The pocket collapsed and the floodgates opened. Defenders stormed through the middle of the line.
Sophomore quarterback Maty Mauk spun and rolled to his left, desperately looking for a receiver. With a cornerback fast approaching, Mauk bounded off of his left foot and threw across his body. In the back corner of the end zone, senior receiver Jimmie Hunt hauled in the pass amid three defenders.
It was the first touchdown of the day for Mauk in Missouri’s 38-10 rout of Central Florida on Saturday. Mauk ended the afternoon with a pedestrian 144 passing yards but tacked on four touchdowns to carry his Tigers to victory.
After Saturday’s performance, Mauk has thrown 12 total touchdown passes through three games, which ties him for the most in the nation. Mauk has already thrown more touchdowns than he did last season, when he started four games and played in 13. And he’s done this with 77 pass attempts, just over half of the 133 he attempted all of last season.
Both Mauk’s play on the field and his box score numbers are starting to garner attention and draw comparisons to a former Southeastern Conference quarterback: Johnny Manziel. But despite the praise for the quarterback, senior wide receiver Bud Sasser said that Mauk doesn’t buy into the comparisons.
“I don’t think he likes to be considered Johnny Manziel-like,” Sasser said. “He likes to make a name for himself. He does appreciate that he is compared to Manziel, but he brings more to the table than just an arm. That is just something he naturally has, and we appreciate that.”
And make a name for himself he has. Mauk has torched defenses all season, throwing three touchdown passes in every game of the 2014 season, including a school-record five in the Tigers win over Toledo. He currently leads the country in points accounted for.
Hunt credited Mauk and the offense’s success to the work the unit put in over the summer. It helped the quarterback gel with his receivers, especially on scrambles outside of the pocket, like that first touchdown against UCF.
“We had the chance to go home but we did not. That’s something we work to perfect,” Hunt said regarding the synergy he and Mauk have when the quarterback leaves the pocket. “We knew that was going to be a game-changing play if we made sure we mastered that.”
Mauk said he’s excited to finally see all of that work come to fruition, but he’s not satisfied.
“There are a lot of points out there that we have not gotten,” Mauk said. “That is what we are going to fix this week against Indiana and play a complete game and get things right.”
While he said he’s pleased with Mauk’s performance so far, coach Gary Pinkel said Mauk has plenty of room for improvement, particularly in the mental aspects of the game.
“There are a lot of little things he will do, being a young quarterback,” Pinkel said. “They do more things on defense now than ever before, and as a quarterback, he has to have the answer to all of those things. So he will get better and better with more experience.”
Mauk admitted there is a lot he needs to improve to become the best player he can be, but he said he’s motivated and willing to do whatever it takes to refine his game.
If he were grading his and the offense’s fulfillment of their potentials, they’d nearly be failing.
“We are playing really well right now, but I am only at 60 percent, and our offense is, too,” Mauk said. “We are not nearly what we are capable of, but that’s a good thing. We know what we have to work on, and we are ready to take that challenge on.”
