Missouri's Josh Augusta is campaigning for the Piesman Trophy. Yes. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.

What's On

Let's linger on EMU for just a little bit longer. It was fun.

3 days to UGA

MUtigers.com: ‘Tiger Stripe’ Set For Saturday vs. Georgia

Ah, so they aren't openly encouraging DL's not to attack the QB...

The Trib (Blake Toppmeyer): Coaching quotables: MU staff discusses lack of sacks, preparing for Georgia

Q: What’s your level of concern with the fact that the D-line has one sack through two games? Is it pretty high, or do you like what you’re seeing from them?

[Demontie] Cross: "I like what I’ve seen. It goes hand in hand. I’ve always said, if the coverage is good for me and what I do and what I expect, the better the coverage, the more sacks and hits those guys get on the quarterback. We have to continue to do some things in the secondary to help those guys. The more pressure those guys can get, we’ll get some turnovers, as well, in the back end. Concerning? No. It’s still early enough. Sometimes you get three or four" sacks "in a game, so the fact that we’ve only got one, I thought Charles" Harris "was close to three in the first game, and it was just unfortunate we had some coverage breakdowns in that game that didn’t allow him to get a couple of those sacks. Outside of that, I think it will come.

"We’ve got to earn the right to rush the passer, and right now, we haven’t defended the run, in my opinion, well enough to earn that right to just cut it loose and go."

Post-Dispatch: Missing: Mizzou's vaunted pass rush

Gridiron Now: Where are the big plays from Missouri's defensive line?

Shipp has been an assistant coach for defenses that consistently have ranked among the top three in their respective conference in both sacks and tackles-for-loss. But while it’s true the defenses have been disruptive, it hasn’t necessarily been because of his defensive line. In Shipp’s three seasons at Arizona State, his defensive line never accounted for more than 64 percent of the team’s sack total or 58 percent of the team’s tackles for loss. Instead, a big part of the job for defensive linemen was to hold up offensive linemen to open up lanes for the linebackers to make plays.

As a comparison, Missouri’s defensive line contributed 95, 93 and 73 percent of the team’s sacks and 69, 73 and 59 percent of the team’s tackles-for-loss over the past three years. That’s a significant difference.

I'm a Piesman voter, by the way. Am I going to have to recuse myself?

KC Star: Mizzou’s Josh Augusta relishes short-yardage cameos with offense

PowerMizzou: Tuesday's Top Tigers: EMU

Post-Dispatch (BenFred): Mizzou's Augusta eyeing Piesman prize

Augusta, of course, can fill his teammates in on the specifics of his goal. He's the one pining for the Piesman. He even uploaded its picture to his Twitter profile.

"I want that," he said in a matter of fact manner after the Tigers beat Eastern Michigan last Saturday. [...]

"I’m excited about what that group, that package, what that’s going to become," Tigers coach Barry Odom said.

Augusta said he can't publicly explain the name behind the package that inserts the heaviest player on the Tigers' roster into the offensive backfield. He's happy to share his thought process when offensive coordinator Josh Heupel calls his name.

"Get as many yards as I can," he said.

He's gained three big ones so far. First came the fourth-and-one conversion he gobbled up in the Tigers' season-opening loss to West Virginia. Then came a two-yard pickup on a third-and-one against Eastern Michigan.

"He's a tank, obviously," quarterback Drew Lock said. "It's kind of fun to be able to just go under center, hand it off to the guy and know he's going to get a third-and-one for us in a big situation. He's a workhorse. He comes out in practice and we run that five to 10 times. He runs it like he does in the game."

All I can say is, I hope this Expletive Deleted Package either includes a play-action rollout to Augusta or allows him to break into the open for a 20-yard TD or something. He would absolutely be the Piesman front-runner at that point. (The Piesman ceremony, by the way, was one of my highlights of 2015. College football is becoming more NFL'ish in so many ways, and this is a concerted effort to celebrate joy. It's awesome.)

Last year's Piesman winner, by the way:

Maxey-Penton!

The Maneater: Family-driven: Penton sets high bar for Mizzou defense

Numerical

SB Nation (self-share): Arkansas has taken over for LSU as the SEC's chaos master

In the pros

MUtigers.com: #Mizzou in the NFL - Week 1