Vandysports.com's Chris Lee asks PowerMissou.com's Gabe DeArmond five key questions about Missouri, which plays Vanderbilt at 3 this Saturday.

1. Coach Barry Odom seems to have improved Missouri every year after taking over in 2015, and starting from about this time last year, the program seems to really have turned a corner. (Missouri is 10-3 in that span, and 6-1 in the SEC, in that time.) What's been the key to the turnaround, and how does the fan base and key decision makers feel about the job he's done?

It's just been incremental improvement every year.

Mizzou went from four wins to seven to eight and now it should have its sights set on ten this year (nine at least in the regular season and then the whole issue of whether they get to play in a bowl game). It hasn't happened nearly as quickly as fans had hoped, but the talent and the support for the program have slowly and steadily improved since the issues in the 2015 season and Gary Pinkel's retirement.

For the first time this year, Odom has a defense that can help win games. Mizzou was 5-19 in games it didn't score 40 points after the loss to Wyoming. Since then, the Tigers have won three games in which they didn't hit 40, mostly because they've got a defense that is top 20 in pretty much every major category.

2. Please give us an update with regards to key injuries, suspensions, etc.,--and players returning for such--heading into Saturday.

Middle linebacker Cale Garrett tore a pectoral tendon against Troy and is out for the season. He was leading the SEC in tackles and the nation in defensive touchdowns when he went down.

Sophomore Cameron Wilkins started in his spot against Ole Miss. He was decent, not great.

Punt returner Richaud Floyd missed the Ole Miss game with a hamstring injury. Odom was hopeful on Tuesday he'll be able to play this week.

Other than that, there are no major injuries, though Trajan Jeffcoat, who was expected to start at the beginning of fall camp until an elbow injury, is off the team as of a couple weeks ago. But since he never played a snap this season, that's not an injury that has any tangible impact.

Other than that, we expect everyone to play unless something changes between now and Saturday.

3. Missouri's five-game win streak has come at home and against unranked opponents. Still, a 144-point combined margin of victory is impressive. The Tigers sit alone atop the Southeastern Conference Eastern Division; are they good enough to win it?

They're good enough, in part because the schedule really doesn't get tougher and in part because they've already gotten some help. Florida and Georgia already each have a loss and they still play each other. So one of them is guaranteed to have two losses Mizzou plays at Georgia on November 9 and hosts Florida on Nov 16. It's hard to see a scenario where Mizzou could lose both of those games and win the division, but if it can get a split, there's a pretty decent shot Missouri would be in good shape.

The crossover opponents from the west this year were Ole Miss and Arkansas and nobody else in the East looks real capable of beating them (of course, everybody would have said the same thing about South Carolina against Georgia, so...)

4. Last year's quarterback, Drew Lock, is now in the NFL. But is Missouri actually a better team with Kelly Bryant?

Oddly, they are. It's not all about the quarterback play, but that's part of it. Bryant is more mobile and a more willing runner than Lock and that's added a dimension to the offense. He hasn't run for a ton of yards and they haven't used the designed QB run a lot, but he keeps a lot of plays alive with his legs.

Bryant has also shown a calmness and ability to rebound from adversity. He almost led Mizzou back from a 17 point fourth quarter deficit at Wyoming. He overcame a bad first half against South Carolina to salt it away. He's already nearing his totals from his year as a starter at Clemson in yardage and touchdown passes and we're just halfway through the season.

But also, if you give Drew Lock this defense, he probably wins more than he did

5. This looks like an outstanding Missouri defense. The Tigers are giving up 5.0 yards per pass on the year, and 2.1 yards per rush from Week 2 on. But how good is it without linebacker Cale Garrett, who might have been heading towards an All-American season?

We'll find out. Last week was a weird test because John Rhys Plumlee's speed brings an element that Mizzou just won't see from another quarterback this season. Plumlee really hurt them, but overall, they held the Rebels to their season average in points and below their average in total yards.

The rest of the season, Mizzou faces only two offenses in the top 70 (Georgia and Florida) and could keep things rolling. I wrote about just why the defense has been better earlier this week (https://missouri.rivals.com/news/how-has-mizzou-s-defense-gotten-so-much-better-).