Ad Disclosure
No. 20 Missouri (2-0) continues the non-conference portion of its schedule with a noon ET kickoff against UCF (0-1) on Saturday. Let’s take a look inside some of the numbers.
THE GOOD
454: Passing yards Christian Hackenberg compiled against a loaded Knights secondary. It’s not all milk and cookies for Maty Mauk — UCF managed to pick off Hackenberg twice — but the performance scraped the sparkle off a talented and touted group of players.
8.5: Tackles for loss between Markus Golden and Shane Ray through two games. Justin Holman, beware.
12th: Marcus Murphy’s national rank in terms of all-purpose yards per game. According to the Columbia Tribune, Murphy and Oklahoma State sensation Tyreek Hill are the only two players with at least 35 yards rushing, receiving, returning punts and returning kicks.
THE BAD
164/2,670/17: Those are the combined receiving totals for Rannell Hall, J.J. Worton, Breshad Perriman and Josh Reese in 2013. The UCF quartet accounted for nearly 2,700 receiving yards and have a legitimate case as a Top 10 receiving corps in all of FBS.
7.8: Combined yards per carry Missouri allowed to Zach Zinner (South Dakota State) and Kareem Hunt (Toledo). UCF lost an underrated star of the 2013 team in running back Storm Johnson, who made the Jacksonville Jaguars’ Week 1 roster as a seventh-round pick. But Will Stanback, who didn’t play against Penn State due to injury, is “100 percent healthy,” UCF coach George O’Leary said, and is a fringe NFL prospect in his own right.
2: Catches by a Missouri receiver not named Jimmie Hunt, Darius White or Bud Sasser. Wesley Leftwich claims both of them. Missouri’s running backs and tight ends have a combined nine catches, a much higher usage rate than last season. But the team needs contributions from other receivers.
An itinerant journalist, Christopher has moved between states 11 times in seven years. Formally an injury-prone Division I 800-meter specialist, he now wanders the Rockies in search of high peaks.
