As Missouri prepares for Saturday’s game against South Carolina, which will be the first start at quarterback for freshman Drew Lock, there’s hope among the Tiger faithful that it can be the start of a new era for the Missouri offense.

Or at least something of a reboot.

The Tigers had one of the country’s most prolific offenses for much of Gary Pinkel’s tenure as head coach, but the past two seasons have been a major step back. Mizzou averaged more than 490 yards per game and ranked 13th in the nation with 39.1 points per game in 2013.

But last season, the Tigers’ scoring offense fell to 73rd in the FBS (27.8 PPG) before plummeting further this season to 114th (20.8 PPG). And the struggles this season have come against the nation’s 98th toughest schedule to date.

When trying to pinpoint the problem, the easy answer is quarterback play. Under Pinkel, Mizzou has had a steady stream of good-to-great college quarterbacks come through the program, including dual threats such as Brad Smith and James Franklin, and prolific passers such as Chase Daniel and Blaine Gabbert. But the offense has suffered in the season-and-a-half since Maty Mauk took over the starting job full-time following the graduation of Franklin after 2013.

Expectations for Mauk were high after his freshman season in 2013, when he filled in for an injured Franklin and played well enough to help the Tigers get to the SEC Championship Game. He finished that year with 11 touchdowns and just two interceptions despite only completing 51 percent of his passes.

It was certainly a solid campaign for a freshman, but the problem for Mauk has been a lack of improvement the past two seasons. In 28 career games, his completion percentage is 52.7 percent and his yards per attempt have dipped every year, going from 8.1 as a freshman to 5.9 this season. That’s partly because he’s playing with an inexperienced group of receivers and an offensive line that has had its struggles, but Mauk’s decision-making has also been questionable in some games. The sterling touchdown-to-interception ratio from 2013 has continued to get worse, and this season he has six touchdowns to four picks.

Now, Mizzou enters the South Carolina game with Mauk suspended for an undisclosed violation of team rules. Lock, a true freshman who has gotten some playing time in each game this season, will get the start and it may just be an opportunity to win the job full-time.

It’s not that Lock has been sensational in his opportunities — he’s completed 60 percent of his passes, averaging nine yards per attempt with a touchdown and an interception — but he’s been solid enough to have Tigers fans wondering aloud if he may be a better choice.

Lock will have some of the same things working against him that also hurt Mauk. The receivers are still one of the weakest groups in the SEC and star running back Russell Hansbrough is playing through a sprained ankle that has limited his production.

But there was a time when an injury to one running back or the graduation of a couple of receivers wouldn’t have been so detrimental to the program. It seems as though the further the Tigers get from the era of Dave Christensen as offensive coordinator, the worse the offense gets. Christensen left to become the head coach at Wyoming in 2009, and the Tigers saw a decline in the number of points per game in each of the next three seasons.

The 2013 season has actually proven to be an outlier in the post-Christensen era thanks to remarkable depth at running back with Henry Josey rushing for 1,166 yards while Franklin, Hansbrough and Marcus Murphy all had at least 500.

Since then, the Tigers simply haven’t had a quarterback who could carry a team without superior talent around him. Maybe Lock is the solution, but it might be asking a lot of a true freshman to turn this depleted Missouri offensive unit around right away.