Hit or quit

If toward the end of the week of practice, Missouri coaches were emphasizing intensity, the practice Saturday at Kadlec Athletic Fields was focused on physicality.

Missouri cornerbacks coach Cornell Ford worked his players hard early on, encouraging the larger players to use their size against opposing receivers. In drills that worked on jamming receivers at the line, Ford was unhappy at first with the weak efforts the players were giving.

“I wanna hear pads, not a pillow fight,” Ford said. “Get in there and make the hit. I want to see him pushed back past that line.”

He also wanted the corners to be watching the quarterback’s eyes during the bumps so they would be able to make plays when the ball was thrown.

“You have got to make contact with him, and your eyes have got to be on me,” Ford said as two backs made their way back to the huddle. He was working as a quarterback in the drill, and before the next set was run, he said, “This is a hitting sport. You don’t like to hit, you shouldn’t be playing football.”

The defense seemed to get the message.

During 11-on-11 drills, defensive linemen continually got penetration, and linebackers and defensive backs broke up passes.

Defenders, proudly sporting the black jerseys, started chants of “DE-FENSE” and sang the song “We Ready” to keep the defensive team fired up. Dancing around and squirting water into the unusually cool morning air, they shouted and got rowdier with each big play the defense delivered.

The offense, either because the defense stepped things up or it had a bad day, seemed to be out of synch.

Early in practice, center Adam Spieker snapped a ball over quarterback Chase Daniel’s head, earning him an earful from coaches and the other centers opportunities with the first team.

“There’s no excuse for that. None. Zero,” coach Gary Pinkel said after practice. “There should never be a snap problem for Spieker.”

Quarterbacks, throwing off their back feet or while falling away, had passes that landed in the dirt near receivers’ feet. Passes that were usually corralled by the sure-handed tight ends slipped out of their grasp. Running backs coughed up the ball at inopportune moments.

The team takes a break from practices today, then the defense will be back in black on Monday when the team scrimmages. Coaches said 40-50 situational plays will be run, and Pinkel said he hopes the scrimmage will help sort out some of the depth chart battles.