Mizzou defender Isaac Thompson out for rest of fall camp to lower leg injury

Missouri has suffered a loss in their secondary ahead of the 2023 season, as ABC 17’s Nathalie Jones reported Sunday that redshirt-freshman defensive back Isaac Thompson will miss fall camp for the Tigers after suffering a lower leg injury.

Thompson redshirted last season in his first season with Mizzou, appearing in games versus Florida and New Mexico State but recording no stats.

He’s a hometown kid rated a four-star prospect out of St. Louis University high school in Missouri, ranked the No. 6 overall player in the state, and the No. 24 safety in the country according to On3’s Industry Ranking.

The Tigers are hoping for a speedy recovery for Thompson who entered the 2023 season with four years of eligibility, and it will be interesting to see how the severity of his recent injury impacts his eligibility with the program moving forward.

Mizzou still returns a load defensive backfield despite Thompson’s injury. They only lost backup safety Jalani Williams this offseason, returning all four starters in the secondary from a season ago which includes the standout cornerback duo of Ennis Rakestraw and Kris Abrams-Draine.

Last season, Rakestraw and Abrams-Draine ranked No. 2 and No. 3 in the SEC in passes defended, as Florida State transfer Sidney Williams also joined the Tigers’ secondary unit this offseason.

Eli Drinkwitz addresses Missouri’s struggles with close games in 2022

For two straight seasons, Eliah Drinkwitz led Missouri to a 6-7 record, the best of his three-year tenure with the Tigers. And while the 2021 and the 2022 seasons may look the same on paper, they were much different, as Missouri’s losses were much closer last year.

Drinkwitz is fully aware of his team’s closely contested losses from a season ago, and at SEC Media Days, he spoke about his team’s ability to win close games.

“Well, as Tom Hart says, you know, you can’t turn the clock back and we can’t really go back to last year and fix a lot of those issues,” Drinkwitz said. “But what we can do is lean forward into the things that we know we got to get better at. And you know, a lot of that, that we have to get better at is finishing games.”

The Tigers suffered tough, blowout losses versus Big 12 champion Kansas State and Tennessee, but the remainder of their regular season losses were all by a narrow seven-point margin or less, highlighted by their four-point loss to the defending back-to-back national champion Georgia Bulldogs.

Close losses are commonly looked back at by coaches and players and come down to handful of plays and situations not going their way, which Drinkwitz reflected on from last season.

“You know, several of those games we had the ball in our hand, whether it was Kentucky, Georgia, or even Florida, we had the ball and an opportunity to go down and win the game, and didn’t do it offensively. And then defensively, you know, you look at Kentucky, four-point plays in the red zone. They scored three touchdowns on third downs,” Drinkwitz said.