COLUMBIA | Missouri quarterback Chase Daniel gave a big crowd and a national TV audience everything it wanted on his first and last offensive drives Saturday.
Daniel — a Heisman Trophy finalist as a junior — hit eight of eight passes for 64 yards on his opening series in the annual Black & Gold Spring Football Game at Faurot Field. The final toss spiraled 15 yards over the middle for a touchdown to All-American Jeremy Maclin.
On his last series, Daniel hit five of five passes for 56 yards. The last one dropped into the arms of Jared Perry, an 11-yard soft toss for a TD in the back left corner of the end zone.
But to understand how the Tigers’ offense next fall may be even better than the scoring machine that drove Mizzou to 12-2 and a final No. 4 ranking last season, check out Derrick Washington.
On first and 10 on the defense’s 20-yard line, the true freshman running back out of Raymore-Peculiar High hurdled would-be tackler Munir Prince and ran 14 yards to the 6. On the next play, Washington ran to a touchdown off the right side.
Warning: Red-zone defenses are going to have to play Mizzou for the run as well as the pass next season.
“Nobody knows what’s going to happen,” said tight end Chase Coffman, another former Ray-Pec star. “They can’t just play for the pass. We can beat ’em both ways.”
A year ago, Missouri scored 23 touchdowns on runs of 18 yards or less. But the school-record spring game crowd of 26,322 and the ESPNU audience sure weren’t expecting Daniel to place the pigskin in the gut of a running back near the goal line.
“We’ve got a different dimension,” Daniel said. “It was a tough year for us last year to score by running the football.”
But not anymore, Daniel predicted.
Particularly with Washington moving to the top of the depth chart at tailback. He showed his ability to both run (seven carries for 35 yards, one TD) and catch (four receptions for 37 yards) the ball on Saturday.
Washington had the Tigers’ only rushing TD Saturday. Daniel threw two scoring passes on 22 of 28 passing for 195 yards and one interception. Daniel played only five series, all in the first two 12-minute quarters.
Jeff Wolford kicked three field goals, one of 53 yards and another from 51.
MU’s scoring system, which awarded points to the offense (Black team) and defense (Gold team), officially gave the victory to the offense, 71-28.
The MU No. 1 defense was better than that. That unit didn’t allow the No. 2 offense inside the 30-yard line.
But the ultimate lesson of this spring affair was that Missouri won’t just be a passing fancy offense next season.
On the ground, Washington averaged 5 yards per carry, Jimmy Jackson 4.8 (19 yards on four carries) and De’Vion Moore 3.7 (22 yards on six rushes).
“We can get in from about anywhere,” Washington contended of Missouri’s high-powered spread offense. “But when we’re down there (in the red zone), the running backs want to have the ball in our hands.”
And next season, there may be more reason to put it there.
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