Mizzou Offense

The Mizzou Football Team’s offensive line is fast-paced, uptempo and heavy on the snaps: all things that translate into scoring points. During the 2013 season, Mizzou had the second-most plays on offense in the Southeastern Conference.

The team is using its spring practices as an opportunity to work on getting even faster, snapping more, and balancing runs and passes.

“Here at Mizzou, we really take pride in the tempo that we have and how fast we’re going, and we honestly don’t think that we were fast enough last year,” offensive lineman Evan Boehm said. “One of our goals in spring ball is to get faster.”

Meanwhile, offensive coordinator Josh Henson is focused on getting the team to snap as much as possible so they can continue drives, convert third downs, and score.

“When we look at our numbers of snaps, not only does it mean our tempo but it means the success we had at executing our plays and continuing drives,” he said.

Running back Morgan Steward said that on offense, balance is key.

“We pass a lot, but it’s a really good balance as far as running,” Steward said. “And then with the pass attack that we also have, I think that does a lot for the scheme as far as the defense not knowing what we’re going to be doing.”

Quarterback Maty Mauk agrees that a balanced offense helps keep the other team’s defense surprised.

“We’re pretty balanced, and that’s harder for the defense because everything that we do is kind of the same formation, so it puts so much stress on the defense to know exactly what we’re doing,” Mauk said.

Henson says he looks for players that can help contribute to this balance.

“I feel like we want to be able to attack teams with both the run and the pass, we want that to complement each other, so that’s really what we’re looking for on our offense,” Henson said.