Zaviar was actually recruited as a Rivals three-star safety coming out of Pflugerville, Texas in 2008. He weighed less than 200 pounds as a senior in high school, but he ran the 40 in an impressive 4.4 seconds, which turned the heads of some college recruiters. He chose to come to Mizzou over OU, Oklahoma State, Iowa State, Texas Tech, Stanford, and quite a few other schools. He was recruited by Missouri’s Brian Jones, and was blown away by the facilities and family atmosphere here at Mizzou. Even after visiting OU as his last stop, he decided Missouri was the place for him.

Gooden was known as not only the most athletic player on the entire Tigers roster, but also one of the hardest workers. In his first collegiate football season in 2008, he was a part of Mizzou’s defensive scout team, and was twice named the defense’s Backup Player of the Week (yes, that’s an award here at Missouri) for his hard work in preparation for the games against Oklahoma State and Kansas. In 2009, he had gained enough muscle that the coaches wanted to move him to linebacker, where he saw action in all of Mizzou’s 13 games that season. He posted 30 tackles on the season in limited playing time, but what was even more impressive was he made the Big 12′s All Academic Team. People were beginning to realize that not only could this kid become a freak athlete, he was also pretty dang smart too. In 2010 was when he really started to mean something to the program, as he took a starting position at the weakside LB position. He was an instant standout, as he lead the team with 85 tackles and even posted two interceptions, one of which was in one of Missouri’s biggest wins ever over #1 Oklahoma. He continued his solid play in 2011, putting up 80 tackles and a sack. 2012 was a big of a rough season for him as he was battling a hamstring all year, but when he was in the game he was still an impact player. He only played in 10 games last season but still racked up 61 tackles. The guy was just a machine, and was consistently a stronghold for the Mizzou defense.

What are some of his strengths? 

Like I’ve stated multiple times before, his greatest asset is his pure athleticism. He’s 6’2″, weighs 232 LBs, and runs the 40 as fast as 4.38 seconds. Very solid tackler, rarely misses his target. He’s pretty decent in pass coverage, and uses his speed to close on the ball when he does give up a completion. He does a fantastic job shedding his blockers and flying to the ballcarrier. Rarely was there a running play against Mizzou’s defense in which Gooden wasn’t at least within a couple yards of the tackle. This always sounds so cliche to me, but really does have a great motor. You’ll never see him quit on a play, even if the runner is 20 yards downfield. He can hit the hole and close up running lanes pretty quickly, and because of his speed does a great job of stretching the play to the sideline. Aside from his physical strengths, he’s an extremely intelligent person, graduating with a Business Administration degree from MU and earning Academic All Conference honors multiple times. He’s also very involved in some of the church programs around Columbia (where MU is located) and has never been in the news for negative behavior. You know you’re getting an athletic, hard-working, strong character player with Zaviar Gooden.

 Well, we talked about his speed and how he uses it to his advantage a lot already, but he also uses it against himself from time to time. When he does struggle in pass coverage it’s because of over pursuit of the player he’s covering, so he sometimes had trouble covering in the flats and defending screen plays. He’s not a very overpowering player, you won’t see him bullrushing an offensive lineman to get to the QB. He isn’t a great pressure player as I’ve stated before, as he rarely got to the QB as a collegiate linebacker, but that really wasn’t his role in college so maybe that could change in the NFL, who knows.