Mizzou Links, 7-24-14: Columbia produces ends, and Marvin Foster found his calling

Mizzou has produced a lot of good defensive ends, teams are racing to figure out Auburn, Marvin Foster has found his calling, and the Football Outsiders Almanac 2014 is now available!

By Bill Connelly@SBN_BillC Jul 24, 2014, 5:04am CDT

What's On

Nothing's on! Turn the TV off! You have reading to do!

FOOTBALL OUTSIDERS: SITE NEWS: Football Outsiders Almanac 2014 is Now Available!

Football Outsiders Almanac 2014 is now available for download on PDF, so just go here to buy it! If you already bought it or bought a package deal, go to the MY FO DOWNLOADS button in the top left of the site and click that to get a listing of documents for download.

Once again, there will be print copies of the book as well. They will be available through both Createspace and Amazon sometime late next week. We'll make sure everyone knows when those become available. There will not be a Kindle version. We were going to try to make one happen this year, despite the problems converting tables into Kindle, but we're just not going to have the time. Sorry.

The College Football Almanac that contains only the college content should be available on Thursday.

Football

Car Wash
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Predictions
PowerMizzou: Powered Up: Worthless Predictions

Around the SEC
SI.com: All-SEC alumni team: Peyton Manning, A.J. Green lead stacked conference at every position

3-4 defensive ends: Ray McDonald (Florida), Justin Smith (Missouri)
Second team: Fletcher Cox (Mississippi State), Sheldon Richardson (Missouri)

Kudos to the 49ers for raiding this conference. McDonald and Smith form two-thirds of the NFC West power's defensive line, and both Aldon Smith and Patrick Willis (still to come on our list) hail from the SEC as well. Cox has performed well in his two seasons with Philadelphia, while Richardson burst onto the scene last year for the Jets.

The Trib: Race is on to stop and imitate Auburn

Marshall can fake to one or both of the backs and tuck the ball, looking to throw downfield or keeping it himself and burst into some open space.

He can hand off to the back next to him, or give it to the one sprinting through from the slot.

It's the triple option, but with 5 more yards of real estate that the quarterback has to work with in order to see how the defense is reacting to it.

That's before you even get to the offensive linemen and other blockers running free in zone blocking, with seemingly a different set of assignments for all of the 1,014 plays that Auburn ran last year.

"I would call it the quadruple option, because it’s really not a triple option. Coach Malzahn just has so much going on," said Auburn defensive tackle Gabe Wright, who gets to see it every day in practice. "It could be one play I can think I’m free and someone’s coming to blindside me. Then one play I’m thinking someone’s coming to blindside me, but he’ll roll around me and Nick takes off behind him."

The Trib (Behind the Stripes): Returning Defenses in the SEC: Ole Miss, Mississippi State top the list

Oh man, this is good
Mizzou Magazine: Foster’s Home

Marvin Foster is no stranger to injury. During his college football career, he tore a pectoral muscle, two anterior cruciate ligaments and a biceps tendon.

The latter, suffered Nov. 2, 2013, against Tennessee, stung the 300-pound defensive tackle a bit more than the others. It effectively ended his playing days at Mizzou.

"Things happen for a reason," says Foster, who is now pursuing a master’s degree in health administration. "Those injuries allowed me to see my real reason for being here — to make something of myself off the football field."

The "something" Foster works toward is a career as a nursing home director, an uncommon goal among gridiron alumni.

The seed was planted when, as a boy, he tagged along with his single mother to her appointments as an ultrasound technician in Fort Worth, Texas. Facility hopping and befriending the kind elderly residents showed Foster the upside of the industry.

His late grandfather Roosevelt Whittaker’s negative experience with assisted living provided the downside.

"He wanted to be independent, and he felt like people were dumping him off," Foster says. "I knew [health care] was something I should be doing, helping change it so people will want to be part of assisted living."

Mike
The Trib: TAKE TWO: Dungy's comments reaffirm Fisher is on right side of history