Hmmm...I just do not see that getting old any time soon...Big XII North Champions.  Not saying it is my destination, but saying it is nice to see this team accomplish it in back to back seasons when other seasons have had the same expectation. 

At any rate, this was a REALLY busy weekend for Mizzou sports, as the winter sports are geared up and the fall sports are winding down.  Lots of stuff to cover and some random thoughts on football and NASCAR.

Football:

Thanks to DirecTV (all the more ironic since I work for a competitor),I was only able to see that last three quarters of action.  At any rate, I have not read or heard enough to know if the team knew the fate of the UT/kU game when they took the field.  In all honesty, I kind of hope they did know and were able to go out there and take care of business like they did.  Chase looked comfortable again, save for the two interceptions (one which did not count, and the one that did.  Speaking of the one that did not count, I think it is funny that a roughing the passer can negate an INT. To me, the ball is gone, it should be change of possession and 15 yards off...but that is just me).  What I hope happened this past week was that while we continued to pay lip service to the fact that Chase Coffman COULD play, we went ahead and game planned that he would not.  I am not entirely sure we did that for the kSU game, and I think it showed in the offense's efficiency.  This time around, Jones looked more than ready to step in and things clicked better.  As it pertains to Coffman, all the more reason he is the most important cog (except for Daniel) out there and why he needs to be 100 percent for the Championship game.  I will be honest, I think we can beat kU without him, but we do not likely stand a chance against any of the four from the south without him.

On defense...gosh..I wish we could just wrap up and tackle.  WAY too many shoulder tackles which do not work at this level. Saw one from Willy Mo, another from Lambert and others where I do not remember the people specifically.  Nice game by Chavis (even if the announcer could not say his name correctly) and nice to see Gettis further earn his rep as a lock-down corner with an interception.  And I am still looking for the superior effort on D. Wash's long TD run, but the more I see it, the more it just seems to be a product of the system and Washington's really wonderful vision.  He just glided around and took the correct angles which resulted in ISU guys getting naturally sealed off of him and went from there.

As for "hate" week and what-not, you will find I will probably not participate too much in it.  To me, these next two weeks are just a long two weeks without Mizzou playing, with a stop-over for the OU/TTech game next Saturday.  As for some perspective on the season and this accomplishment...maybe next week...we'll see.  I think I am of the opinion that if I do not talk about the closing of this season, it just wont end :-)

Soccer:

Not too much left to cover on this one, as it was pretty well hashed out on the pages of Rock M over this past weekend.  The ladies went right out and stomped on the throat of Evansville on a terrible Friday night with goals in the 3rd minute and the 33rd minute.  A win of 2-0, along with a 2OT thriller between Memphis and Illinois (which Illinois won) figured to have the Tigers in a good spot.  But, after a scoreless 1st half, Illinois got on the board early in the 2nd.  The Tigers fought back on a goal from freshman Mallory Stipetech and evened it at one.  They went all the way to penalty kicks (some would argue a terrible way to finish a game) and were even at 4 goals each on the 5th kick when back-up goalie and occasional field player Mallory Forst stepped up to take the kick.. She was unsuccessful, and the Tigers finished their season with another 2nd round of the NCAA tourney loss, again in 2OT (or more).

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 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.

I'd say Ian Kinsler acquitted himself decently at yesterday's All-Star marathon, with a hit, a walk, and a stolen base (plus a caught stealing) in six plate appearances, while also taking part in turning two double-plays.  (I can't believe they didn't just call another tie in that game, btw.)  If you want some good Kinsler reading material, be sure to check out SimmonsField.com...he's got a few nice links, including one from SBN's own Beyond the Box Score.

PowerMizzou continues its unit previews by taking a look at the D-Line.  I'm kinda confused by this statement:

Frankly, if there's a question mark, this is probably it.

More than the O-Line (which I believe he gave a unit ranking of 6.5, as opposed to the DL's 6)?  Really?  And punter?  Yes, the loss of Lo Williams will hurt, but Jaron Baston and the continued development of Hood/Sulak/Chavis should offset that pretty well.  I'm not saying it's the best D-Line in the country, but this is the first time I've seen someone make a pretty demonstrative statement of concern.

The P-D's Bryan Burwell has a really nice look at Will Franklin and Laurence Maroney and their participation in camps in St. Louis.

"[O]nce I started doing my camps, I started seeing how these kids looked up to me and clung to everything I was saying," Maroney said. "I could see that these kids are looking at me in a different light simply because I was a pro athlete."

When he saw those faces looking at him with that much admiration, Maroney did some hard thinking. "I asked myself, 'Well, since you clearly have their attention, what's the message that you want to get to them?'"

Eventually, the message was clear. Imagine the possibilities.

"It's good to have the cameras around," said Franklin, "but a lot of what we do is behind closed doors. You know when I was in school, I used to work for the city parks and recreation, so I know just about every gym and rec center in the city. And if there is a gym, there's a summer camp going on somewhere, and Laurence and I will on any given day do our morning workouts, then get in the car and spend a few hours at a city gym or rec center and just hang out with the kids."

The Trib's Steve Walentik says goodbye to Billy Packer.

I appreciate Packer's knowledge of the college game, which he developed over nearly five decades as a player, coach and commentator. But I often seemed to disagree with what he had to say. I thought Packer was flat wrong for ripping the selection committee for giving St. Joseph's a No. 1 seed back in 2004 and for lambasting them again two years later for including so many mid-majors. He was always seemed to be a voice for the traditional powers of college basketball, whether it be Kentucky, the ACC or the Big Ten. I remember Packer calling an NCAA Tournament contest four or five years ago and taking a shot at the NBA game then declaring minutes later that he never watched the world's best league. He always struck me as someone set in his ways and unwilling to change his perceptions, and I think that hurt him as an analyst.

Finally, be sure not to miss the 24-hour NCAA 09 review at BushLeague.tv.  Insane.  And awesome.

Dave Matter checks in on Will Franklin, who should pretty easily become the Chiefs' #2 receiver this year (pretty sure he's capable of catching more than the 20 passes Devard Darling nabbed last season).

Meanwhile, the Post-Dispatch takes a look at next year's likely Mizzou draftees.  I refuse to acknowledge that this year may be our last with Maclin and Weatherspoon, so don't even say it.

MAILBAG!!!

In it, Gabe addresses a rather interesting question--who constitutes the All-Pinkel Team?  I wholly endorse the Zack Abron pick (though obviously "Laurence Maroney" would have been a lovely answer).  Here would be my picks:

QB - Chase Daniel
RB - Zack Abron
WR - Jeremy Maclin
WR - Justin Gage
WR - Brad Smith (see what I did there?)
TE - MotherRucker
OL - Tony Palmer
OL - A.J. Ricker
OL - Rob Droege
OL - Mike Cook (always liked that guy)
OL - Aaron Crittendon (was never as good as he should have been, but he was HUUUUUGE)

DE - Brian Smith
DT - Lorenzo Williams
DT - Atiyyah Ellison (not C.J. Mosley, as I get the impression he was quite a cancer)
DE - Stryker Sulak (or maybe Xzavie)
LB - Sean Weatherspoon
LB - Marcus Bacon
LB - Sean Doyle!
S - William Moore
S - The 2004 version of Jason Simpson
CB - Honestly?  Carl Gettis
CB - And Michael Harden

K - Gotta go with the diver...Wolfert.
P - Unfortunately Vince Sebo wasn't a Pinkel guy, so...I say the 2002 version of Brock Harvey.
KR - Maclin.  Duh.
PR - Marcus James!!!  Okay, Maclin.

I didn't necessarily go with the single best at each position there...any disagreements?

Finally...did you receive an online questionnaire recently regarding your tailgating habits?  Here's why.

Well...THAT was fun. Breathless coverage of Ronnie Wingo's unofficial visit to Columbia (They're on their way to town! They're on campus right this second!) paid off with a commitment...from a completely unknown Ft. Worth defensive end, Marvin Foster. And what about Wingo? No closer to a decision. Good times.

Anyway, Foster's commitment most certainly proves one thing--this staff has not even remotely changed its recruiting style now that it has found success. Recruiting Texas sleepers has been very good for Mizzou during the Pinkel tenure, and we're not going to stop now. That sucks for recruiting rankings, but...well, there's really not a lot of room to complain seeing how we've gotten to where we've gotten.

Oh yeah, and Dustin Hopkins, Rivals' #1 kicker in the country, committed to Florida State. He was considering Mizzou, Notre Dame, and others. "I had always grown up watching Florida State and Miami games and always said that if I was offered by them that I'd be so excited." If nothing else, that proves just how long Mizzou needs to sustain its success to develop a winning reputation...and how long it takes to lose that reputation when you stop winning. FSU has won 7, 7, and 8 games the last three years (as compared to Mizzou's 12, 8, and 7), but kids are going to continue seeing Florida State as a bigger program than Mizzou for the foreseeable future.

Dave Matter has two new blog posts up, the first ranking the Big 12 WR/TE corps (among other things), the second confirming that Dominic Grooms is indeed not returning to Mizzou. Certainly not surprising at this point. While it means next to nothing for 2008, Grooms' departure means that the 2009 QB competition will be between a likely redshirt freshman (Blaine Gabbert) and a cluster of true freshmen (Blaine Dalton, and whoever else we sign in this class). I honestly expected that to be the case anyway, with or without Grooms, but that was blind speculation on my part. Heh, 2009 would not be a good time to see a series of injuries...that's for sure.

The KC Star has a quick but peppy story on new KC Chief Will Franklin and his thoughts about the upcoming Tiger season. To no one's surprise, he's quite optimistic about the program he left behind.

Switching to basketball for a second, Mizzou's #1 target for 2009, KC's Mike Dixon, calls Mizzou "almost a perfect fit", but is nowhere near being ready to commit...to Mizzou or anywhere else.

Meanwhile, with the NBA Draft tonight, the Star checks in on the two Tigers who threw their names into the draft hopper for a while, then withdrew them. Leo Lyons and Demarre Carroll both think the process helped them. They don't mention specific feedback that they received or anything (which would have been interesting to hear), but it's bumped their confidence levels up a few notches, and that can't be a bad thing.

The Trib has a lovely story on Christian Cantwell, who finally gets a chance to put the disastrous 2004 Olympic trials behind him.

Cantwell was considered the favorite at the 2004 Trials in Sacramento, Calif., having owned four of the world’s longest throws that year. At the Trials, though, Cantwell fouled on all but one of his attempts and finished fourth, ending a 14-meet winning streak that, more devastatingly, kept him from joining the American team in Athens.

...

Thoughts of Sacramento might forever burn inside his memory, but he’s made peace with that part of his legacy. Speaking candidly last week - the only way the 27-year-old knows how - he suggested that time has healed those wounds.

"I realize that the worst that can happen is I don’t make the team," he said. "That’s the worst. And that’s not too bad. I still get to compete after that and go to other meets. I have my son I get to come home and see. Sometimes in war, the worst thing that can happen to people is they die. For us, the worst thing that can happen is we don’t make the team. It’s not the end of the world.

Meanwhile, the Post-Dispatch has a story on another Mizzou thrower and Olympic hopeful, Jason Morris. Morris is a StL product and hammer thrower.

Finally...this really is awesome. It'd be even cooler if it were a school like Idaho State instead of Fresno State (FSU is established enough as a program that they didn't totally feel like an underdog...like a George Mason did in basketball), but it was extremely easy to root for Fresno...against an SEC team in particular (and not just because my Pirates drafted two different Fresno pitchers...)!