Mizzou Fall Camp Practice Notebook: August 2

COLUMBIA — With three Saturdays remaining until the official start of the college football season, and even less time until the Missouri Tigers’ season opener, the team hit the practice fields again.

Afterward, head coach Eli Drinkwitz met with the media to give updates as the first weeks of practices round out.

Here’s our top takeaways from the periods of practice open to the media and from Drinkwitz’s press conference.

Notes

Drinkwitz said Missouri has no long-term injury concerns so far. Trajen Greco has missed each practice this week with a soft-tissue injury, but is expected to return to the field tomorrow in a limited capacity.

Safety Jalen Catalon, center Connor Tollison and Sterling Webb have also missed some time this week with minor injuries, but will all be back soon.

Missouri will be hosting its first scrimmage of camp on Monday. Drinkwitz outlined a few things he wants to see from each side of the ball. He wants the defense to eliminate penalties, which were an issue in Saturday's practice. Offensively, he's hoping to see less turnovers and for the line to be more consistent, especially on third downs.

Offense

There’s still not much to pull from the order of which quarterbacks do what drills. It’s different every time and they interchange without.

Drinkwitz clarified how the battle for the starting left tackle job is playing out — Jayven Richardson is taking most of the starting reps, like he did in the spring. Johnny Williams IV is mostly taking the second reps. In the spring, Williams was training at both right tackle and left tackle, but now is set at left for the fall.

"I thought Johnny's had a really good camp so far, but Jayven has too. I've been pleased with both those guys. It's good when you're not noticing the left tackle and so far, we haven't noticed them."

Toward the end of the viewing period, we saw some live-action stuff with the quarterbacks. Pribula connected with Kevin Coleman Jr. on a deep route that resulted in an over-the-head catch, and Pribula on the next rep with freshman receiver Shaun Terry II.

Terry was everywhere in the seven periods open to the media. He was electric in the patriot drill, which is a simple one-on-one drill against a linebacker or defensive back. His speed, footwork and elusiveness stood out quickly after he made three guys miss in consecutive reps.

Another impressive young receiver today was James Madison II. The 6-foot-3 receiver simply does not move like he’s that big. He gets to the sideline pretty easily once he has the ball in his hands. And in the few moments they worked on footwork, it looked refined there.

With Terry, Madison and Donovan Olugbode, Drinkwitz says the key for them is the fundamentals: "Marquis (Johnson) and Kevin (Coleman Jr.) and Josh (Manning) have proven to do that. I think Xavier [Loyd] has done that so far. But [the] rest of these guys, they'll get open, but then they won't catch the ball, or they're covered.”

In a receiving drill that forced players to catch and go on the sideline, tight end Jude James looked the most fluid at his position. In his two reps, everything from his start, catch and release after the catch looked like one sweeping motion.

Defense

Drinkwitz mentioned linebacker Khalil Jacobs as someone who has stepped up as a leader: "Just his passion, authority on the field and the way he encourages and then discourages the offense with his play."

Nicholas Deloach Jr. was taking the second cornerback reps behind Drey Norwood. Earlier in the week, it had been Toriano Pride Jr. in that second slot. Seems to be a pretty fluid mix of opportunities for those two in the second starting corner slot. Drinkwitz said though that there hasn't been really any separation he's seen yet between Deloach, Pride and Stephen Hall.

Northern Illinois transfer safety Santana Banner had a nice wrap-up in a tackling drill, drawing a “Hell yeah Banner” from a coach. It was a one-on-one tackling rep on a receiver. Banner positioned himself really well and had good patience. He also had an interception later on in practice, according to Drinkwitz.

On the same drill, redshirt freshman safety Jackson Hancock punched the ball loose for a fumble. Hancock also snagged an interception in drills later in practice, according to Drinkwitz. Hancock earned more opportunities with Catalon out.

Special Teams

Blake Craig went two for four on a quick series of kicks to open practice.

Drinkwitz said that if they were to play a game today, Kevin Coleman Jr. would "definitely" be the starting punt returner.

Unofficial hang-time measurements for punter Connor Weselman: 4.63, 4.18, 3.92, 4.65, 4.50

Mizzou Fall Camp Practice Notebook: August 2

Video

Read more Missouri Tigers news: