COLUMBIA, Mo. 鈥 Missouri鈥檚 preseason camp started in a way that鈥檚 the inverse of most drives in a football game: The Tigers began in the red zone.
With schematic work on the docket for the next few weeks of practices, Mizzou held its first practice of the preseason Monday in its indoor facility, setting the stage for the part of the field that will become the first priority of the season.
鈥淲e will be very smart in how we start,鈥 coach Eli Drinkwitz said. 鈥淲e always start in the red zone to try to get our players acclimated to fall camp and try to keep them as safe and as healthy as possible as we build up and prepare for Week 1 versus Murray State.鈥
There鈥檚 a conditioning element to starting in the shortest part of the field. But it鈥檚 about performance, too. When the MU coaches went back over the Tigers鈥 2023 season, the red zone stood out. Offensive coordinator Kirby Moore conducted a comprehensive study of what tended to happen in that situation 鈥 snapping the ball in the 20 yards closest to the opponent鈥檚 goal line.
He sees it as a math problem.
Mizzou was called for a penalty on 15 of its offensive drives that reached the red zone, Moore told the Post-Dispatch. On 11 of those penalty-afflicted possessions, the Tigers wound up settling for a field goal.
鈥淲hen you look at that, a lot of that is self-inflicted,鈥 Moore said. 鈥淲e got to, first, get that fixed from the penalty perspective.鈥
Drinkwitz sees another spot of red-zone trouble, too.
鈥淭he biggest area of growth for us has got to be third-and-goal calls,鈥 he said. 鈥淭hat was where we struggled the most in the red zone was third and goal.鈥
According to SEC StatCat, an unofficial play-tracking service, Missouri ran 16 plays in third-and-goal situations last year, scoring touchdowns on five. The resulting 31.3% conversion rate was lower than the 42.4% clip with which the Tigers converted third downs across all parts of the field.
Seven of those third-and-goal looks were pass attempts: six handled by quarterback Brady Cook, one by backup Sam Horn in the half of the season opener that he played. Horn鈥檚 lone third-and-goal pass led to a touchdown. In Cook鈥檚 six tries, the Tigers only completed a pass twice and scored once.
Of MU鈥檚 nine third-and-goal rushing plays, eight stayed in Cook鈥檚 hands while one went to running back Nathaniel Peat. Three of those looks produced touchdowns, all from Cook runs 鈥 though he finished with negative rushing yards in those situations.
Looking back at that performance, Moore pointed to some general challenges that offenses face on third and goal.
鈥淭he field is shorter. We鈥檙e playing against really good defenses longer,鈥 he said.
Even with the coaches鈥 third-and-goal gripe, Mizzou was one of the nation鈥檚 best programs when it came to getting points from trips to the red zone.
The Tigers came away with points on 96.6% of their red-zone possessions, according to CFB Stats, a mark that was third-best in the Football Bowl Subdivision and trailed only Oregon State and Colorado. The next most efficient Southeastern Conference team was Alabama at 92.3%.
That metric weighs touchdowns and field goals the same, though, when the difference between six points and three points is actually quite stark.
When it came to scoring touchdowns in the red zone, Missouri managed to do so on 36 of the 58 drives that made it that far, a 62.1% rate. That sat just 61st in the country and 11th in the SEC. As a result, the Tigers had the eighth-highest rate of field goals in the red zone at 34.5%.
Perhaps part of the problem, as MU鈥檚 coaches see it, was too rigid a plan for those possessions.
Drinkwitz said that Moore will be moving away from scripts for those sequences to instead do more reading of what might work at a given moment. The first stages of rolling out that strategy were slated to start Monday when the Tigers lined up for a first-and-goal situation from the 10-yard line.
鈥淧lay it out 鈥 no scripts,鈥 he said. 鈥淏oth sides of the ball just have to call (plays) and react to those calls.鈥
Moore鈥檚 offseason study wasn鈥檛 just of Mizzou鈥檚 offense and what the Tigers did. He sifted through film from other college programs and NFL teams to explore how other teams approached red zone and third-and-goal opportunities. That gave him some ideas for MU鈥檚 schematic install that will take place during camp.
鈥淵ou鈥檙e just evaluating what鈥檚 been successful for other people,鈥 Moore said. 鈥淪ometimes it鈥檚 hard to see the forest through the trees during the season, and the stuff that you鈥檙e doing, you鈥檙e staying with it. It was looking at all those different concepts, NFL, college 鈥 going to try and implement some of those things and see if it fits our personnel.鈥