The Mizzou football team had to make a lot of changes during the offseason, and it wasn’t just individual players.

Cody Schrader, Javon Foster and Xavier Delgado were all fantastic in their own ways, but together with offensive coordinator Kirby Moore and the rest of the offensive line, they helped create one of the most dangerous rushing attacks in the country.

A new and improved zone blocking scheme took the Tigers to new heights; it effectively utilized the athleticism of the offensive line as well as Schrader’s ability to hit open running lanes like a torpedo. It helped Schrader rush for over 1,600 yards and was a big reason why Mizzou was named a semifinalist for the Joe Moore Award for the best offensive line in college football.

“It’s a play that attacks the edges of the defense,” Drinkwitz said before last season’s Tennessee game. “It gives us an opportunity to put a foot in the ground and get a vertical seam when they get too horizontal. The athleticism of our tackles really allows us to define (those lanes) for the tailback.”

With the departures of Schrader, Foster and Delgado, Mizzou had to fundamentally change its concept.

The reshuffle began at running back, where the Tigers brought in Nate Noel from Appalachian State and Marcus Carroll from Georgia State. Young players like Jamal Roberts, Tavorus Jones and Kewan Lacy were also in the mix. It seemed like Mizzou was filling the gap at aggregate, which was unusual under Drinkwitz. Bellcows had defined the running back room since 2020, whether it was Schrader, Tyler Badie or Larry Rountree Jr.

Whoever emerged as the frontrunner – if anyone – would find it difficult to fill his shoes.

““It’s an open competition to replace Cody Schrader on the field, although there are a lot of talented players, but it’s going to be very difficult to replace his leadership qualities off the field,” Drinkwitz said on July 28.

When the dust finally settled, it was Noel who was named the RB1…but not the kind of RB1 the Tigers were used to in the recent past.

“Nate Noel will go out first, and then he and Marcus will rotate through,” Drinkwitz said on Aug. 25. “Those guys have good, complementary football skills and know how to support each other. I think we understand that we probably won’t have anyone who can carry the ball as often in the game as Cody, so we need to make sure the starter gets in rhythm, but also that he’s fresh.”

It was easy to see why Noel was the choice. He was a star back for the Mountaineers for several seasons, including a 1,126-yard season in 2021. Carroll is comparable to Thunder – he’s a bigger, stocky running back who took on an incredible workload for Georgia State last season (274 carries, two fewer than Schrader) and said one of his football idols was Marshawn Lynch.

Noel, on the other hand, is much closer to the blitz. The Miami native said he looked up to Dalvin Cook and Duke Johnson, two superstar running backs from South Florida who had legendary careers at Miami (FL) and Florida State, respectively. Noel, 5’10” and 195 pounds, is closer in build to Johnson, who was listed at 5’10” and 195 pounds at UM. Their explosive power is extremely similar; if they have daylight, it’s almost game over for the defense.

However, Noel had not only a stylistic advantage—zone running schemes require tremendous explosive power—but also a schematic one, since he ran that type of offense at Appalachian State.

“The biggest concern when you recruit someone from another division or a group of 5, Division II … how is he going to adapt to the speed of the game?” Drinkwitz said. “The explosiveness he shows on film, his ability to read the inside or outside zone, his ball skills out of the backfield were exactly what we wanted to see on tape.”

But despite sharing the same nickname as Schrader, Noel wants to write his own story at Mizzou, even though he had a similar chapter before arriving at Columbia: He started at a school outside the power conference.

“I don’t necessarily want to replace him, I just want to take my role, take my place,” Noel said on Aug. 2. “Whatever my role is, whatever the coaches think about it, and along with the other running backs, we’re all here to play our role.”

So far, that role has had a similar impact to Schrader and his two Florida running back idols, especially last Saturday against Boston College. After an efficient performance against Buffalo (12 carries for 73 yards), he followed up with another efficient performance that was also more productive: 121 rushing yards on 22 carries.

The way was paved by Foster and Delgado’s backups Marcus Bryant and Cayden Green. The two had shown that they can stretch the running game well, and that has paid off so far this season. Last Saturday in particular, the Tigers beat the Eagles on the ground, especially in the early going.

“I smiled when I walked through the hole,” Noel said. “I just thought, ‘Oh my God, I have so much space.'”

Through three weeks, Mizzou is averaging 215.5 rushing yards per game (23rd), up from last year’s 168.5. The Tigers are one of only 26 FBS IA programs to have averaged over 200 rushing yards per game thus far.

But a closer look reveals the efficient side of the running attack. Last season, the Tigers ran on 55.06% of their plays, and rushing yards accounted for 38.95% of their total offensive output. This season, Mizzou ran on 53.5% of its offensive plays, the fifth-lowest of the aforementioned group of 26, and rushing yards accounted for 45.45% of their total offensive output.

Essentially, Moore called slightly fewer running plays than last season and compared to other strong running teams this season. However, the yards gained were not only one of the highest totals in the nation to date, but also made up a larger portion of MU’s offensive output.

Part of that can be explained by the Air Raid’s initial difficulty in developing explosive plays. Instead, the efforts of Noel and the rest of the running game have become more valuable.

“That’s huge,” Brady Cook said. “It’s a way to start offenses, sustain offenses and really wear down the defense.”

Carroll has taken some of the work off Noel – he had 30 carries on the season, Noel 45 – and having another running back has helped spread some of the physical load. Roberts hasn’t carried the ball much, but his main contributions have been in pass defense, a responsibility that was largely handled by Schrader last season.

“He has the best understanding and handle in protection and also has the size you need,” Drinkwitz said of Roberts. “He’s a consistent, physical blocker … that takes a little bit of pressure off Marcus and Nate physically, especially against teams that we know are going to blitz. We knew Boston College was going to blitz and then we had the Green Dogs on top of that, so we knew we needed a running back that could physically keep up and try not to give Nate any more contact.”

Pass blocking is a skill that Roberts has developed since his freshman season in 2023 with the help of an unknown source.

“I caught on pretty quickly. It wasn’t that hard for me,” Roberts said on Aug. 13. “The guy that people don’t talk about, Chris Kreh. Chris Kreh really took me under his wing last year and got me on my feet, for sure.”

And then there’s Cook, whose legs always pose an added threat to the defense. He has scored a rushing touchdown in each of Mizzou’s first three games this season, including spectacular wins over Buffalo and Boston College.

“It adds a great element to our offense,” Carroll said Sept. 10. “It makes them a lot more dangerous.”

The biggest area of ​​improvement for the running attack will be maintaining the success from the beginning of the game through a full four quarters, which wasn’t the case last week. Mizzou’s yards per carry dropped from six on 15 carries in the first half to 3.1 in the final two quarters. The offensive line wasn’t able to generate as much opposition as the game went on, something Drinkwitz hopes will be different against Vanderbilt.

“I thought our offensive line might have gotten a little tired,” Drinkwitz said. “We’ll see on Saturday. It’s going to be a hot game on Saturday.”

The first few games against Murray State and Buffalo, where the game script was largely run-focused in the second half, helped to boost the rushing stats. The season is still young and there is hope that Mizzou will see more chunk plays through the air.

But right now, Mizzou has one of the most successful and sustainable offenses in the country. It seems like the Tigers have successfully replaced superstars and may even surpass them.

Billy Beane is surely smiling somewhere.