Missouri Tigers QB Maty Mauk Suspended for South Carolina Game

As the St. Louis Post-Dispatch‘s Dave Matter first reported on Tuesday night, Missouri Tigers quarterback Maty Mauk has been suspended for this week’s game against South Carolina, for what is being described at the moment simply as “disciplinary reasons”. Malik Cuellar, a junior college transfer who has been listed as the team’s number two right tackle this season, received the same suspension.

Many Tigers fans will likely see this as a positive, considering Mauk’s performance so far this year, and in particular last week against Kentucky. He went just 15-for-30 for 180 yards against the Wildcats, and he’s completed just 51.8 percent of his passes for 654 yards over four games this season. His 6-to-4 touchdown-to-interception ratio isn’t particularly impressive, either.

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Meanwhile, true freshman Drew Lock, a highly regarded prospect who looks much more like a pro-style quarterback than Mauk at 6-foot-4 and 205 pounds, has been pretty impressive in spot duty this season. He’s 15-for-25 (60%) for 225 yards and a touchdown, though he has thrown an interception and taken two sacks. It looked like Lock might challenge Mauk for the starting job this week, even before the redshirt junior drew a suspension. Now with Mauk temporarily out of the Tigers’ plans, Lock will get an opportunity (albeit under major pressure) to make his first collegiate start and steal the starting job.

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With that said, Mauk provides a nice boost to the Tigers’ rushing game that they likely won’t get from Lock. Mauk ranks only behind Ish Witter this year in rushing yards for Mizzou, as he’s run 36 times for 145 yards and a touchdown. He has the team’s only rushing touchdown this season, and his average of 4.0 yards per carry is better than Witter’s or Russell Hansbrough‘s. The Tigers likely won’t get the same type of production in the run game from Lock, who is more of a pocket passer, and that could be a real detriment to a ground attack that could really use the help right now. Over the past few weeks, Hansbrough has been held back by injuries and Witter has been exposed as a non-starting-quality back.

While nothing has been divulged about what infractions Mauk committed, there were whispers about him being less than perfect character-wise coming out of Columbia. Mauk was known to frequently associate with wide receiver Levi Copelin, who was dismissed from the program last fall following multiple failed drug tests, an arrest for marijuana possession, and an arrest for a peace disturbance during which he made threatening remarks to a worker in the Mizzou campus ID office.

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