Raytown’s Dominic Gicinto is ‘making Kansas City proud’ during Mizzou training camp
Missouri returns 10 starters on offense, but that means little to Derek Dooley. On Wednesday, after the Tigers’ fifth preseason practice, MU’s new offensive coordinator made clear that most of those players are not entrenched atop the depth chart.
Dooley’s brief diatribe could have just qualified as colorful coach-speak — if the idea that there was no competition among his offense didn’t seem to so genuinely irk him.
“If you haven’t made all-conference yet, then it’s open season,” Dooley said, excluding quarterback Drew Lock and tight end Albert Okwuegbunam from his plea for more competition. “… You might’ve started by default because we didn’t get anybody better.
“It doesn’t mean you’re good. We clear on that with the starter deal? Start (ticking) me off.”
Dooley promised a competitive environment would develop soon enough, that some of those returning starters will feel backups push them. If they do, perhaps the coach will have his smallest receiver to thank.
More than a quarter of the way through preseason practices, 5-foot-9 Dominic Gicinto, a freshman from Raytown, has made a strong impression. During the Tigers’ first training camp practice in full pads, he caught a short pass, made a defender miss and scampered down the sideline for what could’ve been a touchdown if full contact was permitted.
“Dom is making Kansas City proud,” said Lock, who is from Lee’s Summit. “(Because he is) coming out of Raytown, I know the type of ball he sees every single day and the conferences we play in. It’s good football, but it’s nothing like coming out here and playing guys from all over the country who are the best at their position.”
Lock said Gicinto is adjusting from Kansas City’s high school football scene to the Southeastern Conference faster than he did four years ago. The quarterback often forgets Gicinto is just a freshman, perhaps because he’s been with the team since January, when he enrolled at MU after committing just one month earlier.
The 170-pound Gicinto said he didn’t realize at the time how critical the decision to graduate early would be. He did not know Missouri’s lack of wide receiver depth in the spring would be “a real concern,” as Dooley put it at the time. Gicinto received extra reps, and he learned the Tigers’ new pro-style offense with the veterans. He recorded a 65-yard touchdown catch in the Mizzou’s spring game.
“Now you’ve got a guy who feels like a veteran guy,” receivers coach A.J. Ofodile said. “He knows his stuff. He knows he can compete at this level.”
During summer film room sessions, Lock made freshmen receivers call out their responsibilities on each play the Tigers watched, and Gicinto said the practice “really helped show I knew what I was doing.” Lock said the freshman is becoming a “main target,” someone who could find a time on the field as a substitute for senior slot receiver Jonathon Johnson.
Dooley said he wants players to know there will be a role for anyone who displays “traits that can help us win.” Gicinto is focused on showing that sort of promise. He said being the only true freshman on the two-deep depth chart at the start of training camp meant little unless he capitalized on the recognition.
“I’m at least getting looked at,” he said, “so I can get on the field.”