It’s hard to be surprised anymore by anything Missouri sophomore Jeremy Maclin does on a football field.

Turn a simple 12-yard catch over the middle into an 80-yard touchdown? Seen it.

Find a way to drag a toe after snaring a high pass in the back of the end zone? Of course he did.

Speed down the sideline, right past an unlucky cornerback, to haul in a 49-yard score? Hardly the first time.

“Jeremy is crazy. He’s a freak athlete,” MU sophomore running back Derrick Washington said. “You never know what to expect from him. But whatever happens with Mac, it’s crazy.”

Yesterday was crazier than most days Maclin has enjoyed in the 12 months since his he made his spectacular debut in a Missouri uniform. The All-American all-purpose threat hauled in six catches for a career-high 172 yards and became the fourth MU player in history to catch three touchdowns in a game as the Tigers routed Nevada 69-17 on Faurot Field.

“What do you need to say about him?” Wolf Pack Coach Chris Ault asked rhetorically. “He’s as good as there is in the country, and there is no secret to that. I’m just sorry we didn’t play up to our ability.”

The truth is Nevada really had little hope of slowing Maclin down.

Hardly any team has been able to do so the past two seasons. He always finds a way to contribute something to the Tigers’ attack, whether it’s as a receiver, returner or runner. He averaged a staggering 198 all-purpose yards in 14 games last season. He accounted for 234 all-purpose yards in MU’s season-opening victory against Illinois.

Considering the Wolf Pack kept Maclin under control in the return game, he was bound to make an impact some other way.

Anyone with a heart had to feel a little bit sorry for the Nevada cornerback Mike Evans, who found himself alone with Maclin in the open field after he snatched that 12-yard pass from quarterback Chase Daniel on a crossing pattern on the first play of the Tigers’ second series. Right as Maclin started to turn upfield, he shook his hips back toward the inside, freezing Evans, before zipping right past him up the sideline for Missouri’s second score.

Maclin’s most spectacular play came on the final drive of the opening half when he leaped to grab Daniel’s 14-yard pass in the back of the end zone. It seemed inevitable that he’d land out of bounds but somehow scraped his left toe inside the back line.

“What an unbelievable catch he made for the touchdown,” Daniel said.

For Maclin, it was pretty basic.

“You’ve got to smell it,” he said. “You’ve got to get your feet down. That’s something that we work on in practice, and that was my time to use it.”

Maclin blew by Evans again for his third score, streaking under a deep pass down the sideline for a 49-yard score. The only thing hard to believe about that play was that Evans was left alone to keep pace with Maclin’s sub-4.3 speed in man-to-man coverage.

But when two other Missouri receivers — Tommy Saunders and Chase Coffman — had at least 100 receiving yards, another, Jared Perry, had 98, and Washington was chewing up 75 yards on the crowd, maybe there wasn’t a choice.

“You know, I saw a little bit of double with Illinois and SEMO, but guys like Tommy Saunders, Chase and Jared Perry will hurt you,” Maclin said. “So you can try to throw different things at me, but I think we’ll still hurt you.”

Maclin’s third touchdown catch put him in the company of Victor Bailey, Dwayne Blakley and Coffman as the only MU pass-catchers with three touchdowns in a game. He might have become the only one with four scoring catches had the Tigers not pulled their starters midway through the third quarter.

It probably would be more appropriate for Maclin to stand in a class all his own. He already ranks fifth on the school’s career list for all-purpose yardage with 3,314 and has scored 21 touchdowns in his 17-game career.

Will he eclipse Brad Smith’s career mark of 4,419 yards, maybe by the end of this season? The only surprise would be if he doesn’t.

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