That’s a bad feeling: Yes, the Missouri Tigers will face six opponents this season with new head coaches, which almost always benefits established teams. But one of them will be in the season opener. What will Murray State bring to the table?
Eli Drinkwitz and the Tigers probably have a good idea, because it’s not like Jody Wright suddenly landed in a spaceship or anything. His many stops as an assistant coach have included Southeastern Conference opponents Alabama, Mississippi State and South Carolina, as well as working for two NFL teams (Browns and Giants). So there will certainly be some surprises, especially with the Racers adding more than 60 new players to the roster, but probably not much uncertainty.
With the first half of Missouri’s schedule not quite as demanding as the latter half, the Tigers have an excellent chance to gain some momentum. After Murray State, they face Buffalo, Boston College, Vanderbilt, Texas A&M and Massachusetts, in that order. Mizzou then plays Auburn, Alabama, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Mississippi State and Arkansas. Who knows what some of these teams will look like in October and November? Key teams not on the schedule include Georgia, Texas, Ole Miss and LSU.
“I think the first half of the season is about eliminating bad football,” Missouri coach Eli Drinkwitz said during Sunday’s press conference. “It’s about seeing the problems on tape and figuring out how to win football games and then slowly getting those problems out of the picture and then figuring out the identity of the team and playing to those strengths; and until you play in games, you won’t always know.”
“I think we’re ready for battle. We’ve got more live work than we’ve ever done in a training camp. We’ve done more practice reps this training camp than we’ve done in the last three seasons. We’ve put more time into situational football than we’ve done in the last three seasons. But it’s 11 guys competing against an opponent that’s got a say in the game. So it’s going to be a challenge, and I have no preconceived notions about what it’s going to look like until we get there.”
Maybe we should all go into the 2024-25 season with the same mindset, because the only thing that’s certain is that it will be unlike anything we’ve ever experienced before. There’s no Nick Saban, no SEC East and West, and Missouri could have an excellent shot at making the new 12-team College Football Playoff. Welcome to the longest season in college football history that starts earlier and ends later, and there’s a lot to fill. Here’s a primer to walk you through the changes, minus any player movement through the transfer portal:
Missouri Tigers
• The biggest change for the Tigers might simply be the level of expectations. Mizzou was No. 11 in the AP Top 25 this preseason, its highest ranking to start a season since 2008.
• Corey Batoon is the new defensive coordinator after three years at South Alabama and previously at Hawaii.
• Missouri lost six players in the NFL Draft. Darius Robinson was selected in the first round. The team also lost crowd favorite and team leader Cody Schrader.
• The Tigers didn’t lose much in the transfer portal, but there was a shakeup behind starting quarterback Brady Cook: Gabarri Johnson transferred to Oregon State and Jake Garcia to East Carolina. Arizona State’s Drew Pyne is the primary replacement.
• Topping the list is Luther Burden, who could be as good as any wide receiver in the country. He is a first-team selection on the Sports Illustrated 2024 College Football Preseason All-American list.
• Nick Saban said Missouri has the “easiest path” to the SEC Championship Game because of its unbalanced schedule, and he may be right. That’s not a dig at the Tigers, but more a reflection of how tough the conference is now that Oklahoma and Texas have been added.
Reorientation
• SEC: Texas and Oklahoma added.
• Big Ten: The 18-team league was expanded to include Oregon, USC, UCLA and Washington.
• Big 12: The 16-team league now includes Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado and Utah.
• ACC: The league stretches coast to coast after adding Cal and Stanford in addition to SMU.
• Pac-12: Only Oregon State and Washington State remain.
• Army has joined the American Athletic Conference. However, the Army-Navy game remains a non-conference game.
No more divisions
The only exception is the Sun Belt, which still has an East and West Division. Meanwhile, the SEC recently announced the following tiebreakers:
1. Direct comparison between the teams with the same number of points.
2. Record of the teams with the same number of points against all common conference opponents.
3. Record against the highest ranked opponent of the joint conference in the conference table and advancement in the conference table among the same number of points.
4. Cumulative conference winning percentage of all conference opponents among tied teams.
5. Limited relative total point difference to all conference opponents among the tied teams.
6. Random drawing of the teams with the same number of points.
TV
• The SEC Game of the Week is no longer on CBS, these games are now on ESPN and ABC.
• The Big Ten will have three national broadcast windows, with a game on Fox at 11 a.m. CT, CBS at 2:30 p.m. and NBC in prime time.
• Fox breaks the unwritten rule of skipping high school football on Friday nights and broadcasts a national game.
• The remaining teams in the Pac-12 have a broadcast agreement with The CW and Mountain West games will be broadcast on truTV.
Saban’s participation in College GameDay is great for fans in general, as everyone else gets to hear many of the stories he’s been telling in Tuscaloosa since 2007. Another big plus for fans is that kickoff times for most games are announced well in advance, unlike previous seasons.
Rule changes
• In college football, just like in the NFL, the two-minute warning was introduced in the second and fourth quarters.
• Teams have the option to use coach-player communication through the helmet with a player on the field. That player is identified by a green dot on the back center line of his helmet. Communication will cease when the game clock reaches 15 seconds or at the snap, whichever occurs first.
• Coaches are permitted to give television interviews at the end of the first and third quarters.
• Video tablets are permitted on the sideline. The video may show the coach’s sideline, the coach’s end zone, and one program feed per play from the current play only, and may also display “game circumstances” including down/yardage, time, quarter, play number, and score. A team may have up to 18 standard tablets active.
• Horse collar tackles made inside the tackle box are penalized with a personal foul of 15 yards. Previously, a horse collar tackle made inside the tackle box was not a foul.
In addition, the limit on the number of coaches allowed to provide practical coaching on the field during training and matches has been lifted. Previously, only the 10 assistant coaches were allowed (analysts, etc. were excluded).
College Football Playoff
• The playoffs will be expanded from four to twelve teams.
• First-round games will be played on December 20 and 21 on the university campuses. Quarterfinals will be played December 31 through January 1 at the Fiesta, Peach, Rose and Sugar Bowls. Semifinals will be played January 9-10 at the Orange and Cotton Bowls. The National Championship Game will be played January 20 in Atlanta.
• The first CFP rankings will be released on ESPN at 7 p.m. ET on Nov. 5. The remaining rankings will be announced every Tuesday through Dec. 3. The selection show will be held on Sunday, Dec. 8, the day after the final conference championship games.
The members of the selection committee are:
Chris Ault (former head coach and athletic director, University of Nevada)
Chet Gladchuk (Athletic Director, US Naval Academy)
Jim Grobe (former head coach, Ohio University, Wake Forest and Baylor)
Warde Manuel (Chairman) (Athletics Director, University of Michigan)
Randall McDaniel (Member of the College and Pro Football Hall of Fame and former All-American Offensive Lineman, Arizona State University)
Gary Pinkel (former head coach, University of Toledo and University of Missouri)
Mack Rhoades (Athletics Director, Baylor University)
Mike Riley (former college head coach at Oregon State and Nebraska and head coach of the NFL, CFL, WLAF, AAF and USFL; played at the college level for Alabama from 1971 to 1974)
David Sayler (Athletics Director, Miami University, OH)
Will Shields (Member of the College and Pro Football Hall of Fame and former All-American Offensive Lineman, University of Nebraska)
Kelly Whiteside (Professor of Sports Media and Journalism, Montclair State University; longtime sports journalist, USA Today, Sports Illustrated and Newsday)
Carla Williams (Athletic Director, University of Virginia)
Hunter Yurachek (athletic director, University of Arkansas).
See also: Multiple starters revealed in Missouri’s Week 1 depth chart
