Will Missouri football see offensive line improvement against Auburn?
When Missouri head football coach Eli Drinkwitz walked off the field after the Tigers’ win over Abilene Christian last Saturday, he had an issue he knew needed fixing: the offensive line.
Missouri was sloppy all game blocking against the Wildcats. Drinkwitz came out and said the positions weren’t safe and he would reevaluate who the best five players were on the line.
Now, with the SEC opener against Auburn this week, normal right guard Connor Wood was listed as an “or” on the depth chart along with Mitchell Walters. Drinkwitz emphasized during the week that he felt Missouri’s most pressing problems on the line were both self-imposed and fixable.
“I think the biggest challenge for us has been the penalties,” Drinkwitz said on Tuesday. “We’ve had 13 offensive line penalties in the first three games, and that’s not any one person’s fault, but it’s an alarming trend that needs to be fixed. So it’s about creating competition (Tuesday and Wednesday), and seeing who has the best week of practice, and whoever does will run out there on Saturday.”
The penalties aren’t just concerning Drinkwitz. Tackle and team captain Javon Foster said avoiding them will be a key to success going forward.
Foster said the Tigers have been working to be more precise during practice.
“Doing a lot of hands inside drill,” Foster said. “No more like wrapping and stuff like that, just keeping our hands inside. That goes with technique, though; we’ve really been focusing on that this week.”
It’s a crucial week for getting some of the problems fixed. Auburn’s defensive front seven is extremely good. Those Tigers are led by Colby Wooden, one of college football’s better interior rushers.
The rest of the line and linebackers are solid as well, including Derick Hall and Eku Leota. It will be the Missouri offense’s biggest test yet.
“They’re solid overall,” quarterback Brady Cook said of the front seven. “So we’ve just got to go out there and do our thing. I'm not concerned about it, but yeah, it’ll be a challenge.”
Regardless of how good Auburn’s defensive unit is or isn’t, Drinkwitz wants the sloppy play fixed.
“We’ve got to figure out our offensive line this week because we’ve got to figure out ourselves first,” Drinkwitz said. “It’s about us. We’re going to play good opponents every week, and holding penalties don’t have anything to do with the opponent.”
The offensive line saw changes during the offseason. MU lost center Michael Maietti, who started all 23 games of his Tiger career after transferring in from Rutgers.
Buffalo transfer Bence Polgar, who was brought in to replace Maietti, was ruled ineligible by the NCAA for this season. Now, redshirt freshman Connor Tollison is in the spot.
Three-year starting guard Case Cook is also gone, and tackle Hyrin White is out until at least the bye week. Inexperience is a factor for the group.
Returning starter Foster wasn’t letting that or the fact that it’s early in the 2022 season be an excuse for the unit.
“I mean, 13 penalties is still not acceptable,” Foster said. “So we’ve just got to focus in, key in on technique and making sure we’re doing everything right.
Successfully fixing the issues could help mitigate some of the other problems Missouri’s offense has had this season, from giving Cook more time to find his stable of receivers instead of being forced to extend plays on his own, to allowing the Tiger running backs more space.
Less penalties would also allow the offense to work with more advantageous field position throughout drives.
“It’s really no more deeper or challenging than that,” Drinkwitz said. “We can’t have penalties. We cannot have negative yardage plays on first down."
Missouri plays Auburn on the road at 11 a.m. on Saturday. The game will be shown on ESPN.
This article originally appeared on Columbia Daily Tribune: Missouri football seeks offensive line fix at Auburn for SEC play
