With the baseball season about a week away, the Missouri Tigers allowed the media to speak with head coach Kerrick Jackson, along with junior Jackson Lovich and graduate Xavier Lovett, ahead of the season. This comes after Mizzou was projected to finish last in this year's SEC ranking projections for the 2025 season.
During the meeting, Jackson discussed the offseason, focusing on player development and how some of the younger players have made strides.
One of the first topics Jackson addressed was a major question heading into the season: who would fill in at shortstop after Drew Culbertson’s transfer to Oklahoma State? While it was initially expected that new transfer Gehrig Goldbeck would take over the position, it was revealed during the press conference that Goldbeck will need Tommy John surgery and will only be available to hit in 2025.
With this news, other options are being considered. Coach Jackson mentioned Peyton Basler, a teammate of Goldbeck's last year at KCK, as one possibility. Other names, such as Jackson Lovich and true freshman Trey Lawrence, were also mentioned. While Jackson may be hesitant to start a freshman at shortstop, it's worth noting that Culbertson was a freshman last year and excelled in the role.
Despite the challenges, Jackson feels that the team is in a better position now than it was at this point last year.
"Pitchers have been progressing well. We’ve got some young guys stepping up and doing some really good things. From a positional standpoint, I think we’re going to be better offensively and defensively across the board."
Much of this improvement, Jackson attributes to the growth in his players' mentality over the past year. In his second full season as head coach, Jackson has worked to instill a winning mindset in his players—one that they can carry onto the field. After focusing on this last year in his first full season, his players are now entering the season with that mentality and are ready to put in the work.
"A lot of guys have bought into the culture," pitcher Xavier Lovett said about the biggest change from last year. "Coach Jackson and the coaching staff have been emphasizing it since last year, so I feel like that's been really beneficial for this team."
Following this, Jackson was asked about another major roster question for the season: the rotation. With some of their top arms from 2024 either graduating or transferring, and senior Javyn Pimental undergoing Tommy John surgery just a day after the interview, everyone was wondering what the rotation would look like for the upcoming season and how the injured players and new additions might factor into it.
"We're still trying to figure those things out," Jackson said when asked about the rotation. "We’ve had some guys do some really good things for us. We have some good arms, but not necessarily a lot of starting experience, so we’re still working through that to figure out how everything will pan out. But we have a number of returners who have been solid, like Brock Lucas, Ian Lohse, and Daniel Wissler. Kadden Drew, who redshirted last year, has also been impressive."
Two other pitchers who didn’t see the field at all in 2024 but have a chance to add depth to the team in 2025 are redshirt freshman Wil Libbert, who missed the season due to injury, and sophomore Sam Horn, who last pitched in 2023 and was nearing triple digits before Tommy John surgery ended both his 2023 and 2024 seasons. Both have an opportunity to contribute in 2025.
Libbert appears to be on a good track, making the most of his time off from pitching by studying hitters and contributing to the team’s preparations. He performed well in both the Summer and Fall leagues for the Tigers. Horn, on the other hand, is on a different path. Still listed as the second/third-string quarterback, he has been focusing on his recovery and preparing for Spring football with the Tigers, rather than concentrating on baseball for now.
"What type of opportunity does he earn?" Jackson said when discussing Libbert’s role this year. "What can he handle? I think, long-term, he can do just about anything. But in the short term, if you want to be a starter, you have to be able to get through your order at least twice. Can you throw your secondary pitches for strikes in hitter's counts—2-0, 2-1, 3-1, 0-0? There's a learning curve for him, but if he can do those things, I think his role could be any of those."
This mentality that Coach Jackson is trying to instill in his players is one of the key factors he hopes will help get his team over the hump this year. Emphasizing a "player-led" approach, he wants his players to step up, fill the roles where needed, and lead themselves to victory—ultimately reaching the level he knows they can achieve, all while becoming the best versions of themselves in the process.
"I've allowed them to take control of that a little more this year because I believe they’re mentally in the right place to do so," Jackson said. "They handle a lot of things that I don’t need to manage. When you can get young players and young men to develop that sense of accountability, I think it's the best thing in the world. As we tell them all the time, we're trying to teach life lessons."
Looking ahead to the start of the season, Jackson understands the challenges of their schedule, facing two teams that made regionals and one that advanced to the supers. However, he hopes this tough slate will instill a strong mentality in his team from the start. As they enter conference play, Jackson is aware of the difficulties ahead, but he remains optimistic and keeps his head high.
"The beauty of the SEC is that you don’t have to win the league to put yourself in a position to make a regional," he said when discussing the conference. "Last year, they took 11 teams, and you saw us play with 32 losses—14 of those losses were by two runs or less. We went on to win the right seven games, going from 13th place to eighth place in the SEC. We finished in eighth place in the SEC."
Jackson believes that if he can get his players to stay focused on their own game, without worrying about what others are doing, they can be successful. With a large mix of returners, transfers, and freshmen, the team will experience ups and downs, but players will support and back each other up throughout the season.