Aug. 12, 2011
Columbia, Mo. -
The Missouri Tiger football team held a scaled-back practice in shorts without full contact, as Mizzou prepared for its first major scrimmage of the fall, set for Saturday morning at Faurot Field. Be sure to stay tuned to www.mutigers.com for a recap and official statistics from Saturday's scrimmage.
Gary Pinkel's squad worked out for a little over two hours, and began the session at Faurot Field, before having to move inside to the Dan Devine Pavilion due to inclement weather moving into the Columbia area.
Scoring isn't tracked on non-contact days, so there was no winner of Friday's practice, but there were several plays that stood out among the day's highlights:
* - Sophomore WR Marcus Lucas continued his impressive camp as he made several nice grabs on the day, including one that he hauled in on a deep sideline route where he caught the ball over his shoulder in coverage for a gain of some 35-40 yards. His emergence is even more welcomed, as several Tiger receivers are banged up with injuries. Junior WR Gahn McGaffie (hamstring), sophomore TE Eric Waters (hamstring), and sophomore WR Jaleel Clark (shoulder) all missed Friday's session, and they were joined on the sideline today when senior standout Jerrell Jackson left practice early with a hamstring injury. Jackson will be held out of Saturday's scrimmage, and the others are all on a day-to-day basis in terms of their return to the field...
* - Junior TB Kendial Lawrence looks intent on keeping his grip on the top spot on the tailback depth chart. He is looking very quick in camp, and showed his speed and elusiveness today on one play where he took a pass over the middle from QB James Franklin, and he made one would-be tackler miss right away with a sharp cut, which got him into the secondary quickly for a huge gain...
* - Franklin continued his solid play, and he showed a good knack for avoiding pressure in the pocket. Several times today, Franklin avoided a rush to get out of the pocket and either make a throw for a completion, or threw the ball away to avoid a negative play...
* - Freshman QB Corbin Berkstresser and freshman WR Wesley Leftwich combined on the play of the day, when Leftwich caught a long fade route over his shoulder despite tight coverage for what amounted to about a 40-yard TD pass...
* - Later in the day, the #2 defense held up nicely against the #1 offense, as they allowed only a short pass completion over the middle in a four-play series. Additionally, the #1 defense gave up virtually nothing against the #2 offense in one sequence...
* - The offense came back later though, as Franklin led the #1 offense to a few first downs against the #1 unit thanks to a few completions, one of which went to junior WR T.J. Moe on a nicely-timed out route...
On another note, former Tiger legend Brock Olivo was on hand Friday morning to observe practice. Now an assistant coach for the Omaha Nighthawks of the UFL, Olivo brought a couple of his fellow staff members to observe the program first-hand.
Here were Coach Pinkel's thoughts about the day, taken from his visit with the media following practice...
"I thought it was a good practice overall. We had shoulder pads and practiced a little lighter this morning because we're going to have a huge scrimmage tomorrow. We backed off the hitting a little bit and we're going to work on some meetings this afternoon. Tomorrow morning's a real important scrimmage for everybody, not just for the evaluation of our players, which we do every single day as a staff and have for the last 10 practices prior to this one, but the scrimmage itself carries a lot of weight. I like the competition out there."
On Jerrell Jackson's injury...
"He's got a hamstring. We've got three receivers out, actually four right now. The deal with those hamstrings are you've got to be very, very careful bringing guys back. We'll see where it goes."
On how it helps the younger wide receivers...
"What (Jackson's injury) does though, it provides a lot of those young guys a lot of opportunities. We know a lot of those older guys have proven themselves, now those younger guys move up a couple notches."
On Sheldon Richardson...
"I think Sheldon's doing really well. I didn't get to see all of the 1-on-1 pass rushes but I was told by a couple coaches that he was pretty dominating there on his first day. He's got really good work ethic and is a good kid so we're excited to see what happens."
On the wide receivers...
"I think we've got some depth there with those three freshmen from a year ago. Marcus Lucas, Bud Sasser and Jimmie Hunt, those guys are slowly starting to shine a little bit. They're competing with the guys in front of them, so we'll see how this scrimmage works out. Having those veteran receivers out kind of helps them a little bit. It allows those guys to see if they can do it and gives them opportunities, so we'll see how it goes."
On the running backs...
"We've got three really good running backs and Greg White is coming around well himself, so we'll see where it goes. If one would separate, or two would separate, then what you would do is adjust the reps a little bit, but it's going to be real important for us to run the ball well, especially with a young quarterback."
On what Corbin Berkstresser needs to do to move up the depth chart...
"He's got to show well, he's got to quarterback well. He's doing really well though. He's doing a lot of good things. He's a very, very bright guy, and with our offense you better be, especially at that position. That also allows a guy like him to be looked at a little better than some others. It'll be interesting. He still makes a lot of mistakes out here, but he's learned an awful lot, he's very competitive and we'll see what happens."