With so few question marks for 2008 outside the punting game, I've found myself looking toward the slightly-more-distant future (i.e. 2009, 2010, etc.) quite a bit.  And I'm asking an unanswerable question a lot--what are the odds that Mizzou can sustain a high level after 2008?  This was covered a bit during my discussion with the Trib's Dave Matter, and it continues to rotate around in my obsessive brain.

I had a theory a while back--and I never had the time/non-laziness to prove or disprove it--that building a sustained power is cyclical.  And few programs from the mid-level of D1 (that would include, historically, us) have the resources, length of rope, or luck involved to actually crack through to the upper echelon and stay there.  Think about how many not-historically-successful programs have emerged and threatened to break into that USC/Ohio State/Florida/Oklahoma/etc level over the past 10-15 years.  There's Virginia Tech, and then there's...well...that's it.  I guess you could count Kansas State (though they've obviously taken about 8 steps backwards in recent years), and I guess you could maybe count West Virginia or Louisville if you really wanted to, but only VT and K-State have cracked that Top 10 echelon in more than one recruiting cycle (meaning, the 4-5 years that a special, 'breakthrough' class of players attends a school) under the same coach (or branch of the coaching tree), and only VT is still there (I guess).  Otherwise, that's about it.

It's not at all uncommon to see schools experience a 1-2 year "nouveau riche" breakthrough and then plummet back to earth.  There are a number of reasons this could happen.  Oregon State exploded for double-digit wins and a Fiesta Bowl birth in the early-'00s, then their coach (globetrotter Dennis Erickson) leaves for a better job.  Kansas did the same in the mid-'90s, and their coach (good ol' Glen Mason) left for a marginally better job.  When the breakthrough coach leaves, you roll the dice again, and you likely land back in the middle when all is said and done.

The other way a program falls back to where they were before is when one class or group of players (usually landed early in a coach's tenure during his 'recruiting grace period', where results on the field don't matter--only the promise of great things down the line) cycles through the program, excels as juniors and seniors, and then vanishes into the night, leaving a fanbase to the realization that recruiting hasn't gone quite as well in proceeding years.  Look no further than Columbia for that one--the Corby Jones-led Tigers climbed the ladder in '97 and '98, and every Missouri fan in the world thought the "sleeping giant" had awoken.  And then Jim Dougherty/Kirk Farmer and DeVaughn Black/Zain Gilmore took over for Corby and Devin West, and we were back in the land of 4-7 records in no time.  Look also to Champaign, where the Fighting Illini went from 2001 Big Ten Champs to 2002 Has Beens in the blink of an eye.  The landing's usually pretty bumpy if you haven't been able to sustain your recruiting edge.

Honestly, it seems that the only way a program can jump to the upper echelon and stay there is in cycles.  You recruit some kids who believe in what you can bring them, they succeed as upper-classmen, you parlay that success into higher-caliber recruits, you endure a down(ish) year or two when the last class cycles through and the high-upside youngsters are cutting their teeth, then you achieve even higher heights when those kids are upper-classmen...which leads to higher-caliber recruits, smaller down-periods, higher upside, etc.  Sounds great, but honestly it just doesn't happen very often.  Again, the list after Virginia Tech and K-state is pretty much nonexistent...and even then, Tech hasn't gotten back to a Title Game like they did in the Michael Vick years (though I guess they, like about 23 others teams, came relatively close last year), and K-State fell off of the relevance map as soon as Bill Snyder retired (actually, about a year or two before that--his recruiting had plummeted, and the writing was on the wall).

Which brings us to the question of the day: is Missouri capable of revisiting this level of success rather soon (assuming 2008 goes well...knock on wood), or will the fall from Top Ten Land be as swift and succinct as the post-Corby fall was when Chase Daniel exits Dan Devine Pavilion for the last time?

As a whole, Gary Pinkel has followed pretty closely to the Frank Beamer and Bill Snyder timetables.

Bill Snyder's first seven years

1989 - 1-10
1990 - 5-6
1991 - 7-4 (moving 3-year average of wins: 4.3)
1992 - 5-6 (moving 3-year avg: 5.7)
1993 - 9-2-1 (moving 3-year avg: 7.0)
1994 - 9-3 (moving 3-year avg: 7.7)
1995 - 10-2 (moving 3-year avg: 9.3)

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Watch the Cotton Bowl in its entirety!

Still pissed at OU for that whole, you know, "Wrecking Mizzou's only shot at a national title" thing?  Check out this year's Fiesta Bowl.  In its entirety.

Still REALLY pissed at OU?  How about last year's Fiesta Bowl.  In its entirety...

...or maybe just the highlights.

STILL pissed?  Well...I can't help you.  And Natalie doesn't care...

God bless the Internets, and god bless Hulu.

Alright everyone, being that I did not get to write much on Sunday in preparation for the early morning posting, this set of Musings may be a little shorter.  I know...I know, I always say that, but this time I mean it...probably.  Another couple of sports finish up for the Tigers, with gymnastics and tennis getting the books closed on them.  Much has been made of the atrocious weekend Mizzou baseball had, so I probably wont cover that all too much.  Anyway, for the sake of time and my day, let's get to it.

Click 'Full Story' for musings.

To piggyback off of rptgwb's comments yesterday, I thought I'd share my own B&G Game thoughts...and a few links...

Quick version: No injuries + record attendance = success.

Long version: I'm not going to go into too much depth regarding what was basically the first half of a large scrimmage...

QB

Chase Daniel was Chase Daniel.  He made one mistake (apparently just about his first mistake of the spring) in underthrowing the long sideline pass that Hardy Ricks picked off.  Otherwise, he was pretty much boringly efficient.  Chase Patton?  Considering he was going against the #1 defense and being protected by the #2 offensive line, he looked strong too.  Somebody on PowerMizzou suggested he would have a shot at the pros with all the physical tools at his disposal.  I disagree with that, but he's done just enough over the last 12 months for me to say that Blaine Gabbert should redshirt.  I just don't see any way that Gabbert could come in in August and immediately outplay Patton to the extent that we'd be better served in '08 with Gabbert over Patton if (god forbid) Daniel were to go down.

Oh, and Dom Grooms looked solid.  I'm not going to draw any deeper a conclusion than that, but he looked alright.

RB

I didn't get a huge look at De'Vion Moore, which was disappointing, but...yeah, the combo of Jimmy Jackson and Derrick Washington (Dermy Washingjack?) is going to be just fine this season.  WOW, did Washington look impressive on that TD run.  His biggest problem last year seemed to be mental overload--he fumbled on his first ever carry because of nerves, and then he fumbled on his only carry in the Cotton Bowl, likely due to the same cause--which, ahem, makes me think we should not give him his first ever start against Illinois (let's not risk it in a big game!).  But when he's comfortable in his surroundings, he looks electric.  Jackson, on the other hand, looks exactly like he did last year.  And that's fine by me.

WR/TE

So I was getting a Coke some time during the first half, and I stopped by the restroom...and heard an overstimulated little kid asking his dad a question a second...while it was relatively effective birth control, it was also relatively entertaining.  "Dad?"  "Yes, son?"  "Is Jimmy Jackson fast?"  "Pretty fast, yeah."  "Is he the fastest guy on the team?  "No, that's Jeremy Maclin."  "Is Maclin fast?"  "Yes."  "Is he faster than you?"  "Probably so, son."  "Does that mean he's really fast?"  "Very fast, son."

Oh yeah, and Jared Perry looked good.  And while La'Roderick Thomas didn't rip off any huge gains or anything, he looked like a WR...which is a compliment considering he's been a WR for only a couple months I guess.

OL

The only thing I noticed about the first string OL was that a couple of snaps were slightly off, but Daniel still caught them and executed the play, so I guess that's not a big deal.  Honestly, that's all I've got.  The second string OL is shaky, but that's why they're second string.

DL

I'm enough of a nerd that I was hoping mutigers.com would have the play-by-play of the scrimmage so I could see how many of Michael Keck's tied-for-second-on-the-team-in-tackles tackles were of the 'successful play' type.  I never actually noticed him making tackles, but he made nine of them...so there's that.  And Chavis and Ziggy both had TFL's.  But uhh...other than that, I didn't really notice anything there.

LB

Luke Lambert confirmed for me that if Van Alexander's not ready to roll when the season begins, we'll be just fine.  Of course, we'll still possibly have walk-ons for backups if that's the case, and that's not a happy scenario (though The Beef says Jeff Gettys at least looks the part...so we've got THAT going for us...which is nice).  And yes...you could have convinced me that 'Spoon wasn't really hurt, and the torn labrum story was fabricated.  He looked just fine.

DB

Good to see Hardy Ricks picking off Daniel, though it was a relatively easy play for a safety to make.  Either way, we've got SICK depth at DB.  We've got three starter-level CBs (Gettis, Bridges, Hobson...plus maybe a fourth in Rutland) and options at safety.  Moore was obviously out, but the two-headed Deltin Garward monster (Del Howard, Justin Garrett) appears to be three-headed with Ricks in the mix (Delty Garwarcks?).  That relieves some pressure on Gilbert Moye--he doesn't have to be great this year, he just has to continue to learn the position so that he's great in '09.

Special Teams

So wait a second...we went from having a kicker who's cyborg-level automatic on PATs and any FG under 45 yards, to one who crushes 50+ yard FGs like Mason Crosby and misses PATs?  Not sure how to comprehend that.  Oh, and I'm not at ALL comfortable with our punters.  But hey...at least we looked great on kick returns!

And now, links...

 We'll start with Friday's front-page-of-ESPN's-cfb-page Daniel/Mizzou article.  I see one of the 'conventional wisdom' points that people will use to justify ranking the 'normal' highly ranked teams over us this fall: the O-line lost a couple of key cogs.  While that's more-or-less true, the conventional wisdom needs a little more, uhh, wisdom.

The Tigers also lose two stalwarts on their offensive line with the departure of left tackle Tyler Luellen and center Adam Spieker, and lose key reserves Monte Wyrick and Chris Tipton.

Now that's just lazy.  At least ask somebody whether the loss of (WALK-ON) Chris Tipton is 'key' or not.  Spieker?  Key.  Luellen?  Key.  Wyrick?  Well...relatively key, though Madison outplayed him last year.  Tipton?  Not key.  No offense to Chris Tipton--I respect that he stuck it out as a walk-on in the program for those years--but you can't just look at a depth chart from a random point last year and decide that he was key because he was on it.  Anyhoo...

Official recap and box score.

ESPN: You can't embed ESPN videos yet (will be lovely when you can), but here's their highlight package.

From the Trib: Rising to a higher standard, What's missing are 'ifs'.  Also, a slide show, and Happy at home.  From the 'ifs' article:

There won’t be many, if any, teams in the nation that will enter next season with fewer "ifs" than Missouri. Ten starters return from the defense that neutered Arkansas in the Cotton Bowl. The key losses on offense came at positions with good depth.

...

When asked if he leaves this spring with fewer question marks than ever before at Missouri, Pinkel, who is entering his eighth season, had to work his way down the depth chart before coming up with any serious worries.

"We’re talented, but we’re really young in a lot of areas," he said. "Like our whole second-team defensive line and our whole second-team offensive line are almost all redshirt freshmen. So we’ve got to make a lot of progress there. But, overall, with starters, yes," there aren’t many questions, "except for the offensive line. We’re still tweaking that a little bit. There’s a lot more things in place right now, at least from a starter standpoint. That’s encouraging."

From the Missourian: Last year's senior players see more ahead for MU football team.

From the KC Star: Missouri displays balance in spring football game.  Also: Rucker to Atlanta? Have to love this quote:

Seniors on Missouri’s Cotton Bowl winning team received gaudy diamond and gold encrusted rings at halftime.

"Is that special looking?" MU coach Gary Pinkel said, flashing the heavy bling on his finger. "I’m not going to wear it after today."

Why?

"We’re going to get a bigger one next year," Pinkel said.

From the Post-Dispatch: Stars of the game, Big send-off for seniors, The beginning, end or something in between.

Black and gold game caps spring, B&G photo gallery.  Also: an interesting recruiting post from the message boards.

I did spend the weekend in Columbia, taking in the baseball game (or most of it) on Friday night and then the football scrimmage (almost all of it) on Saturday morning.  I saw plenty of good things, but I guess the rest of the weeken did not turn out terribly great for Mizzou.  Let's take a look at that weekend and see how we did this weekend.

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Per stltoday.com blogger Graham Watson

ESPN just released its ratings for the 2007 season of College Gameday. No. 4 Missouri vs. No. 2 Kansas at Arrowhead was the most-viewed pregame EVER, averaging 2,034,000 households. The previous high of 1,913,000 households set on Nov. 18, 2006 when No. 2 Michigan met No. 1 Ohio State

...needless to say a) I really don't like seeing this, and b) I really really really don't like seeing who else was in the car.

Word is beginning to filter down that Coach Smith passed away today after a long bout with multiple illnesses.  As someone who was in school from 1995-2000, Coach Smith and his teams obviously played a big part of my college experience, and here are some thoughts.

I will forever remember the image of Coach Smith on television from the '97 NU game, tears in his eyes.  It was something I did not understand really until this past season actually when we had such a special season.  The emotion that kind of play can elicit was something, as a 20 year old, I knew not of.  As a 30 year old, I now appreciate it.

I was there that day on the field for Coach Smith's final game, working as a member of the Athletic Department and escoring the honorary Coach for the day.  Some Mizzou fans will remember the agony that was that K-state game, when we were SO overmatched, but hung in there all the way until the famous defensive delay of game on the punt helped KSU ice the game.  In the locker room afterwards, I had said goodbye to the honorary coach, but hung around.  The emotion was still there.  Coach Smith must have known it was to be his final game....it was no way for him to leave, considering the magic he helped us capture in 1997 and 1998.  But alas, we caught no player or personnel breaks from that point on and 2001 brought about the end of his coaching career.

I grew to be friends with many of the players from that era, and remain so to this day with a couple.  My hearts go out to them as they were so devoted to the man, and rightly so.  We may all chuckle at the "Bounce Back Beat Baylor" or sledgehammering that large stone on the practice field stories, but the man came in here with honor and integrity, pledged to get us back on the map of college football, and did just that.

My thoughts, prayers and warm wishes go out to his family at this time.  He was a great Coach, but a better man in my contact with him.  I thank him for what he did for my alma mater and wish him peace.

UPDATE, 5:02pm: Hey, this is The Boy.  Below is ZouDave's 1997 NU-MU video.  Cue it up to 2:49, and you'll see the image I always see when I think of Larry.  The Beef is exactly right--we all know what happened in '99 and '00, and I don't think anybody was disputing that Larry should have been let go at that point, but the pride that drove us crazy at times near the end of his tenure was what I (and most of the state) loved most about him in '97 and '98, and never was it on display more than in early-November '97 at Faurot Field.  Rest in peace, Larry.

UPDATE, 5:59pm: Mutigers.com has posted reactions from some of Larry's former players and colleagues.

Mike Kelly, Voice of the Tigers

"Larry was an incredible person who wore his emotions on his sleeve, you always knew how he felt about in issue.  He loved his players to the ultimate degree.  He will go down as guy who helped give Missouri fans hope in a short amount of time."

Well, here it is.  After much anticipation, I've managed to squeeze the greatest football season in Mizzou history down to 8 minutes.  I have to say, I knew going in that the first song would be met with resistance but I felt it worked and ultiamtely I'm very happy with the way this turned out.  And since I do this, ultimately, for my own enjoyment first I guess that's what counts.  How's that for a pre-emptive strike against the invevitable complaints?

But forget all of that.  No matter what I did with this, it can't do justtice to how great of a season Mizzou had.  They are now the Gold Standard, pardon the pun.

As we finally officially say goodbye to 2007 football, time to share your own top moments...rank them, don't rank them...top 5, top 10, top 50...whatever you like.  Go for it.

Quite the weekend of writing for me, and I am guessing this entry will be no different.  School is not quite back in session, but the winter season most certainly is.  Lots of things to get to...so let's get to it.  If I can keep this under 2,000 words, I will have done something.

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Via Clone Chronicles, I find this note from Phil Steele (PDF file) about 2007's toughest schedules.

Missouri went 12-2 against the #15 toughest schedule in the country in 2007 (#3 toughest in the Big 12) and put up strong defensive numbers despite playing against the #10 toughest slate of Pass Offenses and the #5 toughest slate of Scoring Offenses.

Just thought I'd share.