COLUMBIA, MO. • The NCAA’s new redshirt rule allows college football coaches more roster flexibility when it comes to playing freshmen, but in his brief head-coaching experience, Missouri’s Barry Odom hasn’t shied from putting rookies on the field. He won’t this year either.
In 2016, the first-time head coach played nine freshman scholarship players, followed by 10 last fall. This year, that number could climb to 12.
The NCAA’s new rule allows freshmen to appear in as many as four games while preserving their year of eligibility. That means a player fresh out of high school can play in any four games during the upcoming season, sit out the other games and still have four full seasons of eligibility starting in 2019.