Mizzou Football: Overcoming offensive line woes
Missouri has been playing musical chairs with iys offensive line this season, experimenting with many different lineups. However, it hasn’t effected their offensive production too much.
Coming into the season, Mizzou football knew it had three quality offensive lineman ready to suit up. Left tackle Yasir Durant has been solid and was recently awarded SEC Co-Offensive Lineman of the Week. Trystan Colon-Castillo has been consistent at center, and Tre’Vour Wallace-Simms has held his own.
The other two spots were question marks. The Tigers have experimented with Larry Borom, Case Cook, Bobby Lawrence and Hyrin White. Cook and White started against Ole Miss, and Missouri’s offense flourished, scoring 38 points.
"“[Cook] is as tough a competitor as I’ve ever been around,” head coach Barry Odom said. “The lineup we had last week, they played our best ball.“We got to keep working to get those guys in position to whoever it is, whatever the five, be able not to drop off on our expectations that are standards of how we’re trying to play.”"
Despite constant change in the trenches, the Tigers are averaging 474.3 yards per game. Of those yards, 200 come via the run per game.
Running back Larry Rountree III is fifth in the SEC in rushing yards and tied for first in the conference in rushing touchdowns. Fellow halfback Tyler Badie is leading all SEC running backs in receiving yards and is seventh among running backs nationally as well.
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The only area of concern would be pass protection. All of last year, the less mobile Drew Lock was sacked 13 times, slightly more than the 11 sacks he suffered the year before. In six games this season, however, Kelly Bryant has already been sacked nine times.
This hasn’t hurt Bryant too much, as he is fourth in the SEC in passing yards and quarterback rating, and third in passing touchdowns.
The Tigers next collection of offensive lineman will be seen on Saturday in Nashville as Mizzou faces Vanderbilt. The Commodores are 1-5 and 0-3 in SEC play. The offensive line should dominate a Vandy defensive line that surrenders over 200 rushing yards per game.