Missouri Football: Previewing the Tigers’ defensive line

For many years, Mizzou was known as “D-Line U” under the leadership of defensive line coach extraordinaire, Craig Kuligowski. He left to coach the Miami Hurricanes before the 2016 season, which left the Mizzou defensive line in an odd place last year.

New position coach Jackie Shipp did not work out and he left before the end of the season. This year, Brick Haley takes over and has some talent to work with.

Marcell Frazier will be the star of this unit. The Portland, Ore. native found his way to CoMo because of the long history of producing quality defensive line talent for the NFL.

Last season, he came on late as he finished the season with 7.5 sacks and 8.5 tackles for loss. He was named SEC Defensive Lineman of the week after the win over Arkansas to close out last season.

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Terry Beckner, Jr., the talented, yet seemingly oft-injured, defensive tackle needs to step up and be the guy he was recruited to be this season.

Beckner was the eighth-ranked recruit nationally in 2015 and had a great freshman season; earning first team All-American freshman team honors.

Thus far in his career, he has 51 tackles, including 10.5 for loss. However, injuries to both of his knees have limited him to 17 games in his first two seasons. If he stays healthy, he will be a force this season.

A.J. Logan is a redshirt senior from Columbia. He is a run stuffer at 330 pounds and started in all 12 games last season for the Tigers. He racked up 15 tackles, with three in the season opener at West Virginia, and had two tackles for loss.

Who rounds out the line?

These three are all entrenched starters. Recently, former defensive end Nate Howard, a guy presumed to start along Frazier at end, was dismissed from the team. That leaves guys like junior Nate Anderson and others to compete for time at defensive end.

Anderson was the 13th ranked junior college defensive end and brought his five sacks and 13.5 tackles for loss last season to Faurot Field.

Regardless of who earns the starting spot at end along Frazier, this unit will certainly be one of the more important units on the team.

Next: Previewing Missouri's quarterbacks

While the talent is there, depth is something that concerns me. There are many inexperienced guys who will be used in a rotation throughout the year, but I expect big seasons from both Frazier and Beckner as the driving force behind Missouri’s revival on defense after a down year, last year.