UPDATED, 10:24am: Nebraska is not undefeated.
Well, Nebraska did a nice Mizzou impression last night in Lincoln, as Mizzou Volleyball almost pulled off a huge upset of the undefeated Huskers despite being massively outscored (it was an early-season Mizzou specialty to outscore opponents and lose). Nebraska won Games 1 and 3 by a combined 60-30, but Mizzou pulled out a 34-32 win in Game 2 and a 30-24 win in Game 4. It was 9-7 NU in Game 5 when the Huskers hit the gas one last time, winning 6 of the last 9 points and pulling out a 15-10 victory.
DAMN that would have been a nice win.
Anyway, on to football...
It's Cut to the Chase time! (That's Chase Daniel, Davey O'Brien Award Semifinalist, by the way.)
Will Franklin has only 1 catch in the last two games after catching 12 against NU and OU. You know what? I'm not all that concerned. Mizzou's the only team in the country that has five guys with 20+ catches averaging 40+ yds/game (even more impressive considering a) Danario Alexander missed 3 games, and b) Tommy Saunders has 19 catches), and the weapons--senior Franklin--will all be available when we truly need them.
Joe Walljasper must have read the Rock M Roundtable! He points out that Mizzou's success is, in a strange way, being dampened a bit by the success of Kansas.
Even though it's been made clear that Pig Brown will be replaced by a large committee of Tigers--Justin Garrett, Del Howard, Hardy Ricks, etc.--most of the attention has gone to Howard so far. He's the youngest of the bunch, and he's shows some serious flashes in limited playing time.
I think it's safe to say that Martin Rucker is a first-day draft pick right now. Call me crazy.
PowerMizzou catches up with 2008 Mizzou commit Gahn McGaffie. He's a skinny guy, but he probably has the most impressive film of any Mizzou commit I've seen so far. Dude is quick.
And some non-Mizzou thoughts...
Just as West Virginia has crept back into the national title race, Pat White snuck back into the Heisman discussion when nobody was looking. And you know what? I think it's pretty damn deserving. WV was floating in purgatory for a month after the South Florida loss, and White was hobbling around, but when healthy, he's almost every bit as exciting as Brad Smith was. They're not exactly the same--White seems faster, Smith was smoother--but both can make unbelievable plays. If only Brad had a Steve Slaton (and Noel Devine...averaging 9.4 yards a carry) in the backfield with him, huh?
DAMN it would have been nice to have won in Lincoln last night...sigh...