Well...I find that by the time I get to sit down on Sunday/Monday to write these out, I have already said whatever I am going to say about football, and lord knows everything else that could have been said has been.  So...I doubt I spend too much time on football in this week's musings, but I will rack my brain to see if anything is still kicking around in there.  Plenty to report on in volleyball, soccer and men's golf which is underway on their fall season.  And I thinking there will be a lot of random thoughts as we get into this great part of the sports season.

Football:

Well, I really came away very pleased with how this game was managed by our coaching staff.  I think all the folks for the Tigers played just about the right amount, though I suppose I could have seen Perry in there just a tad more, but that is really neither here nor there.  As for the Patton/Gabbert arrangement, I think it was OK.  I suppose I will disagree just a tad with rpt in his "bad" assessment regarding the playing time of Blaine Gabbert.  I think the assessment of the time still has to be "TBD" because his usage (in my opinion) needs to be reviewed over the entire season, not just one game.  If Gabbert plays in the next two weeks, as well as Iowa State, Baylor, kSU or any other game which potentially gets out of hand, then I will feel better about this choice.  Considering the reports coming out wihich were that Gabbert had improved considerably and needed to see the field, I assume this is what will happen.  However, if the only real action he sees is from this past week, then yes, I will mark it as bad.  I just think it is too soon to quantify it.

I am curious to read up on The Boy's stats and thoughts as to what came from the Nevada/TTech and see how effective Nevada was in stopping TTech vs. what TTech was (or was not) doing to stop (or not stop) Nevada.  Obviously I am not anticipating another 52-3 outcome, but I will be curious to see what Coach E. comes up with on the defense in search of that happy medium between aggression and effective play.  Of course, (hopefully) getting a healthy William Moore back should (hopefully) help out back there.

Volleyball:

Another weekend away for the Tigers, another two of three taken from their opponents.  They travelled down to College Park, MD and took on the home Terps on Friday night, sweeping them rather quickly 3-0.  Mizzou did not hit tremendously well in the match considering the scores of 26-24, 25-14, 25-15.  The leading hitter for the Tigers was Wendy Wang with 11 kills at around a 35 percent clip.  For the match, Maryland only had 2 more kills than errors.  They would come back on Saturday morning for the first of two matches on Saturday, and promptly fell quickly to a Kentucky squad receiving votes.  Losing 25-21, 25-15, 25-23, the Tigers hit actually just about as good as they did aginst Maryland, but could not ever put it together and Kentucky was just better in pretty much every category across the board.  Only Julianna Klein registered double-digit kills, with an impressive 16 on 36 percent hitting.

Coming back in the evening, this was an important early-season contest between the Tigers and the Red...well...whatever they are from St. Johns.  Both clubs were receiving votes nationally and seemed to be pretty evenly matched as the Tigers would FINALLY prevail in 5 sets 16-25, 28-26, 17-25, 29-27, 17-15.  That is a big win for this young squad, especially to come back from down 2-1 to do so in two VERY close sets.  Mizzou hit their worst of the weekend at just over 15 percent for the match, and turned to freshman Lauren Nuckolls for 12 big kills in a lot of action.  Klein, Hantoulli (who has hit well all season, but just does not see a lot of sets), Wang and Wilson were also in double digits for kills, and defensive specialist Caitlyn Vann provided 34 digs on the evening.

The Tigers will now cross the country and head west to Reno, NV, where they will take on Nevada on Friday evening, followed by Pepperdine and Cal-Davis on Saturday.  Pepperdine may sneak into the Top 25 by this next poll, so another important weekend of games for the Tigers before they start conference action.  The Tigers need to improve on their hitting percentage, while cutting down the service errors and working on digging a few more balls, but I am sure rpt can speak to this a bit more, and likely will during the week.

Soccer:

A split weekend for the #22 ranked Tigers as they fell to the #21 ranked Cal Bears 3-0 on Saturday before bouncing back to beat E. Washington by the same score on Sunday morning.  The Tigers got down pretty early to Cal and never could get much going, as they only put 6 shots on goal total against the Bears, while giving up two goals in the first half of action.  Leading the Tigers (as best you can say at least) was senior midfield Mo Redmond who had three of the Tiger's shots.  Kristen Andrighetto continues to ride the pine to start the game, still only seeing about 40-45 minutes per match, which does not seem like a lot of time.

Coming back on Sunday, the Tigers were able to squeeze in another game after a previous match had been cancelled.  E. Washington stepped on the pitch and the Tigers did what they needed to do, though not a real pretty first half, which finished scoreless.  In the second, frosh Kelsey Blincow got on the board for her career and for the Tigers in the 56th minute before Kristen Andrighetto would score in the 64th minute and Alysha Bonnick would salt it away in the 77th minute.  Both Andrighetto and Bonnick came off of the bench for the Tigers.

Coming up next for the soccer team will be a return home for three straight home games to finish the non-conference season.  Friday night will see the Tigers take on another SEC opponent in Vandy before they play Butler on Sunday.

Mizzou Golf:

Golf plays a short fall season and the men teed off on theirs earlier this past week out in Farmington, PA at the Rutherford Intercollegiate.  The Tigers are coming off of a last place finish in the Big XII last spring and need to see some improvement this fall to give themselves some hope this coming spring.  It appears the Tigers got off to a decent start, as they had two golfers finish in the top 10 this past week, with senior Peter Malnati finishing 6th thanks to a final round 69, and sophomore Will Hogan coming in 3rd who was up around the top of the leaderboard over all three rounds.  Overall, the Tigers finished 5th in a field comprised of mostly smaller programs.

Acclaimed freshman Jace Long saw his first action of his Tiger career and struggled a bit, especially with his +14 on the 2nd round.  He did rebound nicely to shave 10 strokes off of that for the final round before finishing 60th for the tourament.  Sophomore William Harrold would finish 29th and senior Ryne Fisher ended up in 45th to round out the participants for the Tigers, who will next hit the links on Saturday at the Wolf Run Intercollegiate in Indianapolis, IN for three days.

Random Thoughts:

• Thank you Mr. Revis for saving the day for the J-E-T-S.  Actually, their corners (him and 4th rounder Dwight Lowery) were both quite solid on the day.
• Not that I would ever wish this on folks down there, but the Saints certainly know how to win when the weather gets rough down on the Bayou.
• Upon further review and clarification, I imagine I am going to take the very unpopular view and say the penalty called against Locker of Washington was correct.  Now, I will say that I do not believe the RULE is correct, but the rule was written and APPROVED with some very specific language.  One ENTIRE SUB-SECTION was about throwing the ball in the air, which is exactly what Locker did, even switching hands to do so.  It is too bad in the end that the rule potentially decided this, but that is poor preparation by the coaches and perhaps even poorer judgement to PASS the rule to begin with.
• The Mets had their chance to almost finish the NL East, but chose to make it interesting.  At least they won the last game of the three.  They have a softer schedule coming up and still should have the advantage in this race, but as all us Mets fans know...stranger things have happened.  But Wagner appears officially done, so we take Luis Ayala as our closer...god save the Queen.
• Lot Brand X was not bad at all, as we found a pretty nice spot to settle that allowed us a good amount of space.  Awesome to see 62K for this game, really curious to see what the attendance is this coming week with the early start time and potentially sketchy weather.
• R.I.P - Frat Pit II (1:30 p.m. - 4:00 p.m. Saturday, September 6th).....morons (the frats who thought they would somehow get away with this considering I knew where they were going to set up and I live in St. Charles and was never in a fraternity.)  The walk-of-shame of all the kids out of there was really a site to behold and enjoy.
• Wow the Rams are terrible...very few other words needed...oy veh it might be an ugly season here in STL.  Listening to the post-game radio show yesterday, they buried them right then and there....and I would not be surprised if we see the Rams leaving town sooner rather than later.  Will be interesting to see the crowd for the home opener and if Giants fans can sell it out like Steeler and Pack fans did last year.  Otherwise...well...I guess I WONT see it.