Big MO Sports

One thing I've learned in the five months or so since I started this blog is that every once in awhile there are days where you come across a story that is perfect to blog about and then there are days where you come across a story that is PERFECT to blog about. 

Jason Whitlock wrote a column in today's KC Star about a lawsuit that KU has brought up against Joe-College.com, a company that specializes in novelty t-shirts. The website has a wide variety of t-shirts pertaining to the University of Kansas athletic teams. Some lampoon the school and others are typical fanboy KU shirts. The problem the university has is the website doesn't have a license and is profiting from using words such as "Kansas" and "Hawk."

Today a jury awarded the university $127,000, or about a fourth of what the Beakers were seeking. All in all this was a horrible move by the university to push this thing as far as they did. Think about it, even though Joe-College.com was clearly illegally benefiting from the university's image what did it matter? Was there really any harm done to the school? Who was this private businessman hurting? Maybe Mark Mangino's Golden Corral bills were even larger than we thought. 

What ended up happening was KU more than likely just crushed a private local business and gained essentially nothing in the process (do you think $127,000 is really going to help the school that much?). That's gonna be a big hit to the ol' rep. KU officials didn't help matters by making outrageous statements in court such as claiming to own the color blue. I'm not joking, read the column. Personally, I'm just glad they don't have the market cornered on Burnt Sienna. 

And what it leads to is respected sports columnists referring to your actions as "un-American" which is something we all knew anyways. In fact, I'd take it a step further and say that the university is an enormous threat to almost all of America's most fundamental institutions and needs to be shut down immediately. I don't think it's a stretch at all to say that and the National Guard, U.S. Army, U.S. Navy or better yet all of them needs to step in and stop things before another hardworking American everyman is put out of business. 

Save America. Stop KU.

 

I forgot to include this in Friday's news & notes that's just as well because something like this deserves a post of its own.

Last week I received a call from William Palaszczuk (one of the charter members of the Greg Bracey Fan Club) informing me thatthe real Ocho Cinco was released by the San Diego Chargersin May and we somehow missed it until now. 

The people at Big MO obviously hate to hear that and want to wish Greg well in all his future endeavors. If he ever catches on with another team and ends up making the roster you can bet we'll be the first to be rockin' the Bracey 85 NFL Authentics. 

Good luck Greg and if you're ever in the neighborhood feel free to stop by Big MO and enjoy a cold one on the house. 

 

Seems like each post brings a new set of reasons for not updating this blog more often. This week's excuses? Allergies that have me feeling under the weather and trying to finish up the last couple weeks of my internship at the Bolivar Herald-Free Press. 

But I'll let you in on a little secret. There could be some Mark Mangino sized changes coming to Big MO Sports in the very near future in the form of an alliance of sorts (that's my way of dropping a not so subtle hint). So stay tuned.

But for now we have lots of links to get to!

• First and foremost, Sarah Becking, RIP. I had never heard of Sarah until literally a couple weeks ago when I ran acrossher website and realized what a truly gifted photographer she was and immediately added it to the links to your right. I had no idea she had been battling cancer. I don't know much more about her than what I've read in the past few days but she left behind a husband, daughter and son. My thoughts and prayers are with her family and friends. 

• The door is now shut and locked on the Keon Lawrence era at Mizzou. I'm glad he's going to be going to school but I worry about how close Seton Hall is to his old stomping grounds. I also don't understand the attitude he gives Mike DeArmond in that story. I thought the local media alwaysportrayed Keon in a positive light even when he was in the midst of a major sophomore slump. But after the past few weeks I'm starting to think there were some attitude problems behind the scenes we didn't hear about. But that's my own speculation so take it for what it's worth and I still hope Keon is successful at Seton Hall.

• Big MO Sports has some more competition from...Chase Daniel?

• Get to know Keith Ramsey! I have to say, I've always hated players who call cheap fouls in pickup games. Nothing ruins a pickup game quicker than one of those guys.

• Our old pal TG3 is sporting a fresh new fro north of the border with the Toronto Raptors summer league team.

• A surge of stories have popped up on espn.com concerning the Mario Chalmers miracle three in the National Championship game including this fascinating story on former Beaker and would be hero Michael Lee (check out Smorgasboard Graves in that picture). A little odd that those are being written over three months after the National Championship game. Maybe it has something to do with them moving the three point line back? Speaking of Chalmers, I hate Kansas more than anyone but I will never understand how so many chumps including J.R. Giddens got drafted before he did. I'm admittedly biased toward players that perform well in pressure situations (I thought Acie Law was a lock to be a great NBAer and so far that prediction hasn't exactly panned out) but give me a break. Giddens?

• This afternoon I was doing some research for a story I'm writing for my internship  and ran across some old columns by former Springfield News-Leader sports reporter Scott Puryear that are wonderfully amusing looking back on them: 1. Remember when everyone loved Pinkel before they hated him and before they loved him again? Now you do. 2. Back in 2003 Pinkel signed a talented high school quarterback named Chase who was going to keep the momentum going once The Great Brad Smith graduated. But his last name wasn't Daniel. 3. Remember that backup punter we had in '06 who wore No. 10 and the cameras used to always cut to him thinking it was Chase Daniel? Bet you didn't realize someone once wrote a column about him.

• The latest from Zou Dave. Would enough Mizzou fans be willing to pool their money to pay Zou Dave to produce these things full-time? We should look into this.

• Just ran across this seconds ago, Sherron Collins, livin' like a National Champ I guess... 

• Just found another Keon update. Turns out he needed to leave New Jersey for two years so he could go and grow up. But now he's mature enough to live at home again. Okay, that makes sense. Glad we cleared that up.

• If you've been in downtown Columbia in the last few months you've probably noticed the new sandwich joint Which Which? (where Shake's used to be). Fantastic place, I'd highly recommend the house chips. When you're eating there you'll also be supporting former Tiger Will Franklin who owns 40 percent of Columbia's franchise. I'm hoping they'll let Franklin put together his own favorite sandwich and market it as "The Helicopter" or something similarly silly. 

• It's official, people outside of Columbia consider Mizzou preseason National Championship contenders. Gotta love high expectations. 

• By the way, I love how the KC Star is having all of their sportswriters put together blogs. Other news organizations take note, this is how blogs can be used effectively by the modern media. Two thumbs up to Posnanski, Flanagan, Mellinger and company.

That's it for now. Next week marks the arrival of NCAA '09. I'm actually planning on finally ditching the PS2 and picking up either an Xbox 360 or PS3 (really leaning toward the 360) and NCAA will probably be the first game I purchase so expect a review sometime in the near future. Although I'll probably have a new set of excuses for not writing another post until next weekend. See ya then!

I've been wanting to write a post all week but just haven't had anything to discuss. The day the first football practice report comes out can't get here soon enough because the last week has moved like former Jayhawk Eric Chenowith. I'm going to try to come up with some original stuff to post other than just links but in the meantime things are just going to be a little slow.

Fortunately, for you Big MO diehards I was able to scrounge up a couple of interesting links to pass along and give my always thoughtful analysis:

• Our old buddy Aqib Talib has already gotten off to a great start down in Tampa Bay. I wouldn't think anything of this if it happened on the football field but a personal finance training session? I'm just glad my Chiefs didn't draft this clown.

• Fox Sports college basketball writer Jeff Goodman gave his take on Keon's transfer in his blog. It's a little ways down the page so I'll just post what he wrote here: "While Missouri guard Keon Lawrence is saying he is transferring to be closer to home, we’re hearing that he just wants more shots. No surprise. I saw Lawrence score 50 points in an AAU game and walked away in complete disgust. It was one of the most selfish performances I’ve seen in a long, long time."

I'm personally not taking a lot of stock in that. "We're hearing that he just wants more shots." Who are you hearing that from? Keon? Mike Anderson? Other coaches? And his description of that AAU game is painfully vague. This is a pretty good example of what blogs written by "credible journalists" should not be. In the games I personally saw Keon play in I did not notice any selfish behavior to speak of. I did however, see him with tears in his eyes after several tough losses over the past two years. But maybe he was crying about his low shot total. 

• Speaking of Keon, Steve Walentik has a list of schools that he could possibly end up at. I'm just glad that it at least appears that Lawrence will be going back to school because initially he expressed some doubt. I also think it's a good thing that he doesn't have interest in Rutgers, the school closest to the neighborhood he grew up in. 

• Be sure to scroll a little further down on that page and also check out this article on the chemistry that Mike Anderson's incoming freshman class are already forming. Am I the only one that breaks into a huge smile when I read that Kim English, Marcus Denmon and Miguel Paul are literally having sleepovers at Mizzou Arena? As encouraging as I find this stuff, lets not get carried away with it. These guys can be as close-knit as the Brady Bunch, if they don't have talent, toughness and good coaching it's not going to mean a whole lot. But I will say I don't recall reading anything like this about the last several incoming freshman classes. Just pointing that out. 

I was extremely disappointed to hear that Keon Lawrence will be leaving the University of Missouri.

All season we heard that Keon had been considering moving closer to his home in New Jersey but at the end of the year it appeared that he had fully committed to MU and Mike Anderson. In fact, on Wednesday he sounded very upbeat when talking about this year's group with the Kansas City Star, "This squad, everybody’s about the team,” Lawrence said. “They’re going to give what it takes to win. Whether somebody doesn’t like it or not. They’re here to please the coach."

Keon told the Star that the reason he is transferring is to be closer to home but that was after he had taken a subtle shot at the MU coaching staff earlier in the day when talking to the Columbia Tribune, "It's not my teammates, and it's not the fans. That should tell you something."

He told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch over the phone that he's not even sure he'll return to school.

Keon's past has been well documented. Gangs were prevalent in his life throughout his childhood and adolescent years. Earlier this year his brother was murdered and his sister is also reportedly deep into the gang life. According to the P-D, Lawrence will move back to Newark with his mother, who abandoned him as a child, to the streets that nearly swallowed him before escaping to Mizzou. 

"The people I used to run with know I'm coming back home and I don't know what's going to happen," Lawrence said. "But this might be best for me right now."

I'm not going to pretend to understand Keon's situation or try to say that I know what's best for him. But I can't imagine this being a good decision. Keon appeared to have overcome his past and survived, but his battle could be long from over.

I'm not going to bash him for leaving MU even though it's extremely disappointing. I do think his jab at the coaching staff was a little below the belt. And I'm not taking Anderson's side in this. Anderson could be driving the program deeper into the ground than it already is, we don't know and only time will tell. But if you're going to say something like that about your coach after you leave decide to leave the program you better be prepared to explain exactly what the problem is that you have with him. Don't hint that there was something there the public didn't know about and then refuse to answer any followup questions, which is exactly what Keon did. Either tell-all or don't tell a thing.

But that's really the secondary issue here. Keon's obviously a very troubled young man who's going through a lot of serious problems that most have us couldn't possibly comprehend. I hope he has the wisdom to stay as far away as he possibly can from the people that got him into so much trouble in his high school years. 

If you've ever seen Keon in a public setting he always seems to be having a great time. He's a guy who's always the life of the party. It's hard to believe he's been as unhappy as he says he's been. 

I've gushed about Keon as a player before and I sincerely believed he was going to be the catalyst that turned the program back around. But it wasn't meant to be. This is a significant blow to the team's Tournament chances next season but that's also besides the point. 

Right now this looks like a heartbreaking story. My prayers are with Keon and I hope he's able to find his place, wherever that may be.

I don't usually write multiple postings on one day but I've got a little free time and I found a link that's too good to not pass along.

Jimmy Neal is an avid Jayhawks fan nicknamed the "White Owl" who is 61 years old. He apparently spends a lot of time at Wescoe Beach on KU's campus shouting at students to "Wake up!" Basically, he's the complete opposite of MU's Brother Jed but just as crazy. 

The Daily Kansan says he is "known for his enthusiastic dancing and cheering at KU games." It also reports that he's set to marry 22-year-old KU student Julia Lee.

ROCK CHALK JAYHAWK!

It gets better. The two have only known each other for a little over a month. The soon-to-be Mrs. Owl also told the Kansan reporter about her engagement before her father.

Neal has spawned two baby owls from previous marriages but he expects this marriage to last because "In previous marriages I (Neal) would see the reflection of my love, not their love."

He knew that he and Julia were meant to be together the first time he laid eyes on her, "I saw an injured spirit and I'm all about helping people and being a light."

It sounds like this guy has been spending a little too much time hanging out with Aqib Talib.

But don't worry, the couple doesn't plan to become sexually active until after they're married. And even though the White Owl is settling down he still plans to be a regular at KU basketball and football games. 

For the sake of humanity lets hope these two don't produce a child. 

 

St. Louis Post-Dispatch Mizzou beat writer Graham Watson will be leaving the PD next month for the greener pastures of ESPN. 

Graham is an MU journalism grad (and former soccer player) who has covered Tiger athletics for the past several years. I always respected her professionalism in maintaining a level of objectivity despite the seeming conflict of interest (being a former Mizzou athlete). 

Her blog paled in comparison to the Tribune's Dave Matter but her weekly chat sessions were must reads for Mizzou fans. Any questions as to wether or not she was ESPN material were erased in the spring of '07 when she wrote two superb pieces on the rough upbringings of Keon Lawrence and Jeremy Maclin (I looked everywhere and was unable to find links to these without paying $2.95). 

It's weird how you kind of grow attached to the writers that cover your team. Mizzou's had pretty solid coverage with the trifecta of Matter, Watson and DeArmond. I think a lot of Tiger fans will miss Graham and I look forward to seeing her on the Worldwide Leader.


Speaking of Graham, she wrote an encouraging article for Tiger fans about what the only goal is for this year's team.

I wrote a little bit yesterday about how much I like Keon Lawrence being in a leadership position on the MU basketball team next season. I've always been a big fan of Keon even during his season-long slump last year. In fact, I'd consider him my favorite player on the team. But that might change real soon and it's no fault of Keon's.

Freshman guard Kim English's mutigers player bio says he "has been called a gym-rat by coaches and teammates because of his tremendous work ethic." But after reading this Mike DeArmond story in Thursday's KC Star, I'm starting to think that gym-rat doesn't do him justice. It's a short blurb (but very telling) so I'll go ahead and post the entire thing:

Kim English lives only half a mile from Mizzou Arena. However, for the last four nights, he has made the basketball locker room his bedroom.

“On my recruiting visit, they told us this was a 24-hour practice facility,” English, a 6-foot-6 freshman guard from Baltimore, said Wednesday. “We’ve got a key and it works at 12 p.m., it works at 1 a.m. It works 24 hours a day.”

English sleeps in a leather chair that he drags from the players’ lounge to the locker room, allowing him to work around the clock.

“To help this team win this year, I’ll do anything,” said English, who played at Notre  Dame Prep in Fitchburg, Mass., last season, averaging 17.3 points, 6.2 rebounds and 3.9 assists per game.

“I’ll sleep outside if that’s what it takes.”



How many 18-year-olds do you think spend the summer prior to their freshman year of college literally living in a gym? How many nights do think Jason Horton spent sleeping in the gym during the last four years?

In addition to the locale that he's decided to take up residence in, his mutigers bio also calls him a "basketball junky that follows the prep, collegiate and NBA games with a passion." So he's also a student of the game. Oops! Sorry, I just drooled on my keyboard

We've got a lot to get to today so lets get right to it:

• Not only did Ben Askren qualify for the Olympics, but he was so confident he would do it that he reserved a 40-person suite in Las Vegas to celebrate his qualifying...a week before trials even started. He's also made t-shirts with his silhouette against China's flag that says "putting the 'chin' in China." I'd love to get ahold of one of those. Askren's going to make olympic wrestling a lot more interesting for me this year.

• A great column by Joe Walljasper, listing the 25 biggest wins in Mizzou football history. You gotta love that two of the top 10 are from last season but am I the only one that thinks Nebraska '97 belongs on the list? I know we didn't technically win but maybe we could include an asterisk with it? Just a thought.

• Our friends at Mizzou Rah wrote a hilarious post comparing each Big 12 team to a brand of potato chips. If you liked his comparison of Big 12 teams to Mike Tyson's Punch-Out characters then you'll love this one too. 

• If the college basketball season ended today, Joe Lunardi thinks we'd be dancin' as an 11 seed! Bring on Bob Thuggins!

• Don Faurot is the face of our program.

• Chase Coffman was embarrassed by his performance over the last eight games of the season. Yeah, now that I think about it I guess those plays he made against Colorado weren't that amazing.

• I actually found a fantastic post concerning Keon Lawrence on Tigerboard about how despite his sophomore slump, he's still played above the ranking he had in the class of '06. I've said all along that Keon has to be the leader of the team next year. When putting his sophomore season into perspective you have to consider all the things Keon had going against him, all of which were really outside his control. The issues with his family (including his brother being murdered), the chemistry issues with Stef (not Keon's fault), etc. I think the team's going to be in much better shape now that Keon feels he's in a position to take on a leadership role.

• Steve Walentik broke down each freshman's performance in a recent pickup game. 

• Not everyone in Champaign was happy with Ron Zook last season.

• So there is actually a reason why Armageddon Part II won't be Prime Time. I'll let Dave Matter explain:

"Here's what I've been told as to why this game will be on FSN, not ABC/ESPN: The networks essentially have four “draft picks” for the Thanksgiving weekend. This year, the draft falls in this order: No. 1 ABC/ESPN, No. 2 ABC/SPN, No. 3 FSN, No. 4 ABC/ESPN. The Big 12 needed the networks to make their selections by June to allow for any games to be moved to different days for TV purposes. ABC took the Texas A&M/Texas game on Thursday with the No. 1 pick. ABC took Oklahoma/Oklahoma State for Saturday with the No. 2 pick. MU officials assume ABC would have liked to take Missouri-Kansas at No. 4, but FSN slipped in and took the Border War with the No. 3 pick. That left ABC with Colorado/Nebraska in at No. 4."

So ABC would rather have A&M/Texas and OU/OSU over the Border War. I guess I can understand the first one because of the enormous fanbases of both teams, but do you really expect OU/OSU to get higher ratings than the Border War? Maybe it will but I would find that surprising.

• I also found T-Ruck's mini-camp diary, via Matter's blog.

• The Jacksonville Jaguars decided to cut ties with Brian Smith. You have to feel so bad for Mizzou's other B. Smith who never recovered from that fluky hip injury he suffered during his senior season. I'll never understand why Smith was even on the field at that point in the game (late in the fourth quarter, up by at least three scores). Doesn't that have to rank right up there with Pinkel electing to play Tony Temple during his freshman season as one of the biggest blunders of his career? I find it odd that he basically got a free pass for this during a time when many Mizzou fans were still looking for reasons to bash him.

• And last but not least, a couple of Mizzou football promos from the makers of Rock M Nation. These are Zou Dave-esque so if you don't click on any other links in this post, be sure to click on these. I love the first one because it uses the music from "The Contender" and I'm a huge Rocky fan (little known fact, MU has never lost a home football game when I've listened to that song on gameday) but the second one has all of Mike Kelly's calls of the biggest plays from last season and includes a cameo by my boy Greg Bracey, so bonus points for that.

I've fallen way behind on my links and there have been a lot of them from this past week. I will do my best to have a fresh batch posted by this weekend and possibly another special post to Bleacher's Report.

But because Game 6 of the NBA Finals is tonight you're going to have to make due with a much shorter post to tide you over until I get a little more free time. But don't worry, I've got a treat for you.

If the end of baseball season didn't signify the beginning of football season for you then maybe the first Zou Dave video of the year will! If that doesn't make you long for Faurot Field, tailgate parties and Lee Corso then I don't know what will.

Take two and a half minutes to remind yourself how well J-Mac's knee recovered (lets hope for the same for 'Nario).

One thing that really stood out to me from the video that I hadn't really thought of before is the nature of Maclin's big runs. He's shown the ability to be shifty and change direction but with the exception of his punt return versus Illinois, none of his big runs involve him juking and breaking ankles. He just shifts into another gear and blows by everyone. Initially, that doesn't make for as impressive of a highlight reel. But if you really sit down and watch the gap between him and the closest defenders widen so quickly then I think it becomes even more amazing.

And one other thing about Maclin, I think we need a new nickname for him. I know J-Mac has really caught on, but that's just so cliché. I tried calling him "The Macrowave" last season but I'm not really sold on that either. This could be a good poll question. Lets put our heads together and try to come up with something new by Aug. 30.

I have a slew of links that are worth passing along but you're going to have to wait until this weekend for those because I feel obligated to respond to a recent reader's post concerning my March 6 post"Class of '08: Thanks for the uh...memories?"

In that post I gave a rundown of my favorite and least favorite memory of the four seniors from this year's basketball team. Here is what I wrote concerning Butters:

Darryl Butterfield
Favorite memory: N/A
Worst memory: Wow, so many to choose from. I'm going to go with the time he was charged with peace disturbance barely over a week after he was arrested for beating his girlfriend.

Here is a response verbatim from "Anonymous" posted on June 11: 

"You suck on Darryl Butterfield you is a hater of Darryl Butterfield. He is not a abuser that you paint him to be. You is a person how likes writing ugly thing about people if it's not the truth, get a life. I wonder if you get in trouble and someone write a bad comment on you how will you take it. what go around come around one day it might be you. Hater of Darryl Butterfield We love Butterfield he is a wonderfully person who care about people one thing I know about butterfield he don't throw people under the bus, like you hater."

"Darryl Butterfield I know is a kind person who will help people if he can he doesn't talk about he wouldn't thow people under the bus give him the dues that he deserves he had some good games at mu he did help the team. You is not fair in your writing of Darry Butterfield. you is one of the reasons why player by pass Mu. You is a hater"

I'm going to resist the urge to analyze this reader's, um...unique writing style and thank them for the passionate response. I'm being serious here, I would rather have a dozen responses like this one than none at all. That said, I have a point to make.

Nowhere on Big MO Sports have I ever passed judgement on Darryl Butterfield's character. I have, however, questioned his (and several others) commitment to the University of Missouri's men's basketball team dozens of times. Doing that does not mean I think Butterfield is a bad human being. I understand everyone makes mistakes and nobody looks good doing them. I hope Butterfield ends up being successful and living a happy, prosperous life.

But this is a blog about Mizzou athletics. And during his time as a Mizzou athlete, Darryl Butterfield proved that there were other things a lot more important to him than basketball. He proved that by getting charged with peace disturbance (something he pleaded guilty to) a week after he had that disturbance with his girlfriend. He may have been completely innocent in that first altercation but if he was already on thin ice wouldn't it make sense for him to be on his best behavior? And to make matters worth he breaks curfew at least once during Athenagate. 


Oh, and I'm not "painting" anything here. These are facts. They actually happened. I also don't like writing stuff like this about athletes. I'm a Mizzou student. I grew up cheering for the school's sports teams and especially the basketball team. Following the university's sports teams might be my most enjoyable pastime. I'd much rather be writing about what a great and unselfish player Butterfield was and how he always put the team first. But unfortunately that's not how he conducted himself. 

Nonetheless, I wish him well because contrary to what "Anonymous" may tell you, I is not a hater.

 

Rewind to Nov. 24, 2007 for a moment. 

The nation's second- and third-ranked teams square off in a memorial contest on neutral territory bringing one of college football's oldest rivalries to the attention of a national public that had previously been largely unfamiliar with the rivalry's history. It would be the highest rated game of the 2007 college football season.





Fast forward to a little over 6 months later. Both schools are preparing for a college football season in which expectations are higher than they have ever been for both teams.


So it only makes sense to not nationally televise this year's Border War, right?


That's right. Armageddon: The Sequel, will be televised only on FSN at either 11:30 a.m. or 2. Those of us that don't live in the KC area and don't want to get up at the crack of dawn can kiss tailgating goodbye. 

I understand that it's highly unlikely that this year's game will match the hype surrounding last year's. But you're telling me we can't at least get the 2:30 ABC game? We got ABC two years ago when both teams were just hoping to get in a bowl. Now both teams have legitimate BCS dreams and we can only get FSN Midwest? The only other games that day that I could understand getting the national slot over us would be USC-Notre Dame because the Fighting Irish actually rule the world (already scheduled for 7 p.m., not sure if ABC or ESPN will get it though) and possibly Alabama-Auburn. 

Inexplicable.

In other news:

• Remember how I was saying Danario's injury gives JP the perfect opportunity to return to his freshman form? Graham Watson agrees with me.

• I guess the time we miss tailgating at Arrowhead we can make up for by tailgating extra long at the Arch Rivalry. 

• Gary Pinkel and Tony Temple won the Oscar of college sports commercials for their work in "Speed." I personally preferred the one where Chase threw a pass to Will Franklin from Faurot to the columns. I thought the special effects in that one were George Lucasesque.

• Mike Alden has the respect of his peers. Love him or hate him, the MU Athletic Department is in pretty good shape (minus the basketball teams).

This will probably only interest  those of you who are dorky enough, like me, to count down the days every year until EA Sports releases their NCAA Football video game (July 15 for PS2).

But this year we have a reason to be especially stoked because we get the GOLD PANTS!!!





We also get the privilege of beating Kansas in their red and whites. I was going to bash those uniforms until I realized they're the color of the American flag. Horribly unfortunate that those two entities have to be associated in any way, shape or form.



Colorado and Texas Tech are the other Big 12 teams that will have alternate unis available.

The player rankings for the Top 25 teams has also been released. You can download the spreadsheet here.

Photo through Creative Commons.

Yesterday afternoon the MU coaching staff found out that its most physically imposing wide receiver, Danario Alexander, will have to undergo further surgery on his left knee to repair the ACL that he injured in the Big 12 Championship game and caused him to miss the Cotton Bowl. 

It is believed that Alexander will be back for the start of conference play but he is almost certain to miss all of Mizzou's non-conference games.

This isn't the end of the world for the Tigers, obviously. But it's certainly not an insignificant injury. The Tigers still have a lot of talent at WR and they still have that Coffman guy who's alright. But they don't have the depth they had last year. Two things have to happen for the Tigers to be able to overcome this injury:

1. Jared Perry has to re-emerge as a playmaker. I'm confident this will happen. I've said before I think a lot of people forgot how good he looked as a freshman. And by all accounts he was one of the hardest working players this spring and that hard work appeared to be paying off as coaches and media alike were raving about his performances in practice and scrimmages.
2. One of the freshman weapons that MU has brought in (Wes Kemp, Rolandis Woodland, Andrew Jones) will have to pretend they're not rookies. Again, I'm confident at least one of these guys can step in and contribute immediately. If there is one position that this coaching staff seems to specialize in, it's wide receiver.

So I fully expect this injury to be an obstacle that this team can overcome. But that doesn't mean I'm not very concerned. This offense is undergoing a lot of change as it is and when your first game is against a team like Illinois, that becomes worrisome. You need as many proven guys as you can get. 

I'm even more concerned for Danario. He seems destined to be plagued by injuries during his career. He has size that no other receivers on this team has and skills that only Maclin can match. He's got a future NFL career ahead of him if he can overcome these injuries but thus far he hasn't been able to do that. 

Only time will tell if Danario can reach his potential or if he's destined to be Mizzou's answer to the NBA's Grant Hill. 

First things first. Aaron Crow. Drafted ninth by the Washington Nationals. Congratulations.

Five other Tigers. Drafted in the MLB Draft. Congratulations.

Baseball season's now over. It's finished. See ya next year. We're moving on.
And you know what that means?

IT'S FOOTBALL SEASON!

I don't mean to discount the baseball team because I really do enjoy going to Taylor Stadium on sunny Saturday afternoons and there were some very entertaining games this past season (especially when Crow was pitching). It's just....

IT'S FOOTBALL SEASON!

And I'm counting down the days to Dave Matter and Graham Watson's first practice reports and Mike DeArmond's first disturbing vlog post.

By now you've probably noticed the poll posted to your right about Mizzou's running back situation and this is something I've wanted to discuss for awhile. It's a very interesting position battle for several reasons.

First of all, the Temple of Doom is gone and that's obviously a significant loss. What made Tony great was that he saved his best performances for big games (Sun Bowl, Armageddon at Arrowhead, Cotton Bowl, etc.). Those performances built him a permanent home in the hearts of Mizzou fans. 

But while every Tiger fan admits they are going to miss Big Game Temple, I have yet to come across a True Son who thinks Mizzou's running game is really going to suffer without him. 

And that's because the Tigers have two guys coming back, Derrick Washington and Jimmy Jackson, who have also proven themselves in key spots.

Nobody really expected Jimmy Jackson to do anything more than occasionally give Temple a rest last year and maybe occasionally give the offense a change of pace. There was even some doubt in August as to whether he was going to be able to hold off Marcus Woods for the backup spot. But by the end of the year he was stealing carries from Temple. He was especially effective when used in the pistol formation in goal line packages, rushing for 7 touchdowns.

Washington, on the other hand, hit campus with the kind of expectations that were at least comparable to the hype that accompanied Temple upon his arrival to Columbia. Unlike Temple, he wasn't thrown directly into the fire delaying his maturation as a player and person by at least two years (possibly the worst decision of Pinkel's career). 

Washington's playing time gradually increased over the course of the season culminating when he caught a critical touchdown pass in the second half of Armageddon. 

Everyone tends to agree that this is a win-win situation for the MU coaching staff. Both players appear capable of handling a starting role. Jackson has experience starting and Washington has been groomed to eventually be the starter since he stepped foot in the Daniel J. Devine Pavilion.

But an overwhelming majority would prefer to see Washington as the starter. Why such apathetic feelings toward the more seasoned Jimmy Jack? 

Lets take a look at their stats from last year: 

Jackson: 67 carries,  342 yds, 4.9 ypc, 7 TDs, 6 receptions, 30 rec. yds     
  Washington: 36, carries, 199 yds, 5.1 ypc, 1 TD, 10 receptions, 70 rec. yds, 1 rec. TD   

Jackson's totals are higher because, like I said, he was used more at the beginning of the season. But at least on paper, there doesn't appear to be much difference between the two. Washington seems to be a bigger receiving threat but Jackson has proven to be a more reliable weapon in the red zone.

But ask yourself this question; Which player has a better chance at making it onto the cover of NCAA Football '10? 

Everyone is going to answer Washington. 

The point is, we don't know exactly how much potential Washington has. He's shown us flashes but his talent is mostly untapped. He could be a guy who runs for 800-900 yards, scores a half dozen touchdowns. He could be a guy who runs for 1,100 and scores a dozen. Or maybe he's an All-American. We aren't sure. 

So we'd rather have him than a player like Jackson who could probably rush for 800 yards and score 8-10 touchdowns. We know what we've got with Jackson and what we've got is a pretty darn good running back. But he's the safe pick. It's a fan's tendency to swing for the fences, to throw the deep ball, to not rest your starters and to run up the score. 

It's really doesn't matter who the "starter" is anyways. Everyone knows both guys are going to get their opportunities to shine. But inevitably, one will emerge as the guy who gets more carries than the other. 

I think a lot of people expect Jackson to be the starter in week 1 but Washington to overtake him by midseason. I don't see the logic in that. Washington's had a year to learn and develop. What's more, he's had a season to learn from Temple about the dangers of having sky high expectations. He can start now. He doesn't have to get 30 carries against Illinois or even 20 for that matter. But if you're expecting him to be The Man, you've got to get him on the field.

And I think Pinkel knows that. He's not going to repeat the same mistake he made with Temple. He made sure of that by limiting Washington's exposure as a freshman. But he's not going to use Jackson's experience as his security blanket either. Pinkel's proven he's not afraid to take chances provided the potential reward is high. If Washington outperforms JJ this summer or even if they finish in a dead heat, I think D-Wash is The Man.