Barry Odom Opens Up Mizzou Football Season With Press Conference
By: Matt Hosler
After months of unanswered questions, new Head Coach Barry Odom announced Sophomore Drew Lock will take the helm as quarterback for the 2016 Tigers football team.
Lock played in all sixteen games last season, including starting the final eight where he went 2-6 as starting quarterback. Heading into the offseason, people were unsure if Lock would be able to retain the starting job and be able to hold off redshirt Sophomore Marvin Zanders. It was believed by most that Lock would remain the starter and now that the uncertainty is cleared people can begin to get excited for this Friday’s game against West Virginia.
During Monday’s press conference Head Coach Barry Odom said this about Lock winning the job, “when you have a quarterback that efficiently delivers the ball, takes care of the football and runs the offense with that approach and doesn’t makes foolish mistakes and was able to do a good job commanding the offense from a leadership standpoint.”
The Tigers are hoping that Lock runs the offense better after throwing only four touchdowns last season with 49% completion percentage. Having a full off season with the first team under his belt should help him be more effective this season.
After praising the way that Lock runs the offense, Coach Odom then went on to applauded Lock’s leadership and experience, “We feel like Drew is experienced from last season. His experience last year and the learning experience for him in a lot of those situations has helped him to this point. He’s grown up a lot and his leadership skills are one of the best on the team. You see how he interacts not just with the offense, but with the whole team.”
However, just because Lock won the starting job, Odom did say that Zanders will contribute this season on offense, what role he will play is not quite clear yet.
Along with revealing the depth chart and talking about how Drew Lock is the starting quarterback, Coach Odom acknowledged the great off season that All-SEC 2nd team nominee Charles Harris has done. Another big thing that came out of the press conference is that walk on transfer defensive end Jordan Harold won the starting job for this season.