So The Beef swears he won't be accidentally deleting his Monday Musings this week, but here's a quick look at the non-football sports just in case...first up, #15 Mizzou Soccer lost in OT again Friday night, this time to a mediocre Iowa State team. They bounced back to knock out Nebraska, 3-1, yesterday. I thought this was a really nice win, as Nebraska's supposed to be quite strong in soccer...only this loss moves them to 5-10-3 on the year. Guess not. Either way, Mizzou now stands 2nd in the Big 12 at 6-3-0 in conference (with all three losses coming in OT) and 12-5-0 overall. The Trib's soccer guru, Ryan Nilsson, has a nice look at Mizzou and their fitness program, while The Missourian has a feature on Bryan Blitz and his clean desk.
The other one I'll touch on is Mizzou Volleyball, which bounced back from a 3-game losing streak (all three losses coming at home to Top 15 teams) to take out Kansas in a 5-game thriller in Lawrence Saturday night. Tatum Ailes became the first player in Mizzou history to record double-digit digs in 100 career matches, and Mizzou expanded its lead in the Border War, er, Border Showdown.
Okay...on to football...
We're back to the time of the year where Sundays mean three things, in this order: 3) NFL games, 2) my fantasy team, 1) recruiting news as kids start to get home from their visits Sunday evening. This weekend we have Kip Edwards discussing his Mizzou commitment (how is this kid 2 stars with this list of offers?) and Colorado stud Bryce Givens raving about what he saw in Columbia (he also has quite a telling quote about Blaine Gabbert).
I was discussing Christmas plans with a family member last night, and I told her to take all plans with a grain of salt, as I'm pretty sure there's a 58% chance of armageddon before then...pretty sure that's what it means when Mizzou and Kansas both find themselves in the Top 10. Or maybe Mizzou really has turned the corner this time...so says the last Mizzou team to have turned the corner...
As always, Dave Matter empties the notebook on Sunday...way to manage a comparison between Vinny Testeverde and Bret Meyer, Dave...
They're a day behind the others, but The Missourian has a nice 'Pork Requiem' story of their own. KOMU had a Pig story this morning, talking about how Mizzou's lost their best defensive player and a good friend. Good friend? Uhh, he's not dead, guys...
Graham Watson plays Monday Morning QB. Meanwhile, Sunday Morning QB breaks down the BCS. I got an angry call from a good friend in OK last night after the BCS came out...his general point (edited and paraphrased): "HOW IN THE HELL COULD KANSAS BE RANKED THIS HIGH BY THE COMPUTERS AFTER PLAYING SE LOUISIANA SCHOOL FOR THE BLIND AND CHRONIC FATIGUE UNIVERSITY IN NON-CONFERENCE???" He's got a point. I guess the road wins have begun to pile up for KU now, but...yeah, still a little weird seeing them ranked higher than other undefeated teams with tougher schedules. Oh well. It'll play itself out eventually. I'd still appreciate it if they'd go ahead and lose to OSU or NU coming up...give us some margin for error...