When Yasir Durant lined up in the slot on the right side of Missouri’s formation Saturday, he wasn’t actually eligible to catch a pass. But that didn’t stop the left tackle from badgering quarterback Kelly Bryant in the days leading up to the Tigers’ game against Ole Miss. Durant knew the unorthodox formation was coming, and In his rare moment outside the trenches, he wanted the ball.
“Ya-Ya picked on me all week, telling him I need to throw him the ball,” Bryant said of Durant.
Instead of looking toward Durant, who served as a 6-foot-7, 330-pound decoy by simply standing up and waving an arm at Bryant, the Missouri quarterback threw left. There, running back Tyler Badie had lined up stacked behind wideout Jonathan Nance. Badie caught the screen pass, got blocks from Nance and offensive linemen Tre’Vour Wallace-Simms and Trystan Colon-Castillo and scampered 17 yards for Missouri’s first touchdown of the game.
The score gave the Tigers a 9-7 lead they wouldn’t relinquish and sparked the offense into gear. Not counting a one-play drive at the end of the first half, Missouri went on to score three touchdowns and two field goals on its next five possessions and won 38-27.
Given the success of the gadget play, Durant certainly couldn’t complain about not getting the ball, but he insisted after the game that had Bryant thrown him the ball, he, too, would have found the end zone.
“It was zero percent chance that I was going to receive a pass,” Durant said with a laugh. “But if I was to catch the pass, I was going to score. Just to let you all know.”
Durant was far from the only Missouri player to line up in an unusual spot on the play. Bryant started in an empty backfield. Joining Durant to Bryant’s right were tight end Albert Okwuegbunam and wide receiver Kam Scott. Okwuegbunam lined up off the line of scrimmage, making him an eligible receiver, while Scott covered up Durant. On the opposite side, Nance and Badie both lined up off the line of scrimmage, making the last man on the offensive line on the left side of the formation eligible. That player was reserve tight end Logan Christopherson, except he wasn’t lined up next to a tackle, like a tight end usually would. In this case, he was the tackle, taking Durant’s usual spot. Upon the snap, Christopherson took off downfield on a receiving route.
Bryant said the unique formation created some confusion in the Ole Miss defense, which helped Badie spring free.
“Since we haven’t done it, you just see a lot of shifts,” he explained. “They’re just trying to figure out who’s covering who, where everybody, where an eligible receiver is.”
The touchdown served as the most unusual, and one of the most successful, offensive plays run by Missouri Saturday. But it was far from the only unconventional wrinkle exhibited by Missouri. Offensive coordinator Derek Dooley dialed up multiple never-before-seen formations, play calls and pre-snap motions during the team’s 562-yard performance.
When they sent a man in motion, the Tigers most often used slot receiver Johnathon Johnson. A few times, Johnson’s motion factored into how he got the ball. He caught a short shovel pass from Bryant on what was essentially a jet sweep, caught a pass in the flat after motioning behind Bryant on another play and, a third time, got a pitch from running back Larry Rountree III on a reverse. Missouri also ran an end-around with Badie that gained 14 yards. On the play, Badie lined up as a slot receiver on the short side of the field, while Rountree lined up at tailback. It was the only play of the game Badie and Rountree took the field together. Finally, on a few plays, the Tigers lined true freshman tight end Niko Hea up in the backfield as a fullback.
The common theme in the creative plays run by Missouri against Ole Miss was utilizing the versatility of Johnson and Badie, who might be the Tigers’ two quickest offensive players. Badie, in particular, showed his playmaking ability. Badie only played 18 snaps, but he touched the ball eight times, on five carries and three receptions. In addition to the screen pass and end-around, Badie made a big play when he started in the backfield and burned past an Ole Miss linebacker on a wheel route. Bryant hit Badie for a 49-yard gain.
Badie’s teammates complimented his versatility and said fans haven’t yet seen everything he can add to an offense. Bryant compared him to New Orleans Saints running back Alvin Kamara. Rountree went with Kansas City Chiefs receiver Tyreek Hill.
“You can just line him up out there in the slot at receiver and he can just make plays downfield, and also just get him out there on the perimeter and he can make a guy miss and he can go for 60 or 70,” Bryant said of Badie. “So he’s just being a really great asset to this offense.”
Badie deferred the credit to Dooley. Against Ole Miss, Dooley’s wrinkles complicated the game for Ole Miss’ stingy front four and got the team’s best playmakers the ball in space. Even with Kelly Bryant not much of a running threat due to a knee injury suffered against Troy, the Tigers rushed for 233 yards against a Rebel defense that entered Saturday No. 20 nationally against the run. After adjusting for sacks and a kneel down, the offense averaged 5.8 yards per carry.
It was the trickiest of those trick plays that jolted the offense to life.
“It was a crazy formation we had out there,” Badie said of his touchdown. “It was just a great call by coach Dooley. His job is just real difficult sometimes, and he handles it very well.”
