Marquise Davis capitalized on his opportunity

Every season (pending an upcoming change), Mizzou plays four non conference games and eight SEC games. Out of those four non conference games, one has to be against a ‘Power 4’ school. This leaves three games that most of the time Mizzou should be in the driver seat.

Last season, the Tigers earned three dominant victories in non conference games against Buffalo, Murray State and Massachusetts. In these games, I saw a clear pattern in snap counts. Unlike when Mizzou was facing SEC talent, star WRs Luther Burden III and Theo Wease Jr. — the Tigers top two targets last season — saw decreased snap counts, allowing younger or less experienced players time to see the field. Here’s a breakdown:

It’s clear that Daniel Blood and Joshua Manning saw more opportunity in non conference games. In those games, they impressed coach Drinkwitz, and now have become important pieces to the offense this season. Coming into this week’s matchup against the Ragin’ Cajuns, I was keeping an eye on what youngster was going to make their mark on Faurot Field. Two names I was specifically keeping an eye on were true freshman wide receiver Donovan Olugbode and quarterback Matt Zollers. One name stole the show: Marquise Davis.

Olugbode has made it clear that he doesn’t need a season of development before making a name for himself at Memorial Stadium. The true freshman had one of the best catches I’ve ever seen in a college football game — on a fourth down conversion in the Border War (A.K.A. CLUTCH!).

Including that catch, Olugbode finished Week 2’s Border War victory over Kansas with three receptions for 29 yards on 27 snaps. Despite a strong start to the season, Olugbode didn’t catch a pass in Mizzou’s 52-10 victory over Louisiana.

As expected, the Tigers came into their matchup against Louisiana ready to dominate. They took their first three drives straight down the field, and finished the job with touchdowns from Ahmad Hardy, Marquis Johnson and Beau Pribula. Through both teams first three drives, here were the stats:

”We gotta start fast,” offensive lineman Dominick Giudice said. “I think that’s something we’re really focused on.”

The dominance didn’t end after the first three drives. Jamal Roberts had a 39-yard receiving touchdown from Pribula, then Hardy took a long one 71 yards for a second touchdown.

The game hit halftime at 35-10, and many people were expecting to see Zollers begin the second half under center. That didn’t happen.

Pribula came out in the second half and continued his dominance (more like assisting Ahmad Hardy in his insane game). It wasn’t until there were 8 minutes left in the third quarter that Zollers checked into the game. With Zollers came a lot of the youngsters, like more snaps for true freshman running back Marquise Davis.

In Zollers’ first drive, he mainly handed the ball off (a lot). Davis got the ball for runs on the first 6 plays of the drive. Zollers was then faced with his first third down scenario of the game. At 3rd and 8, Zollers completed his first throw of the game to Daniel Blood, but the receiver couldn’t find any space and was taken down behind the line of scrimmage. The Tigers had to settle for a field goal attempt that they didn’t end up making.

”Every rep Matt gets is a learning opportunity,” Drinkwitz said of Zollers.

During his second drive, Zollers found freshman Shaun Terry II on a touch pass for 9 yards and a first down. Aside from that connection, for the most part, Davis was taking a load of the work. Davis finished the game with 20 carries for 113 yards and a touchdown, all in the second half.

“On the field, he’s a downhill runner,” Hardy said of Davis. “He was carrying the ball pretty good on the inside zone.”

In hindsight, Zollers didn’t get as much opportunity as a lot of the fan base would’ve hoped, but Davis took his opportunity and ran.

“I wish we would’ve been able to get (Zollers) into some more throws,” Drinkwitz said. “But there’s part of being a good sport, and there’s part of getting off that field because it was too hot.”

Brendon Haygood, another freshman, also saw some rushing work near the end of the game. He finished with 4 carries and 12 yards in his collegiate debut.

”I think our two young running backs in Davis and Haygood are going to be really bright spots for us in the future,” Drinkwitz said after the game.

We saw another collegiate debut in Columbia when redshirt junior Brett Brown replaced Matt Zollers as the team’s play caller. Brown finished out the game for the Tigers but didn’t make a pass attempt.

The Tigers had plenty of opportunities to get younger guys on the field. But partially because of the heat, and partially because of the domination on the ground, freshman running back Marquise Davis was the youngster to leave their mark on Faurot Field on Saturday.