The 'training wheels' are off for Missouri football's WRs, who want to be best in the country
Missouri football’s receiving corps wants to be the best in the country.
Just ask them.
Wide receivers Mookie Cooper, Marquis Johnson and Theo Wease have all said it during Missouri’s spring camp, and it’s not hard to see where the confidence comes from.
The Tigers return six of their top seven receiving options from their Cotton Bowl-winning team that amassed 3,410 receiving yards over the season — and the quarterback who threw almost all the passes — and they feel they still have another gear they can reach.
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“(Last year) we're learning formations. We're just learning the terminology, period. You're trying to make sure that guys know where to line up and whatever the play may be trying to get to the right spots,” MU receivers coach Jacob Peeler said Tuesday. “Where now, we're really working on the fine details of those routes, of those plays that coach (Kirby) Moore is calling. So you really get to take it to the next step.”
A season ago, Luther Burden led the bunch with 1,212 receiving yards and nine touchdowns, while Wease added another 682 yards and six TDs. Cooper and his 447 yards are also back for another year, and Johnson’s 29.5 yards per catch is back in Columbia, too.
Options aren’t in short supply. Highly touted wideouts Courtney Crutchfield and James Madison II are set to enroll in the summer. Reliable slot receiver Mekhi Miller is back for another campaign, and Daniel Blood and Joshua Manning enter their sophomore seasons with some experience under their belt.
But the MU receivers aren’t reveling in last season’s success.
“Last year is last year,” Wease said at the start of spring practice. “We can't win (any) games based on what we did last year.”
Peeler’s already seeing this mindset from Wease and his fellow receivers in the way they are approaching spring football.
“That's the one thing that I've seen from just this spring alone: They love the work,” Peeler said. “I think it goes to that ‘coach-me, coach’ mindset. You've seen it through the years as a coach, some guys just aren't open to criticism, aren’t open to hearing the things they don't do well. This group, they welcome it. They want to know what they can get better at.”
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A key area that Peeler has identified his group can make a leap in is yards after the catch.
“I tell them every day there's no rule in football that the first guys got to tackle you, right. (A) Great example of that was the Florida game with Theo,” Peeler said, referencing Wease’s only catch of the Tigers’ 33-31 win when he took a screen pass for a 77-yard touchdown. “... Those are the (plays) that we gotta see if we really want to take the next step as a group is just not accepting that first guy making a tackle and turning a simple easy short screen or short pass into an explosive.”
Perhaps Missouri’s other receivers can learn something from Burden who is among the best run after the catch receivers in the country. In 2023, he accumulated 725 yards after the catch and 314 after contact, per Pro Football Focus. Those numbers were good for third- and fourth-best in the FBS, respectively.
Last season, Moore’s offensive introduction as the play-caller in Columbia was a stellar start. Missouri fans can get a glimpse at what Year 2 might look like during the Tigers’ spring game, which begins at 1 p.m. Saturday on Faurot Field and will air on ESPN.
It seems like the Tigers may have just been getting started.
“That chemistry (between the receivers and quarterback Brady Cook) is kind of like already built,” Wease said, “so it's not like we’ve got training wheels on anymore. It's like they’re letting us free and just go.”
This article originally appeared on Columbia Daily Tribune: How Missouri football's wide receivers can be best in the NCAA
