So I hear Media Day was a little bit of a zoo yesterday...weird...can't imagine why. As always, mutigers.com's got the quotes, and Inside Mizzou, PowerMizzou, Graham Watson's blog, and Dave Matter's blog all have more info.
The big news at this point, other than the whole "being #1" thing, is the fact that Chase Coffman's questionable with ankle issues. He'll be in a boot till Wednesday, and then they'll see what happens. I think we all assume he'll play, but I guess you never know. It'll kinda hurt if he doesn't...what with the 10 catches for 100 yards he had in Norman earlier in the year.
Here's your Big 12 Championship official release with lots of good info.
Matter also has a ton of interesting info in his Late Night Ramblings...including this:
There’s a couple job openings at schools that could have — or should have — MU offensive coordinator Dave Christensen on their radar: Southern Miss, SMU, Northern Illinois, Kent State, perhaps even BCS schools Duke, Georgia Tech, Baylor or Washington State, though that one might be tricky considering the OCDC is a former Washington Husky. (For those not down with the lingo, that would be Offensive Coordinator Dave Christensen.)
Here’s one that might be a good match: Colorado State. That’s a place and a conference (the Mountain West) where I think Christensen could thrive with his spread offense. Not that I’m kicking the OCDC out the door, but he’s certainly built an impressive head-coaching profile this season. For a guy who’s been a Division I-A assistant coach for 18 seasons (two at Washington, nine at Toledo, seven at Missouri), I think he’s reached the point in his career where he can manage his own program. I only bring this up because I’m asked about it a lot. But I know Dave and his family are happy here — and how couldn’t he be running this offense? — but I can’t see why he wouldn’t make a strong head-coaching candidate somewhere else.
Mike Anderson's very happy for Mizzou Football, by the way...
So OU is playing the role of spoiler somehow. OU. Against Mizzou. And I've read the "conference championship games hurt Big 12" stories before, but needless to say this is the first time it's affected Mizzou in any way. Bob Stoops, who's been burned by the championship game before (sort of...OU lost to KSU in 2003, but they made the BCS title game anyway), says every major conference should have one. Graham Watson, on the other hand, wonders if anybody should have one.
God bless Lorenzo Williams...
With No. 1 Missouri as prominent and popular as ever, defensive tackle Lorenzo Williams had to maintain his focus in class Monday.
"A lot of girls told me they see me on TV, so it was cool," he said.
"That can’t be all bad," a reporter said.
"No, it can’t," Williams replied. "But I got a girlfriend, so I got to ignore that kind of stuff. I got to be like, ‘Oh, OK.’"
The Post-Dispatch has more on how the campus is treating the team...
Chase Daniel (Offense) and Jeff Wolfert (Special Teams): Big 12 Players of the Week. Also, Martin Rucker: Mackey Award Finalist.
Sunday Morning QB watched MU-KU...
Of course, the Jayhawks might have had every reason to fear much worse consequences if they had pressed - their own offense was more successful when it decided to challenge Mizzou's man coverage, and one bad angle against Maclin, Temple, William Franklin, et al can be disastrous. That's what good offenses do to defensive thinking: damned if you do, damned if you don't. Kansas had to back off in part to keep itself from overrunning Temple on those dastardly shotgun traps. When it come to pressuring Chase Daniel on a consistent basis, though, Oklahoma has to be thinking, "Damned if we don't." The Sooners allowed 361 yards passing by Daniel in their win at Missouri in October, but sacked him three times and forced two interceptions that were the difference in a tight game. OU has athletes Kansas does not, able to man up on a more consistent basis. It may backfire, but such is the nature of risk - if Missouri is going to look this good offensively again, and punch its ticket to the mythical championship game in the process, the best guess is that it will have to do it under significantly more fire than it faced Saturday night.
Of course, Auston English was responsible for two of the sacks and one of the INTs...so if he doesn't play, that's an even bigger loss for OU than Coffman would be for MU...
And just because...
And on a quick non-football note, congrats to Mizzou Volleyball's Na Yang and Wendy Wang...Na was named All-Big 12 Honorable Mention, and Wendy to the All-Big 12 Freshman Team. No idea why Tatum Ailess name was nowhere to be found, though...strange...
Rest in peace, Sean Taylor, by the way...last I'd heard, he'd stabilized, but he apparently took a turn for the worst during the night.