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This will get its own set of bullets: The Trib put out its First And Ten edition yesterday.

• MU stars get comfortable in the spotlight
• Getting there is half the fun (a look at the schedule)
• Star-studded Mizzou teams of earlier eras
• The ultimate defender (Willy Mo...who also gets pub from the P-D)
• Armed and dangerous (the Big 12's stud QBs)
• A twisted trip around the league (Joe Walljasper being Joe Walljasper)

Today's Braggin' Rights links:

• KC Star: MU-UI preview
• Mizzourah: MU-UI preview
• Champaign News-Gazette: Juice vs Chase
• PowerMizzou: Previewing the Illinois defense.
• Missourian: Juice starts season with a smile
• PowerMizzou: Three Tiger Keys against Illinois.

MAILBAG!!!

jeffrgoldberg asks: Outside of Maclin, Daniel and Moore, which player or position can Mizzou least afford to lose to injury? What position can Mizzou rebound most easily from injury?

This is going to surprise people, but it's Tim Barnes. The depth at center just isn't there. Barnes is head and shoulders above the guys behind him. If he goes down, I'm scared. I think they could most afford an injury at safety. No, you don't want Moore going down, but if Justin Garrett is hurt, I think Del Howard, Hardy Ricks, et al, would be okay.

The Missourian takes one last look at Derrick Washington before he attempts to prove himself.

If it's a big game, Missouri's in it.

Let's take a quick look at last night's results and share some comments...

• Wake Forest 41, Baylor 13.  Wake Forest just has the best counter-punch offense in the country.  You can get to them if you're athletic enough, but...Baylor's not athletic enough.  If they blitzed, they got burned for 10 yards, if they dropped back they got bumped for 5.  Wake Forest did whatever it wanted offensively...and only ended up with 376 total yards.  THAT's Wake Forest football.  Oh yeah, and Baylor still has a long way to go.  But they might as well just start Robert Griffin for the rest of the season.
• Iowa State 44, South Dakota State 17.  I'd be really impressed if this were D1 killer North Dakota State, but oh well.  I'll have to parse the play-by-play of this one soon, as I want to see just how telling it is that ISU only outgained SDSU 388-350.  Maybe SDSU got a ton of yards in Q4.
• Stanford 36, Oregon State 28.  Picked it.  :-)
• SEMO 35, Southwest Baptist 28 (OT).  Actually a nice comeback for SEMO from down 21-3.

The men's basketball team has finalized its schedule.  Haven't had time to digest it yet, but here it is.  And I haven't shared much about their Canada trip, so here's a link for that.  (And speaking of basketball, a moment of well-wishes to former Big 8 great Wayman Tisdale, who's struggling with cancer right now.)

Finally, some awesome reporter from the Maneater broke a volleyball story last night--Lindsey Hunter, Mizzou's all-time leading assists leader, is coming back to help the program and finish her degree.  That really can't be a bad thing.

It's Gabe's final preseason Powered Up!

Take a look at the rest of the nation's top teams and who they face this weekend. Ohio State opens with Youngstown State in the annual intra-state scrimmage. No. 1 Georgia takes the same approach facing Georgia Southern. Oklahoma faces Chattanooga, which I discovered about 20 seconds ago actually has a football team. West Virginia faces Villanova which, last time I checked, does not have Howie Long on the roster anymore. LSU welcomes Appalachian State. We found out last year that's not a cake walk, but if the Tigers are a legitimate national title contender they ought to take care of the best team in the Football-whatever it is now called-Subdivision. USC travels to Virginia, Florida hosts Hawaii and Clemson takes on Alabama in what can be considered at least viable opponents for the other teams who harbor legitimate national championship dreams.

But none of those teams has the chance to make a statement like the Tigers and the Illini. Coming out in week one on national television, against a legitimate top 25 team, and winning the game, puts an air of legitimacy on your team. Winning that game in week one would allow pollsters to look past the fact that over the next three weeks, neither Missouri or Illinois will face a team that has much right to step on the same field.

The P-D's Tom Timmermann shares similar thoughts.

Today's Illinois links:

• PowerMizzou: QB is the key
• Champaign News-Gazette: It's a battle of the QBs.
• Chicago Sun-Times: Mizzou where Illini want to be.
• College Football News: Big 12 game of the week (their pick: Mizzou 34, Illinois 27)
• Missourian: Mizzou defense looks to put squeeze on Juice
• KC Star: Juice tries to avoid--you guessed it--the squeeze.  Some puns are too easy to pass up, I guess.
• Dave Matter: going behind the numbers.
• Champaign News-Gazette: sophomore WR Brian Gamble (16 catches, 170 yards, 1 TD in '07...4 catches, 48 yards against Mizzou) and others kicked off the UI squad.

You've got to enjoy the stories about Chase Daniel being consistently "fooled and frustrated" by the Mizzou defense.  Guess that could be seen as a warning sign about Mizzou's offense, but...no.

Preseason hype: fans say bring it on.

Remember all that attention we were hoping Corby Jones would get in '98 or Brad Smith in '04?  Chase Daniel's getting that...and then some.

Daniel is a business school guy who visited Warren Buffett this spring in Omaha, Neb., with some other Mizzou business students and who now exchanges e-mails with America's most celebrated investor. As anyone who has ever read a financial planning brochure or paid attention to a TV ad for a brokerage house knows, past performance is no guarantee of future success. (For example: Ford. Or Nebraska.) The retail value of Mizzou's 12-2 season in 2007 is zero in 2008 dollars.

"Every single year is different,'' Daniel said. "You look at all the questions that need to be answered. It's all about camaraderie and how this team is going to gel in the heat of battle. I don't think you can really answer any of these questions until you go out on the field.

"This year compared to last year, media people like to say we have more of a question mark on the offensive line, but if you look at the guys coming in, it's just how you're going to gel and how you're going to handle adversity when it strikes."

Be sure to check out Big Head's weekly picks at Mizzourah...

For those who can't make it to the SEMO or Nevada games, they're now officially on PPV, which is cool.

Finally, Mizzou's volleyball season kicks off tomorrow night in Provo at the BYU Molten Classic.  Tulane tomorrow night, Utah State and #20 BYU Saturday.  Live stats and video here.

It's Cut to the Chase time!!

Q: Four years from now, do you think you’ll recognize what this offense looks like?

A: Probably not. A lot of questions were asked at Big 12 media days about the spread evolving. Each year it’s constantly changing. If you look at the playbook we had last year and the playbook we have this year, a lot of the main things are the same. A lot of the bread and butter things are the same. But we have eight, nine, 10 different plays that Coach (Dave) Christensen comes up with, which he likes to call gadget plays. We’ll go into every game with eight, nine, 10 gadget plays and we have to remember those so there’s 100 gadget plays by the end of the year. We’re constantly building. We’ll go back to the 2005 playbook and pull out some gadget plays that we think might work, tweak the way maybe one person blocks and it’s a whole different play.

It's hard to make a more definitive statement than Jeremy Maclin did last time he was in The Dome.  But if he wanted to make an even more definitive statement this time around, I wouldn't stop him.  Either way, Maclin knows he's a marked man, and it will be interesting to see how the offense gets him the ball if he's always double-teamed (at least).

No practice reports, but...notebooks!

• PowerMizzou: '"Our defense plays our offense all the time, so they're used to us throwing the ball all the time. That quarterback just did a great job," Pinkel said. "I think that our defense, we were just not a very experienced defensive football team. I think some players came around. I think what was huge for us last year was Pig Brown, to have an impact player like that where a guy can go in and make impact plays, significant plays to change games. I think we have a couple guys maybe this year that have the potential to do that too in William Moore and Spoon and some other guys. Hopefully we'll play better defense from page one."'
• Dave Matter: "Freshman George White has apparently moved from linebacker to defensive tackle. He lined up No. 4 at defensive tackle behind Ziggy Hood, Terrell Resonno and Jimmy Burge."

The Trib takes a look at Elvis Fisher and his general state of readiness.

The Missourian says that "bowl game atmospheres" really don't phase Mizzou anymore.

And for those Mizzou fans who are starting to get worried about all the crazy, unlucky things that could happen in three days, fear not--so is Gary Pinkel.

Today's Illinois links: 1) The Missourian says getting embarrassed in the Rose Bowl has been a good motivator for Illinois; 2) the Champaign News-Gazette gives us a glimpse at a depth chart, and 3) the Sun-Times predicts a Juicy Sequel.  Eww.

On the basketball front...Steve Walentik takes a look at how the freshmen are doing as they prepare for their Canadian field trip.

Finally, on the basketball recruiting front...Michael Snaer must be a Rock M Nation reader.  News of his 9/6 official visit to Mizzou came out directly after I mentioned him in the Links yesterday.  Meanwhile, The Trib takes a look at this week's commit, Keith Dewitt.

Feel it?  Feel those goosebumps?  IT'S THE FIRST GAME-WEEK OFFICIAL RELEASE OF THE YEAR.  WOOOOOOOOOOO!!!

TIGER DEFENSE EXPECTED TO BE STOUT IN 2008
   The Tiger defense was young overall to begin the 2007 season, and through its 4 non-conference games to open the season, it didn’t fare all that well statistically. It allowed 435 yards and 34 points to Illinois in the season opener, and then 534 yards and 25 points at Ole Miss.
   After that point, however, Defensive Coordinator Matt Eberflus’ young pups really began to play well. After the rough start, the Tiger defense held their next 8 opponents under 400 yards of total offense – including sterling efforts against #25 Nebraska (297 total yards, 6 points) and #22 Texas Tech (380 yds., 10 pts.), which represented season-low yard and point totals for both. The defense closed the season with a bang, as well, as they shut down the high-powered offensive attack of Arkansas, holding the #25-ranked Razorbacks to 361 yards and just 7 points, one game after Arkansas scored 50 points to win at #1 LSU.
   Here’s a look at at where Mizzou ranked (and what it was allowing per game) in its first 4 games (all non-conference games), versus where it stood in Big 12-play (8 regular-season conference games only)…

And from fightingillini.com's release...

Illinois looks to defend its back-to-back Big Ten rushing titles as five of the top six rushers from a year ago return. The Illini will have a big hole to fill as single-season rushing leader Rashard Mendenhall (129.3 ypg) is now with the NFL's Pittsburgh Steelers, but quarterback Juice Williams (58.1 ypg) and last year's backup Daniel Dufrene (22.6 ypg) return. Williams broke the school record for rushing yards by a quarterback for the second consecutive year and Dufrene averaged an impressive 6.3 yards per carry, including a 100-yard game in the upset of No. 1 Ohio State. Added into the mix at running back will be redshirt freshman Troy Pollard and true freshmen Jason Ford and Mikel LeShoure.

Monday PC reports:

• PowerMizzou: "A couple of more freshmen could make their debuts soon. Pinkel said that receiver Wes Kemp will definitely see action this season and safety Kenji Jackson could still lose his redshirt. Jerrell Jackson and Michael Egnew will also play at wideout."
• Dave Matter: "Buried within a long discussion of the spread offense, Pinkel offered this interesting thought: He said if the coaching staff had been as experienced with the spread offense in 2005 as much as it is now, it would have tailored more of a West Virginia-type option attack around Brad Smith. Not sure I’ve ever heard that actually verbalized by an MU coach."  (DM's also got an updated depth chart.)
  

Jeremy Maclin: stronger, faster, quicker.  THAT should give you goosebumps.

It's Like Father, Unlike Son!

Unleash the hounds!!

So what to expect on Saturday night when No. 6 Missouri opens the 2008 season against No. 20 Illinois at 7:30 in St. Louis and on ESPN?

A Missouri defense that is not making like Simple Simon.

Defensive coordinator Matt Eberflus is ready to unleash the hounds. Adding complexity and diabolic disguise, this Missouri defense intends to not only bark, but also bite.

“With the experience that we had coming back,” Eberflus said of a defense that returns 10 of 11 starters from the Cotton Bowl victory over Arkansas, “we were able to do a little bit more during two-a-days in terms of install. Improve on our menu in terms of what we want to pull off during the course of the season.”

Translated: Missouri will blitz left when Illinois is fearful of a rush from the right. The Tigers will make it look as if a zone is open when a defender is ready to close for an interception.

That is the way the MU defense closed out last season. That is the way it plans to start this one.

“We’ve got to give our offense the ball,” said defensive end Stryker Sulak. “Our offense is great. They do things with it.”

You can catch some nice audio Pinkel/Daniel audio goodness here.  Meanwhile, Tiger Talk had itself one heckuva crowd last night.  Too bad it's at Buffalo Wild Wings--the root of all evil--this year.

Dave Matter's got his weekly Big 12 notes.

Another day, another "the skeptics are believing" column.

The Chicago Tribune has a couple Braggin' Rights-releated articles: Illinois tries to build on last year, and Daniel standing tall at QB for Mizzou (notice in the web address it has the words "Chase Daniels Misssouri Quarterback"?  Sigh...at least a copy editor caught it in the article, I guess).

Finally, it's not Michael Snaer, but Mizzou Basketball did get its second commit of the 2009 class yesterday: 6'10 faceup PF Keith Dewitt.  This is a pretty good get.  You hope that the second big-man in the class is a bit more of a banger, but Dewitt had offers from NC State, OU, OSU, Miami-FL, Marquette, and others, so there's nothing not to like here.  Get Michael "Now With a Fifth Star!" Snaer and the aforementioned banger, and you've got yourself a pretty damn nice class, Mike Anderson.  Steve Walentik's got more.

So the Olympics didn't end so well for Mizzou's last remaining Olympian, Linas Kleiza.  After leading Lithuania to the semis, he crapped out, scoring 0 points in 11 minutes in a semifinal loss to Spain, then putting up only 5 points in 17 minutes in a bronze medal loss to Argentina.  So Lithuania missed out on a medal, and Christian Cantwell was Mizzou's only medalist.

Meanwhile, a week out from Illinois, Dave Matter takes a look at position battles...or the closest things this team has to them.  (Hope you had fun last night, Dave.  You too, Atch.)

Great article from Mike Dearmond about a) if Mizzou is a "program", and b) how we'll know when we are.

Has Missouri again established a football program, or will the graduation of Chase Daniel, Chase Coffman and William Moore and Co. just produce another two-year flash along the lines of Corby Jones, Brock Olivo and Devin West in 1997 and 1998?

“When you get a program,” said Jack Smith, who a year ago conceived a national award-winning MU football commercial featuring running back Tony Temple, “kids are attracted to you because of your name. LSU, Ohio State and Southern Cal. Those are programs.

“We’re getting there.”

Smith smiled and glanced out across a practice field filled with such burgeoning talent as sophomore running back Derrick Washington, redshirt freshman offensive lineman Elvis Fisher and freshman linebacker Will Ebner.

Jack Smith wants to believe. But …

The USA Today takes on Jeremy Maclin and concludes that the sky's the limit.  How fun is it seeing a quote from John Kadlec in a national pub?

Wins = the best Heisman promotion.  Go figure.

So being that it's now the real Illinois Week, I guess we'll have some more interesting Illinois links to share than we did about three months ago.  Case in point, this Rivals.com discussion between PowerMizzou's Gabe and OrangeAndBlueNews' Jeff.

The big losses seem to be Mendenhall and Leman from last year. How does Illinois look to have replaced those guys?

JJ: Illinois will use the running back by committee approach to replacing Mendenhall. ... Senior Brit Miller moves from outside to middle linebacker to replace Leman. Miller started at middle linebacker as a true freshman and had a great spring, camp and shouldn't miss a beat in replacing Leman. He may even be better than the All-Big Ten Leman was last fall.

What would you say is Illinois' biggest strength entering the season?

JJ: The front seven on defense will be the best in recent school history (going back over 20 years) and they should be able to run the ball consistently on every team they face.

Brit Miller > J Leman, and the current Illinois front 7 > the one with Kevin Hardy and Simeon Rice.  Got it.  We're screwed.  Uh huh.

Here's a better Illinois link--it's the Post-Dispatch's Illinois season preview.  Here's Mizzou's too.  And needless to say, the P-D's on the Mizzou bandwagon.  For now.

Drew Temple's practicing.  Finally.

Boo.  More here.  And here.

Following up on rptgwb's volleyball recap from Friday night, here's the official season preview from mutigers.com.  I must say, I'm a bit more optimistic about the season after freshman Brittany Brimmage had a solid B&G game performance.  We need firepower, and if she can fill the void, Mizzou's ceiling is a lot higher.

Finally, I had to share the pain.  After reminiscing on previous earth-shatteringly horrific trips to Lawrence, I dug up the game recaps.  1997, 1999, 2003, and 2005.  You're welcome.  Ironically, the only trip to Lawrence in that bunch in which Mizzou didn't have a better team on paper was 2001...and they won.

 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.

 Mizzou's last Olympian is one more win from a medal: Linas Kleiza put up a 15 & 7 as Lithuania thumped China and moved to the semifinals.  They'll face Spain on Friday, right before the US plays Argentina.

 Practice reports!

• mutigers.com - "Senior CB Castine Bridges returned to practice after resting Tuesday, and he participated in most everything, despite donning the red injury bib still. Bridges broke up a pass intended for WR Jeremy Maclin at one point early on in 11-on-11 work. Later in the session, freshman LB Will Ebner intercepted a ball over the middle as the reserves went against each other..."
• PowerMizzou - "Chase Coffman and Danario Alexander both participated in practice with red pullovers on. They were held out of full contact drills, but both caught passes. Jared Perry is still out with a shoulder injury. Brian Coulter, whose MRI was negative according to Mizzou, was also in a pullover."
• Dave Matter (who also throws in a Jaron Baston Q&A) - "Freshman defensive end Aldon Smith practiced for the first time on Wednesday after getting clearance from the NCAA Eligibility Center on Tuesday. He lined up behind fellow freshman Marcus Malbrough on the stretch lines. It’s safe to say Smith will redshirt this season after missing the first two and a half weeks of camp."
• KC Star - "Because of injuries to Danario Alexander and Jared Perry, no position could reveal more today than receiver, where true freshmen Jarrell Jackson and Gahn McGaffie could get extra playing time."
• Post-Dispatch - "Having missed one of his main targets for a week, Chase Daniel wasted no time finding Chase Coffman during Wednesday’s practice. During 7-on-7 drills in the red zone, Daniel hit Coffman for two consecutive touchdowns, eliciting cheers from the offense. Still wearing a red jersey because of the little finger he broke two weeks ago, Coffman was held out of other drills."

 The kids, they grow up so fast...

 Here's a quick Q&A with Thurman Murman Jimmy Burge.  Meanwhile, the Missourian checks in on Wes Kemp and the P-D raves about Jerrell "Young Grasshopper" Jackson.

 MAILBAG!!!

 Finally, Ben Askren?  Still crushed.  Last time he was this down on himself was his redshirt freshman year, and he emerged from that with an eventually-unbeatable new style of wrestling.  Pretty sure he'll emerge from this in somewhat the same way, if he doesn't move on to MMA or something.  ESPN has a really nice story as well.

 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.)

 We're just a day away from Askren's medal chase...and the KC Star and Trib have a couple nice articles.  From the Trib: 

If he wanted to, Askren could have been the darling of college wrestling. Instead, he was something more complicated than that. If he had kept the wild hair, the colorful personality and the wide-open style but muzzled his urge to admit freely that no one was in his league, he would have been universally adored for giving the sport a shot of pure charisma. But, Lord, it was hard to be humble, and Askren never saw the profit in pretending to respect lesser opponents.

"It’s more important to be me than to be loved by everyone," Askren said. "Of course I could say the politically correct things everybody wants to hear, but, A, that would not be true to myself, and, B, that would be boring. I don’t want to be either of those things.

"People are too scared to break the mold of society. I’m not worried about pissing people off."

 Practice reports!

• Mutigers.com: "On the injury front, junior WR Jared Perry did not practice today after suffering a mild shoulder separation in Saturday's scrimmage. Team trainers hope to have him back before the end of the week. Senior TE Chase Coffman dressed out for the first time since having surgery last Tuesday on his broken finger, but he did not participate in contact drills, and was limited to running routes, without catching the ball."
• PowerMizzou has an approximate depth chart.
• Dave Matter has a longer version of yesterday's quick "8 freshmen will play" blog post.
• And then he puts up two practice reports (Part I, Part II) as well.  From Part II: "From my novice perspective, I thought the No. 1 offensive line held up well against the top D-line in 1-on-1 pass-rush drills, especially left tackle Elvis Fisher against Stryker Sulak. The more I see of Fisher, the less I think last week’s line shuffle was some sort of panicked shot-in-the-dark move by the staff. He’s athletic enough to keep his feet moving on the edge and has enough power to outmuscle defensive ends."
• KC Star: 'According to veteran Tigers, [eight true freshmen playing] shows just how deep the latest recruiting class is, not how desperate the team is to rush true freshmen. "What has changed is the level of talent," senior captain and wide receiver Tommy Saunders told The Star. "You see it in every class. It’s not just one or two. Every year the players who come in are better and better."'

 Which players do Mizzou's best players admire?

 Injured ankle?  No problem for Brian Coulter.

 The Post-Dispatch checks in on Wes Kemp...

 Good things happen when there's stability in the coaching staff...

 Finally...ouch.  Ian Kinsler's got himself a (sports) hernia.  Ggh...Mizzourah's got more...

 Thursday practice reports!  Dave Matter, PowerMizzou, mutigers.com, KC Star (basically just a blurb on Will Ebner).  From mutigers.com...

Off the field, the attention continues to pour in from the national media for Mizzou.  On Tuesday, QB Chase Daniel taped a couple of interview segments for ESPN shows College Football Live and for ESPN's First Take that runs on ESPN News in the mornings.  Daniel's segment for CFB Live ran Wednesday afternoon, and after the segment, show hosts Desmond Howard and Bruce Feldman had the Tigers in high cotton, as Howard predicted that Jeremy Maclin was the Big 12's best bet to win the Heisman Trophy, while Feldman said that Daniel was the best bet, and then he upped the stakes by saying that Mizzou was his pick to win the national title in 2008!  If you didn't get a chance to see the show, check out the ESPN.com website, a lot of times they will archive segments from their shows, and even if they don't have this specific segment, they have lots of great things to say about the Tigers!

It also appears that Andy Maples has a broken foot and will miss a few weeks.  That means that our two DT backups and at least one DE backup will be redshirt freshmen.  Not a bad situation when you've got experienced starters.

 More from Dave Matter here.  Lots of stuff about the vaunted 2006 Rock Bridge team, Playboy's Top 10 (football teams), and news on why the Trib's videos are at least temporarily down...

 The Missourian talks about the Van Alexander recovery plan...seriously, is there an injury that Rex "Miyagi" Sharp can't fix in one offseason?  Further case in point: another day, another Andrew Gachkar article.  Dude had a rib removed a few months ago, and he's lighting people up already.

(And if we're on a perpetual hunt for new nicknames, I saw Gachkar's is "Marilyn Manson"...you know...'cause of that whole rib removal thing...remember that rumor?)

 The Trib has a nice piece on the most unsung member of the secondary, Castine Bridges, another reason why Mizzou has the hardest-hitting secondary I've ever seen.

 Thanks to Mizzou's coaches, the Houston Cougars do not have the best LB corps in Conference USA.  And thank you to that Houston Mall carrying that lone Mizzou sweatshirt.

 Congrats to Kellen Winslow for finally getting that AD job he's always sought...

 Does Dave Matter sleep?  Along with the multiple football links above, he also cranked out a nice story on Olympic Shot Put finalist (and possibly more than that soon) Christian Cantwell.  The P-D has a story as well.

 For PowerMizzou subscribers: 1) MAILBAG!!! 2) Enter The Chamber!!  From the 'Bag...

gstrang asks: A lot has been made about how awesome Ziggy Hood has looked so far in practice. In order for Hood to have a great year though its imperative that Jaron Baston is able to take some of the pressure off of Big Ziggy. I'm not expecting him to replace the production of a Lorenzo Williams just yet but how has Baston looked so far and what type of year do you expect from him?

First off, Ziggy can have a great year without big numbers. If he's occupying two blockers all the time, he's done his job without making a tackle. I like Baston. I think he's going to be a good player. Is he going to be Zo? Certainly not right away, but to balance that out, the other three starters on the line return and theoretically they should all be better. The line as a whole, I think, will be improved, especially after what I have seen in the first couple of weeks.

 Finally, volleyball's right around the corner, baby.  With no pieces left from the 2005 Elite Eight run, Mizzou is picked preseason #5 in the Big 12.