Tigers overcome slow start in win over Kansas State

By Lenny Goldman

Published Nov. 8, 2008

After five minutes of talking about his seniors after the game, coach Gary Pinkel’s words began to slow down. His voice started to get a little shaky, and he even needed to bite his lip.

Finally, with his emotions on the verge of spilling out, he gave one of those half-sarcastic comments people make when they’re uncomfortable.

“Let’s talk about something else,” he said.

Before the opening kickoff, Missouri honored every member of its senior class, including former teammate Aaron O’Neal, who died after a voluntary workout in 2005.

“It took me seven minutes into the first quarter before I even got my head back together,” Pinkel said. “These kids mean so much to you. What they’ve done for Missouri. Are you kidding me?”

Despite a rough start, which Pinkel said was a result of the overflow of emotion, Missouri pulled away from Kansas State and won 41-24.

On Missouri’s first drive, senior quarterback Chase Daniel underthrew sophomore wide receiver Jeremy Maclin, and the pass was picked off.

The Tigers dropped an interception of their own on the very next play. On third down for the Wildcats, Missouri came up with a huge sack, but junior nose tackle Jaron Baston was called for a facemask penalty, giving KSU an automatic first down.

Later in the drive, Missouri was called for a pass interference penalty on another pass that should have been intercepted. Still, after all the missed opportunities, the Tigers stopped Kansas State on a fake field goal attempt at the 27-yard line.

“I don’t really know what was going on,” junior linebacker Sean Weatherspoon said. “Guys were just being aggressive and things like that.”

On Kansas State’s next drive, with the score still tied at zero, Faurot Field was rocking as the Wildcats faced a third and 12 on their own 20-yard line. KSU quarterback Josh Freeman stepped up and lasered a pass to the sideline for a first down.

On the following play, Missouri missed yet another easy interception as senior linebacker Brock Christopher had a pass bounce off of his facemask.

“We just got to work on our fundamentals a little more,” Weatherspoon said. “We had a lot of opportunities. We got to step our game up.”

But for the second time, Kansas State failed to take advantage of Missouri’s missed opportunities and was forced to punt.

Maclin sparked the offense with a quick pass that he took for 28 yards. Senior tailback Jimmy Jackson then scampered a career-long 37 yards up the middle, which set up a six-yard touchdown run for sophomore tailback Derrick Washington.

The big play by Maclin was just one of many he had on a night where Daniel was missing one of his favorite targets, senior tight end Chase Coffman.

“I just try to make plays,” Maclin said. “When the ball comes my way, you got to make plays. Unfortunately Coffman didn’t play. Hopefully we’ll get him back next week.”

Maclin finished the game with 278 all-purpose yards and three touchdowns.

His second touchdown came when Missouri showed a gadget formation with senior receiver Tommy Saunders lined up wide, but in the backfield. Daniel looked to Saunders and then turned the other way and hit Maclin on a short throw. With two blockers in front of him, Maclin was off to the races and never looked back. He went 42 yards all the way to the end zone and gave Missouri a 17-0 advantage.

Kansas State didn’t score until the closing seconds of the third quarter, but at that point the game was out of reach as the Tigers had pulled away to a 27-10 lead.

Midway through the fourth quarter, with Missouri leading 34-10, senior backup quarterback and Columbia native Chase Patton threw the first touchdown pass of his career to junior wide receiver Jared Perry.

“What better time to get in than senior day,” Daniel said. “He was jumping all up and down and stuff. It was awesome. It was awesome to be the first one to greet him and see the smile on his face. He’ll always remember senior day.”