Bill will evidently have a set of Mizzou Hoops links later for everyone. So I’m going to proceed as though the Tigers’ shellacking of Wagner last night didn’t happen so you can enjoy it all later. It’s going to be a struggle for me to not talk hoops, but we’ll get through it together.

Good news!

When your football team plays well, they get awards and stuff:

On the heels of Mizzou Football's dominant 50-17 win over Tennessee last weekend, a pair of Mizzou Football standouts earned SEC weekly conference honors, announced Monday by the league office. Senior DE Marcell Frazier (Portland, Ore.) was named SEC Co-Defensive Lineman of the Week and freshman RB Larry Rountree III was named SEC Co-Freshman of the Week.

Rountree is a pretty amazing story (and a helluva fun football player to watch), he’s been a primary weapon for the offense since Damarea Crockett went out with his injury and he’s supplied as many hits as he’s taken. So it’s very nice to see him get some recognition.

Rountree continued his outstanding rookie season by running for a career-high 155 yards with one touchdown to help key Mizzou's win over Tennessee. He averaged 8.6 yards per rush on 18 attempts, and had arguably the key play of the game, when he raced 64 yards to the Tennessee eight-yardline with less than a minute left in the first half, and the game tied at 17-apiece. That gallop led to his eventual one-yard TD run with just 18 seconds left in the half, and jump started the Tigers into scoring 33 unanswered points as they pulled away in the second half.

Look, the Ish love around here has been fantastic and I couldn’t be happier for the kid. But we really should take some time to get excited about what this freshman is doing at the same time.

And Marcell Frazier has been playing better and better the last few weeks. Terry Beckner Jr does a good job of making guys around him look pretty good sometimes, but now the Tigers line have finally got all their pieces going at once and the results and far more fun to watch than the first 3-4 games of the season. So perhaps it’s time we give Barry Odom and his defense a little credit.

When Barry Odom and Josh Heupel met with the media, Odom wanted to give his defensive staff just that:

On Monday, Odom praised his defensive staff for sticking together during the early trouble. The Tigers won back to back SEC games under Odom for the first time with their victory over Tennessee last weekend, and they’ve now also held three straight opponents to fewer than 20 points. Prior to the winning streak, Odom’s teams had never held two straight opponents to fewer than 20 points.

“I’ve put a lot on all their plates,” Odom said of his defensive assistants. “Specifically after the change we made earlier in the year, all those guys had to do a little more. I’m proud of what they’ve done. … If you’re all on the same page and really working well together, then you’ve got a chance to get you an opportunity.”

Heupel noted his tight ends have helped in the run game:

Heupel said increasing the Mizzou tight ends’ involvement in run blocking has been partially responsible for MU’s success running the ball in recent weeks. The Tigers rushed for 433 yards against Tennessee, the most by an MU team since 2003.

Mizzou’s fast-paced offense requires adapting to personnel, and game plans change each week, but Heupel said he wants a strong running game to be one of Missouri’s consistent strengths from season to season.

Good lookin’ out David:

More Links:

• Daniel Jones has some notebook thoughts from Saturday
• Mizzou Women’s basketball didn’t get the start to the season they were hoping for, but they stuck inside the top 25 in the latest AP poll. It’s a drop from 16th, but they’re joined by six other SEC teams with South Carolina at 4, Mississippi State at 7, Tennessee at 13, Texas A&M at 19, and Kentucky at 25. LOADED CONFERENCE.

• I always like Pete Scantlebury, so obviously I enjoyed his open letter to Barry Odom:

Barry, I’m sorry.

I’m not going to get into the qualifiers about quality of opponents and state of their programs. Because for whatever those teams are going through, your program just steamrolled the whole damn lot of ’em, including two has-been blueblood programs in Florida and Tennessee. I probably owe amends to Josh Heupel and Drew Lock as well, but good for you for staying the course with your offense and letting that group find their feet. And, kudos to you for mixing and matching on defense until you found the right personnel, and turning guys like linebacker Terez Hall into under-the-radar stars.

Even the SEC Country staff has noticed! An admittedly jaded lot, we’ve moved you and your team up to ninth in the conference in our latest Power Poll voting.

Barry, in retrospect, your postgame speech after a big loss to Auburn looks like something that will define your career in a good way. I made fun of it, after your team didn’t beat Kentucky and fell flat in the second half against Georgia. But now, you’re getting the results you promised that night. You’re building around a young core of players, like Larry Rountree III, Hall, Tre Williams and more. You’ve got the buy-in from veterans like Lock and Emanuel Hall, guys that (likely) will be here in 2018.

If you know Pete, you know he’s a fun and cheeky guy. So this sorta fit right in with what we’re used to.