Tigers’ new offense familiar to Lobos

By The Associated Press     Sep 10, 2005

? While Missouri’s offense thrived in its season opener, the Tigers may find it difficult to achieve similar results in tonight’s game against New Mexico at Faurot Field.

The Tigers have a new spread offense, but it isn’t so new to New Mexico. The Lobos play against teams like Utah and UNLV, both teams that run a spread offense similar to Missouri.

Missouri coach Gary Pinkel even sought advice from the Utah coaching staff in the offseason, and said the Lobos had done a good job against spread offenses.

“Were not going to surprise them with anything,” Pinkel said.

That’ll be a switch from Saturday, when quarterback Brad Smith threw four touchdown passes in the 44-17 victory over Arkansas State.

With 657 total offensive yards, the team was just eight yards shy of the school record.

Pinkel said the team did good things against Arkansas State, but the competition was going to get greater. He noted New Mexico was “a real good football team that’s been to three bowls in a row.”

The Lobos have to contend with Missouri’s big wide receivers. Most are 6-foot-2 or taller and weigh more than 200 pounds. New Mexico’s biggest cornerback is Jerrell Malone at 6-foot-1 and 189 pounds.

However, Missouri could be without its biggest wide receiver threat, Sean Coffey.

Coffey had four catches for 82 yards against Arkansas State but injured his shoulder in the second quarter. An MRI on Tuesday revealed no structural damage, but he is considered doubtful for Saturday’s game.

Meanwhile, the Tigers hope to take advantage of the Lobos quick turnaround. New Mexico is playing on four days rest after beating UNLV, 24-22,, on Monday.

New Mexico coach Rocky Long practiced on the teams day off and ran shorter practices with less hitting as a result.

“We’ll see how we do. It’s a delicate balance between actually practicing on the field and how much you add or subtract from your game plan mentally,” Long said.

“I really believe if we took them out there and practiced like we normally do, we wouldn’t have a chance because we would be dead-legged. (Missouri) would be so much quicker and faster than us, and we wouldn’t have a chance to compete.”

  • Mizzou notes: The Tigers finished 3-3 at home in 2004, a year after going 6-0. … Three new scoreboards will be unveiled Saturday atop the south stands of Memorial Stadium. The two side boards will show statistics, scores and other messages and the middle board will have video capability. … Missouri is working to install a new field goal net, which can display ads during televised games. The translucent netting is being constructed in one endzone at 39 Division 1-A colleges. The net will not be ready for Saturday’s game. … Missouri will play without junior linebacker Marcus Bacon, who was suspended indefinitely following his weekend arrest for driving while intoxicated.
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