Mizzou football transfers welcome challenge of breaking into experienced defense

Tre’Vez Johnson put it succinctly.

“We’ve got some dogs,” the Mizzou football transfer defensive back said of the Tigers’ defense.

On Tuesday, three of Missouri’s new defensive transfers — Johnson and defensive ends Nyles Gaddy and Joe Moore III — met with the media. They join the Tigers at an enticing time, as MU has returned eight of its 11 starters from last season.

Breaking into the starting rotation is no small order. But a small order wasn’t what they signed on for.

Each expressed several reasons for taking on the new challenge.

Johnson, an ex-Gator, spoke to former Florida teammate Ty’Ron Hopper — who enters this season as a preseason second-team All-Southeastern Conference selection after a breakout campaign in 2022 — before committing to the Tigers.

They spoke about what the locker room’s atmosphere was like, the caliber of the staff and the style of football they plan on playing.

“I just loved everything about it,” Johnson said.

Mizzou defensive coordinator Blake Baker has been high on Johnson. He said at the beginning of fall camp that he could see the former Gator fitting in anywhere in the secondary.

During Tuesday’s practice, his reps came with the first team at free safety as Jaylon Carlies missed practice. Before then, he spent some time behind Daylan Carnell at the STAR safety position.

Carlies and Carnell co-led Missouri in 2022 with three picks apiece. Carlies led the Tigers in tackles.

In short: Not easy spots to steal.

That hasn’t fazed him all that much.

“Just come in and compete,” he said. … “A lot of people coming back, a lot of production, so I knew it wasn't gonna be easy, come right in. But just come in and compete. Do my job.”

Elsewhere on the defense, the Tigers filled in gaps in the portal.

They acquired defensive ends Moore from Arizona State and Gaddy from Jackson State to help replenish losing Isaiah McGuire and DJ Coleman to the NFL. The incoming duo have primarily been behind tackle-turned-end Darius Robinson and junior returner Johnny Walker Jr. during camp, but figure to feature prominently in the rotation.

For Moore, arriving at Missouri is a homecoming first and foremost. He’s from St. Louis. His father is a Mizzou Hall of Famer, starring at running back for the Tigers in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

But it was also a signal that his priorities had changed since being recruited out of Cardinal Ritter by Arizona State.

“I feel like it's more serious, you know, in high school, you’re still a kid, you’re looking at all the flashy stuff and, you know, just everything outside of football, but when it came to me leaving another college, it became more like a business decision,” Moore said. “What's gonna get me to the league? What’s gonna get me to my playing load and next step? What coaches (are) going to really fine-tune things that I need to work on?”

Reaching the next level was high on that list of needs.

“You know, I gotta get real serious, I ain’t trying to be in college forever,” Moore said. “I ain’t got 10 years to do this, so just locking in and seeing the plans that can get me to where I want to be the fastest way possible.”

For others, like Deion Sanders-coached grad transfer Gaddy, who spent his first two seasons of college football at Tennessee before moving to Jacksonville State, it’s about getting back to the top level of the game.

“If I was going to come out of the portal, leave behind HBCU football,” Gaddy said, “I wanted to go back to the SEC. That’s where I started it, that’s where I was gonna finish it.”

The transfer portal is sometimes seen as a get-right-quick scheme for players to skip the queue.

With a top-35 defense returning most of its 2022 production and a defensive coordinator who has tasked them with finishing the year as the nation’s best, try telling these Missouri newcomers that.

“That word compete, man. We’ve got some guys in there that love to work,” Johnson said. “They love to play football. So just being around each other, making each other better — I feel like this summer that we definitely did that. Just working out together, being together, and I feel like we definitely built some relationships and bonds that’s gonna help us on the field.”

This article originally appeared on Columbia Daily Tribune: Mizzou football transfers challenge for spots on experienced defense