The Missouri Tiger football team held its first scrimmage of the year on Tuesday afternoon. While it certainly didn’t rival the intensity of a regular season football game, it was almost as long. The team began practice at around 8:15 and warmed up for 45 minutes. At 9:00 a two-and-a-half hour scrimmage began. Each of the four units got between 36-38 plays apiece.
Head coach Gary Pinkel wasn’t blown away or disappointed with how the starters played Tuesday.
“I think we’re in line right now, (with) where we should be. I think, obviously, we’ve got to get a lot better,” Pinkel said. “You hope your one offense and one defense play at a high level and I think for the most part they did.”
One glaring problem were a number of snaps that flew over the heads of the quarterbacks on shotgun formations. Head coach Gary Pinkel said of the errant snaps, “It just destroys your execution on offense…just destroys it.”
But he defended the centers, knowing that with the new offense, which includes a number of shotgun formations, is new to them.
“It’s a lot different. It’s completely different.”
However, starting center Adam Spieker (Webb City, Mo.) wasn’t responsible for any of the skyward snaps. On Monday the sophomore was named to the watch list for the Rimington Award, which is given each season to the nation’s best center.
“We expect him to play at a lot higher level. That certainly should be motivation to raise his level of performance,” Pinkel said of Spieker’s nomination.
The coaching staff’s next job, according to Pinkel, is to review all of the “zillion plays” run on Tuesday and “make appropriate adjustments” before Saturday’s scrimmage.
Pinkel didn’t know exactly when a depth chart will be released but said it should be out after Saturday’s scrimmage at the latest.
How will Saturday’s scrimmage differ from Tuesday’s? Pinkel said they will work more on game-type situations and each unit will get about 50 plays apiece.
In other words: “It’ll be longer,” Pinkel laughed. “So you guys can come a half an hour later.”