Mizzou's Marcus Murphy could be a nightmare for Gamecocks' coverage teams
A poor man’s Percy Harvin, redshirt senior Marcus Murphy is one of the college football’s most electrifying players with the ball in his hands.
Mizzou’s prolific return specialist is currently tied with former Tigers standout Jeremy Maclin with a program-high five special teams touchdowns during his career and is looking to break the all-time mark Saturday night at South Carolina.
“He’s just got the ‘it’ factor for it,” Gary Pinkel said recently of Murphy’s expertise in the return game. “When he gets out in space, he’s a great space runner. … The players around him understand they’ve just got to get him a few blocks here or there. He’s just good in space. He feels people. He senses the right things to do — and you don’t coach that.”
| MARCUS MURPHY, Mizzou | Kick Ret | Punt Ret | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | School | Conf | Class | Pos | G | Ret | Yds | Avg | TD | Ret | Yds | Avg | TD |
| 2010 | Missouri | Big 12 | FR | RB | 12 | 24 | 475 | 19.8 | 0 | ||||
| 2012 | Missouri | SEC | SOPH | RB | 12 | 19 | 458 | 24.1 | 1 | 27 | 374 | 13.9 | 3 |
| 2013 | Missouri | SEC | JR | 14 | 27 | 599 | 22.2 | 0 | 21 | 146 | 7.0 | 0 | |
| 2014 | Missouri | SEC | SR | 4 | 4 | 156 | 39.0 | 1 | 6 | 62 | 10.3 | 0 | |
| Career | Missouri | 74 | 1688 | 22.8 | 2 | 54 | 582 | 10.8 | 3 | ||||
Considering the Gamecocks’ recent recent failures in kick coverage, the chances of Murphy ripping off a big one are substantial.
Steve Spurrier wasn’t sure what to make of assistant coach Joe Robinson’s unit following last week’s multi-touchdown disaster at Vanderbilt, calling the performance ’embarrassing’ in Nashville.
Vanderbilt’s Darrius Sims took the opening kickoff 91 yards for a score and added another in the third quarter, this time of the 100-yard variety.
On the first return, Sims split four defenders through a gaping hole and out-ran Damiere Byrd — South Carolina’s fastest player — to the end zone. The second was a complete breakdown with poor spacing, causing Spurrier to nearly slam his visor and headset on the turf.
Linebacker Skai Moore missed a diving tackle at the 32 and the rest of the Gamecocks failed to separate from blocks as Sims sprinted to the other side of the field untouched.
“I’m not a very good kickoff cover coach, that’s for sure,” Spurrier said Tuesday. “I’m not a very good kickoff return coach (either), because we’ve never returned one for a touchdown here. I’ll admit it, but fortunately in some others areas of the game we’ve been able to overcome that particular phase.”
South Carolina’s giving up a league-worst 29.4 yards per kickoff return this season, 126th out of 128 FBS teams.
“I know they’re working hard in their kickoff coverage and they have a lot of things to fix,” Murphy said about the Gamecocks to ABC 17. “(My) guys are working hard to give me a lot of space to run. I’m looking forward to this week. I think it’ll be a big one.”
Mizzou’s offense has also put a greater focus on Murphy this season, working him out of the backfield and in the slot. He’ll be the fastest player on the field when he’s out there at Williams-Brice Stadium and the only way to limit his impact on the game is to kick it away from No. 6.
During Spurrier’s tenure, South Carolina’s allowed six kickoff returns for touchdowns including one in last season’s Capital One Bowl against Wisconsin and opening kickoff gaffs to Clemson’s C.J. Spiller in 2009 and Florida’s Andre Debose in 2010 (SEC East title game).
Surprisingly, the Gamecocks are 4-1 in those games with the only loss coming at Georgia in 2009.
“Usually, you have a (kickoff) run-back or a punt run-back and you lose those kind of games,” Spurrier said. “Somehow another it’s been working out for us. I don’t know if it will continue though. There’s no guarantee you can play as sloppy as we play and keep winning. We’re going to try and play a little bit more smart with a little bit more effort.”
