Remember the other day, when I said that a handful of schools hog all the big-time recruits?  Well, we're getting to see that process in action.  Florida called Mizzou soft commit Sheldon Richardson the other day, relatively out-of-the-blue, and...

"I said, 'Well, yeah, of course,'" Richardson said. "It's Florida, man. I said, 'You stand a great chance.'"

So now Richardson, the top-rated defensive tackle and the fourth-best player in the 2009 class by Rivals.com, is looking at re-arranging his visit schedule to make it to Gainesville. There is no official date set, though.

Just the way it works, I guess.  He does also reaffirm that he really does like Mizzou, though, so I guess that's something...we'll see.

Also from PowerMizzou: a decent "hot board" of remaining potential recruits and when they might be coming for a visit.

It's a Dave Matter...MAILBAG!!!

Q: Dave, do you see Gahn McGaffey [sic] being a playmaker for us next year? Any chance Kemp grows into a TE? Thanks. - Brian

A: I was impressed with McGaffie's hands and elusiveness during preseason camp. If Maclin leaves, he's a guy I'd think can make plays out of the slot both running and receiving. Could be a nice returnman, too.

As for Kemp, I think he's fine at receiver, especially considering Jones and Egnew are in place at tight end. It's all semantics anyway. Of MU's three receiver spots and tight end position, all four are interchangeable and can line up anywhere on the field.

If Mizzou does manage to ink Richardson one year after landing Blaine Gabbert, they might be in the running for a third-straight recruiting season with a 5-star recruit: they're in the running for Bishop Miege's Justin McCay, and McCay's in the running for 5 stars, at least from Scout.com...

I realize we haven't moved past the inimitable Stetson Hatters yet, but it's probably time to start getting geared up for Braggin' Rights...so we'll start by visiting the fantastic YouTube channel of dbooker34 (the ZouDave of basketball, only without the funny pics and, uhh, hot sister nevermind) for highlights of the best Braggin' Rights game ever...1993.  The audio's choppy, but a) the emotion is awesome and b) god bless the Checkerdome.

Finally, The Trib's Steve Walentik takes a look at how the change in the distance of the 3-point stripe has...not really changed too much.

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...

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...

Continue reading this post »

 The Trib's Steve Walentik pulled together a nice article dealing with the football parking situation.  As I said in the Roundtable the other day, I understand why the AD did what it did, and it makes total sense...but it still really sucks to be bumped from Lot M to Lot X.  Oh well.

 Final scrimmage reports!

• PowerMizzou: "The biggest news of the day, outside of the sitting starters, may have been an injury. Chase Patton did not participate in drills. Patton has battled back problems off and on, but official word was the injury that sidelined him on Thursday was a hamstring. With the season opener just nine days away, could this change the handling of Blaine Gabbert?"
• Dave Matter: "How did Gabbert handle the promotion? About what you’d expect from a true freshman quarterback: Some good, some shaky. But he put together a few methodical series, including the lone touchdown drive of the day. He connected with Gahn McGaffie on a 40-yard rope that the freshman receiver took down to the 1-yard line. It was either a brilliant adjustment on McGaffie’s part or uncanny timing between the two because when the ball left his hand, it had interception written all over it. Gabbert also threw an interception to Trey Hobson that might have been returned for a touchdown in a live game."
• KC Star: "One question that lingers from the two-a-day period of practice concerns which unit of this team is ahead of the other. Offense, which has struggled in one-versus-one drills at times against the No. 1 defense? Or that defense, which returns 10 of 11 starters from the Cotton Bowl finale of last season? "When we play against our defense, we’re playing one of the best defenses in the country,” Christensen said. “I tell ’em: ‘When you can block these guys, then you’re going to be able be able to block the people you’re going to have to play every Saturday.’”"
• Post-Dispatch: "“Overall, I think we’re in pretty good shape,” Pinkel said about the offensive line. “I think we have really good, talented backup players that just need every minute of every practice. And that group’s got to get better, pretty much like our defense a year ago. … And, obviously, we’ve got to be pretty good starting off with whom we’re playing.”"

 With 8 days until Illinois, Missouri shifts its attention from itself to its opponents.

 The P-D has a nice, extended look at where Blaine Gabbert stands heading into Illinois Week.

 One more reason to love Doug Flutie: he loves Chase Daniel.

 Via Mizzourah, I find a nice article on how Will Franklin's doing with the Chiefs.  Answer: he's doing pretty damn well...assuming the knee injury he suffered yesterday isn't serious.

 ENTER THE CHAMBER!!

 Finally, ESPN's Tim Griffin ranks the Big 12 coaching jobs.  Pretty decent list, though my own preferences would make me flip CU and MU, along with OSU and Tech.

 As was mentioned last night, Ben Askren's first trip to the Olympics lasted two matches--he pinned Hungary's Istvan Vereb in match #1, then was dominated by Cuba's Ivan Fundora, 7-1, in match #2.  I couldn't tell how wrestling was organized, but I assumed it was something of a round robin preliminary round with three matches or something, but I guess not.  The KC Star has more.  Askren didn't take it well.

 Now to something happier...practice reports!  Danario Alexander was running routes!

• PowerMizzou: "Earl Goldsmith once again made some nice plays. He had a one-handed grab and then later snatched a near interception from Kevin Rutland. One Tiger was heard to yell, "Earl, way to save our butts!""
• Dave Matter's blog: The eight freshmen whom Pinkel identified on Monday continued to get reps with the first and second units on Tuesday. Tight end Andrew Jones worked extensively with Daniel on the first team, while Egnew was a popular target of Chase Patton and Blaine Gabbert on the second team. … Defensive end Jacquies Smith played a great deal on the second team, subbing in for redshirt freshman Michael Keck. … All three freshman receivers, Jerrell Jackson, Gahn McGaffie and Wes Kemp, were busy working with the top units. Thursday’s scrimmage will be heavy on the backups and freshmen.
• KC Star: "One of the members of the d-line came in and shoved one of our offensive linemen after the play," Fisher said. "I did the stupid thing and got involved when I shouldn’t have. It was just pushing and shoving." As he explained that, Fisher was panting from some post-practice punishment. "A thousand yards," Fisher said after running that distance.
• Post-Dispatch: "That’s all up to Rex," Missouri coach Gary Pinkel said. "Rex is just letting [Danario Alexander] do a little bit more work everytime. He’s doing fine. He’s a tremendous athlete . . . tremendously positive attitude. We’ll see. I’m not sure when he’ll be back. We said Nebraska, it would be great if we had him back by then . . . we very possibly could get him back earlier than that. That would be nice, not only for him, but certainly for our football team."

 With Olympic swimming & diving on TV, the Trib checked in with Jeff Wolfert to see if he was doing any reminiscing.  Wolfert's story somehow never gets old.

 How's Jacquies Smith feeling about playing as a true freshman?  PowerMizzou asked him.  (They also posted Tuesday's Top Tigers.)  And speaking of Q&A's, the Trib talked to Kenji (pronounced KEN-juh) Jackson.  (There's a new Trib Podcast up as well, btw.)

 And if that's not enough true freshman action for you, the Missourian caught up with Michael Egnew.  Oh yeah, and the KC Star took on Beau Brinkley.

 The Post-Dispatch, not knowing that it was True Freshman Tuesday, talked about LBs and comfortability.

 Football recruiting update: 4-star RB Knile Davis will be visiting at the end of September.

 Oh yeah: Aldon Smith was cleared to play.  One down, two to go.  Slowest.  Clearinghouse.  Ever.

 Finally, it looks like Michael Snaer's recruitment is going to take a bit longer.  (He's now got 5 stars, by the way.)