‘The growth curve has been really steep:’ How MU’s Emanuel Hall became more versatile

Early into one of Missouri’s recent football practices, Emanuel Hall worked on a skill he never needed during the past two seasons.

Fellow receiver Nate Brown ran to the left of Hall and had his right arm pressed on the speedy senior who thus far has been almost exclusively a deep threat for Mizzou. Hall chopped Brown’s arm downward and made a cut inside.

“Damn E!” Brown said as the move sent him stumbling.

While playing for the Tigers’ former offensive coordinator, Josh Heupel, Hall would have had no use for this drill. Heupel’s offense used Hall for two routes: a straight go route, or a deep post — both of which mostly just required Hall to beat his defender in a foot race after almost always lining up to the right of the quarterback. But new offensive coordinator Derek Dooley said Hall must “be able to hurt them in other ways.”

So now Hall — who averaged 24.8 yards per catch last season — is prepared to be more than a deep threat. Speaking to reporters last weekend for the first time since Texas Bowl practices in December, Hall said he required about a month to shake off some rust and be able to run more than couple routes. Now he believes he’ll be able to run a full route tree this fall while lining up all over the field for MU.

“It’s definitely evident,” new receivers coach A.J. Ofodile said of the work Hall has done to become a more complete wideout. “The growth curve has been really steep.”

Hall played as a true freshman in 2015, under former coordinator Josh Henson, who Hall said also required receivers to know the full route tree. So it only took the now-senior about a month to relearn it. But that doesn’t mean he ran every route effectively.

Beyond the basics of a route, Hall had to adjust to each pattern’s timing, and at 6 feet 3, his strides are long enough that some routes felt unnatural, Ofodile said. Hall’s hips also weren’t strong enough to make sharp cuts, and he felt off-balance running certain patterns.

“He’s a guy that has really unique physical traits, but you’ve got to be able to harness all that, have some speed control sometimes, the ability to know when do I go full speed? When do I choke it down? What percentage do I choke it down to?” Ofodile said. “A lot of just getting the timing and feel back. You have to just experiment for yourself because it’s different for every player.

“Early on you could see some of the stuff was a little bit robotic, a little bit of a struggle.”

Hall, who scored eight touchdowns last season, said that’s no longer the case. Though Hall still takes pride in being the fastest Tigers receiver, he hopes to soon be known for more than that.

The preseason third team All-SEC wideout used to write off criticism about his limited route running ability as foolish: “If I can run deep and beat somebody, why would I run a slant?” he figured. But now he wants to run a slant, a route that requires a receiver to cut inside at about a 45-degree angle, so he lands between the linemen and linebackers. The route requires practicing the drill Hall was participating in at the start of that recent practice.

“I really want to take a slant like 70 yards, man,” Hall said. “That’s one of my big goals this year. I haven’t done that my whole career.”