Mizzou WR Dominic Lovett: ‘Not Enough Attention,’ Says Eli Drinkwitz

Headed into Saturday’s home matchup with the Kentucky Wildcats, Missouri Tigers receiver Dominic Lovett remains near the top of the SEC leader boards in receiving yards. 

With 659 yards, he’s third in the SEC, just five yards behind veteran Ole Miss Rebels receiver Jonathon Mingo (664) and a ways behind Tennessee Volunteers Jalin Hyatt (907), who continues to have a monster season.

And yet, maybe due to Mizzou’s lack of success on offense this season, Lovett hasn't garnered the attention he’s deserving of for being one of the top receivers in arguably the best conference in college football.

Missouri coach Eli Drinkwitz tends to agree with, even admitting that it maybe it's due to some of the star-studded attention that freshman Luther Burden III receives, though he didn't mention him by name,

“God if they're not paying attention to him right now - he's a really good player,” Drinkwitz said. “We're fortunate to have him. I think there's a lot of hype around another wide receiver on our team which probably causes not enough attention to Lovett."

Lovett is the no-doubt No. 1 passing option for the Tigers this season and the numbers clearly back that notion up. He leads the team in receptions (45) and receiving yards (659) while being tied with Burden for a team-high two receiving touchdowns.

However, no other receiver in the offense has topped 25 catches or 200 yards receiving headed into Saturday.

Drinkwitz continues to praise his top receiver, who is coming of a performance in a win over the then-No. 25 South Carolina Gamecocks where he posted career-high marks with 10 catches and 148 yards.

But then some of those catches I mean, they’re one yard in front of Brady and it has to be at least 40 of those yards," Drinkwitz said of Lovett's after-the-catch ability. " ... Thought we did a decent job in the first half of making sure that the playmakers were touching the football."

Lovett has all the momentum in the world but faces one of his toughest tests of the season against Kentucky. Despite recent struggles as a team, the Wildcats are allowing the third-fewest passing yards in the SEC (186.6) this season and will likely be focused on stopping Lovett to gain an advantage over a middling Mizzou offense.

Missouri and Kentucky will kickoff at 11 a.m. CT from Faurot Field on Saturday.

You can follow Zach Dimmitt on Twitter at @ZachDimmitt7

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