Ranking the opponents: No. 5: Missouri

Team: Missouri Tigers

WHERE: Sanford Stadium

WHEN: Saturday, Nov. 9

2018 RECORD: (8-5 overall, 4-4 in the SEC East)

RETURNING STARTERS: Offense - 7 (RB Larry Rountree, WR Johnathon Johnson, WR Jalen Knox, TE Albert Okwuegbunam, LT Yasir Durant, C Trystan Colon-Castillo, RG Tre’Vour Wallace-Simms); Defense - 6 (DE Chris Turner, DT Akial Byers, LB Cale Garrett, DB DeMarkus Acy, CB Christian Holmes, FS Tyree Gillespie); Special Teams – 1 (K Tucker McGann)

KEY LOSSES: QB Drew Lock, DL Terry Beckner, WR Emmanuel Hall

NOTE TO KNOW: Former Clemson quarterback Kelly Bryant takes over for Lock as the starter at quarterback.

It was definitely an up-and-down year for the Tigers, who opened the year with three straight wins before losing three straight to Georgia, South Carolina, and Alabama.

Although the Tigers put up plenty of points, with the exception of a 38-0 victory over Arkansas, Missouri struggled against the better teams in the league, and ultimately against Oklahoma State in the Liberty Bowl, a game won by the Cowboys, 38-33.

Pass defense was a particular issue.

In fact, Missouri was one of the nation’s worst in the country, allowing 262 yards per game, a number that placed the Tigers 112th in all of FBS.

Lock is gone, but enter former Clemson quarterback Kelly Bryant.

Bryant will be fortunate, as the Tigers return some proven offensive playmakers, including running back Larry Roundtree III, along with wide receivers Johnathon Johnson and Jalen Knox.

Tight end Albert Okwuegbunam is one of the best tight ends in the SEC, and the Tigers do bring back three starters from their offensive line.

Defensively, there are concerns.

The Tigers need to rediscover their pass rush and have to shore up their pass defense from a season ago.

This may be one of those situations in which Missouri has to depend on its offense. Fortunately, the schedule sets up very favorably.

As far as conference play is concerned, the Tigers must travel to Vanderbilt, Kentucky, and Georgia in back-to-back-to-back weekends. But other than the game against the Bulldogs, those other two are certainly winnable.

South Carolina, Ole Miss, Florida, and Tennessee are each at home, with the season-ender against Arkansas in Little Rock.

A Week 2 game against West Virginia won’t be easy, but with a little luck, a nine-win season doesn’t seem that far out of reach for the Tigers, who will need to do a much better job on special teams.

Missouri will have the offensive components, perhaps, to cause Georgia a little bit of stress, but with the game in Athens, the Bulldogs should not have all that much trouble.

The game is in November, which is later than Georgia is accustomed to playing Mizzou, falls right before what figures to be a huge game the following week at Auburn.

That said, another double-digit victory should be the ticket for Georgia.

How quickly has Kelly Bryant adjusted? What was your take on him this spring?

DeArmond: "As far as becoming part of the team and fitting in with other players, he seemed like a guy who has been around for years already. He fit right in with the program. As far as the offense, who knows? Spring ball is always the early stages of install, and they never really open up the playbook when we can see, so it's tough to know. Bryant is obviously going to bring an element of the QB run game that Missouri didn't really have with Drew Lock. Lock was more athletic than people gave him credit for, but the run game just wasn't something Missouri did a lot of. What you're going to lose is the elite rocket arm. Missouri was throwing deep balls as much as anybody in the country and throwing them further down the field than most college teams do (or can). That won't happen. But a lot of people don't realize that in his time as a starter at Clemson, Bryant actually had a better completion percentage than Lock ever did at Missouri. I think you'll see a more run-oriented offense, a shorter passing game. The Tigers will go about it in a different way, but I still expect them to be very good offensively."

Despite the loss of Lock, this looks to be a dangerous team with a lot of very good returning players. What's the vibe in Columbia regarding this squad?

DeArmond: "Missouri brings back a lot. They did lose Lock, Terry Beckner, Terez Hall, Emanuel Hall and two offensive linemen, but everyone loses players. Larry Rountree is one of the better kept secrets in the SEC. Albert Okwuegbunam didn't play the second half of last season. Missouri feels better about its defense and still pretty good about its offense. Plus, the schedule is nice. Any time you trade at Alabama for home vs Ole Miss, you like the trade. South Carolina, Tennessee and Florida all come to Columbia this year. The general expectation is more wins than last season. I don't think most are thinking about dethroning Georgia in the East, but the general feeling is that Missouri has the ability to be the second best team in the division if it plays well and picks up a break here or there."

What's the biggest area that the Tigers need to improve?

DeArmond: "Special teams. They were flat awful last season. You can easily argue that special teams lost Missouri two games in 2018. That's the difference between 8-4 and 10-2 in the regular season. It is hard to imagine how bad the Tigers were. They weren't any good in the return game, they were bad against the return game, and they had a ton of bad snaps and blocked kicks. Just every phase of it was bad. The kicking game doesn't have to go win Missouri any games, but it has to stop losing them."