We have a long-standing rule here at Rock M Nation: win a national award, get your very own 40-comment thread, and get your own set of bullet links.  Therefore...JOHN MACKEY AWARD-WINNING CHASE COFFMAN LINKS:

• Mutigers.com: Coffman Wins John Mackey Tight End Award

  "I’m really honored by this, to win the award that says you’re the best in the nation at your position, it means a lot," said Coffman, who was in Orlando attending the show, as the guest of teammate and friend, Jeremy Maclin, who was one of three finalists for the Biletnikoff Award (tight ends aren’t invited to the show, but Maclin insisted that Coffman come with him anyway because he deserved it).

  "I’m really happy for my family and especially my Dad (Paul) who taught me so much about football," Coffman said. "I have to give a lot of credit to my coaches over the years, and definitely Coach (Bruce) Walker (MU tight end coach) and Coach Pinkel for giving me the opportunities they have at Mizzou. It’s an individual award, but it’s also something that our team earns, because it doesn’t happen without a great quarterback like Chase (Daniel) and our great playmakers like Jeremy (Maclin) and D-Wash (TB Derrick Washington) who draw attention away from me, and our offensive line which gives Chase time to make the throws. I hope everyone takes some satisfaction in knowing they helped make this happen," he said.

• Dave Matter: Coffman Captures Mackey Award
• KC Star: Coffman wins top tight end award
  

Wow...Dave Matter just joined the mailbag fray, and his first one is a friggin' doozy...in fact, that's right..I think it deserves the graphic...

MAILBAG!!!!

Q: Without Maclin and Coffman next year, will we have a respectable receiving corps? And what do you think about Glazer and Dalton competing with Gabbert at QB? — Roy Johnson

A: Covered the receivers question earlier. There’s not one developed No. 1 option right now. Danario Alexander would be the closest example, but I think he needs a full offseason to get back to where he was before the knee surgeries. If he can get back to where he was before the 2007 season — when he was no less impressive than Maclin in practice, it not more — than he’s the obvious No. 1 weapon. Jared Perry and Andrew Jones can be productive options, but I’d say MU needs significant production out of three or four among Jerrell Jackson, Gahn McGaffie, Wes Kemp, Mike Egnew and Rolandis Woodland.
As for the quarterbacks, I don’t think it’s fair to speculate or evaluate their potential until they’re on campus practicing side by side. Anything else would be premature and wasteful guesswork.

Journalism Bowl Alamo Bowl buzz links!

• Post-Dispatch: Gary Pinkel live from San Antonio in advance of Alamo Bowl
• The Missourian: Pinkel, Fitzgerald begin Alamo Bowl buzz
• KC Star: Northwestern coach has MU connection
• Post-Dispatch: Northwestern coach Pat Fitzgerald comes a long way fast (weird use of present tense there)
• Chicago Tribune: Northwestern braces for a big challenge vs Missouri

To basketball, where PowerMizzou submits the latest "They're having fun out there" article, the Post-Dispatch talks about the attention Mizzou isn't getting (fine by me), and The Trib's Steve Walentik talks about Mizzou's attendance problems.  Mizzou is 11th in the Big 12 in attendance so far, though I will say...I think the Lloyd Noble Center counts attendance the way the Hearnes Center did...no WAY is OU actually averaging 10,665 in attendance...

We're trying out a couple of new figures today...please try to contain your excitement...

* Field Position % = an attempt to get at the field position battle.  This basically says that there were a total of 74 plays run in opponents' field position, and Mizzou ran 63.5% of them (47) to Buffalo's 36.5% (27).

** Leverage % = the % of a team's total plays that were Non-Passing Downs.  Mizzou ran 74 total plays, and 61 of them were Non-Passing Downs.  61/74 = 82.4%.  The higher the number, the better an offense was at staying out of Passing Downs and awkward situations.

So what do these numbers tell us?  Basically the same thing that our eyes did--that Mizzou statistically dominated, but Buffalo was good at a) holding onto the ball (75 plays was more than I thought they ran...especially considering how generally unsuccessful they were) and b) ripping the ball out of Mizzou's hands.  Kenji Jackson's game-ending INT helped Mizzou in the Turnover Points Margin, but in the end turnovers kept the Fightin' Turner Gills in the game.

One thing our eyes may not have seen was just how unsuccessful Buffalo was at running the ball.  They had some success with the toss sweeps at times, but let's just say that anytime Mizzou allows a 0.400 S&P on the ground, I'll take it.  Buffalo was just good enough at passing to move the chains, but their lack of big-play potential (sans the one long TD on the double-move) killed them.  To beat Mizzou you have to a) force turnovers and b) put up as many easy points as possible.  Buffalo succeeded at (a), but not at (b), and that's why they still lost by 21.

One more thing: a 67.6% success rate is just sick.  To date, Mizzou's been both efficient and explosive.  Buffalo tackled wonderfully, and that limited Mizzou's explosiveness (even Mizzou's biggest gain--the bomb to Tommy Saunders--was shorter than it could have been because of good tackling), but they could do nothing to Mizzou's efficiency.  Efficiency was why Tim Tebow ran away with the Heisman last year, and it's why Chase Daniel is threatening to do the same (though granted, we're only one-third through the regular season).

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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!

via images.pictopia.com.edgesuite.net (Joel Kowsky, MUTigers.com)

Overflow thread for immediate reaction. Analysis to come in the form of the postgame podcast some time in the next 24 hours.

**SUNDAY MORNING UPDATE, by rptgwb: Good, Bad, and Indifferent now added after the jump. And I promise it doesn't just say "Good: Mizzou, Bad: SEMO."

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We're going to set up projections the same way we did for Illinois (I will not give SEMO the short shrift!), only to get enough of a sample size, I'm not going with SEMO, but with "FCS Tier 6", the estimated amalgamation of the worst FCS teams to play D1 opponents in 2007.  (I've explained this before, but basically I combined the 1-AA/FCS teams into six tiers and grouped their stats together thusly.)

So without further adieu...

Mizzou-SEMO Projections

Mizzou Rushing

• 2007 Mizzou Rushing Offense EqPts+: 178.77
• FCS Tier 6 Rushing Defense EqPts/Gm: 19.77
• Projection #1: 35.34
• FCS Tier 6 Rushing Defense EqPts+: 50.18
• 2007 Mizzou Rushing Offense EqPts/Gm: 16.21
• Projection #2: 32.30

Avg Projected Mizzou Rushing Output: 33.82

Adjusted for 2008: 28.00 (Pinkel doesn't run up the score)

Mizzou Passing

• 2007 Mizzou Passing Offense EqPts+: 149.55
• FCS Tier 6 Passing Defense EqPts/Gm: 17.32
• Projection #1: 25.90
  
• FCS Tier 6 Passing Defense EqPts+: 45.11
• 2007 Mizzou Passing Offense EqPts/Gm: 18.40
• Projection #2: 40.79
  

Avg Projected Mizzou Passing Output: 33.35

Adjusted for 2008: 28.00 (Pinkel doesn't run up the score)

SEMO Rushing

• FCS Tier 6 Rushing Offense EqPts+: 47.00
• 2007 Mizzou Rushing Defense EqPts/Gm: 8.29
• Projection #1: 3.90
• 2007 Mizzou Rushing Defense EqPts+: 151.97
• FCS Tier 6 Rushing Offense EqPts/Gm: 7.57
• Projection #2: 4.98

Projected SEMO Rushing Output: 4.44

Adjusted for 2008: 2.50 (I liked what I saw against Illinois)

SEMO Passing

• FCS Tier 6 Passing Offense EqPts+: 38.82
• 2007 Mizzou Passing Defense EqPts/Gm: 12.14
• Projection #1: 4.71
• 2007 Mizzou Passing Defense EqPts+: 141.07
• FCS Tier 6 Passing Offense EqPts/Gm: 4.44
• Projection #2: 3.15

Projected SEMO Passing Output: 3.93

Adjusted for 2008: 4.50 (are the troubles with Mizzou's Passing D enough to accidentally give up a long pass to SEMO at some point?)

--

Projected EqPts Score: Missouri 56.0, SEMO 7.0

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UPDATE, by rptgwb: To those who came over from Tim Griffin's blog at ESPN, this edition of the Roundtable follows up on Monday's look at what went wrong with the Mizzou pass defense.

1 - Instead of leading off by asking "Is the Mizzou pass defense fixable?" (I think most of us assume it is), I'll ask this instead: if you could make one personnel change on the defense right now, what would it be?

2 - So...if Mizzou was favored by about 10...and their defense was worse than expected...and they still won by 10...does that mean the offense is better than expected?  Discuss.

3 - Beyond "no injuries", tell me one thing you want to see from Mizzou's cupcake diet this week.

4 - So Doug doesn't feel left out with the Mizzou-centric questions...Louisiana Tech seized an early lead against Mississippi State and held them at bay the rest of the game, winning 22-14.  Do the Bulldogs have a chance to at least put a small scare into KU this week?

5 - Predictions (and margins)!  Don't worry, I won't make you come up with creative ways to predict blowouts on the five (FIVE!) Big 12 vs 1-AA games this week.

Cincinnati at Oklahoma
Texas A&M at New Mexico
Texas Tech at Nevada
Houston at Oklahoma State
Louisiana Tech at Kansas
UTEP at Texas
Kent State at Iowa State

Oh yeah, and because this is a Mizzou site...

SEMO at Mizzou.

(And props to Ridiculous Matt for holding it down in the MU-UI live thread this weekend...what % of the 300+ comments were his?  96%?  Well done.  And there's no way we don't hit 1,000 comments for the Texas game.)

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The Mizzourah/Rock M Nation Podcast is back again this week, chocked full with the shenanigans you've come to expect our two sites. This week, it's me, The Boy, and Big Head discussing the following:

• NCAA 09 Prediction for Illinois
• Chase Daniel drinking game!
• Debating the neutral site game schedules with Illinois and Kansas
• Thoughts on Juice Williams and Arrelious Benn
• Concerns about the Mizzou offense/the blueprint for beating Mizzou
• Is this the best Mizzou defense of the Pinkel era?
• A toast to Rex Sharp
• Love for the Brandon Gerau jersey
• Pimping the Rock M Nation Store and Hot Chicks with k.u.chebags

-- Don't forget to stop by iTunes and subscribe to the Mizzourah.net/RockMNation.com Podcast

The "Week of Roundtables" continues! The first edition of the Big 12 Roundtable is once again being spearheaded by Matt over at Crimson and Cream Machine.

1. There has been lots of talk this pre-season about scheduling. Colorado has arguably the strongest schedule but who do you think has the weakest and which cream puff on your teamʼs schedule do you wish wasnʼt there?

RMN: I don't think there's much question that Colorado has the toughest slate, but everyone is overlooking solid non-conference tests for Baylor and Oklahoma. The Bears will have their hands full with Wake Forest, Washington State and UConn in what could be a very rough intro to Baylor life for Art Briles. Oklahoma, after its cupcake date with Tennessee-Chattanooga, could be tested by either Cincy or TCU, and gets a front row seat to the Jake Locker experience on the road in Washington in between. Kansas State's slate would have been up with the best, but the dumping of Fresno State in favor of Montana State plummets their schedule near that conference cellar.

The weakest schedule, outside of a small argument for Kansas State, is far and away Texas Tech. Now, I'm not about to go condemning them for the schedule, as it seems most outlets ripping Tech completely ignored the extenuating circumstances. The Red Raiders slate of Eastern Washington, Nevada, SMU, and UMass should provide little to no threat to Leach and Co.

As for Missouri, I'm in the process of pretending that the Southeast Missouri State isn't going to happen. Feel free to join me.

 
2. As a whole the Big 12 has the best quarterbacks in the country. Make a case for your quarterback being one of the conferenceʼs top signal callers and tell us which other conference quarterback you would pick to replace him if you had to.

RMN: I shouldn't have to make too much of a case for Chase Booger "Great Watermelon Balls of Fury" Daniel. You can start with his Heisman invite last year. You can continue with his 62 career touchdowns, 143.82 passer rating and nearly 9,000 total yards. You can look past the stats and go on intangibles alone. You can end with the short, undervalued gunslinger from Southlake leading Mizzou to heights not seen in a generation. There's no doubt the Big 12 is stacked with a ridiculous amount of talent at the quarterback position, but in my humble yet biased opinion, the controversy starts at No. 2 behind Daniel.

Replacing Daniel is a tough task, but that has a lot to do with personal biases. Graham Harrell puts up huge numbers and has a gun of an arm, but he is neither mentally nor physically tough. Ditto for Colt McCoy. Sam Bradford is extremely efficient, but I wonder what he would do if he wasn't behind the impenetrable force known as the Sooner O-Line. I love Todd Reesing's grittiness, but, come on, this is a Missouri site - I'm NOT taking Reesing to replace Daniel. Can I cop out and make a hybrid? I'll take the leadership of Reesing, the arm of Harrell, the composure of Bradford, the legs of Texas backup John Chiles and the cojones of Stephen McGee. I just created the Tim Tebow of the Big 12.

 
More questions after the jump...

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