Derrick Washington, Missouri's starting running back and their leading rusher for the past two years, has formally been charged with sexual assault after his suspension last week from all team activities. Boone County prosecutors filed one charge of deviate sexual assault, a felony charge, against Washington on Monday. Washington remains suspended from all team activities until he is cleared of all charges per university policy. 

The charge stems from allegations filed by a former tutor that Washington assaulted her on June 19th of this year. A protective order was filed on the June 22, but both parties missed a court date the following month and caused the charges to be dismissed. The Prosecutor's Office picked up the case, however, and pursued the charges against the senior running back. 

Now that we've tiptoed around the legalities of the case: what is clear for Washington is that this is very bad news for Mizzou's offense, a pass-first attack that had used Washington as a powerful counterbalance against defenses looking to stop the Tigers' aerial game. Replacing him will not be easy, and given how long these cases take to resolve his absence could be a long one indeed.