Missouri Football: 2017 season preview, predictions

Offense

The most pleasant surprise last season for Missouri was the jump the offense made. Josh Heupel completely revitalized a beleaguered offense and turned it into one of the country’s statistically best units.

The Tigers averaged more than 30 points per game, 200 yards rushing, just a hair under 300 yards passing and over 500 yards total. The one problem is that those numbers are somewhat deceiving. Mizzou unquestionably was better on offense last year, but they were inconsistent and the numbers ballooned in a few games against truly terrible opponents.

Mizzou scored 61 in a win over Eastern Michigan and 79 in a shutout win against Delaware State. They also scored 45 in a losing effort against Middle Tennessee State. In SEC play, the Tigers were a middling offense.

They only averaged 22.6 points per game which made them 11th and 446 total yards which put them in fifth. Mizzou only scored 30 points once against an SEC opponent — 37 in a shootout loss to Tennessee in which the Vols put up 63.

Missouri returns 10 starters this season including a receiver and running back coming off 1,000-yard seasons. Damarea Crockett led the team with 1,062 rushing yards and 10 touchdowns despite only becoming the starter halfway into the season and missing the final game due to a suspension. Senior J’mon Moore led the SEC in receiving yards per game and carried the Mizzou receiving corps with 62 receptions, 1012 yards, and 8 touchdowns.

Lock, a gunslinger that needs to aim

Nobody benefited from Heupel’s system more than quarterback Drew Lock. In his first season as the full-time starter, Lock threw for 3,399 yards and 23 touchdowns. The previous season Lock was thrown into the fire as a true freshman when Matty Mauk ran into trouble off the field. Lock completed just 49 percent of his passes his first year at Missouri and had a 4-to-8 touchdown to interception ratio.

While the most of his stats exploded last year, the accuracy was still poor at 54.6 percent and 10 interceptions. Lock was worse than all but two quarterbacks in the SEC in completion percentage — Drew Barker, Kentucky’s backup and John Franklin III, the former Last Chance U quarterback and current Auburn wide receiver. Lock was also third worst in interceptions.

Now, Lock is throwing the ball way more than any other quarterback in the SEC. He led the next closest passer Austin Allen of Arkansas by 33 passes but still had five fewer interceptions. However, if he is going to become the NFL prospect some believe him to be, the completion percentage is going to have to make another major leap in his junior season.

Lock is well aware of this and is committing himself fully to get getting better.

Lock at the SEC Media Days:

"[Coach Odom] expects a bigger jump and so do I. Coming into college, I didn’t necessarily know what I was going to do, play quarterback or basketball at Mizzou or Oklahoma or Wichita State. I think what is truly going to ramp up my level of play is to just understand more the level of football. Coach Heupel has been around the game of football and he knows defense in and out and has been drilling me for the past two offseasons and even during the season more about knowing the game of football. I didn’t fall in love with the game of football until last year mid-season, where I realized it is truly the best game that there is. And just indulging myself into it rather than just playing it."

Lock was pretty good despite not knowing what sport he was going to commit to in college or loving football. What can he do when he actually is fully invested?