Receiver Bud Sasser walked to the line of scrimmage and took his spot in the slot. He looked to his left as freshman quarterback Maty Mauk took the snap and dropped back in the pocket, looking for a target. Sasser took three steps back before grabbing a lob from Mauk.
He looked downfield, but dropped further back. With a hungry Georgia defense closing in, Sasser lofted a deep pass toward the end zone and connected with receiver L’Damian Washington.
The score sealed a 41-26 Missouri victory over Georgia and brought the team into the national spotlight.
“If it’s playing on a highlight reel in the room I may watch it, but I never go back to it,” Sasser said. “It’s just a cool moment that happened, but I’m trying to make more cool moments.”
Almost a year later, the Tigers play the Georgia Bulldogs in Columbia this Saturday and Sasser, now a senior, will again be at the center of the offensive attack. In his last game against South Carolina, Sasser was a one-man act, hauling in six receptions for a team-high 86 yards for an otherwise ineffective Missouri passing attack that was missing senior wide receivers Jimmie Hunt and Darius White.
Now, after a bye week, Hunt and White will likely return to action. Missouri coach Gary Pinkel put their odds of playing Saturday as “better than 50 percent.”
Hunt suffered a burst bursal sack in his knee during a practice leading up to the South Carolina game, while White injured his groin in the Tigers’ 31-27 loss to Indiana. Both are confident they will make their return this week, but still, Hunt said he was disappointed after sitting out the Tigers’ upset victory over the Gamecocks.
“I wanted to motivate the guys that were out there and not show that I was upset that I couldn’t play,” Hunt said. “But at the same time I knew (the younger guys) could step up and make big plays.”
Although he was unable to travel to South Carolina, White was actually relieved by his injury, as it may have saved his entire senior season.
White said that after he hurt his groin, “(I) basically did my own surgery by tearing a tendon in my groin.” According to White, the doctor said if the receiver had strained and not torn a tendon, it would’ve required season-ending surgery.
“It’s all healed up now and the healing process has been going good,” White said. “I’m not trying to rush anything, but I really feel like I’ll be out there this weekend.”
Sasser will need all the help he can get from his ailing teammates, as the Tigers scrounged against South Carolina for a measly 132 passing yards without the duo in the lineup. Freshman Lawrence Lee and junior Wesley Leftwich, Hunt and White’s replacements, combined for two catches and 34 yards.
But White didn’t get down on his teammates; he said he thought they did well filling in. Leftwich made a 26-yard grab during the fourth quarter drive that brought Missouri’s offense to life.
“I was behind them the whole time in practices, helping them out, helping with the routes and just telling them to stay calm,” White said. “I didn’t even get to travel to the game, but I was texting Jimmie and some of the older guys at the game to tell them to calm down and let the game come to them. That’s exactly what they did, and they made some big plays when it counted.”
Hunt also congratulated Lee and Leftwich on their performances, but he also mentioned how the two still had a lot to learn from White and himself.
“(Darius and I) are really good at watching film,” Hunt said. “We know how to find tendencies in certain defenses. I can find a hole and try to let Maty know that on the next drive, if they run the same scheme, we should look here for this. Some of the young guys aren’t able to do that yet.”
But no matter the experience level, Hunt and White are just happy to get back out on the field and give the offense some extra help this week in preparation for the team’s biggest test yet.
“It’s always tough when you’re not out there with your guy,” White said. “You want to help your team win and we did get the victory. I just want to get out there and be another threat to help the guys out.”
