SEC Football: Every team’s best newcomer for 2020 season
By Dante Pryor
There is a lot first-year head coach Eli Drinkwitz has to sort out once the season starts. One of those things is their depth. The Tigers are not very deep at any position, so expect a lot of freshmen get a lot of playing time this season.
What Drinkwitz, his new staff, and what will be a fairly young team needs is a veteran presence and leadership. This season, the Tigers are breaking in a new quarterback and new quarterbacks need reliable targets that can catch the ball.
Like many teams this season, the Missouri Tigers have been active in the transfer portal this offseason. Drinkwitz and the Tigers brought in Damon Hazelton from Virginia Tech as a graduate transfer.
Hazelton comes with a ton of playing experience. He led the Hokies in receiving in 2018 and was second in receptions in 2019. Hazelton was second in receptions as a freshman at Ball State before transferring to Virginia Tech.
In addition to signing four wide receivers the Tigers return four sophomores. Hazelton is the perfect addition to stabilize their receiver room and allow their younger receivers to develop which gives Drinkwitz to install and build his offense.