How Mizzou's only win over Georgia drew from past lessons, set stage for SEC future

Gary Pinkel wanted to try something a little different.

As Missouri came to the line against Georgia at Sanford Stadium in October 2013, the plan started to unfold.

"We had a few plays we put in there that were kind of trick-type plays that we thought we were going to use in the right situation,” the former longtime Missouri head coach told the Tribune this week. “That was kind of like, 'We’re going to play this team, let’s take it all out and put it all out there.'"

With regular starting quarterback James Franklin out of the game with a shoulder injury, backup Maty Mauk took the snap. Mauk tossed the ball behind the line of scrimmage to wideout Bud Sasser, who immediately threw down the field.

Sasser didn’t throw the prettiest ball; it wobbled through the air. Down in the Georgia end zone, fellow wideout L’Damian Washington was being hounded by the Bulldog cornerback Shaq Wiggins.

"When you’re in that moment, you don’t see the fans,” Washington, now an assistant coach at Oklahoma, told the Tribune. “You don’t see who’s draped on you. You really don’t feel it. You’re kind of numb to a lot of it, the only thing is you and the ball.”

Despite those issues, the element of surprise still worked.

Washington held off Wiggins and came down with the ball.

Touchdown Missouri.

"That was a big, big play,” Pinkel said. “If they work, the impact is significant.”

'Let’s go attack’

When the Tigers lined up against Georgia in 2013, Missouri was still brand new to the Southeastern Conference. MU joined before the 2012 season, alongside Texas A&M.

Initially, the move had been tough. Missouri won just two SEC games that first season, against Kentukcy and Tennessee.

Against Georgia, the Tigers’ first conference opponent, MU ran into a buzzsaw. Defensive tackle Sheldon Richardson made an ill-advised move before the game of calling the Bulldog offense “old-man football,” a phrase Georgia players changed slightly and displayed on a sign reading “grown-man football,” during the 41-20 UGA win at Faurot Field.

According to Pinkel, the Tigers may have been putting their SEC opponents on a pedestal that first year.

“Raised the level of competition higher than what it was,” Pinkel said. “They’re great competition, but they’re also human like we are.”

Entering 2013, he emphasized that message with his veteran players. Missouri started to see results.

The Tigers opened the year with wins over Murray State, Toledo, Indiana and Arkansas State before beginning SEC play. They went to Vanderbilt the first week of October and took down the Commodores.

“The year before a lot of people doubted us, writers said we didn't belong in the SEC or said our team couldn't compete,” Washington said. “Whatever it was, we took all that doubt from the year before and we took it into that season to where we owed everybody.”

Then it was time for the Georgia game. Missouri had crept into the top 25 already, but the Bulldogs were ranked seventh in the nation, and their quarterback, Aaron Murray, had broken the SEC single-game passing yards record the week before against South Carolina.

Georgia was favored by a touchdown before the game kicked off in Athens.

“They’re a really good team,” Pinkel said of the pre-game scouting report on the Bulldogs. “Respect them, but let’s go attack. We’ve got the greatest opportunity to go play in one of the great stadiums in the country, national TV, so let’s get after it, let’s go.”

'You always hope it happens'

The game didn’t immediately start going Missouri’s way. The Tigers and Bulldogs both punted on their first drives, before Murray and Georgia got going.

UGA drove 86 yards for a touchdown, capped off with a seven-yard pass from Murray to Brendan Douglas with 3:44 left in the first. The Tigers needed to respond.

Fortunately, the 2013 offense had plenty of talent. MU's weapons included Sasser and Washington, along with Dorial Green-Beckham and running back Marcus Murphy.

The attack was led by Franklin.

"He was such a good player,” Pinkel said of his quarterback.

Missouri got the response it needed on that drive, marching 79 yards down the field. With a minute left in the quarter, Franklin felt pressure from his right side and took off, bruising his way into the end zone.

“The biggest thing for us is when they got up at their home stadium and their fans were going wild, just to respond,” Washington said. “I think that was the main thing for us. It was a year of responding, it was a game of responding and I think we did, so that was a huge score.”

After a Georgia three-and-out, Missouri got the ball back and immediately made good again. From inside the red zone, Franklin dropped back and had an eternity to throw.

He delivered the ball to the corner of the end zone, hitting Washington in stride for the receiver’s first touchdown of the contest.

Later in the half, Georgia made a field goal, but MU answered with a Murphy touchdown run. Then, the defense got involved.

Defensive end Shane Ray made it all the way to Murray, earning a strip sack. The ball bounced into the hands of Ray’s counterpart, Michael Sam.

Sam ran it 21 yards for a touchdown.

“That was awesome,” Pinkel said. “That was great. You score on defense, it does so much. You don’t ever count on that, but you always hope it happens to not only get a turnover but you get a score.”

In the third quarter, things started going south for Missouri. The Bulldogs opened with a field goal, and the Tiger offense disappeared.

After two more Bulldog touchdowns but one missed 2-point conversion, Missouri’s lead was down to 28-26. Then things went from bad to worse.

Franklin took a huge hit into the ground and separated his shoulder, an injury that would force him to miss the next month. Mauk entered the game.

"I came in and everybody just told me to keep calm," Mauk said after the game, according to The Associated Press. "So I came in and got the plays to our guys.”

For his part, Pinkel couldn't be overly nervous about having to make a mid-game change.

“You always feel bad if you lose a player,” Pinkel said. “Quarterback is such a big position. We also know that you don’t have time to be concerned about the ramifications, is he going to be out next week? We try to finish and win the game and deal with all that stuff afterward.”

The first play Mauk ran for six yards, picking up a first down. The second was called “Colt 45.”

It was the trick play. That did it, Missouri added a few more scores, Georgia didn’t get another point and the game was over.

“The crowd had kind of got going a little bit and to us, that play right there just took the air out of it,” Washington said. “(That) was one that kind of sealed the game, honestly.”

The Tigers left Sanford Stadium 41-26 victors. The 2013 game was Missouri’s first and so far only win over Georgia.

"I had such great players,” Pinkel said. “I love those guys.”

'We're very proud of that'

In 2010, Missouri beat Oklahoma, then the third-ranked team in the nation. It was a massive game, one that saw College Gameday come to Columbia.

Afterward, Pinkel got a call from his old coach and boss, Don James, whom Pinkel played for at Kent State and worked under at Washington.

“Gary, don’t forget this,” James said, according to Pinkel. “... Next week’s going to be your toughest game.”

James was right. Pinkel said he let the celebratory atmosphere go on too long before Missouri’s upcoming matchup with Nebraska.

The Tigers lost that game 31-17 and allowed Cornhusker running back Roy Helu Jr. to rush for 307 yards.

It was a lesson that stuck with MU’s head coach.

“Gary Pinkel remembered that,” Pinkel said. “I remembered that. 2010, now you go to 2013. Ding ding ding. That can’t happen again and we didn’t let it happen again.”

Pinkel wasn’t the only one who carried over from that 2010 team. Washington had been there, too, along with Sasser, Franklin, Murphy, Sam and plenty of other key Tigers.

The week after beating Georgia, Missouri beat Florida at Faurot Field. MU went on to win its first of two consecutive SEC East titles.

“We didn’t really do a lot of thinking, we just kind of went and did,” Washington said of the 2013 Tigers. “I think a lot of people don’t realize how much we hung out outside of football and how much we trusted each other and how we’re connected, even to this day.”

The Georgia game was a turning point for the program. Pinkel and the Tigers had found plenty of success late in their time as members of the Big 12. That success was a major reason the SEC had come calling. But in the first season aboard, it hadn’t gone particularly well for the Tigers.

Still, it hadn’t hurt the belief of Missouri in itself.

“The year before, we had so many injuries going into that season,” Washington said. “... We knew that once we got everybody healthy, we were going to go and cause hell.”

2013 represented the Tigers’ chance to flip the conversation. That's what they did.

“Everybody said, ‘Wait until you get to the SEC, you’ll never win games like that,’” Pinkel said. “Well, we did. We’re very proud of that.”

This article originally appeared on Columbia Daily Tribune: Missouri football: How only win over Georgia in 2013 set SEC stage