When triple-zeros hit in Nashville, Tennessee, the Missouri football roster will immediately look a lot different.
The Tigers will face Iowa on Dec. 30 in the Music City Bowl, with a couple key players already opted out for NFL Draft preparation and several more already in the transfer portal. When that game finishes, several more Tigers will have played their final college games due to eligibility.
So, it’s time to pan forward.
Between Sunday’s bowl announcements and the actual game itself, every team playing in a bowl gets an allotment of extra practices from the NCAA. That number is likely to come out at around 15 extra practices.
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Those could come in useful as the Tigers prepare for next season.
Here are five current Mizzou players who could benefit from the extra reps ahead of next season:
Missouri football has spots open on O-line. Can Logan Reichert plug one?
With three starting offensive linemen set to depart, Missouri is almost certainly going to target a replacement or two in the December transfer portal window. But does at least one starter already reside in-house?
Right tackle Armand Membou, left tackle Marcus Bryant, and right guard Cam’Ron Johnson all will leave the program at the end of the season to either the NFL Draft or eligibility. At guard, specifically, the Tigers appear to have some options down their depth chart.
Logan Reichert, a 6-foot-6, 342-pound redshirt freshman out of Kansas City, spent the season as the backup at left guard. He was a highly recruited, four-star prospect when he arrived in 2023, but he needed some time to develop in the college game. Depending on how the Tigers shuffle the line entering 2025, Reichert may be a candidate to man either guard spot.
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Nicholas DeLoach Jr., cornerback
Mizzou’s cornerback play in 2024 was inconsistent. But, Nicholas DeLoach carved out a prominent playing role as a redshirt freshman and has plenty of room for development.
The cornerback spot is in flux for 2025. Each of the Tigers’ three main players at the position this season — Dreyden Norwood, Toriano Pride Jr., and DeLoach — can return. It would be a surprise if Mizzou doesn’t bring in a transfer addition at corner.
DeLoach earned reps once, and there’s no reason he can’t do the same with some added competition and a year of improvement.
Jeremiah Beasley, linebacker
With three of the Tigers’ four main linebackers in the rotation running out of eligibility, there’s a pressing need to find players to fill the soon-to-be-empty spots.
Michigan transfer Jeremiah Beasley, who will be a sophomore in 2025, played on three different special teams units for Mizzou this season. With some extra practices, there should be an added emphasis on getting him acclimated for a core role at one of the two linebacker spots in the Tigers’ 4-2-5 base formation.
Again, Mizzou will probably add a linebacker out of the portal. But the coaches trusted Beasley to see the field on special teams as a freshman, and some extra reps could be what he needs to make the step up to the first-team defense next year.
Daniel Blood, wide receiver
Mizzou loses its three starting wide receivers in Luther Burden III, Theo Wease Jr. and Mookie Cooper, and backup Mekhi Miller is in the transfer portal.
Missouri returns three with two years of in-game experience: Joshua Manning; Marquis Johnson; and Daniel Blood.
Of those three, Blood has seen the least playing time in the past two seasons. If he’s going to be a starter next season, he’ll likely fill Cooper’s role, but Mizzou also may see him as an option at the slot. If he can develop into a strong route-runner in first-team situations, which bowl practices ought to help with, then there’s a role for him in next season’s starting lineup.
Trajen Greco, safety
Like Beasley at linebacker, Trajen Greco can fill a need at safety.
Three core members of the safety rotation — Joseph Charleston, Tre’Vez Johnson and Sidney Williams Sr. — are set to run out of eligibility after the bowl game.
Greco played 36 defensive snaps over seven games, logged more special teams reps than all but one other MU player, and he was the only true freshman to feature in every single game this year.
That gives the sense that the Tigers are priming him for a bigger role next season, and there will be opportunities. Depending on how MU attacks its bowl game, some extra practices should give Greco some extra time to play in the defensive scheme.
This article originally appeared on Columbia Daily Tribune: These Missouri football players could benefit from bowl game practices
