As always, we start with practice reports. From PowerMizzou...
Del Howard did a nice job in coverage against Earl Goldsmith. I have some questions about Howard's hands, but he looks to be doing well in coverage.
Hardy Ricks stood out to me, particularly in coverage against Jeremy Maclin on one rep. Ricks said he feels more comfortable at safety than he was at corner and I think he's picked things up well. I'll have an audio interview with Hardy, and a couple others as well, later this afternoon.
From The Missourian...
In Monday's practice, Chase Coffman was noticeably favoring his right hand. The pinkie finger was broken in practice last week, and Coffman has had it heavily wrapped underneath his gloves in practice ever since. The senior tight end said he was running routes in practice late last week, and got it tangled up in a teammate's jersey.
"It hurts quite a bit," Coffman said, when asked how it felt when he tried to catch balls. "It's a little bit of a distraction, but I just need to get out there and get used to it in case it isn't better by the time season starts."
From the Post-Dispatch...
With so many players returning, there are few starting spots up for grabs, but the scrimmage will also be important as the staff makes decisions on which freshmen will play and which won’t.
“You start leaning, the percentages start going higher,” [Pinkel] said. “Right now if a guy’s got a 70 percent chance of playing some as a freshman, that might go up to 90. We very rarely say you’re in. We’re starting to make those decisions and by the beginning of next week, we’ll pretty much be locked in.”
From Dave Matter...
Safety Gilbert Moye got chewed out after the play … and then again when he walked off the field rather than jog. It's obvious Moye has struggled at times the last week, and the body language isn't going to help his cause. But he doesn't have to look further than William Moore for some guidance. In fact, I wouldn't leave Moore's shadow if I were Moye.
I have a pretty good "transfer radar", and Moye's been my biggest transfer concern for a while. He was a highly-recruited Texas kid, he's stuck on the 3rd string, and he sometimes displays hints of an attitude problem. As The Beef said via e-mail yesterday, this will be a good test of Willy Mo's leadership ability. Here's to hoping it turns around for Moye, but he's certainly been having many more ups and downs than the other safeties.
Also: both Gabe and Matter mentioned that Austin Wuebbels was getting more and more snaps at 1st-string RG.
Woohoo, the videos are back!
Gary Pinkel Interview - Day 8 of Camp from Tribune Sports on Vimeo.
So it sounds like Mizzou will be utilizing every ounce of Carl Gettis' talent (and taking advantage of the fact that we're deep at CB) in 2008. Meanwhile, Willy Mo is free to roam.
The Post-Dispatch is finally back to rolling with Mizzou articles...today's is about Lorenzo Williams' growing-ever-more-capable replacement, Jaron Baston.
As was mentioned yesterday, Mizzou did in fact get a commit from PA WR Jaleel "Boo" Clark yesterday...Gabe at PowerMizzou dug up this link on him as well. He's not Marlon Brown, but he sounds like a pretty damn solid pickup for the Tigers...
Finally, I forgot to mention this yesterday, but...congrats to Mizzou's other other Olympian, Linas Kleiza...who made the game-winning 3-pointer to give Lithuania a win over Manu Ginobili's Argentina squad, the defending Olympic champs.
And speaking of Mizzou...apparently we made our presence felt on the Today Show...