Coach Gary Pinkel had hoped a place kicker and contributors to his offensive line would emerge during Missouri’s third and final scrimmage of fall camp on Thursday.
But by the time the whistle blew for the final time inside Memorial Stadium, it appeared that neither had happened.
Redshirt freshman Andrew Baggett and senior Trey Barrow have been competing for kicking duties throughout camp, and neither had shown much to take a clear advantage over the other. And neither did so on Thursday.
Baggett and Barrow each made just three of their seven field goals attempts. They each converted from the same distances (38, 36, 43) and missed from the same four distances (40, 45, 32, 39) as well.
“We’re not competing there as well or as consistent as we want,” Pinkel said of the kicker competition.
A “disappointed” Pinkel said the team went through this last year and knows what it’s like for “Missouri to beat Missouri.”
In the trenches, yet another offensive lineman went down with an injury, this one a sprained knee suffered by starting senior right guard Jack Meiners.
Projected starting redshirt senior left guard Travis Ruth was lost for the season earlier in camp with a torn triceps tendon, backup redshirt freshman tackle Taylor Chappell is likely out for the season with a torn ACL and tackles junior Justin Britt, senior Elvis Fisher and redshirt sophomore Chris Freeman each also missed a handful of camp practices due to injury.
Redshirt junior left guard Max Copeland moved to right guard following the injury to Meiners and true freshman Evan Boehm replaced Copeland, with whom he had been battling throughout August.
One thing that did make itself readily apparent Thursday afternoon on Faurot Field’s new turf was the blazing speed of highly touted freshman receiver Dorial Green-Beckham.
Lined up in the left slot, Green-Beckham ran a slant and caught a short toss from freshman quarterback Maty Mauk. Green-Beckham shook loose from an attempted arm tackle by redshirt junior linebacker Donovan Bonner and raced down the middle of the field, outrunning three defenders 65 yards to the end zone for an awe-inducing touchdown.
Making the freshman’s burst to pay dirt even more impressive was the fact that it came against the starting defense.
“Speed is such a great weapon for any player, and he has that,” Pinkel said. “(Former Tiger All-American) Jeremy Maclin was the same way. As a freshman, we’d get on him all the time, he’s thinking out there, thinking about routes, thinking about route adjustments, he’s thinking about things he’s never had to do and, when you think, you don’t play instinctively. You lose all your speed.”
Pinkel said he believes the play was a testament to the strides Green-Beckham has made over the course of camp. Pinkel said he has come a long way.
Another receiver to make a highlight reel play Thursday was redshirt sophomore Jimmie Hunt.
Hunt caught a pass on an in route over the middle and got past a defender with a nifty spin move, reaching the end zone for a 22-yard touchdown.
Earlier in camp, senior receiver T.J. Moe called MU’s receiving corps “one of the deepest in the country.”
The big plays Thursday by non-starters Green-Beckham and Hunt further show the tremendous depth the Tigers have at the position, depth that junior quarterback James Franklin thoroughly enjoys.
“If a guy’s second string or third string and he comes in with the ones, I don’t really see it as, ‘I can’t throw to him’ or, ‘He’s not as good’,” Franklin said. “I see it as, ‘I can throw to him and he can do almost the same thing the guy in front of him can do.”
