Donavin Newsom, nickel back? Speedy LB gives Mizzou options

What's on

The legs.

Time for Scrimmage No. 2!

Post-Dispatch: Tigers prep for second scrimmage

Missouri’s young quarterbacks and receivers stole the show in the first scrimmage, but Pinkel wants to see more a more polished passing attack on Thursday.

"Our whole passing game, we’re inconsistent," he said.  We’ve got a lot of young players, but it doesn’t matter. The whole thing is you get to the point where you don’t beat yourself. You don’t have poor routes. You don’t have poor throws. You don’t drop the football. There’s so many ways to mess up a pass play, more so than a running play. That’s football 101. Hopefully we keep working hard and getting better. I think we’re athletic. We’ll work hard to improve. And we’re running out of time. (The season) is getting here pretty quick. And obviously you have to get better through the season."

Post-Dispatch: Speed could give Newsom bigger role at MU
PowerMizzou: The end is near

I wrote yesterday about the possibility that linebacker Donavin Newsom stays on the field more this season, instead of bringing in a true nickel back. Pinkel was asked specifically about that scenario today, and while he didn't actually answer the question, he had high praise for Newsom: "He's really, really playing well. He's a tremendous athlete. One of those guys that has never been producing the numbers that my expectation level is, just because he's such a great athlete. But he's playing a whole different level now. He's kind of were we thought he (would) be.

"He's very very athletic for his size. He's 235 pounds, but he really moves tremendously well, so you can do a lot of things with him. Put him in a position where he can make a lot of plays in our scheme. We're looking forward to seeing him hopefully have a really good year, which he's capable of. But we're seeing all the signs you usually see from guys who make that next step, the maturity and just figuring it all out."

The Trib: Augusta aims to be MU's unstoppable force

ESPN.com: Missouri Tigers position battles

Welcome, Anthony Hines

The Trib (David Morrison): MU Notes: The "Second Scrimmage Shimmy" edition

Hines has been watching practice all week but is shelved for the next two to three weeks with a foot injury he suffered in May. Pinkel said it's too early to know if Hines, who has four years to play three seasons at Missouri, can help the Tigers this year: "I don’t know. We can, legally. He’s going to be eligible. We’ll have to just kind of wait and see. That’s going to be difficult, but anything can happen. If you have injuries, anything can happen. We’ve got to get him out here and start working with him. Obviously, he’s got a little bit of an experience level different than players that come from high school."

Gabe, trolling

PowerMizzou: Powered Up: Talking Points

Every fanbase has its list. The things they've just never gotten over. So, just for fun, and because it will make people mad and then they'll talk about it, I put together my list of the ten things that stick in the craw of Mizzou fans the most. This list isn't in any order. It's just the ten with which I came up. [...]

*Sealing the Borders: ... We focus on local kids because we know them better. A lot of us have seen them play or may even know them personally. Many years ago Gary Pinkel stated some percentage of in-state players he offers that he would like to land. I want to say it was about 75%. That's reasonable perhaps, though it seems like it hasn't happened despite the fact Missouri has been better over the last ten years that at just about any point in school history. And that's the key. Missouri keeps winning. Who cares where the players grew up? [...]

* The ones that got away, football edition: I didn't want to narrow this down to one kid. Instead, the list of players that never came to Missouri that still inspire much discussion and anger among Tiger fans. Off the top of my head, we'll go with Will Compton, Chris Brooks, Ezekiel Elliott and Alex Ofodile. In my opinion, this should be a two-man discussion. It should start with John Elway, who rumor has it had Missouri in his final three, and end with Grant Wistrom. If you want to talk about kids who could have turned the program around, those might be two good ones to start with.

#MizzouMade

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