As Jeremy Maclin continues to play spectacular football for the University of Missouri, many fans are wondering if he will be playing at Mizzou next year as a junior of playing for pay in the National Football League.
Whatever Jeremy decides to do with his future, it’s all right with me because he has been a joy to watch during his career, first at Kirkwood High, but especially at Mizzou, where he has emerged as a force in college football over the past two seasons. For my money, he is the most exciting player I’ve seen in a Mizzou uniform since I moved here in 1980. The young man is just that good.
Maclin passed former Mizzou star Brad Smith two weeks ago as the school’s all-time leader in all-purpose yardage against Baylor. In last Saturday’s 41-24 victory over Kansas State, Maclin put on another show with 280 yards of all-purpose yardage and three touchdowns. Maclin compiled 78 yards rushing, 118 yards receiving and 78 yards in returns to push his season total to 1,985 all-purpose yards, which is an average of 198.5 yards per game. The young man can do it all.
As a freshman, Maclin set a new college football record with 2,776 all-purpose yards in earning First Team All-American honors. With two more regular-season games, a probable Big 12 championship game and a bowl game, Maclin has a chance to surpass his record-setting total from 2007.
Midwest Shootout, Dec. 13
Local basketball recruiting coordinator Terrell Ramey will be presenting his Second Annual Rameybasketball.com Midwest Shootout on December 13 at Normandy High.
The nine-game event will feature teams from St. Louis, Illinois, Indiana, and Tennessee. It will start with a girls game between Career Academy against Memphis Manassas at 11 a.m. Wellston will take on Decatur MacArthur at 12:30 p.m. New Lennox (Ill.) Providence St. Mel will face Missouri Class 2 state-champion Harrisburg (Mo.) at 2 p.m. Parkway South will face Evansville (Ind.) Harrison at 3:30 p.m. Francis Howell will take on Schaumburg (Ill.) at 5 p.m. The Memphis Manassas boys team will face Whitfield at 6:30 p.m. McCluer High will take on Chicago Foreman at 8 p.m. In the finale, the host Normandy Vikings will take on East St. Louis at 9:30 p.m.
For more information, visit the website, www.midwestshowdownshootout.com.
Earl on DVD
My new production, The PHL in the STL: The DVD, will be released at the end of November. The special project is a two-hour DVD that chronicles the history of basketball in the Public High League through rare video footage and vintage photos of the great PHL players of the past and present. If you enjoyed the book, then you are really going to love the DVD version. We have collected all kinds of video highlights of these players that are going to blow your mind. You can order your DVD early by visiting my website at www.earlaustinjr.com.
