Raise a hand and start counting special teams players on the Missouri football roster with your fingers.
You won’t get to your pinky. It’s a lonely room.
“We have, like, four specialists right now — four or five, and it’s definitely a change,” Craig said during spring camp. “But I think that having less guys in the room just means that we’ve got to be more focused. In our meetings and everything, it feels like there’s no one in there.”
Such is the modern world in college football that impending roster limit changes stemming from the upcoming revenue sharing settlement have created.
Mizzou, which wrapped up spring camp on March 21, has four special teams members as that has become the first position on the chopping block. Walk-on roster spots are getting closer to being eliminated and roster sizes are decreasing by approximately 15 spots.
The SEC has announced that teams will be able to carry 85 scholarship players and 20 walk-ons this season for a total of 105 players.
Last season, Mizzou had 120 players on its roster, including nine special teams players.
This season, the Tigers currently have 98 players rostered with four on special teams — Craig, transfer punter Connor Weselman, freshman placekicker Robert Meyer and long-snapper Brett Le Blanc.
“I think it’s really hard. But unfortunately, you know, it’s part of the rules,” Mizzou special teams coordinator Erik Link said March 11. “We don’t make the rules, you know, we just have to adapt and adjust.”
Link said the Tigers have to transition to more of an NFL mindset, where in-season rosters are about half the size.
The Tigers will have to transition to more of a traditional two-deep, Link said. Last season, the Tigers carried four kickers, two punters and three long-snappers.
That has required some creativity.
Walk-on linebacker Tommy Reese has been taking long-snapping reps, Link said. Craig and Meyer have been backing up Weselman by taking reps punting.
“I think the reality of it is it impacts the entire roster to a degree, but certainly at the specialist position. We’ll carry probably about three less specialists than we typically have in the past,” Link said. … “And then, yeah, try to have a spare, right? Have a combo guy that can be both (a kicker and a punter). And then try to have an emergency snapper, emergency holder. Just try to try to be prepared.”
Missouri has 86 players on scholarship, which is one above the SEC limit the Tigers will need to reach when practice opens in July.
Link said Missouri is in search of at least one more special teams player. The transfer portal reopens April 16-25 and Mizzou has room to add six or seven walk-ons. It’s likely the Tigers will add two or more, specifically targeting punters and long-snappers.
The 20 walk-on spots will be eventually be eliminated should the revenue sharing model pass as expected in April.
That’s college athletics in the modern era, as the goalposts continue to shift.
The Tigers are doing their best to shift along with them.
“I think that’s kind of been the theme with college football for the last probably four or five years, right?” Link said. “You just kind of adapt and adjust and give us the rules, give us the parameters, and then we’ve gotta go from there.”
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