In the summer of 2014, a shaggy-haired 17-year-old from Missouri landed in Beaverton, Oregon, to compete against a stacked deck of Elite 11 quarterbacks — Blake Barnett, Kyler Murray and Josh Rosen were just a few of the impressive arms in the camp. The summer event is without question the most-hyped quarterback showcase and skills competition for rising high school seniors.

For Trent Dilfer, Super Bowl-winning quarterback and Elite 11 coach, the annual camp is an opportunity to evaluate highly talented athletes.

Drew Lock was among the invitees. He just wasn’t sure he belonged.

A year earlier, Lock’s dad, Andy, and his Lee’s Summit High School coach, Eric Thomas, sat him down. They rolled tape from a previous Elite 11 competition. “You’re good enough to do that,” they told him. Drew studied the names of Elite 11 alums — Drew Brees, Aaron Rodgers, Ben Roethlisberger and Andrew Luck, among them. Maybe, he thought.

“I’m not one to think super big of myself, so when they told me that, I was like yeah, I think I can do that,” Lock recalls. He’s calm, and his is voice sincere, even amid the hustle and bustle around him. “From that day on, I thought if they can see it in me, then I should see it in me.”

Confidence and profound humility — the two might seem to be a paradox in a leader. Shouldn’t one run counter to the other? Not for Drew Lock; in high school, he threw for 63 touchdowns with just 12 interceptions in his final two years. But internally, separating himself from the pack — great quarterbacks from good ones — took humility and self-awareness, resilience and a willingness to learn. Elite 11 would prove to be a turning point for Lock, a moment in time when he recognized his potential. “When I came back from [Elite 11], I was [ranked] five or six out of the 11,” Lock says. “I was 1-2 for most of the camp. I was like, wow, these are the best quarterbacks in the country. Again, I’m proving myself wrong.” 

Dilfer didn’t need much convincing. “I can’t say enough good things about Drew,” he says. “I’ve been doing this for seven years, and there are a lot of kids you have an affinity for, you get excited about. Drew’s on that top-10 list of kids I was most excited to evaluate, coach and follow his career. He’s willing to learn, willing to adapt and willing to grow. You’re looking for kids who have that thirst to learn, thirst to grow, thirst to chase their potential. He has all of that.”

The four-star recruit piqued the interest of those watching an elite group in the high school quarterback landscape. For Dilfer, Lock’s coachability stood out, but so did his physical makeup, mental toughness, resiliency, intuition, football IQ — you get the picture. These are all attributes seen in the top quarterbacks at collegiate and professional levels. “You take these formulas and you wrestle with them,” Dilfer says. “This is a kid who should have an enormous ceiling.”

Today, Lock is an SEC quarterback with 22 career starts, but a 7-15 record as Mizzou’s guy. Hardly a ceiling. His record comes with plenty of context, which began when he was thrown into a gauntlet of SEC play. His first career start was just five games into his freshman season.

“The first year, he was playing against a stacked deck,” Dilfer says. “I think last year we started to see glimpses of his resiliency, toughness. I don’t know that there’s a better trait that you can have as a quarterback than that internal resiliency — that you’re never going to quit or fold, just keep fighting through adversity. He’s done that at Missouri.”

Lock has experienced more than his share of adversity, but success is a lousy teacher, right? Progress was made through his diligence as a student of the game, digesting the playbook and offense. Last season, his first under offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Josh Heupel, Lock surged his passer efficiency rating to 133.3 — not terribly far from Chase Daniel’s school-record 159.4. But he did that completing only 54.6 percent of his attempts in a passer-friendly offense.

Completion percentage is it for Lock. He finished his sophomore season with 23 touchdown passes and led the SEC with 3,399 passing yards, the latter somewhat inflated: During six entertaining quarters against Eastern Michigan and Delaware State, Lock threw for 852 yards and 10 touchdowns.

“The number one for me is the completion percentage,” he says. Lock ranked ninth in the league in that category. “In my mind, me putting it in the dirt, overthrowing somebody or putting it out of bounds is a negative play. Bumping that completion percentage up is my number one focus, and that’s how we’re tracking it every day.”

Lock ranked third in the league in passing yards per game (248.3), but sixth in efficiency (119.9). Then there are the wins and losses. He knows as well as anyone, above any jaw-dropping stats, that’s the way a quarterback’s success is measured.

Dilfer, however, cautions in getting too caught up in a quarterback’s first 18 starts, outside of the resilience, endurance and some splash plays. There’s a reason they’re put on the field early in their career.  “Do they have the toughness to survive?” Dilfer says. “[Coaches] want to see if you can last, if you can survive, and he’s done that. The big growth really starts at [games] 18 to 30. You’re really looking to see that he’s better at start 29 than he was at 18. This is the year we’re going to see this.”

In the first week of the season against Missouri State, Lock gave us those splash plays and the stats to back it up: 21 for 34 with 7 touchdowns and 521 yards, both of which were school records.

It’s the off-field time that Lock has dedicated to mastering Mizzou’s offense that will determine his success this fall. Lock says he was a different player when he showed up in August. What changed? “Long meetings in the quarterback room,” he says. “We were starting from play one and going through every play in our playbook. It got to be really taxing, long days and really long nights. But in order for us to feel comfortable out there, we need to do that.” That being to tirelessly study every defensive scheme, every hot read, every role.

It all comes back to confidence. For Lock, the first two years at Mizzou weren’t unlike what he felt heading into the Elite 11 finals. But his confidence grew in Oregon as he proved he belonged. Now it’s time to produce in the SEC.

Production starts with presence; every quarterback commands with it. Not animated or loud, Lock is at his best when he’s relaxed, calming teammates with his personality. He likes to sing. It might be rap or country — the other day it was Randy Travis. “Being relaxed comes from knowing your job cold,” Lock says. “When you’re relaxed you can go out there no worries, just reading your reads, keying your keys, doing the small things to make it right.”

Adds Dilfer, “Presence is a huge thing. He just has that quiet swag to him. I don’t even like the word swag, but I think everybody uses it, so it paints a picture. He doesn’t have to be boisterous, but he’s got that quiet confidence, that quiet swag that people feel.”

Lock’s presence will be significant this season because there are plenty of unknowns. Can a returning offensive line, arguably the Tigers’ greatest strength in 2016, perform at the same high level? What strides will Mizzou continue to make defensively? Will the kicking game come around?

And will Lock take the next step? Coach Barry Odom has watched his quarterback progress as a leader, quietly taking command of the huddle and the offense. He is reading defenses better, and the extra work he put in during spring ball and fall camp is evident. Couple his growth with the talent around him, and Mizzou’s offense has the potential to be even more efficient — and explosive — than it was last year. Dilfer knows Lock’s potential as a pro-style QB, but now it’s time for results.

“They need to see him run the show,” Dilfer says. “That’s a big part on him and a big part on the offense. I think the NFL scouts — I’ve talked to a lot of them — are excited about his athletic makeup, but they need to see the production.”

If the growth is there, Dilfer believes you might see glimpses of a Sam Bradford, the Heisman-winning quarterback Heupel helped groom. “He’ll need [to show] a mastery of the offense — to see the offense and himself grow together,” Dilfer says. “Really good quarterback evaluators will marry the two. They don’t just look at the quarterback, and they don’t just look at the offense; they look at the synergy between the two. Does the quarterback have mastery of it, and does the offense give him the opportunity to master it? If I’m a GM putting together a board of quarterbacks in the junior class, right now Drew is probably not in the top five. But I think he has a chance to be number one by the end of the season, if you’re seeing that growth happen in front of your own eyes.”

Football is a game of ups and downs; Lock knows it. “Especially in this conference when you’ve got guys lined up left and right trying to take your head off,” he says. “And they’re the best in the country at doing it. But this year, we’re focused on winning ball games … Stats and all the rest will come with wins.”

Photos by Nick MeBruer 

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Year One wasn’t good enough. Everybody knows it. “I did probably a little too much last year, or tried to,” says head coach Barry Odom. “For a number of reasons, we didn’t play very well early in the season. At the end of the day, I didn’t do a good enough job of getting those guys ready to go play their best.”

Year One was a 4-and-8 debut. The young roster drew a tough opener at West Virginia and lost a heartbreaker to Georgia in week three — one could argue they never really recovered. Florida, LSU and Kentucky beat Mizzou by a combined score of 117-45; the Tigers lost to Tennessee by 26 points, despite a school record 740 yards of total offense; and MTSU beat Missouri in Columbia.

The Tigers did rebound to win two of the final three, beating Vanderbilt and overcoming a 24-7 halftime deficit to knock off bowl-bound Arkansas. “I thought winning two out of the last three was huge, and then having the total yards we did against Tennessee,” Drew Lock says. “I think that started to show a little bit more what we’re capable of and what we know we’re capable of. I think having had that momentum going into the off-season, you can look back on that.”

The optimists will say that final stretch indicates a team ready to take the next step, particularly when 10 of the offense’s 11 starters return (Kendall Blanton and Jason Reese will step up to replace tight end Sean Culkin). Following the Arkansas game, Missouri ranked 15th in the FBS in total offense, averaging 500.5 yards a game. But the pessimists will point to a defense that tumbled from one of the nation’s best to one of its worst, as Odom moved from defensive coordinator to head coach and handed the reins to DeMontie Cross. In 2015 the Tigers stood at 302 yards allowed per game, sixth in the FBS in total defense. Last year, the unit fell to 117th with 479.7 yards allowed per game.

“I don’t ever wait for the end of the year and ask ‘Why weren’t we very good,’ ” Odom says. “The air’s cleaner, I like our staff, I like our locker room, and I’m excited about what this team’s going to do.”

Everyone recognizes improvement has to happen. Last year was Missouri’s second consecutive season with a losing record. Stacking a third on top of it would make it that much tougher to emerge from the tailspin. So what marks improvement for Odom’s second season?

“I think to get to six wins is progress,” says Director of Athletics Jim Sterk. “I think that’s a minimum of what you would want, what our alums want. As a team, they’ll be disappointed with that, but I think that’s moving forward and being bowl eligible. And getting a great bowl, I think that’s really important for us.”

“I have felt pressure every day of my working life,” Odom says. “I think being in the proverbial hot seat, I put that on myself. When I started as a GA for Coach Pinkel in December of 2002, I felt like I was on a job interview every day of my working life, and I’ve continued that approach every day.”

Odom was the one to bring up the term ‘hot seat.’ Most aren’t there just yet, including the only person whose opinion really matters. “I think he took over the program in kind of a tough time,” Sterk says. “There was a lot going on, and I think he’s really stabilized it and is preparing to move forward. I like what I see there, and I think they’re excited as a group as well.”

Outside of Columbia, not many have faith. USA Today released its annual preseason polls with Missouri finishing an optimistic 7-5. League media had other thoughts. The Tigers were picked seventh (last) in the SEC East following July’s Media Days. They finished nearly 200 points behind 6th place Vanderbilt in the preseason poll. Only wide receiver J’Mon Moore (2nd team) and defensive
end Marcell Frazier (3rd team) received any individual preseason recognition.

And so, Missouri finds itself in a familiar position: having to prove itself. “I think they’re coming out to win a title,” Sterk says. “Whether they do or not, I think there are a lot of factors that will play into that, but they have a great group coming back.” The Tigers have been here before. They were picked 6th in the East in 2013 and 4th in 2014. They won the division both years. That goal may be a bit lofty for these Tigers, but time will tell.

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Now what?

What are the expectations in 2017 for a 4-8 Missouri football team who showed so much promise yet at times couldn’t get out of its own way? Can an offense that led the Southeastern Conference in total yards take the next step as it returns 10 starters? Or will it again be plagued by untimely drops from a talented yet inconsistent receiving corps? Can the Tigers fix the defensive issues that troubled them for most of the year? Or will Mizzou struggle once again to stop the run? And how will head coach Barry Odom and his staff benefit from his first full year of experience?

So many questions. So much anticipation.

“I expect we’ll see a team playing with a lot more pride and a lot more fight; a team that will understand what its identity is,” says Howard Richards, the Mizzou football radio analyst turned Assistant Athletic Director for Community Relations. “They didn’t have an identity last year. Over the offseason, they will build that identity, build on that brand of who they are.”

No doubt there is plenty to build upon, especially when you consider what the offense accomplished in 2016. Although their numbers were skewed by lopsided wins over Eastern Michigan and Delaware State, the Tigers still racked up 500.5 yards per game. They were second in the SEC in passing yards, with 295.4 yards per game, and a respectable eighth in rushing. Most remarkable is that these numbers came just one year after Mizzou ranked last in the conference in total passing and rushing yards, as well as points scored. The most encouraging prospect: There’s plenty of room for improvement, particularly from quarterback Drew Lock and his receivers. Everything revolves around Lock, who will begin his third year under center and his second season directing coordinator Josh Heupel’s no-huddle attack.

“When he’s on, there’s not a better quarterback in the conference,” says former Missouri wide receiver T.J. Moe, who in four seasons caught 188 passes with12 touchdowns.

The issue, however, is that even as Lock threw for 23 touchdowns and 3,399 yards — the fifth most in program history — he was plagued by inconsistency. For all of his gaudy statistics, Moe says, Lock never put together a full half, much less a complete game. Consider: He lit up Georgia for 376 passing yards, but threw three second-half interceptions in a gut-wrenching one-point loss. In the midst of a defensive struggle against Florida, he threw a pair of pick-sixes late in the first half, and the game devolved into a rout. At Tennessee, Mizzou piled up 740 yards but played uphill the entire second half after Lock threw an interception on the first snap of the third quarter that set up the Vols on a short field.

“Having been a receiver, I look at the quarterback a little differently,” Moe says. “It’s not necessarily the production just yet, and it’s not necessarily how he looks doing it. It’s the velocity with which he can deliver the football and the touch he can put on it.

“If you can get his mechanics to be consistent and get repetition this off-season, with that potential you’re absolutely looking at an all-conference talent. Generally, when you’ve got an all-conference talent at quarterback, you’re competing for championships.”

Odom, for one, is bullish on Lock. During a December appearance on KFNS radio in St. Louis, at Moe’s behest, the coach played word association on a handful of players. When Moe threw out Lock’s name, without hesitation Odom said, “Competitor. Super talented. Will lead us to a championship.”

No pressure there, kid. Some would argue that’s an unreasonable expectation to place on a career 52.5 percent passer who is 6-14 as a starter. But the comment speaks volumes about Lock’s tremendous potential, as well as the largely untapped talent with which Odom and Heupel have surrounded their quarterback.

In 11 games, including three in which he had only 16 combined carries, true freshman Damarea Crockett ran for 1,062 yards, averaged 6.9 yards per carry and scored 10 touchdowns. Yet while Crockett, one of several of Odom’s 11th-hour recruiting coups, was a pleasant surprise, he wasn’t the biggest one. That honor was bestowed upon a retooled offensive line, which went from being Mizzou’s most glaring weakness in 2015 to arguably its greatest strength. New offensive line coach Glen Elarbee was quite simply a miracle worker. Plugging in four new starters, the Tigers were first in the country in tackles for loss allowed, with 35, and led the SEC in fewest sacks allowed, with 13.

Richards knows a thing or two about offensive-line technique. He started 40 consecutive games at right tackle for Missouri from 1977-90, and was the first-round draft pick of the Dallas Cowboys in 1981. “Because of the line play, the quarterback play was elevated,” Richards says. “Drew Lock has his critics, but just look at what he has been able to accomplish. That was a direct reflection of how the offensive line played.”

As he continues to develop and become more comfortable in the offense, Lock could use a little help from his friends. The wideouts in 2015 were an enigmatic bunch, capable of delivering a highlight-reel reception, yet also prone to the untimely, inexcusable drop. Moe minces no words.

“Probably every receiver on that roster is more athletic than I was, but most of them have been about half as productive,” he says. “It’s a lack of concentration. Perhaps it’s a lack of work ethic, a lack of preparation. How many times did J’Mon Moore fumble after making a great catch? And how many times was there a big drop down the sideline when you had your man beat by three yards and you would have had a walk-in touchdown?” Moe asks. “There are little things that should have been gimmes that changed the whole outlook of the season. Instead, we look at the group and say, ‘Gosh darn, they’re inconsistent.’

“That group can be really good” he says. “These guys can run by you. They just need to hammer down this offseason and get to it.”

Adds Richards, “If you had probably half the drops back, you’re looking at two more wins. And not just the wins. They’ll roll off more plays. They’ll control the clock.”

Ah, the clock. Missouri was 128th in the country — dead last — in time of possession, at 24:18. (Amazingly, despite the limited time on the field, the offense played so fast that it ran only two fewer players than its opponents: 948 versus 950.) The dangers with any hurry-up attack are the short possessions and the multiple three-and-outs — your defense is repeatedly exposed, no matter how good it might be. And in 2016, Mizzou’s defense was, in two words, exposed and bad. The Tigers were last in the SEC and 118th in the country in total defense. They were 13th and 112th against the run and 12th and 86th against the pass. Considering Odom’s background and the recent success Missouri had enjoyed on that side of the ball, the defensive struggles
were as shocking as the offensive-line play was a surprise.

In 2015, when Odom served as defensive coordinator, the Tigers were sixth in the country in total defense, even with an offense that ranked 124th in total yards and 116th in time of possession (27:02). Although several key players departed — most notably all-SEC linebacker Kentrell Brothers — Odom and new coordinator DeMontie Cross had the foundation upon which to build a strong unit. The issue came when Odom scrapped the attack scheme for a read-and-react system.

West Virginia piled up 494 yards. LSU gashed the Tigers for 634 yards, including 418 on the ground. Even Middle Tennessee State moved up and down the field at will, with 311 yards rushing and another 284 yards passing. Odom took over play-calling duties from Cross, and finally went back to the attack scheme that called for players to tackle the ball carrier on their way to the quarterback. But the damage had been done. As Moe notes, while most defenders knew the old scheme, first-year players had to learn an unfamiliar system on the fly. A year after giving up an average of 302 yards per game, the Tigers gave up 400 yards or more to all 11 of their FBS opponents.

“I imagine there was difficulty buying in,” Richards says. “There were issues with responsibilities and players alluding to having to think too much. The simpler it is, the easier it is to play. You have less to absorb. It’s easier to do than when you have a billion things to remember.”

So why will 2017 be any different? For one, Odom has a year under his belt and a coaching staff and a system in place. The player boycott of 2015 is a distant memory. Players better understand what the expectations are. There is the opportunity to build on victories in the final third of the season over Vanderbilt and Arkansas; the defense was salty in the second half of each of those games, and the Tigers rallied from a 24-7 halftime deficit against the Razorbacks. In any event, Richards and Moe agree that Odom is the man for the job.

“The testament to Barry’s character and abilities as a coach was shown when he was introduced as the head coach,” Richards says. “The way those players responded to him, they knew what he meant to them as a football coach. Barry’s the right guy. He has the temperament. He has the youth and the desire to turn this program around. As a player, you have to understand what your coach is trying to teach you. If you aren’t able to push aside the distractions and focus on that particular task, you can’t be successful.”

As someone who played at Mizzou when Odom was an assistant, Moe has seen it all first-hand. He is among Odom’s biggest fans. “Coach Odom has a warm personality toward his players and gets to know you and cares about you,” Moe says. “And he doesn’t have this huge barrier: I’m the head coach, the king, the dictator. That’s not the relationship he has with the guys. But don’t get me wrong: He has a strong personality, and when he talks, you listen.”

Perhaps Odom’s biggest accomplishment as a rookie head coach was holding the locker room together as Missouri struggled through a five-game skid. With road contests against West Virginia, LSU and Florida and an SEC home opener against Georgia in the first half of the season, the schedule-makers didn’t do the Tigers any favors. When it was mentioned during an October interview that better days were ahead and that hopefully he was at least enjoying the ride, Odom replied matter-of-factly, “We just need to win some games.”

Better days are ahead, and with a run of four consecutive home games to open the 2017 season — against Missouri State, South Carolina, Purdue and Auburn — the upcoming September schedule is every bit as kind as the 2016 early slate was brutal. It serves as an opportunity to build some real momentum. A bowl invitation is expected, but should fans expect more?

Richards recalls a recent conversation with former Mizzou teammate Kellen Winslow, the Pro Football Hall of Fame tight end. Winslow noted that there was one thing missing on the Tigers’ schedule. “You know what it is?” Richards recalls Winslow saying. “They don’t have the SEC championship game on there. That should be the goal.”

No question.

Mark Godich is a senior editor at Sports Illustrated and the author of the 2013 book, Tigers vs Jayhawks: From the Civil War to the Battle for No. 1.

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