COLUMBIA - Saturday's Homecoming game against Mississippi is a prove-it game for the Missouri Tigers, in multiple ways.
It is a chance for the run defense to show its problems at the start of the season are fixed. The Tigers (4-1, 1-0 Southeastern Conference) host the Rebels (3-3, 2-1) at 6 p.m. on ESPN2 with some questions about who they'll face at starting quarterback.
Matt Corral hurt his ribs late in Mississippi's home loss to California, and the redshirt freshman's replacement, true freshman John Rhys Plumlee, seems to have a style that better compliments the Rebels' current roster. Corral impressed as a passer in limited action a year ago and was playing well before his injury, but Mississippi had two starting wide receivers drafted in the second round after the season, and the current depth chart at wideout is shot through with underclassmen.
Plumlee is truly a run-first quarterback, and paired with senior running back Scottie Phillips and fellow true freshmen running backs Jerrion Ealy and Snoop Conner, might be the fastest backfield in the SEC.
The Rebels ran for an average of 164 yards per game a season ago, and broke the 200-yard mark five times. This season, they're racking up an average of 234 yards per game on the ground and have broken the 200-yard mark four times in six games, including 279 yards at No. 1 Alabama two weeks ago and 413 yards against Vanderbilt last week.
Plumlee and Corral are listed as co-starters on this week's depth chart, and it's likely Corral sees the field Saturday after not playing against either the Crimson Tide or the Commodores. But Missouri gave up several explosive plays to a non-SEC team with a run-first quarterback to start the season.
And make no mistake, Plumlee, Phillips, Ealy and Conner are all fast. The Rebels' touchdowns against Vanderbilt came on runs of 24 yards (Phillips), 33 yards (Plumlee), 78 yards (Ealy) and 84 yards (Conner), and they broke tackles and outran Vandy defenders on about every one.
Operating behind an experienced offensive line, Plumlee and Ealy each have four runs of 30 or more yards, tied for seventh nationally, and all four have at least four runs of 20 or more yards.
"You look at the number of ways that they creatively in the run game, you know, the different ways that they attack you whether you know it's misdirection, the inside outside zone action, all the different ways, schematically that they present themselves," Odom said Tuesday of Rich Rodriguez's offense.
"If your eyes are in the wrong spot, then you're going to get gashed and they're going to get some yards. So we're going to be very, very assignment sound, we're going to be great tacklers."
Missouri faced a similar situation a few weeks ago in its game against South Carolina. The Gamecocks came to Columbia averaging 4.83 yards per carry and 130 rushing yards after playing well against Alabama the week before. Not counting sack yardage, the Tigers ceded just 45 yards on 20 rushing attempts and did not give up a run longer than 11 yards. Counting sack yards against South Carolina, the Gamecocks ran 24 times for 16 yards, an abysmal 0.67 yards per carry.
It was similar, too, in that South Carolina had a passing quarterback (Ryan Hilinski) and a wildcat/running quarterback (Dakereon Joyner). It was clear in the second half the Gamecocks had to try and pass to keep pace with the Tigers, and Hilinski and Joyner threw a combined 41 passes. Mississippi likely won't touch that number - the Rebels threw 48 times against California but haven't thrown the ball more than 30 times in any other game - though it is likely the playcall won't be given away by who is receiving snaps.
"I try to look back and really study, and defensively I know they did a lot more in depth than I did, but it seems like it's very similar structure on what they're doing no matter if it's No. 2 (Corral) or No. 10 (Plumlee) playing quarterback," Odom said. "They're both good players. And they both are really, they've got tremendous quickness and speed. And the way that is called it looks like it's called pretty similar no matter who's in there."
The Tigers can be successful in stopping the run against Mississippi the same way they have been against every other team outside of Wyoming: stuff rate. Missouri is tied for 56th nationally with 33 tackles per loss, 6.6 per game, but ninth in the country in stuff rate, the percent of total carries on which an opposing running back is stopped at or behind the line of scrimmage. For the Tigers defense, that number is 28.3 percent of the time, tops in the SEC. The Rebels' offensive line gives up stuffs on 21.9 percent of carries, 99th in the nation and better than only Texas A&M and Vanderbilt in the SEC.