Picking the SEC team to be most skeptical about heading into 2024

On3’s resident college football expert, J.D. PicKell, was a guest on the Paul Finebaum Show on Monday to kick off the week. Of the many topics they discussed surrounding SEC football, PicKell was tasked with identifying which program he is skeptical about for the 2024 season.

And for On3’s College football expert, that team is last year’s Cotton Bowl winner, the Missouri Tigers.

“I look at Missouri; last year, they won four games by one score. And I’m all for magic. I love the Harry Potter franchise; it was phenomenal. Can you recreate the magic from one year to the next? I don’t know that one score wins always translates year in (and) year out,” said PicKell. “You also lose Cody Schrader. That was a massive part of last season’s offensive approach. So I’m curious; I don’t know if I’m skeptical yet about Missouri, but I am a little bit curious as to how they can keep that magic going into 2024.”

Last year, Missouri enjoyed two heroic out-of-conference victories over Kansas State 30-27 and Memphis 34-27. In conference play, they split their single-digit results 1-1, with a nine-point loss to the Georgia Bulldogs 30-21 and a 33-31 victory over the Florida Gators two weeks later.

Missouri has a ton of talent returning in 2024 despite losing running back Cody Schrader. The Tigers still have arguably the best wide receiver in college football on the outside in Luther Burden, along with their charismatic leader at head coach Eli Drinkwitz. And while PicKell is a little unsure if Missouri can repeat their success from 2023 into 2024, he is still a huge fan of the program and is enamored with their head coach.

“Paul, I love Missouri. I think Eli Drinkwitz is one of the swaggiest coaches in college football. He pulled up to SEC Media Days, rocking some chrome-gold Jordan 1s. They were phenomenal,” he said.

In comparison to last season’s schedule, Missouri’s 2024 list of opponents isn’t as daunting as some of the other SEC programs. Arguably, their biggest game this year will come in late October when they travel to Tuscaloosa to take on the Alabama Crimson Tide on Oct. 26. Outside of that, the Tigers’ remaining SEC road opponents are three programs that appear to be in rebuild mode — Texas A&M, South Carolina, and Mississippi State.

And their nonconference schedule is more than manageable with games against Murray State, Buffalo, Boston College, and at UMass.

It might be tricky for a program to repeat this success from a season prior. However, with their roster, head coach, and 2024 schedule, Missouri could be well-positioned to take another step in the right direction of becoming a power in the SEC.