Comparing Tennessee and Missouri starters, with talent and experience ratings

So far this week, we’ve looked at what Missouri does well (and not so well) and which of their players are most important to their team. Now let’s take a look Tennessee’s and Missouri’s projected starters with each players’ class and published recruiting rankings. If you can’t see the entire chart embedded below, click here for full page:

As before, the color codes are based on the range of 247 Composite numbers on the list. The range starts with deep green at the top and ends with deep red at the bottom. The highest-rated player on either team is Tennessee’s Trey Smith, with a rating of .992.

Here’s the list of starters, sorted by recruiting ranking (full page here):

Observations

• The stars breakdown:
  • 5-stars: Tennessee 1, Missouri 1
  • 4-stars: Tennessee 10, Missouri 2
  • 3-stars: Tennessee 11, Missouri 18
  • 2-stars: Tennessee 0, Missouri 0
  • No rating: Tennessee 1, Missouri 0
• Tennessee has 16 of the 20 highest-rated players.
• Missouri’s highest-rated players are junior defensive tackle Terry Beckner, Jr., junior quarterback Drew Lock, and redshirt junior linebacker Brandon Lee.
• Missouri’s highest-rated unit is its offensive backfield with Lock and senior running back Ish Witter.
• Missouri’s lowest-rated unit is its offensive line.
• Surprisingly, Tennessee’s highest-rated unit is its offensive line, although that is largely due to Drew Richmond being included, and he is questionable for the game Saturday. Also, even if Richmond is in the lineup, there’s still a wide gap between he and Trey Smith on one hand and the other guys along the rest of the line.