The spring portal is now open. What areas should the Mizzou staff look to address?
Tax Day has come and gone and that means only one thing for us college football sickos: Spring Portal Season is upon us. By the time you’re reading this, the spring portal will have officially opened. This means athletes will have the next 10 days (until April 25) to hop in if they wish to play elsewhere next fall. Just because athletes couldn’t officially enter until April 16 doesn’t mean many haven’t already announced their intentions, as several soon-to-be former Tigers have done so in recent weeks.
You can read a full breakdown of all the Tigers’ losses and gains from the portal in our Transfer Tracker but here’s a quick rundown of the losses off the spring roster:
- Redshirt sophomore DE Jakhai Lang
- Redshirt sophomore OL Talan Chandler
- Graduate WR/CB Ja’Marion Wayne
- Graduate LB Mikai Gbayor
- Graduate DE Joe Moore
With the exception of possibly (but in hindsight seemingly unlikely) Gbayor, none of the players on this list were expected to be starters next year. Joe Moore doesn’t even have any eligibility left so it’s a little wild he’s even on this list, but that is the world in which we currently live.
While Mizzou so far hasn’t lost any star players in this portal window, what they have experienced is a slight degradation of depth in a number of positions. No position on the roster is at the point of crisis in terms of lack of depth, but the Mizzou staff will certainly look to beef up the two-deep in a few different areas. Here are four groups where the Tigers should look to re-enforce:
Interior defensive line
This is the one position on the entire roster that the coaching staff did not supplement during the winter transfer portal window. Whether that’s due to a lack of compelling options, striking out on the guys they did recruit or just supreme confidence in the development of the returners on the roster, this is the position with the least amount of depth on the team. For a unit that has grown accustomed to a four-man rotation of solid-to-good defensive tackle play, the current room has some question marks.
Chris McClellan has proven to be a very good SEC-caliber player and will assuredly be a starter. Beyond him, Sterling Webb has flashed but not shown consistency at this level, while veterans Marquis Gracial and Jalen Marshall have seen the field but have yet to make a name for themselves. If the opportunity arises, the Mizzou staff should look to add at least one more contributor, if not a starter, to this unit. Otherwise they will be dependent on both Gracial and Marshall (or a younger player like Justin Bodford or Elias or Sam Williams) taking leaps in 2025.
Offensive line
Continuing a theme I’ve established in the year-plus I’ve written for Rock M, teams should never, EVER turn down depth in the trenches through the transfer portal. With the loss of center Talan Chandler to the portal, the Tigers are down to two centers on the roster. One of whom is recovering from a serious knee injury and the other, transfer Dominick Guidice from Michigan, is also a leading contender for the right guard position.
Depth at the tackle position seems a bit more solid as Javyn Richardson, Johnny Williams IV and Keagen Trost are all steady options for those two spots. Unless coach Brandon Jones has confidence that one of the incoming freshman can step up as a solid interior offensive lineman in year one, the Tigers should look to add another piece this spring.
Photo by Wes Hale/Getty Images
Wide Receiver
Bringing more folks into the wide receiver room may feel more like luxury adds than anything, but this is an area that could use some experience. While it’s undeniable that Mizzou hosts quite a bit of talent at this position, what they are currently lacking is experience. The Tigers did add senior Kevin Coleman, Jr. to the roster in the winter portal and he will play a big role in the Mizzou passing game this fall. After Coleman, however, there are three juniors, all of whom have limited production and time spent on the field.
It’s undeniable that Josh Manning, Marquis Johnson and Daniel Blood are talented, but none of the three have served as season-long starters or garnered more than 383 receiving yards in a single season. Redshirt freshman James Madison II and true freshmen Donovan Olugbode and Shaun Terry II also help to improve the talent of the unit, but all three have zero experience and zero production at the SEC level. Adding an additional receiver with some history of production at a P4 level would go a long way to give a new quarterback more dependable options to turn to as they learn on the job.
Linebacker
Prior to the spring portal opening, I would have said (and did) that this was one of, if not the deepest units on the roster. That math changes a bit now that incoming transfer Mikai Gbayor announced he would be leaving again, spending less than a semester in Columbia. The “glass half full” approach to this loss is that rising sophomore Nick Rodriguez impressed everyone enough during spring practice that he bumped Gbayor down to second or third string. The “glass half empty” view would be that with Gbayor’s loss, the experience at linebacker has waned.
Triston Newson, Khalil Jacobs and incoming transfer Josiah Trotter all have at least some P4 experience, but after those three there is a great amount of talent (Nick Rodriguez, Jeremiah Beasley, Brian Huff, Dante McClellan) but basically no experience. Attracting an experienced depth piece at this position might be difficult for the same reason that Gbayor chose to depart, but it would go a long way in raising the floor of the Mizzou defense if they could make sure they have a bit more experience in the room.
All in all, short of perhaps the interior defensive line, there is no one area that qualifies as a “must address” for the coaches this spring (knocks on wood that no more Tigers jump into the portal.) That should hopefully free them up to bring in best available players on the board while hopefully also building depth in areas of potential concern.
Tune in next week where I’ll dive a bit more into specific options in each of these positions once we have a better idea who around the country is hopping onto the carousel. Until then, enjoy the craziness.