Missouri passing game next hurdle for struggling Jayhawks

Kansas football coach Mark Mangino clearly is impressed by Missouri’s Justin Gage.

“The guy can play the ball in transition,” Mangino said with a smile. “He can take it to the hole. He’s unbelievable.”

Right, coach.

Gage, a key reserve who helped Missouri’s basketball team reach the Elite Eight last season, also happens to be a pretty fair wide receiver.

The Jefferson City, Mo., product started his college career as a quarterback but moved to wide receiver as a sophomore and caught 44 passes for 709 yards and four touchdowns.

Gage was even better as a junior last fall when he hauled in 74 passes for 920 yards and five TDs.

“He’s a doggone good football player, too,” Mangino said. “What an athlete he is. You can’t help, even as an opposing coach, to admire his athleticism, his grace, his great hands, his ability to run just really great routes and get to the ball. It’ll be a good challenge for us, and we’re working to meet that challenge.”

Missouri’s all-time leading receiver enters today’s game against KU at Columbia, Mo., ranked second in the Big 12 Conference in receiving with 54 catches for 674 yards and five TDs.

The 6-foot-4, 210-pounder presents problems for a KU team that allows an average of 473.38 yards per game and ranks 109th in the nation in total defense and 108th in scoring defense.

Mangino has made pass defense a priority in practice this week after Texas A&M’s Dustin Long torched KU’s inexperienced secondary for 399 yards passing last week in a 47-22 victory at Memorial Stadium.

The Jayhawks (2-6, 0-4 Big 12) will face another talented quarterback today. Freshman Brad Smith ranks second in the league in total offense with an average of 301.9 yards a game.

Those stats apparently didn’t go unnoticed in Las Vegas. Missouri (3-4, 0-3) is a 211¼2-point favorite, despite the fact both teams are winless in league play and have lost three straight games.

“I don’t know how they come up with that,” Mangino said. “They probably figure Texas A&M threw the ball down field all day, Brad Smith can do that, too.”

Smith has passed for 1,451 yards and eight TDs, but he’s just as dangerous on the run. He set a Mizzou freshman record with 662 yards rushing, which ranks sixth in the league.

“He has tailback speed, probably better than a lot of tailbacks in the league,” Mangino said.

The red-shirt freshman is so good that senior Kirk Farmer, who started nine games last year, has been relegated to the bench. Senior Darius Outlaw, who started seven games at quarterback in 2000 when Farmer was injured and in two games last season, was moved to receiver last spring.

Outlaw, like Gage, made a successful transition and ranks second behind Gage with 24 catches for 270 yards and one touchdown.

“He’s done a good job,” MU coach Gary Pinkel said. “He really has. Would I say that I’m surprised? Yeah, I am. He’s pretty natural at it. I am surprised. He’s done a great job, and he’s getting better and better.”

Smith’s other popular target is sophomore Thomson Omboga, who has 19 catches for 232 yards and one TD. No other MU receiver has more than nine catches.

Missouri could be without its leading scorer today. Running back Zack Abron, who has rushed for 10 TDs and also has a touchdown reception, has a partial tear of the posterior collateral ligament in his left knee. That injury knocked him out of last Saturday’s loss at Texas Tech and left him questionable for the Border War.

Missouri’s defense also has question marks after giving up 52 points and 510 passing yards.

The three-game skid has Pinkel perplexed.

“I’ve been a doom and gloom, grumpy guy lately,” he said. “I think my general attitude has always been positive. I know some people may be shocked about that. I just do not handle losing very well. I don’t do that. It just eats me up. It drives me nuts. It hurts bad. It still hurts, and maybe that’s not good. Maybe it hangs on me too much. I wish I could just blow it off and say, ‘We’ve got a young team, and we’re going to be better down the road. We’re going to be OK.’ I can’t do that. Even if I tried to, I can’t do it. It makes me sick, and that’s OK. That’s who I am. I also think that’s why I have been reasonably successful. I have got to get that point across to my football team.”