Missouri’s Fisher makes quite a first impression
By MIKE DeARMOND
The Kansas City Star
COLUMBIA | Any question that Missouri’s Elvis Fisher could handle the pressure of his first game of college football vanished on one play last Saturday night.
Pulling from his left-tackle position, Fisher looped right, met Illinois linebacker Bret Miller just beyond the line of scrimmage and tossed him backward to the floor of the Edward Jones Dome.
Fisher wasn’t done.
Running another 30 yards downfield, Fisher zeroed in on defensive back Vontae Davis. Same result. Davis on his back as Mizzou’s Derrick Washington finished off a 40-yard touchdown run.
Questions, anyone? Would you like another pancake? Pancake, by the way, is what they call it when a block leaves a football player making like an upended turtle, arms and legs akimbo, laid out on the ground.
“I’m not trying to get too confident, too cocky,” Fisher said. “I always knew I had it in me to do it. It was just a matter of going out there and showing people I could do it.”
Before Missouri’s 52-42 victory over Illinois in St. Louis, people looking for a weakness in sixth-ranked Mizzou most often picked on the offensive line. Particularly at Fisher, a redshirt freshman moved up to starting left tackle midway through August training camp.
First starts were one thing. A first start against a defensive front with the reputation of Illinois was going to be even harder.
However, on that one play, on which Missouri took a 24-13 lead, Fisher silenced the worrywarts.
“It’s a great feeling to get a pancake,” Fisher said. “I was thinking, if I do my job, we can score on that play.
“The reason I got that was the offensive line played well.”
What came next was more impressive, considering a 6-foot-5, 300-pound lineman was tracking downfield with a 5-11, 225-pound tailback.
“I saw Derrick was still running,” Fisher said. “So I just kept running down the field, looking for someone to hit.”
Already thrown off balance by a block from freshman wide receiver Michael Egnew, Davis had just regained his equilibrium and was setting out in pursuit of Washington when …
Hello!
Vontae, meet Elvis.
Thank you. Thank you very much.
Line veterans Kurtis Gregory, Colin Brown and Ryan Madison all said they could tell Fisher was nervous before kickoff.
Madison checked after the first offensive series.
“Are you still nervous?” Madison asked.
“No,” Fisher responded. “I’m good to go.”
Gregory said: “Once we got going, he was fine. Cool as a cucumber.”
Naturally, coach Gary Pinkel sounded a note of caution.
“Coaches don’t ever say, ‘Oh, that’s all taken care of,’ ” Pinkel said. “It never has happened, never will happen.”
But Pinkel praised Fisher’s first effort, highly.
“I guarantee he had never seen anything like it in his life,” Pinkel said of Fisher’s debut. “He had his wins and losses. But I tell you, it’s really a huge statement for him as a young player to do some of the things he did.”
No question.
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