COLUMBIA, Mo. â Thereâs an action movie-worthy acronym that circulates around defense and national security circles in this age of the internet: OSINT. Meaning âopen-source intelligence,â it refers to the kind of, yes, intelligence that is floating around in the public domain for any olâ Curious George to find.
Missouriâs coaching staff has leaned on OSINT lately because itâs all they have when it comes to the No. 11 Tigersâ first opponent of the season: Murray State.
âThatâs the challenge,â MU coach Eli Drinkwitz said. âThereâs really no way to watch Murray State film because theyâve got brand-new offensive, defensive and special teams coordinators, they got 60 new players. You can watch their schemes from last year to try to see what their players are, but theyâre not going to be running the exact same stuff. Trying to figure out what your matchups are is almost impossible.â
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So letâs scout Murray State.
The Racers are a Football Championship Subdivision, or FCS, program, so they donât get the kind of preseason coverage that even mediocre or bad Football Bowl Subdivision teams do.
Phil Steele publishes an annual encyclopedia of FCS previews alongside his FBS one, but this beat writer couldnât justify that added expense for analysis of one team. Lindyâs magazine predicts Murray State to finish last in the Missouri Valley conference, offering a dozen words of explanation: âDean Hood left for Kentucky staff, ex-South Carolina asst. Jody Wright in.â
Thatâs a good baseline. Hood and the Racers parted ways after going 2-9 overall and 1-7 in conference play last season.
In came Wright, who carries a strong resume for a first-time head coach. He spent the past two seasons as South Carolinaâs tight ends coach, so heâs been to Columbia and Memorial Stadium before. Wright spent 2019-21 in the NFL, including a season each coaching standout running backs Saquon Barkley and Nick Chubb in position-specific roles. He was also Alabamaâs director of player personnel for a few seasons under Nick Saban.
âCoach Wright is an excellent football coach,â Drinkwitz said. âHe does an outstanding job. ... Heâs got a lot of different types of coaches on his staff, so weâre trying to pull film from a lot of different places to get an idea of what theyâre going to do.â
Defensive coordinator Ryan Smith arrived at Murray State from Florida A&M. Offensive play-caller Jimmy Ogle has spent the past two seasons coaching high school after more than two decades on the staff at Jacksonville State.
âThe last time he called plays was at Jacksonville State two years ago,â Drinkwitz said, part of why âitâs a real challenge to have any idea of what theyâre going to do schematically.â
In some interviews, Wright has hinted broadly at schematic ideas but hasnât been overly specific in revealing his plans.
âWe do want to have some pro-style schemes,â he said . âI say pro-style and I think everybodyâs kind of doing similar stuff. We would like to be balanced, run and pass. We do like to play with the tight ends, possibly â weâre still figuring out right now whether we want to be more two-tight end or two-running back or 10 (one running back, no tight ends, four wide receivers) personnel.â
Determining individual players to watch for is also difficult. There isnât a readily available Murray State depth chart projection floating around on the internet.
Two Racers did make it onto the Senior Bowl preseason watch list, though, indicating that theyâre somewhere on the radar of NFL scouts and front offices: defensive back Kavan Reed, who played at East șüÀêÊÓÆ” in high school, and defensive lineman CJ Barnes.
Offensively, Jayden Johannsen seems like the favorite to be Murray Stateâs quarterback when Thursday evening rolls around. Thatâs who Mizzou is preparing for, anyway â the scout team quarterback in Sundayâs practice wore Johannsenâs No. 7.
Even equipped with that knowledge, itâs tough to get a read on what the Racersâ signal-caller can do. He has played the past four seasons at South Dakota Mines, a Division II school best known for allowing a few hundred cars to park right next to the field, allowing for in-game tailgating and honking.
There, Johannsen assembled a 2022 season with 3,199 passing yards, 28 touchdowns, 526 rushing yards and eight scores of his own that made him a nominee for the Harlon Hill Trophy â Division IIâs equivalent of the Heisman Trophy.
Oh, and he was the Hardrockersâ punter, too.
Finding his game film in particular required Mizzou to deploy its OSINT skills.
âWeâre watching Hudl tape in order to figure out what heâs done, on the internet,â Drinkwitz said.
Heâs referring to a popular website for football prospects to upload videos from games to assemble personal highlight reels. Sure enough, highlights from South Dakota Mines games are on there, with containing a lengthy touchdown pass from a game against Colorado Mesa last year touting 289 views â some of which must have come from within the Missouri team facility.
Drinkwitz said the scouting challenges make Thursdayâs game against Murray State âprobably the most difficult opening game that we faced since Iâve been here.â
The 2020 opener against eventual national champion Alabama, for whom Heisman winner DeVonta Smith starred, would like a word there. But even with Mizzou favored by more touchdowns than can be counted on one hand, the scouting element of the 2024 opener adds some intrigue to the Tigersâ preparations.