Name: Black & Gold Spring Game
Time: Saturday, 6 p.m. (EDT)
TV: SEC Network
Location: Memorial Stadium/Faurot Field (Columbia, Mo.)
Format: Traditional football scoring, along with showcasing a few drills.

The Barry Odom era gets ushered in at the University of Missouri on Saturday when the Tigers host their spring game in Columbia. Odom, replacing long-term coach Gary Pinkel after a successful 15-year run, has his work cut out for him after the Tigers finished 5-7 a year ago and have lots of holes to fill.

Here are five things to keep a good look at during the game:

1. The quarterback battle

If it’s an SEC spring game, then that means there’s some uncertainly with who’s the starting quarterback. It’s no different in Columbia, even though rising sophomore Drew Lock started eight games last year. Lock struggled as a true freshman, which isn’t surprising in the SEC, so there’s no guarantee he comes out of the spring with the job, even though he’s the leader in the clubhouse.

Odom said Lock, Marvin Zanders and Jack Lowary will rotate snaps on Saturday. “All three have done really good things. I’m excited to see those three guys in a game situation,” Odom said Tuesday. “That’s as close as we can get Saturday. There will be some learning experiences for all three of them we need to see with the right people around them.”

2.Offensive line shortages

The Tigers lost four starters to graduation along the offensive front and four others – including lone returnee Nate Crawford – have missed much of the spring with injuries. Another, JUCO transfer Malik Cuellar, quit the team. It’s a real numbers problem along the offensive line, so much so that there are only eight healthy bodies around. Everyone has been getting plenty of reps, but center Alec Abeln said that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. The extra work has helped everyone progress.

The numbers problem is severe enough that Tigers coaches pondered changing the format of the game since they couldn’t field two full teams with scholarship lineman. They’ll play it game-style anyway. It will be interesting to see if some of the young guys step up in an area that was a real problem a year ago.

3. Secondary with holes to fill

The Tigers defense was stout last year, but it got lost in the shuffle of the offense’s struggles. Stars Kenya Dennis and Ian Simon  are gone and redshirt junior Anthony Sherrils and senior Aarion Penton should be able to step right in and lead the secondary.

There’s not a lot of experience elsewhere, so this spring game will be the first good look at potential starters John Gibson and Thomas Wilson.

4. Finding running backs to step up

Missouri’s offense had epic struggles all year long last year and everyone was to blame, including the young quarterback, an underachieving offensive line and the skill position guys. That’s no different at running back. Ish Witter was the team’s leading rusher in 2015, but he gained only 518 yards.

Witter, a junior-to-be from Tampa, is the starter again in 2016 and there’s not much depth behind him at the moment. “Ish Witter is a different dude than he was last year,” Abeln said. “He’s running through a lot more stuff and running with a different tone than he did last year.”

The Tigers are hoping to get help from Nate Strong by the fall. The former East St. Louis prep star is finishing up at a junior college and hopes to be in Columbia by the summer.

5. Odom in charge

No matter how much experience you have as a college coach and a coordinator, there’s still always a big change when you have to step into the big chair. Odom is replacing a legend in Pinkel, but he’s doing so with a team that’s not very talented, at least by SEC standards.

The spring game is Odom’s first taste of game situations as a head coach. It’s going to be interesting to see how he handles the new role, both now in the spring and then in the fall when the games that count really matter. “It’s a tremendous responsibility and I’m excited to lead this program,” Odom said a few weeks ago. “Everybody’s excited to get started.”