Last season, Missouri wide receiver Emanuel Hall showed that he was one of the best deep threats in the nation. In fact, his 24.76 yards-per-reception average was second in the nation only to Rice’s Aaron Cephus.

Heading into 2018, though, Hall wanted to show that he was more than just a deep threat. In new coordinator Derek Dooley’s offense, Hall can run more intermediate routes and prove that he can be a good route runner.

In Week 1, Hall caught four passes for 171 yards and two touchdowns. Those were huge numbers, but they all came via the deep ball. That had a lot to do with how Tennessee Martin covered him, and Hall and the Tigers took what they could get.

Fast forward to Saturday night’s 40-13 win against Wyoming. Hall again put up 171 receiving yards, but this time he did it on 10 catches. He and quarterback Drew Lock were in sync all night, connecting early and often on a variety of routes.

Hall is averaging 24.4 yards per catch, but with 14 catches and three touchdowns already this season, he’s well on his way to shattering his numbers (33 catches, 817 yards, eight touchdowns) as a junior in 2017.

The below catch is a perfect example of the new-look Hall. It’s a screen route, so it wasn’t his longest catch of the night, but he showed great agility and shiftiness while working his way for a first down:

Of course, he showed he was still one of the nation’s best deep threats with this typical Lock-to-Hall connection for a touchdown:

Hall’s start to the 2018 season has been special, putting him in rare company in Mizzou history. The Tigers have had some great receivers in recent history, from Chase Coffman to Jeremy Maclin to Danario Alexander to Dorial Green-Beckham to J’Mon Moore and now Hall.

As you can see below, Hall is having a start to the season that comes close to what Alexander accomplished back in November of 2009:

Wide receiver Johnathon Johnson, tight end Albert Okwuegbunam and some of the freshmen have been key parts of Mizzou’s passing game, too, but everything starts with Hall. He opens the field up for the others when he goes deep. He provides big chunks of yardage. And he sometimes serves as a decoy, drawing coverage to free up other players for big gains.

Hall had a great mentor the past couple of years in Moore, but in 2018 Hall has a chance to put up bigger numbers than Moore ever did — and that’s saying something.

The Tigers haven’t played a Power 5 team yet, but that will change against a struggling Purdue squad this week. If Hall goes for 100-plus yards receiving again, he’ll be more than halfway to his 2017 yardage total in only three games.

He has been a lot of fun to watch this season, and with Lock tossing him the ball, the sky is the limit for him and the Mizzou offense.