Mizzou, Carolina Square Off Under the Lights

Mizzou Football (1-0) gets an early start to Southeastern Conference play this Saturday when they host the South Carolina Gamecocks (1-0) at Faurot Field/Memorial Stadium. Kickoff for the contest is set for 6 p.m., with ESPN2 on the telecast. The conference's popular traveling pregame TV show, SEC Nation, will be in CoMo this weekend, and will originate its Saturday morning show from the Francis Quadrangle on the MU campus beginning at 9 a.m.

Mizzou is coming off an explosive season opener, as the Tigers smashed school records like they were going out of style in last Saturday's 72-43 win over Missouri State. Mizzou rolled to 815 yards of total offense (521 passing/294 rushing), with the total offense and passing yardages breaking school records. The offense had lots of heroes, none moreso than junior QB Drew Lock, who went 21-of-34 passing for Mizzou records of 521 yards and seven touchdowns (the latter of which tied the SEC single-game passing TD mark). Lock was named on Sunday as the Walter Camp National FBS Offensive Player of the Week for his exploits. His first snap of the 2017 season was a 65-yard TD pass to sophomore WR Johnathon Johnson to quickly put Mizzou up, 6-0.
South Carolina is coming off of an impressive 35-28 neutral-site win over North Carolina State last week in Charlotte, N.C. The Gamecocks also opened their season in eye-popping fashion, as Deebo Samuel took the game's opening kick 97 yards for a touchdown. The Gamecocks used a strong third quarter to break a 21-21 halftime tie and take a 35-21 lead into the fourth quarter, before holding off a late N.C. State rally. Samuel was also a star on offense, as he caught a pair of touchdown passes, and ended the game with five receptions for 83 yards. Carolina QB Jake Bentley threw for 215 yards and three scores, and the Gamecock defense forced a pair of fumbles and notched four sacks to offest a 415-yard passing day by the Wolfpack. South Carolina came away with the win, despite being outgained in total offense by a 504-to-246 margin.

Week 2 Storylines

Mizzou is hosting its first SEC night game since Sept. 17, 2016, against Georgia.
Mizzou leads the nation in total offense, passing offense and is second in passing efficiency and scoring offense after exploding for 815 yards and 72 points last week vs. Missouri St.
Mizzou and South Carolina have met seven times over the years with five meetings coming as SEC members. Mizzou leads the all-time series, 4-3, but trails, 3-2, since joining the SEC. South Carolina won last year's meeting, 31-21, in Columbia, S.C. This will be the third meeting in Columbia West with the two teams splitting the first two.
Mizzou passed for 521 yards last week, the top mark in the SEC, while South Carolina allowed 415 yards passing to NC State, the second-highest mark of any SEC team during the opening weekend. Only Texas A&M allowed more passing yards (491) vs. UCLA.
Junior QB Drew Lock made his first career start against the Gamecocks back in 2015 and completed 21-of-28 passes for 136 yards and two scores. He is 1-1 in his career vs. South Carolina and has completed 44-of-68 passes (64.7 percent) with three touchdowns and two interceptions.
Mizzou is in the midst of a four-game homestand to open 2017 and will not play away from home until Oct. 7 following its bye week. It is the first time Mizzou has opened with four straight home games.
Mizzou played 23 first-year players last week against Missouri State with nine true freshmen seeing the field, including S Jordan Ulmer who started as a true freshman.

A 500/200 Performance

Mizzou's offense was led last week by the dynamic duo of junior QB Drew Lock and sophomore RB Damarea Crockett. The duo combined to give Mizzou its first ever-game with a 400-yard passer and a 200-yard rusher. Lock threw for 521 yards on just 21 completions while Crockett ran for 202 yards on just 18
carries.
The duo combined to turn in the first 500-yard passing, 200-yard rushing game since Oct. 22, 2016, when Oklahoma's Baker Mayfield threw for 545 yards and RB Joe Mixon ran for 263 vs. Texas Tech.
Mizzou was close to joining elite company as senior WR J'Mon Moore hauled in four catches for 187 yards, leaving him just 13 yards shy of the 200-mark. Oklahoma last year against Texas Tech (Oct. 22) is the only school in FBS history to post a 500-yard passer (Baker Mayfield - 545), a 200-yard rusher (Joe Mixon - 263) and a 200-yard receiver (Dede Westbrook - 202).

Lock Earns National, SEC Honors

For his efforts last week, junior QB Drew Lock was named Walter Camp National Offensive Player of the Week and took home SEC Player of the Week honors for his 521-yard, seven-touchdown performance. His 521 yards are the sixth-most ever recorded by an SEC QB while he tied the SEC record with seven TD passes, the sixth SEC quarterback to accomplish that feat.

Lock is just the ninth SEC quarterback to throw for 500 yards in a single game and what makes that so impressive is he did so on just 21 completions, averaging 24.8 yards per completion, the best of any QB on the list. Of the eight other SEC QBs to throw for more than 500 yards in a game, four had more completions than Lock had attempts.
Lock's 521 yards are the most by any SEC quarterback since Tennessee's Tyler Bray threw for 530 against Troy. His seven TDs match the SEC record and it is the first time any QB has hit the seven-TD mark since Arkansas' Brandon Allen against Mississippi State in 2015.
The previous Mizzou school record for passing TDs was five, set on eight separate occasions by three different Mizzou QBs, two of which were by Lock.

D.C. is Unstoppable

Mizzou sophomore running back Damarea Crockett has been unstoppable. He ran for 202 yards, the second-best mark of his career, last Saturday vs. Missouri State, doing so on just 18 carries, averaging 11.2 yards per touch. He also broke a career-long 73-yard scamper in that game and punched the ball into the endzone twice.

He is the first Mizzou player ever to run for 200+ yards in consecutive games after rushing for a career-high 225 at Tennessee in his finale a year ago.
Since taking over as Mizzou's featured running back midway through 2016, Crockett has arguably been one of the nation's top running backs. In seven games dating back to last year's contest at Florida on Oct. 15 (Crockett missed Mizzou's finale vs. Arkansas in 2016) he is averaging 145.6 yards per game on the ground on just 131 carries, averaging 7.8 per tote. In those seven games alone, he has rushed for 1,019 yards
Last year, Crockett put together one of the best freshman seasons in Mizzou history. He broke Mizzou's freshman records for rushing yards in a season (1,062), rushing TDs in a season (10), rushing yards in a game (225) and 100-yard games in a freshman season (five). He also matched the school record with four rushing TDs against Middle Tennessee. Crockett's final game of 2016 (at Tennessee) was the eighth-best rushing performance in school history as he torched the Vols for a career-best 225 yards on just 24 carries (9.38 avg.) with a score. That is the sixth-most rushing yards by a Mizzou running back in program history and he is one of only four Mizzou RBs to post at least 225 yards in a game. It was the second-most yards ever against Tennessee, trailing only Ole Miss' Dexter McCluster in 2009 (282). It was Mizzou's first 200-yard game against an FBS school since Tony Temple ran for 281 in the 2008 Cotton Bowl against Arkansas.
Crockett was named to the 2017 Doak Walker Award Preseason Watch List. His 7.3 yards per carry ranked third among all qualified rushers in SEC games and tops among freshmen. He ended the regular season ranked first in the nation among freshmen in rushing (96.5 yards per game) and he was the first SEC true freshman to rush for more than 1,000 yards since Georgia's Nick Chubb and LSU's Leonard Fournette did so in 2014. He was also Mizzou's first 1,000-yard rusher since Russell Hansbrough in 2014.
Crockett is the SEC's second-best returning rusher from a season ago, trailing only Auburn's Kamryn Petway.

Schedule

Mizzou vs. South Carolina
Sept. 9, 6 p.m.
ESPN2

Game Notes

Depth Chart

Buy Tickets

Week 2 Storylines

A 500/200 Performance

Lock Earns National, SEC Honors

D.C. is Unstoppable

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Players Mentioned

Damarea Crockett

Johnathon Johnson

Drew Lock

J'Mon Moore

Jordan Ulmer

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