Barry Odom looking for more from Mizzou’s safeties this summer

The Missouri Tigers return their top four safeties from the 2016 season, which sounds like it should be good news for the defense.

However, second-year coach Barry Odom wants to see more from the group, which includes seniors Anthony Sherrils and Thomas Wilson, junior Cam Hilton and sophomore Ronnell Perkins.

After Monday’s practice, Odom told STLToday.com that he’s still looking for a guy who can step up and become the leader of the unit:

“I want a guy to step up and take the lead,” he said. “Right now we don’t have one guy (we) can say, ‘That’s the guy.’ We have four guys playing pretty well, but I’m ready for the game-changer, so to speak, to step forward.”

Wilson led the group with 58 tackles in 2016 and Sherrils had 53. As the seniors, it may fall on their shoulders to be the ones to step up this fall.

If no leader emerges over the next couple of weeks, it may be another long season for the Mizzou defense.

Adam Spencer

Adam is a daily fantasy sports (DFS) and sports betting expert. A 2012 graduate of the University of Missouri, Adam now covers all 16 SEC football teams. He is the director of DFS, evergreen and newsletter content across all Saturday Football brands.