Disclaimer: Rather than the typical bullet point analysis, this post will be a long and meandering string of thoughts I forced into prose. Hang with me here as I give you a summation of my thoughts from four rows up in the Alamodome end zone.

Having been what appears to be one of the select few of RMN regulars who made it down to San Antonio for the Alamo Bowl, there's not much that hasn't been said here that I can add. More than anything, for as disappointing as the season was, it seemed like a season of moderate disappointment was bookended in similar fashion. Missouri began the season with a shootout with a Big Ten team that was fueled by a Maclin return in the first half and Sean Weatherspoon's dominance in the second half. Substitute "shootout" with "slugfest," and you have the exact recipe of Mizzou's Alamo Bowl victory.

Before I delve too deeply into Missouri's end of the equation, I first want to send some love the way of Evanston, Ill. As the 2008 campaign progressed, I was highly enamored with the coaching jobs done by the men in charge of two of Missouri's opponents: Buffalo's Turner Gill and Oklahoma State's Mike Gundy. You can now add Pat Fitzgerald to that list. I've always loved his fire, but after last night, I now respect the man's ability. It should have come as no surprise to me how disciplined NU was defensively and how solid the unit was in pursuit and in wrapping up ballcarriers.

Secondly, I think this game swings far more in favor of Missouri had Tyrell Sutton not been able to go. Before the game, it was clear from highlights that Sutton added a different dynamic to the NU offense, one I asked Lake the Posts to try and quantify last Thursday. Between outstanding balance, great hands (despite one being in a cast), a never-ending motor, and some quick burst, Sutton proved himself as the perfect scat back for NU's style of offense.

The atmosphere at the game seemed very reflective of the attitudes of each school entering the game. The Northwestern players and fans looked absolutely thrilled to be in San Antonio, while the Missouri players and fans looked somewhat determined to redefine the word "complacency." The warmups seemed uninspired, the drills seemed rusty. As ghtd36 passed on in the game thread, the team found motivation from the one man we knew we could count on to try to light a fire: Tommy Saunders (love that kid).

More rambling after the jump.

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As mentioned yesterday afternoon Mizzou locked up a potential stud JUCO LB over the weekend, Joshua "Drederick" Tatum. He was Rivals' #40 player in the country in 2006 and committed to USC before ending up at JUCO.  If I understand correctly, he will have two years to play two.

It was an unexpected commitment, as he hadn't made a peep since his visit here a month or so ago. He spoke with Gabe at PowerMizzou last night.

Tatum said he had known for a while that Missouri was where he wanted to play, and even cancelled three other official visits. But last week, something occurred that sealed the deal.

"Coach E was up for that position at Toledo, I was thinking this might not be the place and I prayed on it," Tatum said. "Last Thursday he told me he was gonna stay at Mizzou and I could come in and be coached by him. I thought maybe that was a sign and I decided this was the place for me."

A little bit of nice PR for Matt Eberflus there as well...which is nice for him, as he's had what you would call "not a good couple of weeks"...

In other recruiting news, it's in-home visit season for the Tiger coaches, and PowerMizzou has been compiling a list of known visits.  (As if you couldn't tell, now is precisely the time to give PowerMizzou a taste if you're interested in subscribing.  The two months between end-of-season and signing day are jam-packed.)

Want more from the man we call Walljasper?  Check out the latest Trib podcast with him and Steve Walentik.

The addition of Tatum means Mizzou's in line to produce three starters from the pool of Tatum, Sean Weatherspoon, Luke Lambert, Will Ebner, Andrew Gachkar, Tyler Crane, and incoming freshmen like Andrew Wilson, Adam Burton, maybe Chris McAllister, and possibly Ronnie Wingo (who could play any of about 12 different positions).  That's not bad.  Lots of inexperience there, but lots of potential...of course, that's assuming 'Spoon comes back.  He's testing the draft waters like about 17 Mizzou juniors did last year.

Bummed out about the last two weeks of Mizzou football?  Let Jack Lengyel talk you down...

The Missourian's got a pretty neat article about Dave Christensen's trip to meet his players/boosters/fans in Laramie...he talks about the potential benefits of playing a hurry-up, no-huddle spread at 7,200 feet...hadn't really thought of that...

To basketball, where Joe Walljasper takes a look at the signs of life being emitted from Mizzou Arena.

"They were faster, longer and more aggressive than anybody we’ve seen thus far," first-year Cal Coach Mike Montgomery said.

Montgomery said Missouri was a nightmare matchup for his team because the Tigers have athletic players across the board and negated Cal’s size advantage when Leo Lyons drew the 7-foot Jordan Wilkes away from the basket. Montgomery called MU’s 20 offensive rebounds an "extraordinary" number.

...

It’s dangerous to draw too many conclusions from what happens in a nonconference home game. Missouri handled Arkansas in 2006 and Purdue in 2007 - both opponents went to the NCAA Tournament while the Tigers didn’t get a sniff of the postseason - but at least we’re seeing some encouraging signs.

Unfortunately, Cal was the most attractive nonconference opponent that will visit Mizzou Arena this season, so the Tigers might remain a well-kept secret in their own town until Big 12 play begins.

Finally...well THAT didn't take long...you knew at some point somebody would pull a "Let's profile the walk-on!" story...and the Missourian stepped to the plate.

1 - Question about coaching philosophy: Gary Pinkel and his staff have made clear over the years that their defensive philosophy is what it is, and they're going to basically blitz on every third (and fourth) down.  If they don't blitz on 4th-and-7 with 0:30 left, Todd Reesing almost certainly completes an easy 8-yard out for a first down--he was in too much of a zone not to.  If they do blitz, they either get to him and win the game, or they don't get to him and he passes to whoever Justin Garrett is attempting to cover for a TD (giving Mizzou enough time to maybe get into FG range). 

One problem: the blitz has sucked all year.  Knowing that apparently you don't have the personnel to blitz successfully, but knowing that calling a blitz is the right call philosophically...what do you do?  Stick with your philosophy and hope it finally pays off, or try something different on the biggest play of the game?

2 - How much did you drink Saturday night?

3 - What % chance does Mizzou have of beating OU this weekend?

4 - Who has bigger juevos huevos: Chase Coffman or Chuck Norris?

5 - Favorite thing you ate last week?

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I'm sure Ross will post some thoughts at some point as well, but in the meantime...

* This just wasn't the season we thought it would be.  Plain and simple.  One thing I hate doing is determining blame, so I'll leave that to others.  As a fan, all I can say is, the bounces didn't go our way in big moments this year, and while Mizzou fans should almost never be disappointed with 9-3, this was the one year where 9-3 felt like a bit of a failure.

* Of course, next week we get a chance to make everybody forget this moment by doing something amazing.  It probably won't happen, but that is a good reminder of something else: we won our second straight North title this year.  Bears mentioning.

* I don't know why our blitz hasn't worked this year, but...our blitz hasn't worked this year.  Our defensive line generates a decent pass rush, but I can't think of many times where a big blitz produced a big play.  Today was obviously no different.  Strategically, I think blitzing on 4th-and-7 was the correct aggressive play.  But it's hard to completely agree with the call since the blitz has been so ineffective.  I'd like to think our blitz gets better next year with missiles like Ebner and Gachkar getting more familiar with the defense and more involved, but...we'll see.

* I've already seen other sites saying how Mizzou "choked" this game away.  I just don't see it.  We sucked in the first half, held it together, came back in the second half, and it became a "who gets the ball last?" situation.  Todd Reesing outdueled Chase Daniel, KU played its best game of the year and won a big rivalry game at the last second...I guess I just reserve the word "choke" for more extreme situations than this.

* I can't give Todd Reesing enough credit for this effort.  He was pretty damn mediocre the last couple of times I saw him play, but he was on tonight.  What makes it more impressive is, we hit him...a lot.

* Chase Coffman = balls.  A couple of times, instead of trying to slow down once he started running, he just fell down.  He was clearly in pain...about half-speed...and he caught six balls and 2 TDs.  I'm really gonna miss the Flying Nunchuk.  Clearly he's not going to be 100% next week (for the second straight Big 12 title game), but I just hope he's healed for the bowl game...just so I get one last chance to watch him fly around.

* I wrote a lot about 2009 earlier this week, and I'm at least partially optimistic about Mizzou's chances thanks to the OL and Derrick Washington...but obviously Reesing/Briscoe/Meier (and Stuckey) will have something to say about that.

* Does this mean we can retire the gold jerseys?

I have this done already, so I may as well post the BTBS a day early.

Another week, another set of mind-blowing BTBS numbers for the Mizzou offense.  But notice this too: against Texas Tech, Nevada put up a 0.779 S&P and 26.88 EqPts.  Against Mizzou, those numbers were 0.666 S&P and 19.97 EqPts.  So while Mizzou and Tech gave up roughly the same number of actual points, Mizzou's defense performed better as a whole.  And it's performing incrementally better each week.

To the numbers we go!  And for The Beef, I'm once again bolding the key points.  You're welcome.

Notice how quickly Mizzou put this out of reach.  Less than 30% of the game was played in "close" circumstances--that's almost as low as it was against SEMO last week.  Against Mizzou, you're under such pressure to score and score early that one mistake can feel like having your serve broken by Pete Sampras--you just don't know how you're going to make up the distance you've just given up on the scoreboard.

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Behold Postgame Podcast #3!  It's an abbreviated session, as the skies opened up at the 14-minute mark.  Not that we had anything left to say at that point anyway...MizzouRobot Ridiculous Matt, you were missed...

Oh yeah, and Mizzou has scored ONE HUNDRED SEVENTY-THREE POINTS IN THREE GAMES.  Just thought I'd throw that out there.

While we can maybe worry about the redshirts being torn off of a couple of Tigers, one thing's for certain: the future at LB is all sorts of bright.

Of all the young linebackers, [Will] Ebner’s already put together a few highlight-worthy tackles, showing the same flair for exploding through ball-carriers that MU coaches saw on his game film at Friendswood, Texas, High School. Once the pads came on during preseason camp, Ebner (6-1, 230) convinced the coaches he was ready to contribute.

"He was striking people," MU Coach Gary Pinkel said. "Some people when they hit, they jolt a player. Other players, when they hit, they go through the player. It’s a different type of explosion. He’s one of those guys he snaps you when you hits you."

Just ask SEMO running back Robert Watley, whom Ebner smoked a yard behind the line of scrimmage in the third quarter. Ebner later dropped him for a 5-yard loss in the fourth quarter, then hurried quarterback Matt Scheible into a poor throw that was deflected.

The Missourian has a similar take.

Of course, the LB present is not too shabby either.

Nevada Links!

• Powermizzou: Three Tiger keys to victory
• Dave Matter: Checking in on the Wolfpack (a discussion with a Reno Gazette-Journal writer).  "Yes, Nevada can be effective throwing the ball, but they don’t have the kind of passing attack that’s going to make a defensive coordinator sweat bullets. Last season they were good at big plays (only Oklahoma had more plays of 25 yards or more) but the efficiency was an issue (about 53 percent completion). At least so far this year they seem more intent on a ball-control passing game. Marko Mitchell is off to a good start and could play on Sundays."
• Reno Gazette-Journal: Pack will have its hands full with Chase Daniel.  Yes, yes they will.

Tommy Saunders: Awesome.

The KC Star takes a look at the Mizzou secondary and the improvements that need to (and probably will) be made.

The Big 12: the ultimate passer's conference.

Finally, Steve Walentik has a nice write-up on JT Tiller's upcoming third year in a Mizzou basketball uniform.

"I guess you guys are blind because I’ve always loved him," freshman Kimmie English said when asked about Tiller. "But I guess with Keon here, he had to be in his shadow."

No more.

Tiller, always a favorite of Anderson’s because of his intensity and never-slow-down determination, is sure to get first shot at stepping into Lawrence’s spot at the Tigers’ top shooting guard.

The P-D's Vahe Gregorian talks a little Mizzou basketball as well.

So...does anybody really feel a great desire to dive into the intricacies of the BTBS stats for a 52-3 win that could have been 100-3 with the starters in?  I thought not.  But there are a few things I have to point out.

Almost Perfect

After the jump, you can check out my BTBS "box score" table for the SEMO game.  In it, be sure to check out the 'close-game' stats.

• Mizzou ran 17 plays while the game was 'close' (i.e. within two possessions). 
  
• Of those 17, 15 were successful.
• Those 17 plays resulted in 17.25 EqPts.
• Anything over a 45% success rate is solid.  Mizzou's close-game success rate was 88.2%.
• Anything over a 0.50 PPP is solid.  Mizzou's close-game PPP was 1.01.
• Adding those together, anything over about a 0.950 S&P is solid.  Mizzou's close-game S&P was 1.897.
• Looking back at my 2007 stats, only one offensive performance can top Mizzou's near-perfection here: Florida put up a 92.3% close-game success rate, 1.40 close-game PPP, and 2.321 close-game S&P versus Western Kentucky last year.  F---ing Tim Tebow...always getting in Chase Daniel's way on the greatness scale...

QBs

For the game, Mizzou QBs put up the following numbers...

Chase Daniel

Passing: 88.2% / 1.07 PPP / 1.949 S&P
TOTAL: 80.6% / 0.90 PPP / 1.706 S&P

Chase Patton

Passing: 75.0% / 0.37 PPP / 1.121 S&P
TOTAL: 75.0% / 0.57 PPP / 1.321 S&P

Blaine Gabbert

Passing: 22.2% / 0.06 PPP / 0.280 S&P
TOTAL: 40.9% / 0.18 PPP / 0.589 S&P

Now...anybody who watched the game knows that Gabbert struggled more than Daniel and Patton.  But slack should be cut toward him due simply to the personnel on the field...especially on the last drive, when he was handing to Shaun Scott (who actually looked decent) and Tyrone Reece (who didn't).  In all, though, I do think it was good for Gabbert to get out the butterflies against SEMO.  Hopefully he'll get some snaps against Nevada, Buffalo, and one or two conference opponents as well.  Redshirt's off--might as well take advantage of it.

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Here are some of the better SEMO wrap-up links from the weekend...

• The Trib: No doubt about it
• KC Star: Mizzou smacks SEMO
• Mizzourah: Day after reflections
• SE Missourian: Southeast fans soak up atmosphere in Columbia
• SE Missourian: Check in hand, Redhawks turn attention to OVC

And some Blaine Gabbert links...

• The Trib: A Missouri Compromise with an eye on future
• Post-Dispatch: Gabbert meets goal of playing this year
• Missourian: MU reserve QBs show promise

And on to Nevada we go...

• Nevada Appeal: Starting RB Luke Lippincott out for season with a torn ACL
• Reno Gazette-Journal: The Monday Review
• Reno Gazette-Journal: Strange game indeed

Dave Matter empties the notebook...

• Gabbert wasn’t the only newcomer to see the field for the first time Saturday night. Freshman safety Kenji Jackson and left tackle Dan Hoch also made their MU debuts against SEMO. Jackson played on the kickoff unit and got significant reps at safety in the second half. Hoch replaced Elvis Fisher in the fourth quarter. Ten freshmen have already seen the field for MU this season, twice as many as Pinkel has played in one season in his previous seven years at MU.

The most impressive freshmen were undoubtedly receiver Jerrell Jackson, who caught a team-best six passes for 70 yards, and linebacker Will Ebner, who had 5 ½ tackles, including two behind the line of scrimmage. A couple nice recruiting finds for Pinkel’s staff.

• Speaking of Ebner, the linebacker corps of the future was on display for most of the second half. Ebner, Andrew Gachkar and Luke Lambert are going to make a lot of tackles over the next three to four years. The Men of Stec might be the most promising position group on the team.

Seriously...the LBs looked sooooo goooooood on Saturday.

The Missourian takes a nice look at the continued Aaron O'Neal tributes, as does the Post-Dispatch.

The Missourian also looks at one of the negatives from the weekend: parking.  Early reviews on Lot X?  Not great.

To basketball recruiting: Michael Snaer did not commit to Mizzou this weekend, but apparently Mizzou set the bar pretty high.  The crowd at Mizzou Arena for the Saturday afternoon scrimmage was quite large, which is good to hear.  The KC Star has a bit more about the scrimmage crowd.

Finally, to volleyball...Mizzou is getting quite battle-tested, quite quickly...after two four-setters and a five-setter last weekend, Mizzou moved to 4-2 by taking St. John's in five on Saturday in a match that included 59 ties.  Strange.  Next up is another trip out west...they begin play in the Nevada AT&T Invitational on Friday.

We're back with Week Two of the Postgame Podcast.  This time with twice the content!  Listen to rptgwb, The Beef, Uribe Auction, and me talk about Mizzou's take-the-foot-off-the-gas-25-minutes-in 52-3 win over SEMO!