was picked 7th overall in 2011 by the 49ers, and in recent years guys have been on some good teams.

Starting with Shane Ray, first round pick of the Denver Broncos who was part of the Super Bowl championship team last season. He played against former linemate Kony Ealy, who was with the Panthers. Also Markus Golden was a productive player for the Cardinals in his rookie season and Sheldon Richardson has been a good player for the Jets so far in his career.

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But alas, the talent and depth is not going to be there this year.

Things were looking good with Harold Brantley coming back from injury and joining defensive ends Charles Harris and Walter Brady. But on August 3rd, Brantley was ruled academically ineligible and Brady was kicked off the team for violating team rules.

Defensive Tackles

Josh Augusta, A.J. Logan and Terry Beckner will be holding down the middle. Augusta is the big guy, the one who stops the run. At 345 pounds you can’t miss the Peoria, Ill. native. He is a senior who was a productive starter last year, his first as a starter. He racked up 27 tackles and 8.5 for loss. He will be a big part of the defensive line on first and second down, but likely just a two down player.

Beckner was a top recruit out of St. Louis two years ago, and he had a productive freshman season with five starts, 27 tackles (with 8.5 for loss) and three sacks. He was named to the Freshman All-America team and named to freshman All-SEC by the coaches. He is coming off a knee injury sustained against BYU, so he might not be in top form early this season.

Logan is a Columbia native from Rock Bridge High School who is a redshirt junior. He had 21 tackles last year, his first as a starter with a career high seven against Tennessee. He figures to be a big part of the rotation this season.

Defensive Ends

Harris will be the star pass rusher, earning second team All-SEC honors last season. He racked up 18.5 tackles for loss and seven sacks in his first year as a starter. The redshirt junior is a big smaller at just 255 pounds but incredibly quick at the point of attack.

At the other defensive end spot I would look at Marcell Frazier to win the starting job. He played in all 12 games last season with three starts, racking up two sacks and six tackles for loss. The Portland, Ore. native is a lanky redshirt junior at 6-5, 265. He set up the game winning score against BYU last season with a strip sack deep in Cougar territory that was instrumental in Gary Pinkel’s final win.

Other contenders include Spencer Williams, Tyler Hanneke, Josh Moore and Jordan Harold.

Summary

Even more than Brantley and Brady the biggest loss could be Craig Kulangowski, who left the Tigers to take the defensive line coach job at Miami with Mark Richt. He is being replaced by Jackie Shipp, who coached the DL at Oklahoma from 1999-2012 before spending the last three years at Arizona State. He coached NFL standouts in Tommie Harris and Gerald McCoy at Oklahoma and had the Sun Devils lead the nation in team sacks per game last season; so the coaching is in good hands.

It comes down to how well the next guys can step up. If Beckner continues to grow and another end steps up alongside Harris, then this group could be pretty good again. I don’t think it will be as good as previous years, but there are still a lot of question marks and I could see this unit being just average this season if things don’t go right.