With The Boy and The Beef en route to Big D, I'm coming in off the bench for a third-string edition of the links...
Starting in the heart of the Cotton Bowl, Chase Daniel's drive to succeed is A1-material on the front page of The Dallas Morning News. The story discusses what I like to call the "Southlake money" Chase's parents were able to put behind him for his development, including his early development as a field general:
"Chase adapted so well to playing quarterback that he was the first and last I had who I allowed to change the play at the line of scrimmage," said Mr. Rose, whose own rushing records at Irving High School were broken by the Dallas Cowboys' Tyson Thompson. "He was so competitive. He hated to lose. He was a joy to coach. And he had that arm. No one should have missed that arm."
TDMN also contributes a stories on AO, Casey Dick, and Kate Hairopolous breaks this news (seriously - read the headline).
The STL P-D takes a look at something that seems to have been completely forgotten: the Mizzou running game. Vahe Gregorian looks at the controversy surrounding Darren McFadden. Lorenzo Williams spoke of his disappointment if McFadden doesn't play, but I can't altogether say I'd be too "saddened" if the Mizzou D didn't have to worry about him on Tuesday:
"We want to go against the best just to see how good we really are," said MU nose tackle Lorenzo Williams, adding that it would be "saddening" if McFadden didn't play.
The Trib begins its salute to 2007 with heavy influence from the football team. Matt Nestor lists the top 10 best sports stories of the year and guess who tops the list (and comes in at numbers two, four, five, and six, for that matter). Dave Matter examines Gary Pinkel and asks, who made the man? Matter also breaks the news that the Cotton Bowl has star power with Daniel and McFadden. Additionally, here's what's essentially a chat transcript between Matter, T-Ruck and Zo.
The Missourian looks at Dave Christensen's contributions.
The KC Star says what America is thinking: Mizzou and Kansas are playing in January? They also add another story on DC.
I scoured NWAnews.com for bulletin board material but this is the best I could do.
"No backs a lot of the time," Campbell said. "Their quarterback scares me more than anybody running the ball, much less throwing it. They present matchup problems because with everybody out wide, you've got little corners on tight ends playing wide receiver. There is a lot of matchup problem with the formation and yet obviously they have a good running game as well."
Skimming the blogs: Behind the Stripes adds another Cotton Bowl report and Tiger Tracker stirs up the "SEC vs. the world" debate.
Finally, a look at some of the other bowls:
-Wake Forest 24, UConn 10. UConn may have lost, but Larry Taylor can FLY...
-Mississippi State 10, UCF 3. Good for Sly Croom at MSU, especially after the way he got hosed at Alabama a few years back. Who called that Kevin Smith wouldn't touch the endzone?
-Penn State 24, Texas A&M 17. The Dallas Morning News' Brian Davis had this gem to describe the game:
The Valero Alamo Bowl was a fitting end to the Dennis Franchione era at Texas A&M. It was entertaining early, wildly inconsistent in the middle and ultimately a maroon-and-white heartbreaker.