Déjà vu: Mizzou freshman Donovan Olugbode isn't new to big-time plays
During Donovan Olugbode‘s junior year of high school career, he made a sideline catch too good not to frame.
On a third-and-long situation, former Bradenton (Fla.) IMG Academy coach Billy Miller sent Olugbode on a go route, but the ball got underthrown on his wideout’s back shoulder. That didn’t stop Olugbode from making a one-handed catch over a Baltimore (Md.) St. Francis Academy defender, though.
The first down led to IMG sealing a victory over its rival. And for Miller, he got a still of the play put on his office wall to commemorate another stellar catch from Olugbode.
“It will always stick with me,” Miller said in December.
Olugbode, now a freshman at Missouri, hasn’t stopped making those highlight catches.
During a fourth-down play Saturday against Kansas, Olugbode lined up in the slot. He found a slight separation with his defender and cut outside toward the right sideline. Olugbode reeled in a one-handed catch over sophomore cornerback Jalen Todd for a first down in the fourth quarter.
“It was a huge momentum swing,” Missouri coach Eli Drinkwitz said postgame Saturday. “I think that was probably the coolest thing was it wasn’t our players folding in the moment that was causing us to have issues. It was our players making big plays in the moment that also elevated us.”
“I told him right after he made it, ‘I’ve seen you do that in practice,'” senior wide receiver Kevin Coleman Jr. added. “Don is a great guy, always working. That’s the guy when I first got here, we did jugs every single day, about 300 plays, and that’s the guy who had tried to beat me to it. … So when the moment came, we trusted Don. Everybody did.”
Olugbode, a true freshman on the Tigers’ depth chart, logged three catches for 29 yards Saturday. Pairing with his Week 1 performance, the 6-foot-2, 207-pounder has 66 yards on seven receptions to start his college career.
“I wasn’t really surprised, because he’s done it multiple times since he’s been here as a true freshman,” quarterback Beau Pribula said. “When you have a dude that can make a play like that, you got to give him a chance.”
