Mizzou football DB Christian Holmes announces he will transfer

Mizzou football cornerback Christian Holmes announced Friday that he will leave the Tigers as a graduate transfer.

Mizzou football coach Eliah Drinkwitz will be looking for a new starting cornerback this season.

Christian Holmes announced Friday that he has decided to enter the transfer portal. Holmes has one year of eligibility left and will graduate from Mizzou this spring. He will immediately be able to suit up for his next team.

The announcement, which came on Twitter, doesn’t come as a surprise after it was reported Thursday that he was going to leave. Mizzou confirmed those reports.

Holmes has played in 35 games in his four-year career with the Tigers and has 66 tackles, two interceptions and 19 passes defensed. His best season came in 2018, a year after he returned from injury.

That season, Holmes picked off both of his passes and had 14 of his 19 pass breakups. Last year, the Leland, Mississippi, native split time as the starter with sophomore Jarvis Ware opposite of senior DeMarkus Acy. That trio is down to just one player now that Holmes will leave.

The top cornerback other than Ware remaining on the roster is senior Adam Sparks. He has played in 32 career games and has three interceptions for the Tigers. Sparks’ best year was in 2017, when he stepped in for Holmes, who missed the season.

Outside of Sparks, Mizzou has Chris Shearin, Chris Mills and Ish Burdine as scholarship corners. Each has one tackle in one season played. Shearin and Burdine were redshirts last season.

Mizzou may have some other players who decide to leave. But the Tigers’ defense could remain similar to last season after bringing back defensive coordinator Ryan Walters and two of his assistants.

Coach Drinkwitz is hitting the recruiting trail hard over the next couple of weeks and expects to bring in some valuable pieces for the future.