Missouri DB Caleb Flagg leaves program, will redshirt 2025 season

Missouri defensive back Caleb Flagg has left the program, per MizzouToday‘s Kyle McAreavy. Flagg will redshirt the 2025 campaign.

Flagg played in all four of Missouri’s games thus far this season. He tallied four tackles and two pass breakups. He transferred to Missouri ahead of the 2024 campaign after spending two seasons at Houston Christian.

In his debut season at Missouri, Flagg made 11 appearances. He logged 20 tackles and one forced fumble for the Tigers.

In his two years at Houston Christian, Flagg saw action in 21 games and made seven starts. He amassed 101 tackles, 11 passes defended, three tackles for loss, a sack, two interceptions, three forced fumbles and a fumble recovery.

Although Missouri’s secondary will miss Caleb Flagg, the unit has had a strong start to this season. The Tigers’ defense is only allowing 150.5 passing yards per game, the 19th least in the country.

Missouri only has two interceptions thus far this season, but the team returned one of the picks for a touchdown. While Missouri’s pass defense has had several peaks this season, it faced a valley in the Tigers’ 29-20 win over South Carolina on Saturday.

Although Missouri ultimately won, the Tigers’ defense gave up 302 passing yards and two touchdowns to Gamecocks quarterback LaNorris Sellers. After the game, Missouri head coach Eli Drinkwitz called out his secondary’s performance.

“When we watch the tape tomorrow, I’m going to be on some secondary coaches’ rear ends because this is getting ridiculous how porous our pass defense is,” Drinkwitz said on Saturday. “That’s got to get shored up in a hurry. And whatever we got to do to fix it, we’re going to have to do.

“There’s way too many holes in our zone cover. We got bad eyes in the back field. I’m not going to get negative, but yeah, that crap’s got to get corrected. We gave up 293 total yards on offense, and 300 of it was passing — 302 passing. It’s ridiculous.”

Missouri’s defensive backs should have plenty of opportunities to grow their confidence this weekend when the Tigers square off against Massachusetts. UMass is only averaging 183.0 passing yards per game, ranking No. 107 in the country.

The Minutemen are 0-3 this season and coming off 47-7 loss to Iowa in Week 3. Missouri will square off against UMass on Saturday at 6:30 p.m. CDT. The game will air live on ESPNU.