Which transfer will have the biggest impact on Missouri football’s season? 5 candidates

The Tigers’ offseason recruitment is about to get tested.

Missouri football brought in 17 players via the transfer portal over the course of the winter and spring windows, looking to replenish some key defensive talent and considerable offensive contributors.

Now, Mizzou's 2024 season is just four days away , with Murray State set to visit coach Eli Drinkwitz’s Tigers on Thursday, Aug. 29, for a game on Faurot Field. Missouri is a preseason contender for a berth into the first 12-team College Football Playoff, but that run is going to be highly dependent on how some key newcomers perform.

Here’s are five transfers Mizzou needs to stand out for a successful season:

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Can Nate Noel help reestablish Missouri football’s run game?

One-thousand, six-hundred and twenty-seven rushing yards. Fourteen touchdowns.

That’s the production Mizzou lost in Cody Schrader. The Tigers need to find a way to establish the run game with a new face in the backfield and recoup a good chunk of Schrader's numbers.

Noel, who joined the team from Appalachian State, hasn’t been confirmed as the starter and is embroiled in a battle with Georgia State newcomer Marcus Carroll, but clues from camp suggest he will take the bigger bulk of the carries over the course of the season.

The wide receivers look deep and versatile. Brady Cook is entering his third season as the starter. A dynamic option at running back could make this offense incredibly difficult to defend.

Toriano Pride Jr., cornerback

Both of Missouri's cornerbacks were drafted this year. Pride transferred in from Clemson , seemingly as the heir-apparent to one of them.

If — and that is still a significant ‘if’ — he earns a starting role over redshirt freshman Nicholas DeLoach, Missouri could desperately do with him being good at the job.

Kris Abrams-Draine led the SEC with 13 passes defended last season and had a team-high four interceptions. Most teams didn’t look in Ennis Rakestraw Jr.’s direction more than a handful of times a game. You’d be hard pressed to find a team better equipped at corner than MU in 2023.

Dreyden Norwood should be a solid replacement this year after filling in adequately last year, but that’s just one side.

There’s a question mark at cornerback in Columbia. It’s perhaps the biggest question mark on the team.

Pride has an opportunity to be the answer.

More: Here's why cornerback Toriano Pride Jr. chose to ‘come home' to play for Missouri football

Marcus Bryant, left tackle

Bryant is the focus here over Oklahoma transfer Cayden Green solely because of his position. Both will have a major role all year long.

But the strength of an offense is so closely tied to the level of play from its tackles. When Mizzou went 11-2 with a top-30 offense, it was getting All-American performances from fifth-round draft pick Javon Foster.

Bryant is Foster's successor for the role of protecting Brady Cook’s blindside and creating gaps in the outside-zone run game. MU’s O-Line was its most improved room last season, and the talent level this season appears to have taken another jump.

If Bryant, an All-AAC first-team selection last season at SMU, can gel with his new teammates quickly, there will be far more fireworks flying over Faurot Field.

More: Meet Marcus Bryant, the frontrunner to play left tackle for Missouri football in 2024

Zion Young, defensive end

Darius Robinson and Johnny Walker Jr. were a dominant duo at defensive end for Mizzou last season, racking up 13.5 sacks as part of 23.5 tackles for loss, 15 QB hurries and four forced fumbles between them.

Robinson is now off to the league as a first-round pick by the Arizona Cardinals, and Walker is, by all indications, filling the role as MU’s premier edge rusher.

Young, a Michigan State transfer, is starting at the other edge spot. He’ll take up field end duties, which means he’ll line up on the wider side of the field from where the ball is snapped from.

The Tigers lived on getting into the backfield last season and creating havoc. On a defense that has a lot of changing parts, adding a second consistent producer at defensive end is all the more important.

More: Brady Cook, Luther Burden, CFP race: Bold predictions for Missouri football in 2024 season

Caleb Flagg, safety

Missouri safety Marvin Burks Jr. called Flagg a “firestarter;” or a player who makes the plays that change games.

Flagg, a preferred walk-on from Houston Christian, is firmly in the 'dark horse' category when it comes to who could be among Mizzou’s season-defining transfers, for sure. But all camp indications suggest he’s got the pass-tracking abilities to seriously help a lot of lost production.

The coaches said he broke out as a ballhawk in spring camp. He kept that form up in the fall, picking multiple passes during portions of practice made available to the media. He’s been running with Missouri's second-team through preseason, and looks likely to back up Burks at the boundary safety position.

With a lot of likely rotation, fans will probably see Flagg relatively often. Same for his older brother, Miami transfer and linebacker Corey Flagg.

Missouri lost two-thirds of the team’s 2023 INT haul to the NFL Draft. If Caleb Flagg can be a difference-maker — if he can start fires — in the secondary, that would be a major, and unexpected, boon.

This article originally appeared on Columbia Daily Tribune: Which transfer will have the biggest impact on Missouri football’s season? 5 candidates