Around the Big XII. Part 3, Baylor

Last entry I was talking about Iowa State, a team that had a young coach that had broken a bowl drought in '09 only to fall back last season, and not a lot of hope for this year.  Today I'd like to talk about the Baylor Bears, a team with a not nearly as young coach that broke a 15 year absence with an appearance in the Texas Bowl.  The two schools share a lot in common in that they're both hard to recruit to and don't spend the money on athletics like their competition.  However, Baylor is still in Texas and that's going to give them a big leg up with the Texas kids, which is a main component of Big XII football.  Their future looks a little brighter right now.  Last year the Bears stood at 7-2 with a win over Texas before falling flat to end the year with 4 straight losses, including aa 38-14 trouncing to Missouri's favorite whipping boy, Illinois.

Head coach Art Briles is a native Texan who moved from the job at Houston to Baylor in 2008 and began the slow process of trying to make a small, private college competitive with the like of Texas, Oklahoma and the other south powers.  Probably nothing he accomplished that first year was bigger than recruiting a kid named Robert Griffin.  Griffin was a highly rated, highly sought 4 star recruit who chose the Bears over a host of better known schools.  He's turned out to be Coach Briles version of what Brad Smith was for Gary Pinkel.  A star on a team full of somewhat average players that gave them some credibility.  Frankly, I'm kind of surprised he returned this year, but it's good for Baylor as well as the rest of the Big XII.  Recruiting has since picked up and I expect them to remain competitive as long as they can hang on to Briles.

Their schedule this season is still very respectable as it will be with all conference teams with the new round robin format.  In addition to the conference games, the Bears open with a biggie, TCU at home before settling down with games against Stephen F. Austin and Rice.  Road trips to Oklahoma State and Texas A&M will certainly be tough, but they also travel to kansas and Kansas State which won't be nearly as daunting.   Their home schedule is very tough with Oklahoma, Texas, Texas Tech and Missouri coming to Waco.  The only breather there is an Oct. 8th match up with Iowa State.  It's not going to be easy for the Bears to make a second straight bowl game without a little help and an upset or two.  Right now, I'd pick them to go 2-1 in the non conference schedule, and hope for a 4-5 conference record.  The final 2 games of the season, at home against UT and Texas Tech will be critical.  They, in my opinion will have to at least win one of those games.  But regardless, the Bears are going to be fun  to watch and for some reason, those lily white cheerleaders of theirs have always been among my favorites.
Next time, we'll talk about another north team, the Kansas State Wildcats and head coach Bill Snyder.

Rumors and more random thoughts

The first day of the draft went well for 2 former Tigers as Aldon Smith was selected by San Francisco with the 7th selection and Blaine Gabbert went 3 picks later to the Jacksonville Jaguars.  That makes 5 first round picks in the last 3 years for Mizzou and should end the myth that the Tigers and Coach Gary Pinkel can't get players drafted.  Throw in some later round pickups like William Moore and free agents such as Chase Daniel and we're getting a nice representation from the black and gold.  Will it help recruiting?  I really don't see how it can't help to.  All kids want to go to the next level and think that the only thing that would stop them would be poor coaching.  That just shouldn't be a problem anymore, and next years draft should just continue the process as I believe we'll see another 4 or 5 players drafted.

As spring camp ended, there were some questions about the post spring depth chart.  A lot of fans are disappointed that we didn't see more movement from the kids of the 2010 class that included such highly regarded recruits as Lucas Vincent, Nick Demien and the wide receivers.  To me, it just shows that we had some fairly decent athletes to begin with and kids that used to come in and start as freshmen are now having to earn their way to a starting position.  Another possibility is also keeping the younger kids hungry.  I'm still going to be really surprised if we aren't hearing a lot of Hunt, Sasser and Lucas this fall.  James Franklin sits at the top for the starting QB job this fall, but that battle is far from over.  If I was going to make a prediction concerning quarterback, it would be to possibly look for Ashton Glaser to seek a transfer if he's buried 3rd on the depth chart.  The kid can play, but it just doesn't look like he's ever going to do it in CoMO.

Something happened this week that was just funny, I don't care who you are.   The new pride of the Big Ten, hick nation was booted out of the AAU this week.  Apparently, after 102 years of membership, the association of 63 top research universities finally realized what a collection of dumb fucks lived in Lincoln.  The Big Ten can no longer say that all their members belong to the AAU and I imagine some academia types aren't really happy with Jim Delaney today.   I know it probably seems petty to be getting enjoyment out of this, but I do.  I'm just that way.
Lots of news from around the new lean Big XII following spring football.  We'll start talking about that later this week.  First stop, Ames, Iowa and the Cyclones. 

Rumors and more random thoughts....

Maty Mauk

If you don't follow football recruiting, then the name Maty Mauk won't mean a darned thing to you.  However, if you're a recruiting junkie it gets your palms just a little sweaty.  For those of you that aren't held hostage to this addiction, I'll tell you a little something about Mauk.  He's a 6'2", 185 pound quarterback from Ohio who's thrown for about 13,500 yards and 151 touchdowns in his first 3 years of high school.  He's one of the top 2 or 3 quarterbacks in the country, has offers from such programs as Michigan and Notre Dame, and there's a fair chance he's going to be giving his commitment to come to CoMO in 2012.  The Tigers have landed some pretty highly ranked recruits in Missouri, including guys like Blaine Gabbert, Sheldon Richardson and Jeremy Maclin, and recently starting picking up some 4 star kids out of Texas like Tristan Holt and recent verbal, Jonathan Williams.  But Mauk would be an anomoly.  He's from Kenyon freaking Ohio, not the normal Tiger recruiting ground.  Getting Mauk would signify that the Tigers are prepared to go head to head with anyone anywhere in the country for recruits.  The places Gary Pinkel has taken this program since his arrival is truly remarkable, even if there seems to be a head scratching loss every season.

Sheldon Richardson

And speaking of quarterbacks, we will, for the first time since August 31st when Brad Smith tore up defending Big Ten champion Illinois 33-20 in the first of 6 consecutive ass kickings Pinkel's Tigers have administered to the whining Illini.  You'd have to say that although James Franklin ended the spring period strong, that it's still way to early to call him the starter this fall.  Tyler Gabbert, and junior to be Ashton Glaser both showed signs this spring that they were more than capable of leading the Tiger offense.  While all 3 struggled at times, there's one thing you need to remember, and I'm dead serious about this.  The offense won't face many defenses as strong as the one they practice against.  If Sheldon Richardson indeed makes it on campus in June to add to a defensive tackle rotation that already includes guys like a hopefully healthy Dominique Hamilton, Terrel Resonno, Lucas Vincent and Marvin Foster to go along with the defensive ends, you are going to be a handful for offensive coordinators.  It's the kind of Missouri football I grew up watching and frankly, I can't wait.

Chris Freeman

I'm also hearing the Tigers will be committing more to rushing the football this year.  4 experienced tailbacks are returning and 4 seniors on the offensive line which was one of the best in the conference last year.  And what's even more amazing is the depth behind the starters.  Next year we'll be breaking in 4 new starters but will be picking them from kids named Gatti, Freeman, Demien, Meiners, Morse and Britt.  The Tigers are red shirting kids that would have come in as starters 5 years ago.   I'll be looking at more reports soon and trying to figure out what to look for this fall.  Until then, at least there's softball and baseball to talk about.  But now, I'm getting out of town for a few days much needed vacation.  Talk to you soon.  I'll try to keep up my scoreboard and some fun news stories and current events on my website.  I hope you'll stop by.

Spring game weekend. First one I've missed in years.

I love the spring football game.  I hated missing it this year but sometimes when we grow up things happen, and we have to do things that we don't love because we do things we just have to do.  By this time of year I'm pretty much in full withdrawal from football.  Basketball is ok, but the end of the season dramatics, courtesy of former coach what's his name, and it really wore me out.  I'm going to trust Mike Alden that we've picked the right guy, and I'm going to trust Frank Haith because it appears that he's made at least 2 home run hires for his new staff.  Baseball has started out great for us Royals fans, but it's a marathon, not a sprint.  I've seen enough quick starts that were followed by mid season collapses that I have no intention of investing too much passion right now. But we've got some history going with the football team now as they've won 48 games over the past 5 season.  So excuse me if I get excited reading practice reports and scrimmage statistics.

Maybe the biggest news of the day happened off the field as the Tigers obtained a verbal from Texas running back Jonathan Williams.  Williams rushed for over 2000 yards and 19 touchdowns as a junior and is ranked as the 33rd best player in Texas and the 3rd best running back in the nation.  It marks the 2nd year in a row that the Tigers have snagged a recruit rated inside the Texas top 50, (Last year both James Franklin and Tristan Holt were members of this club) and shows that Mizzou is a serious contender for the top Texas talent.  Jonathan is the kind of kid that starts a domino effect with other kids and does show why, during the feeding frenzy of conference realignment last summer, he really preferred that Missouri remain in the Big XII where he and his staff had spent years developing relationships.  It also shows that hick nation is now going to have to work a little harder if they intend to keep mining Texas for recruits.  Williams is exactly the kind of back they're looking for in Lincoln.

As far as the quarterback battle goes, James Franklin will now officially enter the summer months as # 1 at the position.  James had a good day, going 13 of 21 for 116 yards and 2 touchdowns to go with a 139.7 quarterback rating.  Tyler Gabbert however was 8 of 22 for 48 yards and a rating of 45.6.  This isn't going to end until sometime next August at the earliest, but I fully expect the competition to make both of them better.  For complete stats, Dave Matter has an excellent breakdown in his blog. So now we'll be reaching for football news, but it's going to be out there and I'll try to find as much of it as I can.  Stop by and see my current event section on my web page.

5 biggest moments of MU athletics this year. Well, so far.....

I'm officially sick of talking about Mike Alden and Frank Haith.  Not that both these guys aren't worthy of discussion.  It's just that there's nothing to talk about right now.  Coach Haith hasn't even hired his first staff member yet, or gotten his first recruit.  There may be something if he manages to salvage something from this recruiting session, which suffered from inattention to former coach mike anderson.    As for Alden, as I've stated before, he's very unlikely to be fired due to the profitability of the AD, and the fact that most programs are doing as well or better than they ever have during his watch.  What I'd like to talk about are what I consider to be the 5 biggest moments for the athletic department for 2010-2011.  We may yet see something from the baseball, and even more importantly the softball programs, but those will be topics for another day.  So here are my 5 biggest, in no particular order.
1. The Catch
No, I'm not talking about Montana to Clark.  I'm referring to September 18th of 2010.  The Tigers season appears ready to derail before it ever gets out of the station as they trail lightly regarded San Diego State 24-20 with less than a minute to go.  Suddenly, out of no where, Blaine Gabbert finds TJ Moe for a 68 yard touchdown to save the season.   Without that, who knows where the season might have gone. 
2. The Return

If TJ saved the season, the return of the opening kickoff from Gahn McGaffie set the stage and made Missouri a contender.  ESPN Gameday was in town and Tiger nation had done itself proud, showing up over 18,000 strong to set a new record.  But what remained was the game against the # 1 ranked Oklahoma Sooners, a team that head coach Gary Pinkel had never beaten.  The game opened with a lot of energy from the crowd, and the Tigers needed a good start to keep them in the game.  McGaffie supplied that with an 86 yard return of the opening kickoff and I've not been in Memorial Stadium where the volume was that loud since the 4th quarter of the 2003 game vs Nebraska where the Tigers ended 24 years of frustration.
3. Robin Pingeton hired 
I know.  Women's basketball isn't a major sport.  In the food chain at Mizzou, it ranks about even with golf and cross country.  But it was making a statement that the Tigers weren't giving up on any sports, whether it had a following or not. While I'm not sure I always agree with the philosophy, it is pretty much the mission statement of the athletic department, and I expect to see her bring women's basketball to a level of competitiveness that we just haven't see before.
4 Mike Anderson resigns
I probably shouldn't have capitalized his name, and I doubt that he's ever mentioned again, but the cowardly and deceitful way that former coach anderson left is something that I'm going to remember.  He did raise the bar of the program after the Quin Snyder debacle, but I hope that at some point he learns to tell the truth.  Frankly, I wouldn't believe the man if he said good morning.
5 Gary Pinkel's contract extended
This just happened today and I couldn't be happier.  Coach Pinkel signed a 2 year extension which means he remains in CoMO until 2017.  Coach signed the extension for the same money he was making, although he does receive an extra 100 k contributed to his annuity per year, and an extra 150,000 to be distributed among his assistants.  This may or may not be the last extension the coach signs, but I still expect to see a statue of him outside the stadium after he retires.   

I'll take coaches you've never heard of for $500.00 Alex...

This wasn't the hire I expected.  It wasn't what anyone expected.  A week ago we were talking about stealing Matt Painter from Purdue and now we wind up with a guy that many of us never heard of.  Now to be fair, I really don't recall hearing much about Painter either, but a lot of people that I respect think this is nothing short of a bad hire.  Since being hired as the head man in Miami Haith has compiled a record of 129-101 (43-69 in conference) in the tough ACC.  He's taken the Hurricanes to 1 NCAA tournament and frankly, appears to be mediocre at best.  The talking heads have been pounding AD Mike Alden over this hire, led by former Tiger great Jon Sunvold who's disliked Alden since Norm Stewart was relieved of his duties in 1999.

Not since the day that Mike Anderson was announced as coach have I felt like Alden's job was in more jeopardy than it is today.  I've always defended Alden.  I think he's improved the overall athletic department incredibly, but you know, sometimes it's just best to move on.  That time may be coming for Mike, and frankly, I don't know if it's a good thing or a bad thing.  He's be accused of micro-managing the sports programs and there are indications that has been true, at least as far a men's basketball is concerned.  I remember when the youngest Rush brother was deciding on which school to attend and Alden over rode then coach Quin Snyder and forbid him to come to Mizzou.  Rush went to ku and played on their last national title team in 2008.  The firing of Snyder was handled as badly as it could have been, and even an Alden supporter like myself can't defend that.  You never hear any complaints from Alden's cadillac hire, Gary Pinkel, but the fact is that in the AD heirarchy Pinkel is the 600 lb gorilla in the room.

As for the Haith hire, there's a BOC teleconference this evening, presumably to discuss the final language on his contract.  I expect it to be resolved and we'll hear Haith announced as the 17th head coach of Missouri basketball tomorrow.  But, it wouldn't surprise me if we hear later tonight that Alden has been terminated and now we're looking for a new AD as well as restarting the coaching search.  I don't really think it is a good idea, but you know, I don't know that it's all bad either.

Fire Mike Alden?

I knew it would happen.  After the Lyin' Mike Anderson packed his bags and scurried off to Arkansas and MU swang and missed on Matt Painter, the Mike Alden haters came out in full force.  If you read message boards, and I read a lot of them, you'll hear people bitching about how embarrassed they are that Alden is the head of the athletic department at the school they claim to love.  Now if you've read this blog often, or much at all for that matter, then you know I'm an Alden fan.  I've met him several times and have always been treated very well, and no, I'm not a huge $$$ booster by any means.  I just happen to believe that he's done a very good job at a place where it isn't easy to have success considering the financial restraints the university operates under.

Alden took over as athletic director on July 16th, 1998 after Joe Castiglione left for greener pastures in Norman, Oklahoma citing a lack of support from an administration that had deemed that athletics simply weren't important enough compared with the academics the university wanted to be known for.  It had been a problem since the 70's when then chancellor Barbara (Babs) Uehling basically ran Dan Devine out of CoMO, giving him zero support.  That started a 30 year slide of Missouri football.  When he arrived there was sort of a mini revival under then head coach Larry Smith, but that was dying just as he arrived, and some of the worst losses in memory happened during his last 2 years.  All Alden did was go out and hire an unknown guy from Toledo named Gary Pinkel to take over and he's going to be the winningest coach in Missouri history by the time he retires.      

Several things have happened, at least in my opinion that have turned a portion of the fan base against Alden.  The first was the firing of Norm Stewart after he spent 32 years coaching the Tigers.  Now I loved Norm.  He was about all we had during those dark days of the football program, but he'd lost his zest for coaching and it was really time for him to go.  It also brought a 25 million dollar donation from Bill Laurie toward the construction of Mizzou Arena, one of the finest basketball venue's in the country.  Sadly, it also brough Quin Snyder from Duke, who spent 7 years dragging down the program until, he was fired in a clumsy manner, that, again in my opinion was the lowlight of Alden's career.  A segment of the fans also blame him for the Big Ten expansion last summer, but anyone that really follows how these things work should know that was something being decided by people way over Alden's pay grade.

Right now, the basketball program is absolutely in a perilous position.  No coach and no recruits courtesy of Mike Anderson.  But the majority of sports are doing quite well, and Alden has made some good if not great hires in addition to Coach Pinkel.  I know it isn't a popular notion right now, but I have faith in Alden to make a good hire.  The fact of the matter is, that with the fan support, Missouri just isn't perceived to be as good a job as many of us feel that it is.  I hope things are going well, and want to thank you guys for reading.  I've been averaging over 2,500 hits a month on this blog and am starting to do better at my website, merlinsedge.com.  In addition to the stores, I've added a news and sports page titled current events.  It's full of articles and columns about Mizzou athletics by real writers like Mike DeArmond and his son Gabe who runs an excellent Missouri site, PowerMizzou, as well as guys like Bryan Burwell and Bernie Miklasz from St Louis today.  Please stop by and let me know what you think.  It's still a work in progress, but I'm actually pretty happy with how it's turning out.

Women's softball picking up steam.

I know I said I was going to talk about men's basketball but really, you can't write about the end of a season if you aren't sure you still have a coach after it's ended.  I think that Mike Anderson is staying at Missouri, but I certainly wouldn't bet the mortgage on it.  And frankly, you don't, under any circumstances pay him more than you're paying Gary Pinkel, who's won 48 games in the last 5 seasons.  You just don't.  It's a tight rope that Mike Alden is walking here and seeing that it's the third year in a row he's had to walk it, I imagine he's getting pretty damn tired of it.  Mike Anderson has done a lot of things right, but I'm not going to pay him like you would a Bill Self, Roy Williams or Coach K yet.  I imagine if you were privy to Alden he'd tell you there are a million things he'd rather be doing than going through rumors every year that his basketball coach is being pursued by others with open check books.

One thing I know he'd like to talk about right now is the women's softball team and their coach Ehren Earleywine.  The Lady Tigers currently sit at 21-3 and on a 18 game winning streak.  After the 3-3 start which was made up of mostly warm weather teams while the Tigers were forced into training inside, they've been on fire.  The conference season will be starting soon and we'll get a better look at how the ladies stack up against some pretty good competition.  But the pre-season hopes of a conference title and a long run in the college softball world series look possible once again.

Chelsea Thomas and Kristin Nottelmann are both appearing to be unhittable right now and the Tigers are averaging over 6 runs a game with Ashley Fleming, Rhea Taylor, Jenna Marston and Nicole Hudson leading the way.  It's going to be really interesting to watch from this point, as the team at this point appears to be serious contenders to go all the way with their balance and youth.  And while I'm not that big a softball fan, it's a hell of a lot more fun to talk about than basketball.     

Basketball season's over. Time to talk a little Gary Pinkel.

Basketball season ended with a thud last night as the Tigers fell 78-63 to Cincinnati last night.  I'm going to talk about that some as I get a chance to read a little more and watch as the Mike Anderson questions play themselves out.  But spring football is going on, Blaine Gabbert just completed his Pro Day exhibition and we have a quarterback question for the first time since Brad Smith's red shirt freshman year.  Since that day Mizzou has entered spring ball knowing exactly who the starting quarterback was going to be.  The fact that we don't know at the moment is due to the fact that Pinkel has recruited well enough that he's making a decision between two highly rated players that held multiple offers before picking the Tigers.   

Brad Smith carried the Tigers on his back during his time in CoMO and never had the advantage of having the talent around him that Chase Daniel and Blaine Gabbert had, but Brad also just didn't have the luxury of Gabberts arm or Daniel's decision making ability and swagger.  The Tigers would probably have won more games had they decided to let Brad be Brad and run an option attack such as Nebraska in their prime.  However, I doubt Chase Daniel would ever have wound up in Columbia on Saturday's if it hadn't been for the wide open attack the Tigers were committed to playing.  For that matter I don"t believe talent like Jeremy Maclin, Will Franklin, Danario Alexander, Chase Coffman and Martin Rucker would have played here, not to mention young guns like Bud Sasser, Marcus Lucas and Jimmy Hunt.  Pinkel made a conscious decision to place the program ahead of the current state of that team and has won 40 games the last 4 years by sticking to that decision.

As I said, I don't have any idea who will be taking snaps for the Tigers in September.  The 2 prime suspects would be between James Franklin and Tyler Gabbert.  Both have been making their case as to why they should be the starter this fall, but that won't be decided for some time yet, at least in my opinion.  I do think the winner will be more than capable of leading the team in what will be a much tougher conference.  I'm excited for the news over the summer and watching how things develop.  I've always been a football guy first.  But as I said, next time I'm going to talk about my feeling following a disappointing end to what began as a promising basketball season.

Bi-Polar, or the Missouri fan base....

I've said this before and I'll say it again.  No group is more bi-polar than the Missouri fan base.  The football team wins the biggest game in recent history on homecoming last year and suddenly we're headed to the national championship game.  They go on to drop the next 2 in embarrassing fashion and suddenly we won't win another game.....ever.  Pinkel is a moron, Yost is out of his element and Blaine Gabbert sucks.  We had a few years when Quin Snyder was spiraling out of control where all we could muster up for the basketball team was apathy.  When we got Mike Anderson I was pretty happy, but when the team made the Elite 8 run a couple of years ago, the bar was raised and Mike started dealing with the same wild mood swings that Coach Pinkel has dealt with since the 2004 season.   

Now don't get me wrong.  I know the season hasn't gone the way any of us wanted, but when the football Tigers dropped the inexplicable loss to Texas Tech last fall, I saw fans completely writing off the season and putting all their hopes into a basketball team that still had more questions than answers.  The team put itself out there for these expectations somewhat but let's remember that these are 18-22 year old kids that have grown up thinking they're bullet proof.  I've gotten a chance to talk with juco recruit Ricardo Ratliffe and think he's just a really fun young man.  However I don't think Ricardo realized how much different the competition was going to be coming from a juco player of the year award into the Big XII, one of the toughest conferences in the country.  Another guy that's taken a lot of heat is Kim English.  All the kid's done is be the best ambassador for Missouri sports I can remember.  But he's become the whipping boy for a lot of fans as he set the expectations too high his freshman year.  The pressure appears to be getting to him as he accused the team of quitting after the conference tournament loss to A&M.  If Kim and the other players don't learn to ignore fans expectations, then I doubt next year will be markedly better.

I don't know any way you can get kids to listen to a geezer like me, so trying to think of ways to get to the team would be hopeless.  Hell, I'm not sure Coach Anderson can get to them right now.  I also doubt that I can get a fan base to change it's stripes, but if I have anything to say it's just quit worrying about the destination and enjoy the ride.  If the AD would determine to just concentrate on one or two sports and let everything else go to hell, those sports might well be more successful, but that just isn't going to happen, as I've discussed in a previous post.  But right now we have a football team that's won 40 games in the past 4 years and a basketball team that's had the best three year run in school history.  I don't worry about kids getting into major trouble and the coaches are graduating kids.  To me that's pretty good.  Would I love a conference title or, dare I say it, a national championship?  Well hell yes, but I'm not going to base my happiness on it.  Like I say, I'm going to enjoy the ride and hope we don't drive over a cliff.

A true son, Chase Daniel

If he wasn't already, Chase Daniel became my favorite Tiger ever on Saturday.  He gave us a true revival in Mizzou football when he won 30 games in 3 years as a starter, and sat as a finalist for the Heisman Trophy his junior year.  He had the team within 30 minutes of football at the Big XII title game from playing for the national championship.  He was the heart and soul of 3 of the teams that won more games than any other in Tiger history.  If you were a Missouri fan you hoped that when he graduated that he'd get to realize his dream of playing in the NFL.  But, despite all the success and accolades he went undrafted before signing a free agent contract with Washington where he was released at the final roster cut.  He did however catch on with the Saints, where he is today, as the backup to Drew Brees.  I hoped he'd have a long and injury free career before returning to Missouri to begin his inevitable journey into coaching.

But Chase decided not to wait to express more thanks to the university and Coach Pinkel.  On Saturday he announced the creation of the "Chase Daniel Lone State State Scholarship", intended to pay for the scholarship of one football player from Texas, preferable to come play for Mizzou.  I'm going to play a hunch and guess that next year James Franklin will be playing on Chase' dime.  It's an incredibly generous gesture and while I don't expect it to impact Texas recruiting dramatically, it does free up some cash for recruiting trips, and does keep the Mizzou name and Chase in the same sentence.  He's still a legend in the Dallas area.  It also puts a little pressure on former teammates Jeremy Maclin, Sean Weatherspoon, William Moore and Ziggy Hood to think about doing something similar since they are all in the league also and probably making more money than Chase is as a backup.

I'm sure there have been other gifts such as this.  I believe that former hick defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh gave some large gift a last year and I'm sure there have been others.  I already expect former beak quarterback Todd Reesing to do something similar since he basically spent his career trying to be Chase.  Perhaps to immortalize his legacy at kansas he could award a membership to the "box wine of the month club" to a deserving member of the beaks football team.  Of course as long as the Reverend Gill is coaching them the kid won't be able to use it during the season.   

Recruiting is the lifeblood of college football

Of course the title of this post is obvious.  Like saying water is wet.  Without a steady stream of talent, no college football program will continue to succeed.  In the last 4 years, Missouri has won 40 football games despite not having classes that were considered to be the best.  This year the Tigers took a small class of 17, which would have been smaller without the early departures of their two most visible prospects, Blaine Gabbert and Aldon Smith.  Tiger nation has been bemoaning this class since Rivals ranked it 47th among FBS schools, behind such powers as Boston College, The University of Central Florida and kansas for God's sake.  However, I believe that once we take a look back in three years or so we'll find that this class was better than we thought, and I have some historical evidence to prove that as SI.com re-rated the 2008 class that was ranked 25th by Rivals that year.  We've got to remember that the services give higher marks for teams that sign more players, and well, sometimes they just miss it on how highly a player is rated.  A 3 star quarterback that was considered a little too short to be successful in D1 football named Chase Daniel ring a bell with anyone? 

This year the Tigers obtained a commitment from only one 4 start player, Sheldon Richardson who was a 5 star when he originally signed two years ago.  Sheldon had to detour to junior college in California, and flirt with USC before finally coming to his senses and re-signing with the Tigers after much soul searching and his mother threatening him with a cast iron skillet.  Everyone agrees that if he does in fact make it and is on the team this fall, that he's the kind of player that can make a huge impact on the defensive line, an area that improved greatly last year but still could always use depth.  Some guys that don't seem to be getting as much attention that I think will be very successful for Mizzou are Gerrand Johnson, a 270 lb defensive tackle from Rayville, LA and Kentrell Brothers, an undersized linebacker from Oklahoma that was voted the defensive player of the year in that state.  Yes, he's coming in at only 207 lbs, which is about 10 pounds heavier than an unknown kid from Texas named Weatherspoon and he seemed to turn out ok.  If Pat Ivey says he can grow them, I tend to believe him.  With 8 offers from BCS conference teams, offensive lineman Taylor Chappell may turn out to be quite a find also, as well as Shane Ray, a defensive end from the KC area who passed on offers from Wisconsin and Notre Dame, among others to sign with the Tigers.  

Depth on the offensive line was addressed with 4 signees, they got the quarterback they wanted as well as defensive players to replace guys like J. Smith, Lambert, Ebner and company after they graduate this year.  This simply wasn't a year they had anything they were desperate to address.  Coach Pinkel has depth across the board now and players that would have gotten offers 5 years ago just aren't getting them today.  This is evidenced by Darrien Miller, who some considered to be the best player in the state, not receiving an offer.  However, next year is huge and the staff will need to get a jump.  It's one of the best classes in Missouri high school football we've seen in the past 5 years, which is saying a lot considering some of the talent we've seen in 2008 and 2009.  But, I'm going to give Pinkel and company some credit.  At least until next season starts.  But we need to get a jump on a great class.  Maty Mauk from Ohio would be a great start.

Week 1: I thought it would never arrive.

When I was a kid, it always felt like Christmas would never arrive.  You wondered what you were going to get.  You dropped hints, left catalogs open with your dream gift circled, and dreamed about it at night.  I don't feel that way about Christmas anymore but I still have that sense of excitement.  It's just reserved for that glorious weekend known as the beginning of the college football season.  I've sat through a long hot summer with the Royals once again falling out of the pennant race before Memorial Day, read and re-read articles about summer workouts and frankly spent entirely too much time worrying about whether Chris Freeman and Jimmy Hunt were going to show up on campus in time for fall camp.

So my Tigers open up the season this Saturday in the dome against Ron Zook and his fighting Illini.  This will complete the 4 game series between the 2 schools with the Zookster still looking for his first win.  As a matter of fact, Gary Pinkel is 5-0 vs Illinois during his career here.  The series ends after this game and unless Illinois pulls off the upset, I don't expect it to resume anytime soon.  After the 10 year winning streak they enjoyed in basketball prior to last season I wasn't in a big rush to see that series continued either.

Illinois is a young squad this year led by red shirt freshman quarterback Nathan Sheelshaase from Rockhurst in Kansas City.  The depth chart is just chock full of freshmen and sophomores who'll be starting their first game period, let alone a rowdy crowd of Missouri fans in the Edward Jones Dome.  Given the fact that Nathan really wasn't much of a passer in high school, I imagine that the Illini will attempt to establish the run game first and hope that Sheelhaase will be able to hit some passes off roll outs and options.  It should be a good test for a Missouri defense that was among the worst in the country last year.
So, I begin to try my luck at predictions for another year.  Last season I was a very respectable 93-33 straight up, but 62-59 when picking against the spread.  So with no further ado, here we go.

The Tigers open as a 12 point favorite against Illinois, which is down from 13 1/2 since the suspension of Derrick Washington.  Missouri has an established quarterback in Blaine Gabbert and Kendial Lawrence at running back but the backups are true freshmen.  The odds on favorite as his number one target this year, Jerrell Jackson is hurt and out for this game but Gabbert still has plenty of talented, if somewhat unproven receivers to throw to.  I think, that unless we see something along the lines of Brad Smith's first game, which coincidentally happened against Illinois, this one should be over by halftime.  Illinois has lost their entire defensive backfield for this game due to injuries.  A nice time for the Tigers to be breaking in new receivers.  Look for the Tigers to roll, 38-13.
2 days before the Arch Rivalry game, the Big XII season opens in Ames as last years surprise team, the Iowa State Cyclones open as a 3 1/2 point favorite over Northern Illinois.  Senior quarterback Austen Arnaud has spent like 12 years at ISU so I believe he'll graduate when I see it, and Paul Rhodes certainly had my vote as Big XII coach of the year last season.  The 'Clones return most of the offense although a large part of their defense graduated.  I don't see this being nearly as close as the oddsmakers and look for ISU to win 31-17.
Baylor opens at home against Sam Houston State, a not very good team even when playing other small college rummies.  Robert Griffin will be returning as quarterback for the Bears.  I expect some rust but not nearly enough to make a difference here.  Baylor rolls, 42-6.  No line here.

Things are changing in lawrence, kansas as the Turner Gill era begins.  The beaks open at home against North Dakota State in another game that was given no line.  I detest kansas but really haven't had any time to learn to hate Gill, who's always seems like a pretty good guy.  A lot of questions for the jayhawks this year and I don't think any of them will be answered this weekend, unless ND State manages to pull the upset.  kansas wins this one, 31-10. 
In what may or may not be the final season in the Big XII for the Colorado Buffalo's as they open on the road at Colorado State.  The Buffs come in as a 13 point favorite against their cross state rivals, and I really have no idea why.  Dan "Dead man walking" Hawkins may or may not have to win this year since I'm not at all sure there is enough money in their AD to cut anyone loose early.  I'm really tempted to take the Rams straight up, but will go ahead and pick Colorado to win 28-24 while failing to cover.

In Manhattan, Bill Snyder 2.0 opens the season against the Pac 10's UCLA.  It's incredibly weird seeing Coach Snyder open the non con against anyone with a pulse but give Snyder a few years to do his own scheduling and we'll be seeing plenty of directional schools, which considering we'll all be playing 9 conference games in a year will unfortunately the the rule rather than the exception.  The Bruins open as a 2 point favorite in this one but I think Mr Burns will have a surprise or 2 in store and the Cats pull a 24-21 upset.
Hick nation opens at home this year with Western Kentucky rolling into Lincoln as a 36 1/2 point underdog.  I've gone back and forth on this one, as I'm not positive that Nebraska is capable of putting up 37 points.  Nebraska is ranked as a pre-season top 10 team which I find ludicrous but I'm going to pick them to cover here, winning 42-6, with the defense providing them with some short fields if not touchdowns on turnovers.  We'll know something about the nubs on the 18th when they travel to Washington.
Oklahoma is the prohibitive favorite in the conference once again this year, following a disappointing season.  They open up as a 31 1/2 point favorite against outmanned Utah State.  The point spread isn't nearly big enough as "Big Game" Bob Stoops will have the Sooners smelling blood in a quest to return to the national championship game.  OU rolls 56-9.   

Like the 2008 Tigers, Oklahoma State was unable to live up to lofty expectations last year.  They open up at home against the Pac 10's Washington State.  The Cowboys will take a few steps back this year, but this is a good opening contest for them.  A very pedestrian team from a BCS conference.  Okie Light opens as a 14 1/2 point favorite.  I think this is pretty close and I'm taking the Cowboys in a close game they'll break open in the 4th quarter.  OSU 28-13.
It's rebuilding, or reloading time down in Austin.  The horns probably won't be making a return trip to the national championship game, but it's always smart money to bet on them playing after January 1st.  They open up on the road against perennially hapless Rice.  Texas has opened as a 29 point favorite.  They may not have the firepower they had last year with Colt McCoy running the show, but you just know the defense is going to be big, fast and mean.  Texas takes this one in a laugher, 49-13.

The sexy pick in the south this year is down south in College Station.  I still believe that Mike Sherman is a mediocre coach and at last report, they were planning to start 3 freshmen on their offensive line.  They also have some of the strangest rituals you could ever hope to see at a college football stadium.  I expect another 6 or 7 win season for them, but challenge Texas or OU for the south title?  I don't think so.  That being said, they'll probably look like world beats this week at home against Stephen F. Austin in a contest that has no line.  Look for the Aggies to put up some big numbers, winning 49-6 in my dog game of the week.
The week winds up on Sunday this week as SMU travels to Lubbock to take on the new look Red Raiders and coach Tommy Tubberville.  Tech opens as a 13 1/2 point favorite.  I expect them to have a few hiccups this year, but I don't expect it to be this week.  Give the points and look for the Tubberville era to open successfully as the Red Raiders win 38-13.

So now we have something to talk about for a few months.   I won't be making it out to see the game this week, and actually won't be at a home game until the 18th when San Diego State visits the Zou.  I'll be trying out some new seats this year.  Same section but about 40 rows lower.  God I hope I'm sitting next to someone that looks like Jenn. Have a great week and I hope your team finds success this year, unless you're going to be playing mine at some point this season.  We'll see how I did with my picks after the weekend.

So this is what we waited 6 months for?

So after all the posturing, all the news reports and all the leaks we're going to wind up right where we were?  Well hell.  As a member of what I now consider to be the stupidest fan base in America, I am going to agree that we got played and played badly over the last few months.  But before we gather to walk to Mike Alden's house, pitchforks and torches in hand let's take a look at where we've been the last few months.
Last December we first heard about Big Ten plans to expand.  Over the next few months instead of merely adding a 12th team we heard that Jim Delaney was going to shake college football to the core and become the first "super-conference" of 16 teams.   Missouri, along with Rutgers immediately are mentioned as 2 of the front runners as well as Notre Dame.  Eventually Nebraska enters the picture as do Syracuse, Maryland, Virginia, Pitt, the University of Toronto and this dental assistants school on the 22nd floor of the Sears Tower in Chicago. 

In May, a Kansas City radio host, Kevin Keitzman reported that MU, Rutgers, Notre Dame and Nebraska had all been extended offers from the Big Ten.  Now he really had no proof of this other than he had heard it from his "sources".  From that moment on the whole expansion thing hit the nitrous and took off with a life of it's own.  Everyone from ABC to ESPN to the Sporting News, for some inexplicable reason took Keitz's report seriously and began to run with it.  In a feeding frenzy that would rival "Anaconda", every media outlet broke every rule of journalism in a desperate attempt to get the story first.
This apparently caused some consternation within the Pac 10 who suddenly realized that they were about to get put into a vulnerable position by this giant chess match.  In an attempt to match the Big Ten they began exploring realignment for their conference also.  Their original intent seemed to be adding 5 Big XII south teams and Colorado from the north to form their own 16 team league.

You know the details from here.  Texas says Missouri doesn't matter, conference can hold together as long as Nebraska remains.  Delaney promptly offers Nebraska and Texas says now that they, along with the other 5 south schools will be heading west.  Of course, Baylor will have to replace Colorado.  Pac 10 issues a huge middle finger to Texas by offering the Buffs first.  Texas A&M decides they've had about all the UT shit they want to eat for a lifetime and begin exploring a solo move to the SEC.  Rumors swirl that the Big East is willing to add the remaining Big XII schools, one of which is now Missouri as soon as their conference implodes.   Then suddenly Mizzou pops up as a possible travel companion for A&M and kansas appears as a serious candidate for the Pac 10 to replace A&M.  Larry Scott, the Pac 10 commissioner does a weekend tour of Texas to talk with his potential new partners.  On Sunday night at 6:00 pm his plane is reportedly set to travel to Kansas City to meet with beak officials the next day.
And then, just as quickly as it begins, it just stops.  I mean as in hit a brick fucking wall stops.  Within 6 hours we learn that the Big Ten will halt at 12 teams and the Big XII will hold together with 10 teams.  The Pac 10 will probably add one more team to go with their prize of adding the worst athletic department in college athletics and the SEC will just sit this one out.  Notre Dame's sphincter has sufficiently loosened so they won't be joining any conference soon.
Now I have to confess that I'm something of a conspiracy buff so take this with a grain of salt.  But something tells me that Delaney, Scott, Deloss Dodds and the SEC power brokers didn't suddenly and simultaneously developed guilt pangs and decided to stop and take a breath before breaking up the BCS and college athletics as we know it.  No, in my opinion someone with a lot of political crank, (I'm not going to say who, but his initials are Orrin Hatch) decided that college football wasn't going to take off in a new direction without Utah on the wagon.  Expect the Utes to be extended a Pac 10 offer within the next 2 weeks.

But for now, I believe we're going to enter a quiet period for the next 2 or 3 years.  This isn't over by a long shot, and in hindsight it was moving too damn fast.  We were looking at 4 super conferences of 16 teams controlling college football and that's just not enough.  Expect this to encompass about 96 teams before it's done and we're going to see a playoff.  The important thing now is to have a home over these next years and to make a statement that you're a football program to be reckoned with.  Gary Pinkel, you're about to earn your money like never before.
I've been thinking about who were the winners and losers here and I'm going to try to reconcile my thoughts on that.  Some of them are going to surprise you.  I guarantee it.  See you in a couple of days.