INSIDE TODAY:
‘OLD-MAN FOOTBALL’
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SECTION B, Sunday & Monday, October 13-14, 2013
TIGERS 41
Bulldog fans had bodypaint of a Tiger diss from 2012. Page 3B
BULLDOGS 26
KEVIN COOK/Missourian
BITTER/SWEET LEFT: Missouri quarterback James Franklin leaves the field with his shoulder in a sling after sustaining an apparent injury in the fourth quarter of the Tigers’ 41-26 win Saturday at Sanford Stadium in Athens, Ga. RIGHT: Missouri offensive lineman Justin Britt celebrates L’Damian Washington’s touchdown catch in the first half.
Franklin could be out for weeks Missouri silences No. 7 Georgia
By ALEXANDER SMITH sports@ColumbiaMissourian.com ATHENS, Ga. — A sea of white, black and gold poured past the Georgia marching band and through the southeast tunnel on Saturday afternoon. The wave of giddy Tigers skipped, hopped and sprinted out of Sanford Stadium with their first big Southeastern Conference upset, and a small crowd of shouting Tigers fans peered over the side of the concrete to voice their pleasure. But one of the final players to walk through the madness had his right arm in a sling and a deflated look on his face. James Franklin was hurt again. After a 2012 season in which he missed three games for various medical reasons, Franklin was finally back on track. He powered through four non-conference wins and then scored five total touchdowns last Saturday at Vanderbilt. Georgia didn’t seem to have an answer for
him until midway through the fourth quarter. Franklin scrambled to his left and flipped the ball out of bounds before two Bulldogs smashed him to the turf. On the next play — a designed run — he gained five yards before curiously sprinting straight to sideline to avoid contact. It was to be his last play in Missouri’s biggest game of the season so far. The damage: a separated shoulder. “I really feel for James,” head coach Gary Pinkel said. “He was really, really visibly upset after the game, and he was having a great year.” Pinkel refused to put an exact timetable on his senior quarterback’s recovery, but he mentioned that the Tigers would prepare for a multi-week absence. In the meantime, Maty Mauk will call the signals. The redshirt freshman was
Please see FRANKLIN, page 2B
By MATTHEW FAIRBURN sports@ColumbiaMissourian.com ATHENS, Ga. — Missouri offensive coordinator Josh Henson thought he was going to look like an idiot. The 18-point, halftime lead Missouri had built against Georgia had shrunk to just two points. The 92,000-plus fans packed into Sanford Stadium were growing louder with each second that ticked off the clock. Starting quarterback James Franklin had just exited the game with a shoulder injury, and Henson dialed up his gutsiest play call of the season. The Tigers call it “Colt 45.”Quarterback Maty Mauk threw the ball to wide receiver Bud Sasser, who scrambled toward the sideline, red jerseys closing in on him. L’Damian Washington was streaking down the sideline, covered tightly by Georgia cornerback Shaq Wiggins. With each millisecond that Sasser held the ball, Henson’s nerves heightened. Then the
wide receiver became a quarterback, leaning back and lofting a wobbly pass through the air toward Washington, who was a few strides from the end zone. Washington was surprised to see the ball coming toward him, but he trusted it would get there. He jumped in the air, accompanied by Wiggins, and out-muscled the cornerback for the ball, hitting the grass with his second touchdown of the day and the decisive play in Missouri’s 41-24 win over No. 7 Georgia. “Fourteen things could go wrong,” Henson said. “They all flashed through my head right after I called the play. It’s a dangerous call.” “But I felt like we had to be aggressive to score and go win the game.” Henson didn’t look like an idiot. Instead, he was a genius for wanting to call something different, simply because they wanted different results.
Please see TIGERS, page 2B
CARDINALS 2 - DODGERS 0
Rookie is stellar in Game 2
By R.B. FALLSTROM
The Associated Press ST. LOUIS — Matched against ace Clayton Kershaw, the only thing Michael Wacha lacked was a no-hit watch. “He’s becoming a guy a lot of teams wish they drafted,” teammate David Freese said. “What he’s done is remarkable, especially on this stage.” Wacha stared down a bases-loaded test in the sixth inning and pitched into the seventh, and the kids in the bullpen also were impervious to October pressure, keeping the Los Angeles Dodgers bats silent for the second straight day
and winning 1-0 Saturday for a 2-0 lead in the NL championship series. “I’m kind of at a loss for words to describe him,” said fellow rookie Kevin Siegrist, who got a big out to end the seventh. “It’s kind of ridiculous how well he’s done so far.” The Cardinals managed only two hits off Kershaw and the Dodgers, but Jon Jay’s sacrifice fly set up by Freese’s double and A.J. Ellis’ passed ball in the fifth stood up. The Dodgers’ scoreless streak in the NLCS reached 19 innings after they averaged 6 ½ runs in a four-game division series against Atlanta. Rookie fire-
baller Trevor Rosenthal struck out the side in the ninth with a heater reaching 101 mph, fanning pinch-hitter Andre Ethier on three pitches to end it. A day after outlasting Los Angeles 3-2 in 13 innings, the Cardinals moved two wins away from the World Series. Game 3 is Monday at Dodger Stadium, with Cardinals ace Adam Wainwright facing rookie Hyun-Jin Ryu. The Dodgers have already used their top two starters and have nothing to show for it. “We don’t get too far ahead of ourselves,” Cardinals manager Mike Matheny said. “We don’t deny also what’s happened here the last two days.”
JEFF ROBERSON/The Associated Press
Cardinals starter Michael Wacha celebrates after striking out Dodgers’ Juan Uribe with bases loaded to end the inning in Game 2 of the NLCS Saturday.