Lets talk about our talent on defense

The sad thing is that Arkansas has an even worse defense, other then our DBs who have played well for the most part this season. We aren't just bad at run D, we still have a shot at being the worst run defense squad in the modern era of college football.

Unless this topsy turvy season has one more trick up its sleeve this one is going to be a shoot out.

Darn it I need more caffeine in my blood stream, went to upvote your post and hit mine instead. Bah.

One thing I will say with near certainty is that Arkansas, with Bert's beloved crawl ball style is that we will win TOP. We might lose by 50 but we will win TOP even if it kills us.

Missouri's D Line has to get pressure on Austin Allen for y'all to win this game. The good news for y'all... that is pretty easy to do against our O Line. That and shut down our running game.

If we get our running game going well enough to fully open up our play action passing attack Arkansas is very difficult to stop with Dan Enos calling plays.

IMO, moving Ford from the DB's has hurt the team badly. His DBs could always tackle.

I thought the DL looked good. Harris and Frazier were all over the place. Howard is back now that the scheme has changed. Their QB is just a hell of a runner.

The LB position has not been recruited well for years. Gooden, Spoon and Brothers were great athletes, but for some reason the coaches won't recruit that formula on a consistent basis.

DL- pretty scary stuff here going into next year. Lose Harris, Augusta and Hatley from the rotation and Beckner will be coming back from his second ACL. Badly need guys like Howard and Moore (as a DT) to take the next step

LB- thought we'd be better here, but injuries have really hurt us as well. Losing Scherer hurts. Burkett not so much. I like the way Biesel has played, and Garret looks like he can be a quality player. Still think we have some depth here and upside. Lee needs to get bigger and stronger. Hall needs to get healthy. Agbasimere catching on would help greatly with his athleticism and Aubrey Miller is IMO our best recruit in this class.

DB- lose both our corners, and I strongly disagree about Penton. He has been really good. He'll get drafted and we'll miss him dearly. I think I've seen Gibson play one good game ever, so that loss doesn't worry me. What does though is what we have behind them. I expect Cheadle to start though I'm not real big on him. Acy and Holmes are two bigger corners we need to step up. The safeties are also a spot I thought we'd be better. Wilson is just a brutal tackler and Sherrills has been a big disappointment. I think Perkins has done ok for a FR and I still believe Hilton is going to be VERY good but he has to tackle much better. Won't lose anyone here, so you will probably have a similar rotation. HAVE to get better here.

Overall, we are going to have several question marks and possibly some glaring holes. Going to have to a lot of guys play better, and get a scheme in here that works.

Going to be tough.

Any word on Utsey's injury?

He had been playing ok the last couple weeks.

A starting CB is probably not on the roster yet. I have liked what I have seen from Acy, though I might like him more as a nickel/safety.

Prewitt may be a starter at safety, or maybe Taylor works into that spot this spring.

Wingo was a highly rated CB coming out of HS. They aren't using him much on offense so maybe it is time to move him where help is needed - if he is willing.

Everyone has a chance to prove themselves on Friday.

No player should want to give Barry Odom incentive to promise playing time out on the recruiting trail this off season.

If that's what it takes though....

I think we will be ok on dline. Our linebackers are small, slow, and not particularly instinctual. They look like the good teams safeties but can't move very fast and in short are terrible. I don't think we have a fix at this point. I had high hopes for Agbasmiere but he must just be horrible to not have seen the field this year.