In the previous segments of this series on the Missouri defense, we focused on the defensive front. Today we turn our attention to the secondary, looking at defensive coordinator Ryan Walters’ favorite coverage—Cover 1.
Mizzou is a Cover 1 team under Walters. The Tigers played some form of Cover 1 on more than half of 2019’s defensive snaps. Cover 1 is, essentially, Walters’ identity as a coordinator.
Cover 1
Cover 1 is a man-to-man coverage with a deep-middle free safety playing over the top. For this reason it is also called Man-Free coverage.