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How Marquis Gracial is making a case to start for the Missouri football team in 2024

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Marquis Gracial always believed that he could play.

This year, the sophomore on the Missouri football team knew he could play.

Mizzou lost three of the four players who made up its oft-rotating defensive tackle last season and returned only Kristian Williams, a team captain, from that core group. The Tigers seized the opportunity to fill the void, bringing senior transfer Chris McClellan from Florida and New Mexico State freshman and St. Louis native Sterling Webb to Columbia in the offseason.

But at Friday's practice, which was open to reporters from start to finish for the first time this fall camp as the Tigers went into 11-on-11 situational drills, McClellan and Webb were not among the first tackles to take the field.

Williams was one of them.

The other was Gracial.

“With the older players leaving, my mindset has changed a little bit, you know, I know I can go out there,” Gracial said Tuesday, three days before open practice. “I mean, that's how I felt when I was younger. But now it's like, there's no senior, there's no one that can come in, like, 'Well, I know I'm not really going to play.' The competition is completely open.”

There were initial indications of his rise in the squad list.

At the start of fall camp, MU head coach Eli Drinkwitz told reporters that the 6-foot-4, 315-pound tackle “really improved his game” between his second and third years in the program. Before Friday's practice, Gracial himself said, “There's no starter right now.”

Then came the proof of the apparently still open battle for representatives.

Gracial took the lion's share of reps alongside Williams during the closest stretches of practice to a live game. That doesn't necessarily mean he'll be in the starting lineup on day one, but it seems to indicate he's at least found a significant role in the Tigers' rotation.

McClellan and Webb both participated in the Sudo practice game for a third-down package with the 1s and then took over the majority of the reps with the second team later in the practice.

Mizzou will likely rotate between four players at the position again this season. In camp, the early projection was for Williams to partner with McClellan, a big portal bait, as the main player on offense. The likely battle was between Gracial and fellow tackles Jalen Marshall and Sam Williams for the final spot in the two-deep.

Friday’s training painted a completely different picture – one that Gracial had hinted at a few days earlier.

“We're competing,” Gracial said. … “We don't know where anybody is right now. You know, we're out there competing against each other. … It's definitely tough. It's challenging. (There are) six guys out there competing for one spot.”

These options have been limited in recent seasons.

While the Tigers completed their 11-2 season in 2023 and won the Cotton Bowl, the St. Louis native, who was a four-star prospect out of St. Charles High School, played in limited action, in wins over South Carolina and Arkansas but not otherwise. Gracial's only contribution in his rookie year came in a game against New Mexico State.

Two years, three performances.

But he never thought about going for instant gratification.

“I love what we do here. I love Mizzou, I'm close to home, but mostly it's the coaches,” Gracial said. “Really good guys, and I've seen what they've done with other players. I just trust the coaches and what they're doing, and I think it's going to work out.”

When Missouri opens its season against Murray State on Thursday, August 29, there's a good chance Gracial will be one of the starters. At the very least, it seems unlikely that he won't be on the clock.

He knew he could play, but waited as opportunities dwindled. That patience seems to be paying off.

Not that he needs to, mind you. He's heading into a season that could promise much more, and he has a fairly simple and selfless list of demands to keep him satisfied.

Ws.

“My main thing is that we win, that's the most important thing for me,” Gracial said. “No matter what role I play, if we are successful, I'm happy. And if I don't play much and we win, I'm happy. If I play a lot and we win, I'm happy. I just want to win.”

More: Here's what we learned when Missouri football fully opened its Friday practice

More: Mizzou football team's first defensive depth chart prediction for 2024

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