How Mizzou football hopes to get 5-star freshman Luther Burden more involved on offense
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Luther Burden’s start at Missouri has been slower than many Tiger fans would prefer.
So far this season, the five-star true freshman — one of the most-hyped prospects to ever play at MU since the school joined the SEC — has only three catches.
Against Kansas State on Saturday, Burden had one lone catch for three yards. As head coach Eli Drinkwitz has said, Burden is still new to this, with only two games of experience.
“It is a balancing act for a true freshman,” Drinkwitz said. “Second game of the year, expectations versus reality. Tremendous player, tremendous competitor, but you got a lot of people that can make plays.”
Drinkwitz acknowledged the Tigers need to do a better job creating touches for Burden. He also said he would like to use Burden more efficiently, suggesting he played around 20 snaps too many in the Kansas State game.
The coach pointed out that some of the issues might come from the position Burden plays.
“We’ve got to understand that sometimes play designs for the X receiver (Burden’s spot), they may take away the No. 1 option,” Drinkwitz said. “That happened a couple of times.”
Burden himself isn’t complaining. He said Wednesday that he’ll just continue to try and improve.
The receiver said the speed of the game is much faster than he was used to in high school.
“It’s a learning curve,” Burden said. “Especially playing in the SEC, it’s a new opponent every week, so there’s definitely a curve. I just still continue to get better.”
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Part of the issue against both Louisiana Tech and Kansas State was a lack of opportunities. Another part was failing to seize on the chances that presented themselves.
Several times this season, quarterback Brady Cook has tried to find Burden deep down the field. Each time, the two failed to connect.
“There’s definitely an element of frustration right after the play,” Burden said. “But it’s football and everything doesn’t go as you want it, so my mindset (is), if I don’t get it this play, next play.”
Sometimes Cook has just missed. Other times Burden has dropped the pass.
On one try at Kansas State, the Tigers had what looked to be an opportunity for a touchdown, but a combination of those two things happened.
Cook put much of the blame on himself Wednesday.
“I need to have better footwork in the pocket,” Cook said. “My drops are way too rushed. Need to be more accurate. Just need to make plays downfield, need to connect with my star receivers and give them the chance to make plays.”
In the Louisiana Tech game, Missouri found other ways to get Burden involved. Besides his touchdown scored on a screen pass, he got another when he took a direct snap and darted into the end zone standing up.
Against Kansas State, Burden took a handoff for positive yardage.
“We can be better at designing plays that he specifically gets the touch,” Drinkwitz said. “We had the little end-around play to him that created six (yards), so maybe finding more of those would be good.”
Another part of Missouri’s issue goes beyond Burden simply not getting the football. The entire offense struggled against Kansas State and even had issues during the win over Louisiana Tech.
The whole unit has seemed stagnant at times, something that will need to be fixed going forward if the Tigers are to find any success.
“Making the plays, we made them all fall camp,” Cook said of what needs to happen going forward. “Made them all spring. It’s there. We’re practicing, we practiced today. It’s there. We’ve just got to make it happen on Saturdays.”
Missouri takes on Abilene Christian at 11 a.m. on Saturday at Faurot Field. The game will not be shown on over-the-air or cable television but will be available for streaming on ESPN+ and SEC Network+.
Matt Stahl is the Missouri athletics beat reporter for the Columbia Daily Tribune. Follow him on Twitter @mattstahl97.
This article originally appeared on Columbia Daily Tribune: Mizzou football prioritizing touches for wide receiver Luther Burden
