Aug. 15, 2014

Columbia, Mo. - The Mizzou Football team took to Faurot Field Friday morning for a fully-padded workout, the final one prior to tomorrow's second major scrimmage of 2014 Fall Camp.  Gary Pinkel's squad went through the paces of a 2-hour session as the coaches continue to focus on developing the depth as the season opener looms just two weeks from Saturday.

Pinkel's defense won the black jerseys on Friday morning, and the competition continues to go down to the wire each day.

"I think overall it's been very competitive; the defense has been winning more than the offense," Pinkel said.  "It's been going down to one or two plays at the very end, and the defense has been making the plays.  Overall, we're doing okay, we just keep getting better, and tomorrow obviously is a very important scrimmage for us.  Our goal is to get 35 plays tomorrow, for ones, twos and threes, and we'll have a lot of situational things, like we always do," he said.

A handful of highlights from Friday's 11-on-11 scrimmaging included:

• With the #1 offense and #2 defense facing each other, QB Maty Mauk connected with WR Darius White on a quick hitter over the middle for a gain of nearly 10 yards, and he later completed passes to TB Marcus Murphy for 5 yards, and to WR Jimmie Hunt for 15.  On the pass to Hunt, CB Logan Cheadle put a big hit on Hunt as he came down with the ball, but the senior wide out absorbed the hit and hung onto the ball.  TB Russell Hansbrough also got around the edge for a gain of around 10 yards before the first contact...
• Next up, the #1 defense squared off against the #2 offense.  QB Corbin Berkstresser took the reins and timed a nicely thrown pass to WR Wesley Leftwich, who caught the ball in stride down the left season for a gain of around 15 yards.  Berkstresser later scrambled for a gain of 10 yards before he was tagged from behind by LB Kentrell Brothers.  LB Clarence Green knocked down a pass at the line of scrimmage to score for the defense, and on the last play of the series, the defensive line made a big push on a 3^rd-and-short to stuff TB Trevon Walters for little to no gain...
• With the #3 units going against each other, TB Ish Witter had a nice off-tackle run for a gain of around 15 yards, and QB Eddie Printz hit WR Thomas Richard for a gain of 8 yards, with Richard making a nice catch in traffic on a hard-thrown ball...
• Later on, the #1 offense and defense were pitted against each other.  Green had another highlight, as he broke free for a sack of Mauk, with credit going to good coverage downfield on the attempted pass play.  Mauk and company answered a couple of plays later, when he lofted a ball deep down the left sideline for WR Bud Sasser, who made a nice leaping grab to haul in a gain of around 45 yards...

The Tigers will scrimmage Saturday morning, followed by their first day off on Sunday since camp started on Aug. 4^th.  Stay tuned to www.MUTigers.com for full coverage of Saturday's scrimmage.