HOOVER, Ala. -- SEC media days have been more about who isn’t here as opposed to who is here, and it was no different Wednesday with former Missouri Tigers wide receiver Dorial Green-Beckham dominating the conversation during the Tigers’ session.
Green-Beckham was dismissed from the team in April and recently landed at Oklahoma, where he will be eligible to play in 2015.
“I want things to work well for Dorial,” Missouri coach Gary Pinkel said. “That’s important to me, and hopefully they will. I think that’s a good place and hopefully he learns some lessons. He’s overall a good kid, and he has a chance to turn this whole thing into a positive thing for him personally.”
It’s obviously a difficult blow for the Tigers. Green-Beckham was the top wide receiver and No. 3 overall prospect in ESPN’s 2012 recruiting rankings. He led the team last season with 59 receptions and finished with 883 yards and 12 touchdowns. However, Missouri has to move on without him, and nobody knows that better than sophomore quarterback Maty Mauk.
“Obviously, we were close,” Mauk said. “He called me his first day (at Oklahoma), said he was moved in and ready to get started, and I wished him luck. He’s going to do good down there. We’ll stay in contact. But at Missouri, we’re not worried about it. We’ve moved on. Our guys are ready. They have accepted their roles.”
The Tigers will be without their top three wide receivers from a year ago, losing L'Damian Washington and Marcus Lucas in addition to Green-Beckham, but that doesn’t mean it is not a position of strength heading into the fall.
Seniors Bud Sasser and Jimmie Hunt each had more than 20 receptions a season ago, and the addition of former Texas wide receiver Darius White, a former ESPN 150 recruit who sat out last season after transferring, could provide another weapon on the outside.
“I look at Darius White and I see a top recruit in the nation who transferred from Texas, who I know like the back of my hand and who I can throw it to and expect him to catch it every time,” Mauk said. “Bud Sasser fills in at the X, somebody that I’ve been playing with that I love. He runs tremendous routes. And then Jimmie Hunt, an inside guy that maybe last year he couldn’t do what he can do right now. He’s quick and he’s fast.”
Mauk added that he has never seen someone as fast or as quick as redshirt freshman J'Mon Moore, and he made sure to mention the trio of incoming freshmen -- DeSean Blair, Nate Brown and Lawrence Lee -- who have all impressed since they arrived on campus.
It was clear Wednesday that there are no hard feelings between Missouri and Green-Beckham, and though the Tigers will certainly miss his production on the field, they are more than pleased with the options they still have available in the passing game.