"His first game as a redshirt freshman, we played against Illinois in St. Louis, his hometown, and he returned a punt for a touchdown, nobody touched him. He scored two touchdowns that game, and he never let up the entire time he was at Missouri," Hill said. Maclin scored 32 times in 28 college games. "Everytime you think, 'Well, we've got Missouri bottled up,' defenses think they have us covered, all of a sudden, throw it to Maclin, he goes 80 yards. I just clap my hands and have a big smile on the sideline.
"He's a great young man, certainly the role-model-type young man that you want to represent your program, your state and your university. As a football player, he obviously has great speed, but he's one of the smartest guys we've ever had at Mizzou, certainly the guys I've coached at wide receiver. He knows what everybody's doing on every play. Whether it's his route or somebody else's route, he kind of knows the details of what they're doing.
"He'll have zero trouble adapting to the West Coast offense; he'll be fine. It's just something for the people who analyze things to talk about," Hill said.
Parres said that once it was clear Maclin would be a first-rounder, he didn't try to convince Jeremy to stay in school, though he won't turn 21 until Aug. 26, a few weeks before the start of his rookie NFL season. Parres said his surrogate son has the maturity to handle his new situation.
"He's very motivated," Parres said. "Being the third wide receiver picked in the draft is not sitting well with him, and I don't doubt that he will hold that chip on his shoulder and not let people forget if he outperforms [the others]." *
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