The Missouri Tigers lost a strong majority of the production from their receiver room across the past two seasons.
With Luther Burden and Theo Wease headed to the NFL draft, Mookie Cooper retiring and Mekhi Miller hitting the transfer portal, the Tigers lost their top three targets from the past two seasons and another of the top six options.
But the Tiger receiver room isn’t planning on taking a year to reload.
With the addition of the SEC’s third-leading receiver in Kevin Coleman and the development of returning receivers Marquis Johnson and Josh Manning, the Tigers are running with the examples set for them the past two years.
“I really wouldn’t say replacing it,” Johnson said of the presence lost in the room with Burden and Wease gone. “I would just say just continuing it. They left a good legacy, they left a good place here. I’m just here to continue it.”
Johnson burst onto the scene as a freshman, catching deep passes that spaced out opposing defenses and earned him the nickname Speedy.
Now, he’s not just a deep threat, but is expected to step into a key role as the primary outside target with Coleman taking Burden’s spot in the slot.
“It helped my confidence knowing that I belong here and I’m not too little, not too, too skinny,” Johnson said of playing regularly as a freshman. “I was a little scared my first time here, but after making a couple plays, after being around, around my people, after having my team back me up, I feel like I’m very confident.”
And as Johnson carries that confidence into a leadership role, helping continue the attitude of the ‘Nasty Wide Outs’ that coach Jacob Peeler has put in place across the past few years, Coleman has come in with the experience of leading at three schools in three years.
“He’s a great worker,” Johnson said. “He works on his time off, he works when it’s time to do it, he’s probably right now, working still. He’s brought a great leadership, he’s brought great energy and he’s going to be a very good, great weapon for us.”
And the Tigers will continue adding in the young receivers they continue adding each year as well.
James Madison and Daniel Blood should step into bigger roles this year and freshmen Donovan Olugbode and Shaun Terry have already made big impressions during spring camp.
“They really, they brought back my joke, honestly,” Johnson said. “Two very exciting guys. Shaun, he’s a very twitchy little fast guy, Donovan is great, a bigger receiver. They just, they bring a lot of, a lot of, like, a lot of me out … I don’t know how to say it, but like, it’s just pretty happy being around them.”
Johnson said Terry reminds him of himself his freshman year because of that twitchyness.
Add in DeMarion Fowlkes coming in the summer and the Tiger receiver room isn’t taking a step back as it sends its top targets on to the NFL, it’s just reloaded for another year, but Johnson hasn’t forgotten the lessons he learned from being around Burden and Wease.
“I’ve learned how to take care of my body, how to manage my day, how to manage how I do things as a wide receiver,” Johnson said. “Being able to know, like watching film, knowing the plays, just being able to carry myself on and off the field.”
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