Those who stuck it out until the final minute of Saturday's Black & Gold Game were treated to the two biggest plays. Trent Hosick hit Eric Laurent on a deep pass down the left sideline for a 93-yard touchdown. Marvin Zanders came right back with an 80-yard option keeper, which was all the more impressive because defenders only needed to touch him to end the play. Nobody could put a hand on him.

Those plays were made by Missouri's fourth- and fifth-string quarterbacks against Dave Steckel's defensive leftovers, but, still, they provided glimpses of potential that could come in handy, maybe sooner than their positions on the depth chart would suggest.

If Hosick, a bruising runner, can throw with the accuracy he showed on that deep ball, what's not to like? And if Zanders, a true freshman, can do one thing incredibly well � like run the option or return kicks or catch bubble screens � it would be awfully tempting to find a way to get his raw speed on the field immediately as a specialist.

Unlike last year, when MU quarterbacks had the luxury of Henry Josey and gigantic wide receivers in triplicate, the offensive playmakers are scarce. The dismissal of Dorial Green-Beckham eliminated the simple but effective when-in-doubt-throw-it-up-for-DGB pass. A little creativity might be required to generate big plays from unexpected sources.

"You look at those guys and look at their skill and see they can help you in some of those ways," Missouri offensive coordinator Josh Henson said of Hosick and Zanders. "Obviously, it makes the wheels turn in your head about what would be the best way to use them, assuming Maty is the starting quarterback."

That is a safe assumption for this fall, and the next, and the next.

Maty Mauk has made the starting job his own, following up his save-the-season relief work with a strong spring. Yesterday, Mauk completed 11 of 15 passes for 129 yards and scored on a 3-yard run. On his first series, he smoked a 38-yard pass to Darius White into a small space between two defenders. White wasn't overly open, but a perfectly placed fastball solved that problem. By all accounts, Mauk has gotten more comfortable going through the progressions of Missouri's plays rather than relying so much on his improvisational skills. But he still has that improv in him when the X's and O's turn into alphabet soup.

Behind him are Corbin Berkstresser and Eddie Printz. They are advanced enough as passers that whoever emerges as the better of the two would probably get the call if Missouri needed a long-term replacement for Mauk next season. At least that's the way it stood entering yesterday's spring finale. And those two spent much of the day trying to guide the second-team offense against the first-team defense, so there weren't many chances for big plays.

The question for Missouri's coaches will be whether to dip below the No. 2 quarterback to find a role for Hosick or Zanders.

"You have to look at what that particular player could bring and then who are you taking off the field to put him in there," Coach Gary Pinkel said. "Maty runs 4.51 or 4.52" in the 40-yard dash. "That's pretty fast."

That is the rub. The desire of coaches to play with all their toys can get in the way of a cohesive offense. For whatever success the Wildcat formation has had, it also has derailed drives by sending perfectly good quarterbacks off to the side. But a change-of-pace running quarterback can come in handy as a short-yardage specialist or to simply give a struggling offense a jolt.

It's hard to judge what Missouri has in Hosick, because what he does best � run angry � isn't applicable in practices and scrimmages. Quarterbacks can't be tackled.

"A lot of people have said I play the game from quarterback like a linebacker," said Hosick, a state champion high school wrestler. "Oftentimes, that's why they tell me I should switch positions. But that's something that makes me a little bit different, is I love contact. I don't go down very easily, and my ability to extend plays makes me a little bit different."

Zanders' strength is avoiding being touched.

"He's fast," quarterbacks coach Andy Hill said. "He's not kidding around. He has top-end speed."

After arriving from Jacksonville, Fla., in January and "getting my first winter under my belt," Zanders found yesterday's warm spring day more to his liking. He didn't get in the scrimmage until the fourth quarter, but he offered a taste of his talents. I'm a sucker for an elusive quarterback � and he definitely is a raw passer � so maybe I'm inflating his value, but he has intrigued me the last two scrimmages.

He's not an every-down quarterback at this point � but he's something.

"God gave me these legs, so I used them," Zanders said.

Up the middle he went on the option play, and nobody touched him as he raced to the end zone and finished like he was breaking the tape at the end of a sprint.

"I hope everybody got to see it, didn't leave yet," Zanders said.

The ones who really mattered, the coaches, saw it. They will have to decide whether to put those legs to use in the fall.