Notebook: Micah Wilson testing the waters at wide receiver
Missouri is in the NCAA Tournament for the first time in five years. PowerMizzou.com is offering five free months to anyone that buys a new annual subscription. Use the promo code Mizzou5 at the links below:
During Missouri’s football practice Saturday, sophomore quarterback Micah Wilson appeared out of place. Instead of taking snaps and throwing passes with the other quarterbacks, Wilson lined up near the sideline, the only green jersey amid the black-clad wideouts. He ran several routes and catching balls thrown by his fellow signal-callers.
Tuesday, offensive coordinator Derek Dooley acknowledged that the team is interested in at least seeing if Wilson could provide depth to a thin wide receiver corps.
“There’s a real good chance he’s not going to beat Drew (Lock) out this year (for the starting quarterback spot), so if a guy’s got good speed and athleticism, why not see if he can help you?” Dooley said. “Doesn’t mean he can’t play quarterback. He’s doing a good job at quarterback.”
Not only did Wilson run several routes with the receivers without a defender, he was targeted once during the team’s 11-on-11 scrimmage. He also received a few pointers on his route-running from wide receivers coach A.J. Ofodile.
Wilson was praised for his athleticism during the recruiting process. Last season, he showed flashes of it in his few relief appearances late in blowouts. Wilson ran the ball 15 times last season. On his lone touchdown, a 22-yard scamper against Connecticut, Wilson out-ran a linebacker to get the edge on a play-action bootleg, which gave him a clear path to the end zone.
While Wilson’s presence among the pass-catchers raised eyebrows Saturday, he has still taken the majority of his reps at quarterback so far this spring. He played quarterback exclusively on Tuesday. But with Missouri having just seven scholarship wide receivers on its spring roster, Wilson could at least be an option at the position, should one or two players get hurt.
Early enrollees seeing lots of reps at WR
Speaking of the Tigers’ receiving corps, there have been a couple players who have benefitted from the lack of depth at the position. Newcomers Harry Ballard III — a junior college transfer — and early-enrollee Dominic Gicinto have both seen action with the second team at times this spring. While head coach Barry Odom admitted that is largely due to necessity, he believes it will benefit Ballard and Gicinto in the long run.
“We could line those guys up, or we could line up without receivers at this point,” Odom quipped. “… These 15 practices will certainly serve them well going into the fall, and both of them have shown some really good things.”
Gicinto, who caught a long touchdown from quarterback Lindsey Scott Jr. during the 11-on-11 portion of Tuesday’s practice, could be finishing up his last semester of high school right now. As a result, he has faced an even steeper learning curve than the rest of the offense in adjusting to Dooley’s system. However, Ofodile said last week he has been impressed by Gicinto’s performance so far, particularly his speed. Dooley agreed.
“It’s really hard when you come in as a freshman and your class isn’t even here so you get thrown in the mix, it’s a lot coming at you, but he’s doing a good job of learning, of going out there and applying it on the field,” Dooley said.
Ballard has faced a similar learning curve, but Ofodile has been encouraged by Ballard’s willingness to take on the challenge.
“He’s been really consistent just in his professionalism, in the way he goes about things, which has been exciting,” Ofodile said. “You get junior college players sometimes and they aren’t used to the rigors of things, but he’s done a nice job of jumping in and fitting in.”
New offense helping defense
During spring practices and fall camp, the Missouri defense lines up opposite the Tiger offense every day. That presents defensive coordinator Ryan Walters a challenge: finding ways to prepare his team to face new, different schemes that different opponents will run during the season. Doing so was particularly difficult a season ago, with former offensive coordinator Josh Heupel running his high-tempo, spread offense. Walters said Tuesday that, last year, “no one ran what we saw in practice.”
This spring, however, as the offense has put in new packages and plays under Dooley, the defense has been forced to adjust on the fly to concepts it has never seen before — good practice for the regular season.
“The different concepts in the pass game and different run schemes are good for us to see early in the year, because it’s stuff that we’re going to see during the season as well,” Walters said. “So just having to prepare for it and be ready for different formations, different personnel groupings, different route concepts, it’s going to pay dividends defensively down the stretch.”
Injury report
In addition to the four Missouri players who started spring practices with injuries — A.J. Harris, Jamal Brooks, Tavon Ross and Tyree Gillespie — three Tigers wore red, non-contact jerseys in Tuesday’s practice. Linebacker Jacob Trump was back in red but going through drills, as he had Thursday. He is dealing with a knee sprain. Defensive tackles Antar Thompson and Rashad Brandon did not participate in drills. Odom said Brandon has a lower back strain, while Thompson is sick.