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Mizzou’s Donavin Newsom Honors Michael Scherer by Wearing his Number 30
On October 22, Missouri Tigers linebacker Michael Scherer’s collegiate career came to a crushing end, as the redshirt senior took a hit to the back of the knee and suffered a torn ACL on the Tigers’ first defensive drive against Middle Tennessee State. It was just the beginning of an awful day for Mizzou, which suffered an embarrassing upset loss to the Raiders that day.
Scherer was the Tigers’ leading tackler at the time, and more importantly, he was considered the heart and soul of the team. Mizzou head coach Barry Odom made it a point to emphasize how special of a player Scherer was, saying, “He’s a special guy to me and a special guy to our program. He means the world to me with all the things he’s done for this place.” His loss was absolutely devastating to the team, and it showed as the Tigers lost three of their next four games following the loss to MTSU.
It was an emotional Senior Day on November 25, as the 3-8 Tigers faced Arkansas looking to end the season on a strong note. Scherer walked through the tunnel to a huge ovation, and fellow St. Louisan and redshirt senior Donavin Newsom, who had taken over as the anchor of the linebacker group and the defense’s leading tackler, found a unique way to pay tribute to his injured teammate.
Newsom was no stranger to honoring others with his jersey number, having worn number 25 from his redshirt freshman season up to the penultimate game of his college career to honor Aaron O’Neal, a fellow Parkway North linebacker who died during a summer workout at Mizzou before ever playing in a college game. Newsom pulled out a surprise on Senior Day to honor the player that he’d arrived with and spent five years with as part of the Tigers’ linebacker corps with. With no advance warning, Newsom emerged for warmups wearing Scherer’s number 30.
He didn’t let his longtime teammate down, collecting a nine-yard sack among two tackles and a pass breakup as the Tigers defeated Arkansas to finish the season on a good note. It was the perfect way to pay tribute to Scherer and put a nice cap on his career in what was largely a down season for Mizzou.