After winning back-to-back SEC East titles in 2013 and 2014, the Missouri Tigers fell on hard times in 2015, finishing tied for last in the division with a 1-7 SEC record.

It was also an emotional season for Mizzou. The team played a role in a student-led race-related protest on campus. Starting quarterback Maty Mauk got suspended and eventually dismissed from the team. Head coach Gary Pinkel announced on Nov. 13, a day before the team upset BYU 20-16, he would retire after being diagnosed with lymphoma in May.

But hope has returned this April as the Tigers try to get back on the winning track in 2016. Here are five keys to Mizzou’s improvement this year:

A rebuilder who knows the program – New coach Barry Odom played middle linebacker in Columbia from 1996-99 and served turns as graduate assistant, director of recruiting, director of football operations and safeties coaches before heading to Memphis to coach the defense in 2012. He returned to Missouri last year to serve as defensive coordinator.

That familiarity and stability should help a program that probably needs a little more seasoning before it can compete for the SEC East title again.

Stability at quarterback – Stop us if you’ve heard this one before, but Mizzou is yet another SEC program with questions at quarterback this spring. In addition to Mauk’s dismissal, redshirt junior Eddie Printz transferred.

The team’s two returning scholarship players at QB are Drew Lock and Marvin Zanders, with junior college transfer Jack Lowary also joining the program this spring. Expected 2016 starter Lock passed for 1,332 yards, in completing 49 percent of his passes with four touchdowns and eight interceptions, in splitting time with Mauk in 2015. The passing game may ride solely on his shoulders this season.

Brantley’s back – Defensive tackle Harold Brantley, arguably one of the team’s best players, missed what would have been his senior season in 2015 after suffering serious injuries in a car accident the previous June. He redshirted and will return in 2016, assuming he’s able to play catch-up academically.

The 6-foot-3, 280-pound Brantley has looked good this spring, which pleased his coach, who said “there were questions whether or not he was ever going to be out of the hospital.”

“I’m proud of the kid and I’m proud of what the training staff and medical staff has done for him,” Odom said after a recent practice.

Brantley totaled 54 tackles and five sacks in 2014. Production approaching those figures in 2016 might not only bring a smile to fans’ faces but also tears to their eyes.

The return of other injured players – Mizzou is folding some key players back into the mix this spring, with others hoping to be ready for the fall.

Perhaps tops on that list is Terry Beckner Jr., a four-star recruit who tallied 27 total tackles and three sacks in nine games last season before going down with an ACL tear.

The 6-foot-4, 300-pound Beckner has returned in limited capacity to spring practice, as has safety Tavon Ross, a sophomore who also tore his ACL late in the 2015 season.

Defensive tackle A.J. Logan and wide receivers Chris Black, Johnathon Johnson and Ray Wingo all recently returned to spring practice suffering various leg ailments.

Meanwhile, three other players recently underwent surgeries that will put them out of commission this spring with hopeful returns for summer drills.

Junior offensive lineman Nate Crawford had his second back surgery of the past 10 months. Defensive end Charles Harris, who merited second-team all-SEC honors with 56 total tackles and seven sacks in 2015, had his right shoulder scoped. Nate Howard, another defensive end, went under the knife for a soft-tissue repair in his left knee.

Win the winnable games – Being in the East is a plus these days in the SEC, although Mizzou’s two West games in 2016 against Arkansas and LSU are certainly tough.

The Tigers need to take care of those opponents the team can, and quite possibly should, beat, particular a home date against Vanderbilt and a road game against struggling South Carolina. Fans will be up for the SEC opener, a home date with Georgia on Sept. 17. A win there could set the Tigers on a good course in 2016.