- Missouri’s football team has reduced its special teams unit to just four players due to upcoming roster limits.
- The SEC will allow 85 scholarship players and 20 walk-ons this season, leading to smaller rosters across the conference.
- To adapt, Missouri is training players to handle multiple special teams roles and seeking additional players through the transfer portal.
Raise a hand and start counting special teams players on the Missouri football roster with your fingers.
You won’t get to your pinky. It’s a lonely room.
“We have, like, four specialists right now — four or five, and it’s definitely a change,” Craig said during spring camp. “But I think that having less guys in the room just means that we’ve got to be more focused. In our meetings and everything, it feels like there’s no one in there.”
Such is the modern world in college football that impending roster limit changes stemming from the upcoming revenue sharing settlement have created.
Mizzou, which wrapped up spring camp on March 21, has four special teams members as that has become the first position on the chopping block. Walk-on roster spots are getting closer to being eliminated and roster sizes are decreasing by approximately 15 spots.
The SEC has announced that teams will be able to carry 85 scholarship players and 20 walk-ons this season for a total of 105 players.
Last season, Mizzou had 120 players on its roster, including nine special teams players.
This season, the Tigers currently have 98 players rostered with four on special teams — Craig, transfer punter Connor Weselman, freshman placekicker Robert Meyer and long-snapper Brett Le Blanc.
“I think it’s really hard. But unfortunately, you know, it’s part of the rules,” Mizzou special teams coordinator Erik Link said March 11. “We don’t make the rules, you know, we just have to adapt and adjust.”
