Jeremy Maclin was even better than you remember

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Over the next three Fridays, I'm dropping career highlight videos and corresponding posts here on the site for three of college football's most electrifying wide receivers. Up first: Missouri's Jeremy Maclin.

Jeremy Maclin's Missouri career is spectacular no matter how you slice it, but especially when you consider that he was only on the field for two seasons. After a knee injury kept him out for his true freshman year in 2006, Maclin terrorized Big 12 defenses (and special teams units) the next two years as one of college football's most dynamic players of the 2000s:

In those two seasons, Maclin amassed a school-record 5,609 all-purpose yards (2,315 receiving, 668 rushing, 577 punt, 2,049 kickoff), and scored 33 total touchdowns. He broke the NCAA freshman record for all-purpose yards (2,776 in 2007), and is still the only Missouri player ever to be named a First Team All-American in multiple seasons (2007, 2008). Given those accolades, it should be no surprise that Maclin was enshrined in the College Football Hall of Fame in 2023.

The most obvious talking point in regards to Maclin's skills as a player is his speed. In an era where high-flying offenses with fast skill players dominated the Big 12, he raced past them all. The college football world found out just how dangerous he would be the first time he took the field for Mizzou's 2007 season opener against Illinois in St. Louis:

Missouri's staff deserves a ton of credit for making it a point to get him the ball in every way possible. They undoubtedly saw what Florida was doing with Percy Harvin, and made the smart choice by replicating that with Maclin. Whether it was on reverses:

Straight-up handoffs in the backfield:

Or direct-snapping it to him:

That creativity gave an added dimension to Missouri's offense, but they also didn't galaxy-brain how they used Maclin as a wide receiver. You'll see a ton of inside screens in this video, because it was their favorite way to get him the ball. It's obvious why they loved it so much:

Maclin doesn't get enough credit for being as well-rounded a receiver as he was, either. I won't pretend like he was a top-tier route technician or had elite ball skills, but this wasn't just a guy who could only kill you with speed. Maclin could go up and get it:

That said, getting caught in space –or left on an island– against him was a defender's worst nightmare. You don't really have a choice who gets the ball when you're on defense, but coaches willingly choosing to kick/punt to Maclin after what he did as a freshman was lunacy. Pat Fitzgerald and Northwestern made that decision in Maclin's final game in the 2008 Alamo Bowl, and it was only right that he taught them one final lesson before heading off to the NFL:

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