Albert O was the star of the show when Mizzou players and coaches met with the media on Tuesday. Our Tashan Reed got some video.

Tight end Albert Okwuegbunam:

Tight ends coach Joe Jon Finley:

The last couple of months have certainly seen a few plot developments for the tight end from Springfield, Ill.

Okwuegbunam — Tigers fans should have this down soon: OH-kwu-AYE-boo-NAM — opened this season, his redshirt freshman year, as the Tigers’ third-string tight end. Seven games later, he’s eclipsed two veterans on the depth chart and climbed to the top line with two consecutive strong performances. In Saturday’s 68-21 victory over Idaho, Albert O, as the less courageous annunciators prefer, snagged all four passes thrown his way, including three touchdowns in the first quarter.

One issue about packing on the mass that Okwuegbunam packed on over the last year: laundry makes you nervous.

Missouri football’s newest offensive threat does not put his clothes in a dryer. He is scared they will shrink, and Albert Okwuegbunam has already pushed them to their limits.

That’s what happens when a tight end gains about 40 pounds in a year.

Okwuegbunam has basically turned into the dream redshirt story, the guy who shows up skinny and athletic, with a fillable frame, packs on an insane amount of weight in a short amount of time, and retains most or all of the athleticism that led to you offering him a scholarship in the first place. You get a few of those in each recruiting class, and you’re set.

Ok has a brother in fellow redshirt freshman Tre Williams, by the way.

Behind the scrum, defensive end Tre Williams peered over a reporter’s shoulder. The reporter was filming Okwuegbunam’s responses with his cell phone, and Williams was transfixed on the screen.

“That’s my brother,” Williams, a fellow redshirt freshman, said of the tight end.

Their friendship started last year, when both were residents of Defoe Hall on MU’s campus along with a slew of other freshman football players.

The pair is Missouri’s version of “The Odd Couple.” Okwuegbunam is soft-spoken and calculated, while Williams is bouncy and unreserved.

More from Williams, by the way:

The best possible things that can come from such an awful start to a season are a) a hot streak that b) stems from the emergence of some young, future leaders.

Between Okwuegbunam, Williams, apparent new first-string nickel back Joshuah Bledsoe, and running back Larry Rountree III, it appears (b) is on its way to being fulfilled. Now we wait to find out about (a).

Perhaps add Chris Turner to that (b) list, too.

“He plays every snap full speed,” Haley said. “It’s been important to him. He’s taken time to study, to learn the playbook.”

The freshman’s effectiveness on the field forced his coaches to find more playing time for him. The result was plugging Turner into the defensive tackle position when the team faced a third-down play.

The idea paid off. Missouri’s defense had its most efficient performance of the year when it came to getting off the field. Despite finishing without a tackle, Turner was key in forcing the Idaho offense to speed up its decisions as plays developed downfield.

Back to Rountree, who Barry Odom says “isn’t going to run out of bounds”:

Ah, this is way too many good feelings for a one-game winning streak. To tamp down the mood, let’s ask Drew Lock about, among other things, his role in the worst game in the history of sport:

More Links:

• The Mizzou-Kansas charity basketball exhibition raised nearly $2 million almost out of the blue and could create a wave of charity exhibitions, which would be the most ‘good’ thing college basketball has done in forever. There is almost literally no downside. Except, as the KC Star’s Sam Mellinger points out, the sport is so inert and unresponsive to change that it might let the opportunity slip by just because.
• The Border War revival was fun, but here’s your reminder that, for Jeremiah Tilmon, the Border War isn’t for another couple of months.
• This is pretty cool: the Missourian found a campus map from 1914. Things have changed a wee bit in 103 years.
• Mizzou Football will kick off against Florida at 11 am CT next Saturday, November 4, so Mizzou Wrestling’s dual with Illinois, scheduled to take place in Mizzou’s softball stadium, will begin at 4 pm.
• Mizzou Women’s Golf went out west and claimed third in the Las Vegas Collegiate Showdown, behind just host UNLV and San Jose State. Tiger junior Emma Allen finished tied for second in the individual competition, her fourth career top-five.