COLUMBIA, Missouri – The rotation continues.

After edge rusher Darris Smith suffered a season-ending injury earlier this week, Missouri’s defensive ends were missing a player at Friday’s practice, but it still went on as usual.

Zion Young and Johnny Walker Jr. remain the projected starters at the end positions. Joe Moore III remains firmly in the running as a regular backup. Jahkai Lang impressed enough in preseason training camp to be in line for some snaps. But the edge rusher who could get the biggest role due to Smith’s absence is Eddie Kelly Jr.

“Me, Zion, Joe, Jahkai, we’re all going to tackle it,” Kelly said this week. “We all have a lot of experience, so we know what we have to do.”

He appeared to take on a significant amount of second-team duties during Friday’s practice, an indication that he will likely be one of the four edge rushers the Tigers will rotate during games.

Kelly transferred from Georgia Tech to Mizzou in the offseason, spending his second consecutive year at a new location after leaving South Florida before the 2023 season.

“Ultimately, it was Missouri because I believed in Coach Drink(joke),” Kelly said. “I was grateful to Coach Drink for choosing me, and I understood what the program had done the year before.”

In a backup role, Kelly recorded 6.5 tackles for loss and 1.5 sacks during the 2023 season after playing minimally during his first year of college football. With each step of his career, the level of competition has increased, but that doesn’t seem to intimidate the Orlando, Florida, player.

“I played on a lot of SEC teams when I was in the AAC (with South Florida), and I played on a lot of SEC teams when I was in the ACC (with Georgia Tech),” Kelly said. “Everyone puts their pads on the same way, their shoulder pads the same way, so if you’re a dog, you can go out there and play no matter what. That’s how I feel about football.”

Tech played Georgia and Mississippi last year – Kelly recorded a sack in the latter game – and South Florida faced Florida during the defensive end’s time there.

His game doesn’t make him an equal replacement for Smith, whose long, lean, athletic frame makes him a prototype for the Tigers’ wild card role on the defensive line. At 6’4″ and 275 pounds, Kelly is versatile enough to play further inside as well.

“I’m ready to do whatever the team asks of me,” he said. “They need me to rush from the three (technique), they need me to take some blocks from the three, I’m here to do that.”

Missouri coach Eli Drinkwitz allowed reporters to watch the entire practice on Friday – normally media are only invited to individual practices – which allowed for some observation as the Tigers wrapped up their preseason training camp.

Tight ends Brett Norfleet and Jordon Harris, both of whom had missed recent practice with unspecified injuries, returned to play as expected. Both wore green non-contact jerseys, although Norfleet did not appear particularly limited in drills. Harris, however, spent a significant portion of practice doing individual work on the sidelines.

In situational offense-versus-defense drills, Mizzou’s personnel deployment was almost entirely consistent with the projected version of the depth chart that the Post-Dispatch released earlier this week.

Interestingly, though, Marquis Gracial has made more first-team appearances than Chris McClellan at defensive tackle, perhaps indicating that the competition for a starting spot alongside Kristian Williams is still open. Regardless of who gets the starting spot, there will likely be a four-man rotation at D-tackle that includes Sterling Webb. Sam Williams and Jalen Marshall, who consistently pushed the top four tackles throughout camp, have looked competitive.

Part of the schematic consistency between new defensive coordinator Corey Batoon and his predecessor Blake Baker appears to be the use of a Prowler package in some scenarios — likely 3rd-and-long situations. This involves swapping out a linebacker for an additional defensive back, resulting in a sort of 4-1-6 formation. It’s more flexible than those numbers suggest, though, allowing for more creative coverages and blitzes with an unconventional personnel setup.

During Friday’s snaps, when the defense played in the fast lane, Khalil Jacobs filled the role of lone linebacker.

Wide receiver Daniel Blood was the first punt returner to take the field, followed by Marquis Johnson with the second team. Johnson and safety Marvin Burks Jr. were the first-team kick returners, with running back Jamal Roberts and wide receiver Joshua Manning as the second unit.

Blood played on the second team offensive line and made an excellent catch against cornerback Nic DeLoach, who alternated with Toriano Pride Jr. in action for the first team.

Mizzou’s offensive starters struggled to put much together. During a sequence where the offense was at its own 15-yard line and needed to gain enough first downs to start a drive — and the defense was trying to secure field position — Cook went through all of his progression attempts on first down but threw a checkdown to running back Nate Noel incomplete. Walker “sacked” Cook on second down — the quarterbacks weren’t active, so he didn’t hit Cook — and a third-and-17 pass to wideout Mookie Cooper on a crossing route got out of Cooper’s hands.

To close out the practice, Mizzou ran 4th and goal plays from the 8-yard line. Cook tried to force a pass to a double-covered Luther Burden III at the pylon for the first-team attempt, which safety Joseph Charleston interrupted. Second-team quarterback Drew Pyne threw a fade to the feet of Blood, who would not have reached the end zone anyway.