Yup, Chase Daniel is officially a Heisman Trophy finalist, along with Tim Tebow, Darren McFadden, and Colt Brennan. Oh, and Daniel's excited.
On Wednesday, Daniel, Pinkel and Moller were in Orlando, Fla., where tonight Daniel will find out if he, Tebow or Oregon’s Dennis Dixon will win the Davey O’Brien national quarterback award.
"It’s an award for the whole team, not just for me," Daniel said.
Martin Rucker, himself up for the Mackey Award as the country’s top tight end, caught all those passes. As did NCAA freshman all-purpose yards record-holder Jeremy Maclin. And Will Franklin, Chase Coffman, Tommy Saunders ... the list goes on and on.
Certainly Daniel’s spirited leadership has been recognized most often. Daniel was the little guy ignored — until it was too late — by the big guns of college football in his native Texas.
"He’s got that Napoleon syndrome," quarterback coach Dave Yost said. "I’m going to prove you wrong."
Time for a debate! Dave Matter and Joe Walljasper go head-to-head on the Heisman winner. Dave takes our boy Chase, while Joe's a Tebow man. Sportsline's Dennis Dodd gives UCF's Kevin Smith some love. Insert obligatory Mallrats joke here.
Via Matter, we also find out who Arkansas is currently favoring in their coaching search. Included on the list is Skip Holtz, the son of everybody's favorite ESPN cartoon character.
Big recruiting weekend coming up. Here's the latest on Will Compton, Mizzou commit Kip Edwards, and Iowa OL (and Nebraska commit) Dan Hoch.
Gary Pinkel and his Braggin' Rights counterpart are both finalists for Football Writers Association of America Coach of the Year.
So I had totally blocked out the memory of Demarre Carroll limping off the court in Berkeley, but Steve Walentik hadn't. Apparently Carroll is "day to day". Oh, and average home attendance for Mizzou basketball so far is a horrific 5,017.
Sticking with basketball for a sec...it turns out that I might have been wrong about DJ Augustin. I knew he was good, but I was a little thrown that he was the preseason Big 12 Player of the Year. Voters knew something I had failed to acknowledge--he's really stinkin' good, and so is Texas. SI's Grant Wahl has more on the 'Horns.
The Maneater writes about Mizzou Volleyball's NCAA loss to Washington, and how Wendy Wang fought through injury near the end.
Mutigers.com has posted a lovely 2008 Track & Field preview.
Finally, The Missourian has nice features on a current Mizzou wrestler (Mark Ellis) and a former one (Ben Askren).
As of Nov. 2, 2007, TheMat.com ranks Askren as the No. 8 freestyle wrestler in the country at 74 kg/163 pounds.
"We’re talking about guys that are all like him, two-time national champions; and then when you get overseas, you’re going against guys that have been sent to a training center in Russia since they were 4 years old to train," MU wrestling coach Brian Smith said. "And that’s the level you want to train for and that’s what Ben’s doing right now."
If being the best among a bunch of seasoned, ready and motivated 163-pound physical specimens isn’t challenging enough, Askren also has had to address the different style.
He’s focusing on adapting his style from the collegiate-style to the format he is training for now — freestyle wrestling,