SB Nation - Del Howard

ROCK M PHOTO GALLERY

Bill C. — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 16:23:19 -0000

Here at Rock M Nation, we've got quite a few very talented people on our side. One of the best assets is the esteemed Mr. Bill Carter, who decided a few years ago to become, as a hobby, the most badass sports photographer in the area. Thanks to his "hobby", we are able to present the Rock M Photo Gallery for the Bowling Green game. Enjoy.

Mizzou 2009, Part Twelve: The Secondary

Bill C. — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 15:30:09 -0000

Moving right along in the Mizzou 2009 series...

Secondary

I think that was Ricky Steamboat's finishing move.

2008 Unit Ranking: #28 in the nation (#6 in the Big 12)

Projected Depth Chart
CB Carl Gettis (5'11, 195, Jr.)
S Kenji Jackson (5'10, 195, So.)
CB Kevin Rutland (6'0, 195, Jr.)
S Jarrell Harrison (6'2, 220, Jr.)
S Hardy Ricks (6'0, 200, Sr.)
CB Trey Hobson (5'11, 190, So.)
S Jasper Simmons (6'1, 205, Jr.)
CB Robert Steeples (6'1, 195, RSFr.)
CB Kip Edwards (6'1, 200, RSFr.)
CB Munir Prince (5'10, 185, Jr.)
S Del Howard (5'11, 200, Sr.)

1. How bad was the Mizzou secondary in 2008? I won't spend a lot of time on this one, simply because I've gone over it before. Factoring in junk-time yards and the quality of the offenses Missouri was facing, they simply weren't nearly as bad as people want to think. Let's take a quick look back at the schedule, using good old S&P as a guide:

Opponent	Season Passing S&P	S&P vs Missouri*	Diff
vs Illinois	0.906	0.758	-0.148
Nevada	0.812	0.734	-0.078
Buffalo	0.855	0.827	-0.028
@ Nebraska	1.013	0.920	-0.097
Oklahoma State	1.083	0.950	-0.133
@ Texas	1.096	1.212	+0.116
Colorado	0.666	0.160	-0.506
@ Baylor	0.805	0.946	+0.141
Kansas State	0.853	0.195	-0.658
@ Iowa State	0.808	0.897	+0.089
vs Kansas	0.939	0.967	+0.028
vs Oklahoma	1.195	1.212	+0.017
vs Northwestern	0.812	0.792	-0.020

* Now's a good time to remind you that these are close-game ratings, meaning the only plays accounted for here took place when the score was within 24 points in Q1, 21 in Q2, and under 17 in Q3/Q4. Pretty much all of Illinois' passing success, for instance, took place when Mizzou was up a large amount, and when Illinois cut the lead back inside two possessions, the defense locked down again.

So Missouri held eight of 13 FBS opponents (no SEMO here) below their season rates, and in the case of a couple opponents--Colorado and K-State--completely shut them down. They gave up two huge passes to Northwestern and otherwise limited them to sometimes inefficient slant routes.

Now, one reason people are talking about how atrocious the Mizzou pass defense was in 2008 goes beyond the "117th in passing yardage" thing (which I've pretty thoroughly debunked by this time, I think). It's that they seemed to get worse as the season progressed. Of the five opponents who achieved an S&P above their season average, four came in the last six games, and they all came in the last eight. Granted, only two teams (Texas, Baylor) far exceeded their season averages--everybody else exceeded in very minor terms, but still, the Mizzou pass defense went from far above average early on (the perception was still hurt by those bombs to Will Judson against Illinois) to average or slightly below-average later in the season. Clearly that will need to change.

So here's my question: I don't think any of us are too worried about the secondary, at least not worried about them being any worse than last year. But if they actually weren't bad last year, can we still expect a comparative level of play? Can Kevin Rutland v2009 cover better than Castine Bridges (and Tru Vaughns, and Kevin Rutland) v2008? Can Carl Gettis do better in the nickel back role than William Moore did?

Mizzou's passing yardage numbers should improve this year for a number of reasons: 1) they probably won't be far ahead of teams as much, 2) they might be running the ball more (and therefore potentially eating more clock), 3) it's hard to get much worse than last year's yardage numbers, 4) et cetera. But will their S&P and S&P+ improve? Can they be counted on to at least hold teams to their season average in this regard? Are they going to be reliant on the lawfirm of Smith, Smith and Coulter to get good pressure on the QB and make their lives easier? We'll see.

2. Is somebody going to overtake Hardy Ricks in the starting lineup? Sub-question: how valuable is experience? I honestly have nothing against Hardy Ricks. I think he's a good hitter, he's a damn solid backup, and he seems like a good kid. I advocated for him to move to safety in 2007, thought that would suit his style of play better, and I still think that. But I just don't trust that he's good enough to be the starter in a decent secondary. I don't think his cover skills are up to snuff, even for a safety, and I'll feel much better about the defense if Jarrell Harrison or Jasper Simmons is able to overtake him as a starter by September 5.

And no, I do not know anything about the quality of play Harrison or Simmons are capable of delivering, but I think I know Ricks pretty well by now--he's a known quantity--and I'm really hoping that either or both of them are better.

3. Should Carl Gettis move to safety? This is not really a realistic question...just a thought. We've read for the last couple of weeks that this is the deepest set of cornerbacks Gary Pinkel has had at Missouri, how guys like Trey Hobson, Kip Edwards, Robert Steeples and Munir Prince are virtually interchangeable and how any of them would have started for Pinkel's first few teams. Meanwhile, at safety, Ricks is fighting with two JUCO transfers (Harrison, Simmons) for a spot in the starting lineup. And in the nickel alignment, Gettis plays the roaming nickel back. If he's already putting together some safety-esque skills, and Hobson/Edwards/Steeples/Prince are better at CB than Ricks is at safety, then shouldn't this be a move we're considering?

Now...that's as far as I'm going with the thought. It's a waste of time to make suggestions or speculate about position changes when a) we're not at every practice (for all we know, Ricks could have turned into an all-conference safety over the offseason...though I think I'll go ahead and doubt that), and b) we're not the coaches, but it's certainly an idea that's been floating around in my head the last couple of weeks. I'd take my chances with a (short) safety combo of Kenji Jackson and Carl Gettis, with Kevin Rutland and the winner of the Hobson/Edwards/Steeples/Prince derby starting at CB.

Mizzou Links, 8-7-09

Bill C. — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 10:54:00 -0000

I think I've figured out the two prettiest words in the English language: PRACTICE REPORT!!!!!!!1!!!! WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!1!!!1!!!!!!!!!!!!

DAVE...excuse me, forgot to take caps lock off...Dave Matter, take it away.

The players have gone with "Beast M.O.D.E." as their official team slogan for the season. But they’re not sharing its secret meaning. "We can’t talk about it," Weatherspoon said. "It’s a team motto. It’s just a place you want to go, kind of like the Incredible Hulk. You get on the field, you just have to transform into something else besides just a regular guy. I won’t get into the acronym, but you can know it stands for something. We’ll talk about it later. When the season’s over, you and I’ll talk about it." Fair enough, Capt. Spoon.

...

There’s certainly a new defensive boss running the show. That much was obvious midway through practice when defensive coordinator Dave Steckel chewed out safety Kenji Jackson after what looked like a blown coverage on a deep pass to Alexander. "Get me a free safety!" Stec shouted as Del Howard replaced Jackson. "Are you kidding me?"

Other reports...and there are quite a few (WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!)...

PowerMizzou: Camp Is Open
Speaking of freshmen, the first one I noticed when I walked out to the practice fields was Donovan Bonner. On signing day, Bruce Walker told me Bonner was "a sandwich away from being a linebacker." He must have stopped at Subway on his way to Columbia. He looks good. His big brother in camp is Sean Weatherspoon. It's too early to speculate which youngsters might play, but I've got my eye on No. 8.
PowerMizzou: Freshman Q&A: TJ Moe
PM: Coming in, people were speculating what position you'd play. Safety, running back, even quarterback were all mentioned. Do you feel like you can best utilize your talent as a receiver?

MOE (laughing): That's what they think. It's fine with me. I've been put in the position where I can do a lot of things. I've really been blessed. When I was a little kid I played fullback, running back, I even played nose guard. I've been playing all over the place. I played receiver when I was a sophomore in high school, so I'm just getting re-adjusted to it a little bit. It's not really a difficult thing. I know what's going on, and like I said, the older guys are doing a great job to make sure we know what's going on. It's really not a hard transition. Either way, I've got some learning to do - everyone does. I mean, we're going to college now.
Mutigers.com: Football Practice Report

Highlights from the day came from linebackers Will Ebner and Andrew Gachkar early on, as they both grabbed interceptions in passing game drill work. Later on, when it came down to 11-on-11 scrimmaging, QB Blaine Gabbert looked good in his few plays as he hooked up with TE Andrew Jones on a mid-range gainer, before showing good speed on the next play when he tucked the ball after finding no-one open downfield. He got about five yards downfield in a hurry, before he was met by Sean Weatherspoon, who could only touch Gabbert down. Spoon closed in a hurry and he most definitely would have laid a big hit on the QB were it a live game situation.
KC Star: As practice begins, Tigers aren't talking like Big 12 also-rans

So what if Nebraska has been picked to win the Big 12 North? Or Kansas? Frankly, most Missouri players don’t take issue with those who champion Kansas.

"Kansas, they’ve got a lot of guys coming back," said linebacker Sean Weatherspoon, another senior captain. "Everybody knows it. It’s understood. "I won’t get into Nebraska. It’s Nebraska. They’re going to get their respect. Good luck to those guys."
Post-Dispatch: New era begins at MU

So, on his first official day as the frontrunner to become the Tigers' 2009 starter, Gabbert wasn't afraid to use a little hyperbole when asked how he gauges a good performance in practice.

"Score on every pass,'' he said. "You have to expect the best out of yourself, so I'm trying to complete every pass, make something happen and eliminate the mental errors."
The Missourian: Cornerback enjoys return to field as Missouri football practices start

"Today, day one, (they) have a tendency not to run to the ball. We were on top of everybody trying to get them to run to the football. Having pride of what you do on the field, that no coach questions your effort on the field — that's what we're trying to get done today," Ford said.

"I just want playmakers at that position. That's a position where guys have to produce, be fundamentally sound, and make plays for our defense. If we can get that out of our corners, we're going to be very successful."

The Trib has video as well.

Gary Pinkel, Aug. 6 from Dave Matter on Vimeo.

And in case you missed the comments from yesterday, the team's plans for continuously honoring Aaron O'Neal are freaking great.

Another "in case you missed it": Preseason Depth Chart.

Photo galleries!

Rivals.com has made a list of the nation's biggest shoes to fill. Guess who makes the list.

Mailbags!

Since it's still K-State Week, I'm including this "Are K-State fans expecting too much?" link (via BOTC). And because Illinois is first up on the docket, here's a summer look at UI from Rivalry, Esq.

Feel like continuing the Big 12 vs SEC debate? Bruce Feldman's your man!

Finally, nothing to do with Mizzou, but Stewart Mandel takes a look at the 25th anniversary of BYU's national title and asks, can it ever happen again? I say yes...if it's a case with circumstances a lot like 1984:

1) It needs to be a team who has been good for a while (like Boise State) and can get a head start on the polls. Heading into 1984, BYU had finished 1983 ranked 7th in the country and though they weren't ranked in the 1984 preseason (they had lost Steve Young), the name recognition bumped them up the list pretty quickly. They were 8th by Week Three and 4th heading into November.

2) Everything has to break right. In 1984, everybody who got to the top of the polls lost. Auburn started at #1 and lost their first game. Miami-FL made it to #1, then immediately ceded the spot to Nebraska, who lasted three weeks. Texas took over for two, then Washington laid claim to 1st place for a month. They lost, and Nebraska jumped back to #1, but only for a week. They lost to OU, and BYU took #1. Here's the final pre-bowl AP poll. BYU had not played much of a tough schedule (they did try--they played preseason #3 Pittsburgh in the first week of the season and beat them, but Pitt crashed and burned at 3-7-1, which didn't help), but I think at #1 in the AP Poll with everybody else having suffered losses, BYU would have played OU in the BCS title game that year. It's certainly possible that Washington would have snuck ahead of them, but they had only played one team better than 7-5 themselves (USC), and they lost that game. I think BYU would have snuck in.

Oh yeah, and...

Spring Football Update: The Secondary

Bill C. — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 14:00:13 -0000

The switch has been flipped from basketball to football, and I figure the best way to dip our toes back in the water is to revisit my 2009 Walkthrough series from January and see what has or hasn't changed since then. We move now to 2008's most maligned unit, the secondary (CBs, safeties).

Cornerbacks

Carl Gettis photo by PowerMizzou's Dan Turner

I'll be honest--I have no idea what to make of Kevin Rutland. He doesn't seem as fast or physical as Trey Hobson, but he was above Hobson on the depth chart most of the year. I don't know if it was just that Hobson was sporadic in practice or what, but I'll feel a lot less worried about this unit if Hobson emerges over Rutland.

...

Mizzou's pass defense is based on a "read and react" type of mindset, which works if you've got guys who can react really quickly. That alone dissuades the use of under-classmen who aren't quite up to speed in the mental department yet, but if guys like Hobson, Steeples or Edwards are ready for prime time, this defense just got a lot faster and, possibly, a lot better. This unit will be very interesting to watch in March and April.

What's changed? Kevin Rutland has apparently become very good at reading and reacting. The junior-to-be has gotten solid reviews from both Dave Matter and Gabe Dearmond for makng a nice play on a ball and getting a pick about once a practice, and it appears he's grabbed a decent hold of the starting CB job opposite Carl Gettis. When Gettis moves to the nickelback position, Hobson moves in at CB, suggesting he's a definite #3.

It seems pretty common for defensive backs in Mizzou's system to make a pretty nice-sized jump between sophomore and junior seasons--think David Overstreet, or Jason Simpson, or William Moore. Granted, those examples are all safeties, but I guess it's not out of the realm of possibility that things have clicked for Rutland, and he's going to be a rock-solid CB. I hope so--lord knows I've read enough about his athletic ability in the last couple of years to think he could be pretty good if he put the mental side together.

Even though I'd maybe like to see a bit more of a tight competition between Rutland, Hobson, Munir Prince and the redshirt freshmen (who are apparently playing like redshirt freshmen and stuck on 3rd string), if Rutland is that much better than them, then fine. I do like the thought of a super-physical set of CBs, and the presence of Gettis and Hobson, and to a lesser extent Rutland, suggests that this could be a pretty smart, aggressive, punishing unit, and that's certainly not a bad thing. Again, Dave Steckel's more physical mindset at defensive coordinator might be a good fit here.

Expected Spring Finish

1. Carl Gettis (Jr)
2. Kevin Rutland (Jr)
3. Trey Hosbon (So)
4. Munir Prince (Jr)
5. Robert Steeples (RSFr)
6. Kip Edwards (RSFr)

Once again, not a senior in the mix.

Safeties

Jerrell Harrison photo by PowerMizzou's Dan Turner

Even when [Hardy] Ricks was starting at CB, he seemed to play more like a safety. His coverage skills aren't impressive, but he's big and physical, he closes fast and hits hard. I was excited about the prospect of RIcks as strong safety, but...it just hasn't really taken yet. Any view of Ricks in 2008 was of Ricks chasing down some free-roaming receiver, trying to prevent a big play from turning into a really big play. It wasn't an encouraging display. Maybe everything clicks in his senior year, but as with Kevin Rutland at CB, I'll feel a little more encouraged if a younger player with more (you guessed it) upside overtakes him.

What's changed? Well, nobody's taken the strong safety job from Ricks yet. I hate sounding like I'm bagging on certain players, especially Ricks, who can make quite a few hits and nice, athletic plays if he's on the field long enough. Again, though, he just doesn't quite seem to have the cover skills or ball-reading skills I want from a SS, and I'm still hoping that Jarrell Harrison or Zaviar Gooden is able to overtake him when all is said and done. We'll see what happens. Harrison hasn't been around a lot, but just getting here for spring practices was a nice victory for him, and if he continues to get his footing through the rest of spring and into summer, there could be a pretty good battle in August.

What we do know for sure, though, is that reports on Kenji Jackson are thus far exactly what I was hoping to read. Like Sean Weatherspoon in 2007, it appears he's turned into a pretty solid unit leader despite being just a sophomore-to-be. He doesn't come in a William Moore-sized package--he's only about 5'10, 200 instead of 6'1, 225--but he's a playmaker, and if he continues to improve and lead this defense, I'll forgive him for not convincing his buddy Stepfan Taylor to sign with Mizzou (kidding, sort of...loved that kid's video).

Expected Spring Finish

1. Kenji Jackson (So)
2. Hardy Ricks (Sr)
3. Jarrell Harrison (Jr)
4. Zaviar Gooden (RSFr)
5. Del Howard (Sr)

It would make sense that, after 2009, at least one of the listed cornerbacks ends up making the move to safety to even out the two lists (though I guess some of that will depend if incoming freshman Donavan Bonner is able to keep the weight down enough to play safety, or if he ends up at linebacker...oh yeah, and if he's good enough to crack the two-deep this time next year). Either way, only two of the 11 guys listed above are seniors, and neither of them may be starting by the end of 2009.

(My "We could be really good in 2010-11" hints are getting less and less subtle.)

A 2009 Walkthrough: Safeties

Bill C. — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 16:00:08 -0000

Quarterbacks
Running Backs
Wide Receivers
Tight Ends
Offensive Line
Defensive Ends
Defensive Tackles
Linebackers
Cornerbacks

While there is more experience at safety than cornerbacks, I'm actually a bit more concerned about this unit. There was more experience here last year too, yet on first glance it seemed most of the communication breakdowns in the secondary could be pinned more on the safeties than CBs. Will that improve in 2009? Let's see.

Returnees

Kenji Jackson (5'10, 200, Sophomore)
2008: 62 tackles, 2 INT, 1 FF, 1 PBR

The last of 11 freshmen to have his redshirt torn off in 2008, Kenji (pronounced KEN-juh...I think) Jackson ended up possibly contributing the most, offering an ounce of stability to an increasingly volatile unit. Despite his inexperience, Jackson seemed less likely than Justin Garrett, Hardy Ricks, or Del Howard to miss tackles or be caught out of position. Plus, he's likeable. He seems like a great kid, he doesn't showboat, he's aware of what's going on, he dances in Wal Marts...what's not to like?

The main question remaining for Kenji is upside. How much of it does he have? There were a couple of times where he was just a step away from stopping a big play or, in the case of one of Northwestern's touchdowns in the Alamo Bowl, he jumped just a hair too early to prevent a reception. He wasn't perfect, but what we don't know is how much of his flaws were due to inexperience and how much were due to needing just a bit more athleticism or talent. The former is very fixable; the latter...not so much.

Even if he's already close to maxing out his upside and potential, Kenji is going to be a smart, strong, stabilizing force in the secondary for years to come, and even if he's closer to Harold Piersey than William Moore in the athleticism department, I like the thought of him lining up as the last line of defense for the next three years.

Hardy Ricks (6'0, 190, Senior)
2008: 39 tackles, 1.5 TFL, 1 QBH
2007: 21 tackles, 1 TFL, 1 PBR
2006: 40 tackles, 1 TFL, 1 PBR

Hmm...which of the disappointing seniors should we go with first? We'll start with Hardy Ricks, who has tanatlized Mizzou fans over the years with random great hits and great plays, followed by long disappearances. Ricks played quite a bit as a freshman in 2006's relatively volatile secondary and began the 2007 season starting at CB opposite Darnell Terrell. He is best remembered for sticking Juice Williams in the '07 Illinois game and knocking him out of the game, which indirectly led to a dramatic Illinois near-comeback as Eddie McGee entered the game and got the offense going. Ricks got injured himself early in '07, lost his starting position to Carl Gettis, and ended up moving to safety.

Even when Ricks was starting at CB, he seemed to play more like a safety. His coverage skills aren't impressive, but he's big and physical, he closes fast and hits hard. I was excited about the prospect of RIcks as strong safety, but...it just hasn't really taken yet. Any view of Ricks in 2008 was of Ricks chasing down some free-roaming receiver, trying to prevent a big play from turning into a really big play. It wasn't an encouraging display. Maybe everything clicks in his senior year, but as with Kevin Rutland at CB, I'll feel a little more encouraged if a younger player with more (you guessed it) upside overtakes him.

Del Howard (5'11, 200, Senior)
2008: 41 tackles, 1 PBR
2007: 32 tackles, 1 TFL, 1 PBR
2006: 9 tackles, 2 INT, 1 TFL

Speaking of tantalizing...Howard began his career by picking off two passes early in his true freshman year at CB. In the 2.5 seasons since then, he has...zero picks. Howard moved to safety as a sophomore and ended up part of the legendary Deltin Garward (Del Howard + Justin Garrett) combination charged with replacing Pig Brown after Piggie was lost for the season.

A meaner way to put that would be, "He was part of the defense's weakest link in 2007 (and 2008)," but I won't put it that way.

Honestly, while I always thought Ricks would make a better safety than corner back, I've never been completely sure why Howard was moved to safety. I assume the coaches know more about a player's everyday strengths and weaknesses than I do, but to me he's always seemed better at reading a WR's intentions than a QB's eyes, if that makes sense. Maybe it's because of the tiny, successful 2006 sample size, but he seems capable of mixing it up one-on-one, but he's always a step too slow in the Cover 2. Either way, at this stage as a senior, he's in the same boat as Ricks--he has some skills to offer, but I'll be much happier if somebody else is starting at FS.

Gilbert Moye (6'2, 210, Sophomore)
2008: null

Quick impression: "A 4-star recruit from Texas? Who wants to play for Mizzou? Awesome! This guy could be the breakthrough we've been looking for with Texas kids!"

That was me, and a few hundred other Mizzou fans and recruiting nerds upon hearing that Gilbert Moye had committed to Mizzou in mid-December 2006. This guy was a huge cog in the 2007 recruting class.

He's also, apparently, a guy without a position. He was a quarterback in high school, but it was quickly clear that his future was on defense. The coaching staff even considered playing him as a true freshman in 2007. Only...to date, he's proven to be not quite athletic enough to play in the secondary, not quite big enough to play linebacker.

He's also been a trouble case from time to time, getting into a fight with his roommate during his redshirt year and getting suspended for the Alamo Bowl this past December. I never want to predict who might or might not be a transfer possibility because I'm not an insider, I rarely get the full story on incidents (nor should I get them), and it's not fair to speculate about that sort of thing. But if I were to speculate on such a thing, I'd have to lean toward this guy as a potential transfer risk.

That said, he was only a redshirt freshman in 2008. If he does stay, he's got three years to figure things out and find a position, and I really hope he does just that. Lord knows that with this secondary, the opportunity is there if he figures things out (and gets a step faster).

Redshirts

Zaviar Gooden (6'2, 210, RSFr)

If Mizzou had played 11 true freshmen instead of 10, Zaviar Gooden would have probably been #11. He was part of a super-athletic bunch of DB redshirts, and while we have yet to see for sure whether he'll end up a big safety or move to linebacker, reporters and coaches have had many good things to say about this kid. Honestly, I'm more optimistic about the linebackers, so I hope he's fast enough to stay at safety. He has the highest (stop me, please) upside of anybody in the corps of safeties, and I would love it if he were to thrive here. But it's all hearsay with Gooden for now--we'll see what he actually has to offer in the spring.

Incoming

Jarrell Harrison (6'2, 210, City College of San Francisco)

Joshua Tatum's JUCO teammate, Harrison, who has already signed and will be in Columbia for spring practice, flew under the radar and after signing with UNLV out of high school, he ended up with offers from N.C. State and both Arizona schools before landing with Mizzou.

Harrison's JUCO film (below) shows a guy who hits hard and puts himself in the right position...but you never want to speculate much on high school or JUCO film. Until they do it at the D1 level, you never know for sure what they can do. Either way, Harrison will have every opportunity to step right in and start for Mizzou--lord knows nobody else has called dibs on the starting FS job just yet.

Jasper Simmons (6'1, 210, Hutchinson JUCO)

Another 3-star JUCO recruit, Simmons has been committed to Mizzou long enough that people have forgotten about him a little bit. A Pensacola, FL, product, Simmons' stats show a guy with potential to be a strong, stabilizing force. He breaks up passes, doesn't miss many tackles, and could see the field pretty quickly in 2009. I don't believe he'll be in for the spring, but I could be wrong about that.

T.J. Moe (6'0, 180, St. Louis)

I mentioned him at CB yesterday, but I think his future is at safety. As I mentioned yesterday, this dude is exciting. He has great footwork, speed, and body control, and the only question is whether he grasps all the nooks and crannies of the safety position quickly enough to play as a true freshman.

Potential Incoming

Donavan Bonner (6'2, 225, Dallas, TX)

Gabe at PowerMizzou is very confident that Bonner is about to become a Mizzou commit. Dude's huge for a safety, and I have to imagine the odds are good that he ends up at linebacker, but he's listed as a safety for now, so he's on this list. Bonner is a current Colorado State commit, and he will be one candidate in the annual "Who's Mizzou's best Texas diamond in the rough?" race. It appears that Kansas State has entered the race for his services, but Mizzou seems (so far) to have the edge.

Joseph Bonugli (5'11, 190, San Antonio, TX)

A new name to surface on the recruiting trail, Bonugli might be visiting Columbia in the next couple of weeks. It's unclear if Rivals' #90 player in the state of Texas has an offer from Mizzou or not--I don't think he does--but clearly the staff is considering him, and clearly Bonugli is considering Mizzou.

2008 vs 2009

William Moore was one of the best (if not the best) safeties we'll ever see at Mizzou, but he was less of a factor in 2008 than 2007, and Mizzou never could find a valuable counterpart for him. Kenji Jackson emerged late in '08, but with Moore playing as much as a third linebacker as a second safety, there was still another safety on the field most times--be it Justin Garrett, Ricks, Howard, whoever--and the search for a playmaker went on and on without success. More candidates enter the fold in 2009, and that can't be a bad thing. If Gooden is ready to step up as a redshirt freshman, or if everything clicks for Moye, or if Harrison or Simmons is ready to roll from Day One, this unit could improve despite the loss of Willy Mo. If not...then, well, Mizzou should have enough offensive potential to outscore guys, right?

2009 Mizzou DBs on the YouTubes

Kenji Jackson in high school...

Kenji stops a fake punt

Gilbert Moye in August 2007

Jarrell Harrison

Poll

Who starts at safety opposite Kenji Jackson in 2009?

Hardy Ricks

7 votes

Del Howard

7 votes

Gilbert Moye

6 votes

Zaviar Gooden

14 votes

Jarrell Harrison

22 votes

Jasper Simmons

9 votes

Other

1 votes

66 votes | Poll has closed

Rock M Roundtable!

Bill C. — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 22:00:05 -0000

I forgot today was Wednesday (it's been that kind of week), but ZouDave came through with Roundtable questions. Hoooorraaaaaay, ZouDave!

1 - On a scale of 1-14, with 1 being "not even a little" and 14 being "Jenna Haze on Ecstasy", how bad does Mediacom's service suck in the Columbia area?

2 - Which was it, a bad game from Mizzou or a good game from Buffalo?

3 - Now that your team's non-conference schedule is complete (see what I did there, Doug?), what are you most happy about? What are you most concerned with?

4 - It's a bye week. What will you be doing on Saturday in place of watching your favorite team?

5 - Big 12 picks!

Colorado at Florida State
Louisiana-Lafayette at Kansas State
Virginia Tech at Nebraska
TCU at Oklahoma
Troy at Oklahoma State
Army at Texas A&M

The Beef: 1 - As an out-of-towner, I just do not know. I had Mediacom for a few years back in 2000-2003, and honestly, it was never terrible. Back then I would give it an 11 maybe.

2 - I think Buffalo is a decent team and a program slowly building themselves up (as long as they can find someone as good as Gill when he leaves)…and I think Mizzou played a decent game. We have all seen the stats of what Mizzou did. Inopportune fumbles, a once-a-decade play and a roughing the kicker penalty, and POOF!!...the game goes from about 59-10 maybe to 42-21.

3 - I am not overly concerned about a lot…just curious (I suppose) to see what sort of defensive scheme we settle into with (hopefully) a healthy V. Alexander and Willy Mo.

4 - I MIGHT actually have to work on Saturday morning, which kinda messes up my plan of laundry and drinking…I am holding out hope I don’t need to come in.

5 - Colorado at Florida State – Colorado…seems strange but I don’t think FSU is all that good…nor do I think CU has arrived but I think their offense is improved.

Louisiana-Lafayette at Kansas State – kSU by…eh…a couple of TD’s

Virginia Tech at Nebraska – NU had better win this game

TCU at Oklahoma – OU, but it might be close in the first half since I like what TCU does defensively

Troy at Oklahoma State – Okie State runs for at least 350 yards

Army at Texas A&M – Can I pick another CFL-style 1-0?

The Boy: 1 - Eleventy Billion. But at least I'm paying half as much for it as I used to. Great things happen when you threaten to leave.

2 - Yes.

Honestly, as hard as I try, I just can't get too worked up about the Buffalo game. It was a "stuff happens" game, and we still won by 3 TD's. But we do need to give credit to Turner Gill and his team--they had a solid gameplan, they made the most out of little offensive firepower, and they tackled really, really, really well.

3 - I'm happy that we get a bye week here (and Nebraska doesn't), and I'm happy that the team has something to be annoyed about (a lackluster performance against UB) during the break.

4 - I wish I could say I'll be participating in THE FIRST ANNUAL ROCK M NATION BYE WEEK OPEN THREAD!!!!1!!!!!, but instead I'll be picking up the in-laws from the KC airport. I'd complain about it, but I'm getting free Bryants out of the deal.

5 - CU/FSU: I'm not sure CU's ready to win this game yet. FSU's offense is HORRIBLE, but their defense is fast enough to give CU problems. CU got 14 points out of their scripted plays against WV, then didn't score again till overtime. This has 12-9 (4 FG's to 3) written all over it, and while I hope CU wins to help the Big 12 out, I'm going with the home (approximately) team.

ULL/KSU: One more reason to hate Ron Prince: he's the king of stupid Holtzian coachspeak. I caught bits of his weekly press conference on ESPNU this morning, and to hear him talk, you'd think ULL was the second coming of Barry Switzer's Sooner teams with their ability to run the ball. KSU wins despite their coach, 48-17.

VT/NU: I've been talking down VT for the last month, and while they certainly benefitted last Saturday by UNC's QB (TJ Yates) getting hurt when UNC was up comfortably, the fact is VT is in position to win their division again despite a massive rebuilding situation there. That said, I think highly enough of NU to think that they can overcome a really well-coached VT team. The Sea of Red even got to Chase Daniel the first time he experienced it, and it'll get to Tyrod Taylor too. NU wins, 27-17.

TCU/OU: TCU's got their typical "defense first, defense second" team, but...OU's a machine. OU wins 44-10.

Troy/OSU: Troy's competitive, but OSU will beat them by more than tOSU beat them last week. We'll say 38-14 Pokes.

Army/ATM: Good god I hope ATM wins this game...just for the sake of the Big 12. But being that their offense is more stagnant than (insert something really stagnant here), it won't be tremendously easy. We'll say ATM wins 24-6.

Doug: Oh, great... as if this thread wasn't long enough for G-Mail already.

1 - Can't say I've ever had to deal with Mediacom before... but Jenna Haze on Ecstasy? That's way more than 14.

2 - Like Seth says... The University AT Buffalo appears to be a program on the rise and Turner Gill may have actually been a good hire in the long run for Nebraska. However, for this game, I think it showed some of the weaknesses facing the Missouri defense and the fact you can't always come out in the first half and roll everybody.

3 - I'm most happy about Todd Reesing, he's still a stud and still doing nice things running the offense. The interception against South Florida was a bad play call given the situation they were in, so I can't put blame on him for that. I'm worried about the running game and the defense from time to time. There's not one running back that can clear through a defender like Brandon McAnderson could last year, and that's what's ultimately hurting them the most. The defense is still spotty at times, so they need to focus and game plan during the bye week to solve those problems.

4 - I have the Jenna Haze box set... who's coming over?

5 - Colorado... man Florida State is awful.

Kansas State... hey, isn't this the old Fresno State game?

Neb...VaT...Neb...VaT... I can't pick one... whoever it is will be by a field goal or less.

Oklahoma... is TCU trying to get Tomlinson's eligibility re-instated for this game?

Oklahoma State... yeah, this one may set some offensive records.

Army... when in doubt, pick the original military academy.

MizzouRobot Ridiculous Matt: 1. The only thing I can contribute is that the NBC affiliate in Austin is pulling it's programming on Time Warner Cable over a fee dispute and both sides are blaming each other and the end result is we may not get the Office in which case I will go on a rampage and burn this whole damn town down I swear to Jesus on a Pogostick I will.

2. Bad game for Mizzou. I'm more vexed than most. The score ended up fine, but turnovers, penalties, and....gasp... punting? These are not the makings of a confidence game. I was unhappy. Yes, I'd rather it be this game than next, and yes, everyone has them, but it's not going to keep me from grumbling. The team just needs to make sure it gets focused before Nebraska because Lincoln won't be a cakewalk like the last two.

3. I haven't looked at numbers, but it feels like we're committing more penalties, and that was a huge boon to us last year, the lack of them. I'm most happy with the fact that our offense honestly looks like it can compensate for almost any opponent's offense. But we need to figure out how much of our defense is "bend don't break" and how much is "attack" and get both of them working efficiently.

4. I'll either be at the Austin City Limits Festival or on the game thread, screaming about Lou Holtz.

5. All the big 12 teams win and cover and win pretty easily... except for Nebraska. Because they're goat f--kers.

The Boy: For the record, we had 2 penalties and 1 punt. Methinks the standards around here may be a little high. :-)

MizzouRobot Ridiculous Matt: I know, I know, and I left at half to go to the store for the sick wife.

But still. Even the announcers commented that the Missouri guys were flat, just going through the motions. It's not like I can blame them. But seriously, the Nebraska game is one of the absolutely most important things that will happen for me personally this season. I'm okay with a loss to Texas on the road, and that one we could even survive and still make a BCS bowl-- though I think we'll win -- but I seriously want to put 70 on Nebraska in Lincoln.

The Beef: Well…I will be honest…I think the announcers were wrong as well.

The Boy: We had 2 penalties, 1 punt, put up 600 yards and gave up less than 300. The only problem with crispness was that our hands weren't crisp enough to hold onto the ball. Trust me, I'm all about worrying about Nebraska--with the 8pm kickoff, I'll be a complete freaking (well-lubricated) mess by the time the game starts--but the Buffalo game makes me fear NU no more than I did (or didn't) before.

Doug: I really didn't need to hear how you get ready for a game.

Michael Atchison: 1 - I don’t even know what we’re talking about with regard to Mediacom’s service in Columbia (I’m a Time Warner customer in Kansas City), so on the scale of 1 – 14, I’ll give it a Q.

2 - It was a bad game (relatively) from Mizzou. When Coffman, Maclin and Perry all turn it over, and when their best drive is sustained by Mizzou’s penalties, you know it’s about Mizzou’s lapses. Luckily, everything I’ve seen from this team tells me it was an aberration. I’m glad they got it out of their system.

3 - I’m most happy about coming out of it 4-0 with most of the team in good health. I’m most concerned about the play of our corners, especially Castine Bridges, who seems to spend a lot of time not knowing where the ball is.

4 - I’ll be at Disney World!

5 - CU shocks FSU by 6.

K-State by 9.

Hokies beat the Corn by 8.

Oklahoma by 31.

Okie State by 22.

A&M by ½ point.

The Boy: I just realized I didn't answer the "most concerned" part. The biggest concern has got to be the fact that we're still giving up a big play a game in the passing game. Granted, that will improve with the return of William Moore, and Castine Bridges began to play better the other day, we still don't have a 100% reliable option as the CB opposite Carl Gettis, and Delstin Garward continues to be decent but shaky at SS.

Oh, and I don't think we can use "shock" to describe CU potentially beating FSU--FSU losing just isn't shocking anymore.

ZouDave:

ZouDave: 1 - Having only lived in Columbia for a single year of my life, and that was in 1994-1995, I obviously don't know for sure. But this question serves 2 purposes well. 1) it gets Jenna Haze mentioned AGAIN, proving we are the sports authorities on Jenna Haze. 2) it's a nod to The Boy and his problems. Little did I know his problem was actually him being forgetful, not him having service issues.

2 - I unfortunately didn't get to see the game because I had to go to a wedding in Braymer, MO (home of Colin Brown). I listened to the entire first half, and spent a lot of it screaming at the radio, and then followed the 2nd half through text messages from Gabe DeArmond. It was great, because the wedding I was at was of a Mizzou alum and probably 1/3 of the guests were either Mizzou alums or Mizzou fans. Everyone kept coming to me for updates, which was fun. It sounds to me, though, that this was neither a good game for Buffalo nor a bad game for Mizzou. Buffalo was the recipient of a few big mistakes from our team, but we also dominated them on offense and kept their offense from doing what they wanted to do. I think it was just another game for Mizzou, and we happened to turn it over 3x more than we had all season.

3 - I am most happy about Derrick Washington. I was hoping he would be this good, but I didn't think it would actually happen. Having a running game like this with our passing attack is on the verge of unfair. I'm most concerned with our lack of consistent pass rush from the front 4. That seemed to be a MAJOR strength last year with all of our defensive linemen getting multiple sacks and pressures on the season. So far, we seem to only bring consistent pressure if we commit a safety and linebacker to a blitz, which leaves our secondary a bit exposed. I think, as Beef said, a healthy Van Alexander and Willy Mo will help that a lot.

4 - I'm going to be playing Rock Band 2 with a few friends for much of the day, but we're going to pick out a couple of games to watch on TV as the day goes along.

5 - Colorado at Florida State - I'm going to take FSU, simply because they're at home. I think these teams are evenly matched.

Louisiana-Lafayette at Kansas State - KSU better win this by 30, but I bet they only win by about 17.

Virginia Tech at Nebraska - Nebraska is going to win this, maybe even with relative ease, and force their way into the Top 25 in time for us to ruin their season once again.

TCU at Oklahoma - Love the Horned Frogs, but this will NOT be a repeat of 2005. OU by 28.

Troy at Oklahoma State - OSU out for revenge. Cowboys by 30.

Army at Texas A&M - ugly, ugly game. I'll pick A&M, but by less than 7.

Is anybody making the trip to Lincoln? I wish I could, but money is tight.

MizzouRobot Ridiculous Matt: Sadly, no. I had to save up... FOR MY TRIP TO KC FOR THE BORDER WAR! BOOYAH!

ZouDave: You have chosen...

...wisely.

The Beef: Nope…been there once…was enough for me…the only road game right now I am looking at is Iowa State…but I should be in KC for the game after the kU game

ZouDave: yeah one of the reasons money is tight is because I'm pretty well invested in going not only to the ku game at Arrowhead, but also the Big XII Championship game. Yes, I'm being that presumptuous.

I have my doubts I'll be able to make it to the Bowl Game this year, with the catch being that if by some MIRACLE the Tigers appear in the Rose Bowl then dad and I will be going to that. Since my sister lives in Thousand Oaks, CA, that's close enough that it's an easy drive and we wouldn't have to pay for a hotel. Airfare and ticket isn't a bad trip.

The Beef: The wife and I are hoping to make a bowl trip, but as she is now a teacher, time off for her will be tough since many of the games we might likely end up in are now on weekdays and outside of the normal school vacation. But…we shall see I suppose

Michael Atchison: Made the Lincoln trip in 2006, but I’m skipping this time. This coming weekend marks my fifth straight on the road. I’m looking forward to spending a Saturday at home, watching on the tube.

ZouDave: In a not remotely related story...

rptgwb: Oh my Lord, I just opened this email in class and very nearly had to explain why I was doubling over laughing when I saw the phrase "Jenna Haze on Ecstasy."

1. It's close to a 14. If the question is how much more could Mediacom suck? To pull an idea from This is Spinal Tap: "The answer would be, none, none more suck."

2 - How about both? Great gameplan by Buffalo, shoddy ball protection by Mizzou.

3. I'm most happy that Mizzou stayed at 4-0 without any major injuries (nagging injury to Willy Mo and the injury to Kurtis Gregory aside). I am a tad concerned about the pass defense, but I'm certainly not losing sleep over it at this point.

4. In addition to the Bye Week Open Thread, I'll be out covering Mizzou volleyball against SIU-Edwardsville.

5 - Big 12 picks!

Colorado over Florida State by 7
Kansas State over Louisiana-Lafayette by 17
Nebraska over Va Tech by 4
Oklahoma over TCU by 28
Oklahoma State over Troy by 14
Texas A&M over Army by 10

ZouDave: So you haven't gotten to see a single game, even on TV, yet Atch? Yikes. I would have died by now.

The Boy: I assume he's counting the three home games (and maybe the Illinois game, if he went) as "weekends on the road".

Michael Atchison: I’ve seen some games at night, but not many, and I don’t think I’ve seen one in its entirety. And I won’t get to see any this weekend as I stroll around the Magic Kingdom. But I will watch many, many games on October 4.

ZouDave: Oh, that makes a helluva lot more sense.

Disregard my incompetence.

You've planned your trip well, that's good.

Doug plans his trip to Disney World for the first week of June in 2009. Let's see how long it takes someone to get that one.

Michael Atchison: Yes, indeed, I’ve been to every game thus far, none of which have been where I live.

Doug: I assume you already have that date circled on your calendar.

Dave, are you already cutting up your jeans for hot-jorts?

ZouDave: assless chaps, baby...nothing butt the best!

Doug: That's what HE said.

ZouDave: Let's see if we can "re-rail" this thing.

I was talking to a couple of friends earlier this week about projected stats. Just for fun, here's Mizzou:

Chase Daniel - 303/399, 4236 passing yards, 36 passing TD, 3 INT, 42 attempts, 222 rushing yards

Derrick Washington - 159 attempts, 1082 rushing yards, 24 Rushing TD, 21 catches, 238 receiving yards, 3 Receiving TD

Chase Coffman - 84 catches, 1138 yards, 9 TD

Jeremy Maclin - 78 catches, 1174 yards, 12 TD

Tommy Saunders - 57 catches, 924 yards, 6 TD

Jared Perry - 48 catches, 810 yards, 6 TD

That's early 90's Houston Oilers disgusting right there. We'd have a very hard time reproducing that on NCAA 09 on the 360. Obviously, this doesn't take into account Danario Alexander's addition to the lineup, but just assume even if Saunders and Perry each drop by 1/3 and give those numbers to Danario it's still just a ridiculous offense. And these numbers don't include a likely Big XII Championship Game or Bowl Game!

(Two hours later...)

The Boy: Yeah, that re-railed nothing.

ZouDave: My back hurts from carrying your ass all day, I can't do everything!

Doug: That's what...never mind.

Mizzou-Buffalo: Beyond the Box Score PREVIEW

Bill C. — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 14:30:05 -0000

Well, I still don't feel like we have enough of a sample size to use 2008 numbers here yet, so once again we'll use 2007 numbers and rely on some manual adjustments on my part...

Mizzou-Buffalo Projections

Mizzou Rushing

2007 Mizzou Rushing Offense EqPts+: 136.70
2007 Buffalo Rushing Defense EqPts/Gm: 13.73
Projection #1: 18.77
2007 Buffalo Rushing Defense EqPts+: 72.84
2007 Mizzou Rushing Offense EqPts/Gm: 16.21
Projection #2: 22.25

Avg Projected Mizzou Rushing Output: 21.51

Adjusted for 2008: 24.0 - It's official: Derrick Washington is the man. I was unimpressed with the run-blocking against Nevada, but I'll give them a pass. Struggle with success rates against Buffalo, and we've got trouble.

Mizzou Passing

2007 Mizzou Passing Offense EqPts+: 156.79
2007 Buffalo Passing Defense EqPts/Gm: 11.63
Projection #1: 18.23
2007 Buffalo Passing Defense EqPts+: 75.78
2007 Mizzou Passing Offense EqPts/Gm: 18.40
Projection #2: 24.28

Avg Projected Mizzou Passing Output: 21.26

Adjusted for 2008: 24.0 - It's official: Mizzou's passing game is better in 2008.

Buffalo Rushing

2007 Buffalo Rushing Offense EqPts+: 74.43
2007 Mizzou Rushing Defense EqPts/Gm: 8.29
Projection #1: 6.17
2007 Mizzou Rushing Defense EqPts+: 121.92
2007 Buffalo Rushing Offense EqPts/Gm: 9.38
Projection #2: 7.69

Projected Buffalo Rushing Output: 6.93

Adjusted for 2008: 6.0 - They held Nevada below their average, and Buffalo doesn't have Colin Kaepernick and his play-fakes.

Buffalo Passing

2007 Buffalo Passing Offense EqPts+: 90.69
2007 Mizzou Passing Defense EqPts/Gm: 12.14
Projection #1: 11.01
2007 Mizzou Passing Defense EqPts+: 103.91
2007 Buffalo Passing Offense EqPts/Gm: 9.26
Projection #2: 8.92

Projected Buffalo Passing Output: 9.97

Adjusted for 2008: 11.0 - I'm willing to accept that the Willy-to-Roosevelt combo is worth a few points.

Projected EqPts Score: Missouri 48, Buffalo 17

Home Field Adjustment (+~3 for home, -~3 for road): Missouri 51, Buffalo 14

Before we dive into individual stats, I thought it might be interesting to delve into the one game Buffalo's played so far that might actually tell us something...their matchup against Pitt from a couple weeks ago, a game Pitt won, 27-16.

Buffalo		Pittsburgh
	% Close = 100.0%
	TOTAL
65	Plays	64
19.97	EqPts	23.73
53.8%	Success Rate	51.6%
0.31	Points Per Play (PPP)	0.37
0.846	S&P (Success + PPP)	0.886

	CLOSE GAME ONLY
same	Plays	same
same	EqPts	same
same	Success Rate	same
same	PPP	same
same	S&P	same

	RUSHING
6.57	EqPts	11.77
65.5%	Success Rate	51.7%
0.23	PPP	0.41
0.882	S&P	0.923

	PASSING
13.41	EqPts	11.96
44.4%	Success Rate	51.4%
0.37	PPP	0.34
0.817	S&P	0.856

	NON-PASSING DOWNS
56.5%	Success Rate	60.9%
0.33	PPP	0.40
0.894	S&P	1.012

	PASSING DOWNS
47.4%	Success Rate	27.8%
0.26	PPP	0.29
0.729	S&P	0.567

	TURNOVERS
1	Number	1
1.58	Points Lost	1.79
1.51	Points Given	0.00*
3.09	Total T/O Pts	1.79
-1.39	Turnover Pts Margin	+1.39

* It was the last play of the half, so the ending field position doesn't matter unless it was a TD...and it wasn't.

So what does this tell us? Well...Pitt's offensive numbers don't tell us much because, well, Pitt's offense obviously isn't in the same league as Mizzou's. One thing to note, though, is that the Panther Offense had its way with Buffalo on Non-Passing Downs. It was hard for Buffalo to leverage Pitt into passing situations, but the biggest problem for defenses against Mizzou is that Mizzou's as good in passing situations as most teams are in non-passing situations. Mizzou's 0.929 S&P on Passing Downs is pretty ridiculous (as is their 1.201 S&P in Non-Passing Downs).

In other words, Buffalo's performance against Pitt doesn't give me any reason to think Mizzou will be held in check in any way, shape or form.

Defensively, though, Pitt's pretty comparable to Mizzou--actually, they may be a smidge better depending on which Mizzou defense shows up at any given time. Buffalo's performance against Pitt was interesting. The vaunted (relatively-speaking) Buffalo passing game was fine, but not great. Drew Willy's official line was 21-for-34 with 223 yards, 1 TD and 1 INT. I'll be impressed if he matches that on Saturday, but he could at least come close. Meanwhile, Buffalo was very efficient running the ball (a 65.5% success rate is quite high), but completely devoid of any big-play potential. James Starks and Brandon Thermilus combined for a nice 117 yards on 24 carries, but the name of the game is easy points, especially against Mizzou, and UB's RBs provided none.

Special Teams

I'll say this as succinctly as possible: Buffalo has an entirely nondescript special teams unit. That's better than having a bad special teams unit, but...yeah, there's not much here. Their punter only averages 39.0 yards per punt, but they haven't allowed much of any returns so far (which is a nice thing against Mizzou). They're 2-for-3 on FGs and have had decent-not-great returns in limited opportunities. Naaman Roosevelt is a potential weapon in the return game, but he hasn't broken loose this year yet.

Oh yeah, and Mizzou has the best special teams unit I can ever remember Mizzou having. This is worth another 3 points in Mizzou's favor.

Key Players for Buffalo

QB Drew Willy

This is the closest thing to an early pro tryout Drew Willy's going to get. You have to figure there will be some scout in attendance on Saturday, and if Willy can produce against what is at least an above-average defense at this point (though a defense that will likely be missing William Moore), he'll begin to get on pro teams' radar screens a bit. His line for 2008 (60-for-92, 792 yards, 8 TDs, 2 INTs) is quite impressive.

WR Naaman Roosevelt

Though he's now known as "that guy who caught the mini-Hail Mary", Roosevelt is also by far Buffalo's biggest weapon, and as I said early, easy points is the name of the game here. So far in 2008, Roosevelt has 18 catches for 351 yards and 3 TDs. This is no fluke either--he had 1500+ yards and 9 TDs in 2007. I can't figure he'll have a great game lined up opposite Carl Gettis, but if Buffalo has a prayer of winning, it's going to be because of Roosevelt.

DEs Andrae Smith and Mike Thompson

The blueprint for beating Mizzou is simple, really: have fantastic DEs, get in Chase Daniel's face, confuse him by dropping different people into coverage every play, hope to get lucky on a couple Curtis Lofton-style turnovers...et voila! Victory is yours. To follow that blueprint, Smith and Thompson (who have combined for 4.5 TFL's, 2 sacks and 5 QB hurries) will have to play better than they ever have in their lives. Good luck.

LB Justin Winters

Arguably the Bulls' best defender so far this season, the sophomore from Greenbelt, MD (which has a lovely mall and Honduran food restaurant!), has 28 tackles, a sack, and an INT in three games this year. He is the most likely guy on the team to produce the Curtis Lofton-style turnovers, but...no. It's not going to happen.

Fun note: in the most recent UB depth chart (pdf!), Winters is listed at 6'11, 202. I'm going to assume that's a misprint...though how awesome would that be??? Okay yeah, it's a misprint.

Okay, another fun note while we're at it: Buffalo currently has starters from New York, Maryland, Connecticut, Florida, Pennsylvania, Texas, Ohio, New Jersey, and...Australia. Good times.

Key Players for Mizzou

RB Derrick Washington

Buffalo touts its rushing defense, and the fact that they're giving up less than 100 yards a game on the ground is certainly impressive. But they've only faced one decent rushing team--Pittsburgh--and as I said in the preseason, I don't think as highly of LeSean McCoy as others do. Well, McCoy had 93 yards on 20 carries against Buffalo. I expect Washington put up that much in 12-15 carries, to be quite honest. But if the run-blocking is still suspect, and Buffalo can remove Washington from the equation...well...it still probably won't matter, but it could.

LB Van Alexander

Probably Buffalo's most impressive stat so far has been its 3rd-down conversion rate (55%). They get themselves into manageable third downs, and then Drew Willy finds somebody to move the chains. Chances are, it will be up to the Mizzou LBs to put a stop to any hope of a good rushing day for UB and leverage Buffalo into passing downs. I was going to say Sean Weatherspoon is the key here, but that's too obvious--so I'll say it's Van Alexander, who will likely see a lot of playing time and will probably be going at double-speed trying to make plays.

S Delstin Garward (Justin Garrett + Del Howard)

As is the case every week, they're the key simply because they haven't turned the corner in pass coverage yet. They were certainly decent on Saturday, but there was still a ridiculous breakdown on the last play of the first half, so all is not entirely well. Plus, with William Moore (probably) out, these two and Hardy Ricks will see even more PT than normal. Assuming the Mizzou offense is clicking, then the defense can have a breakdown or two and be fine, but I'd like to be confident in the secondary heading into conference play, and I'd like for Delstin Garward to show me something.

QB Blaine Gabbert

Why? Because if things go according to plan on Saturday (knock on wood), this could be his last opportunity to play for a while. The playcalling hasn't given him many opportunities to shine, but maybe he'll get to show off the right arm a bit on Saturday.

Summary

Buffalo's best quarter is Q1. Its worst is Q2. If Mizzou manages to get up early in this one--as is normally the case at home--then this one will be academic quickly. But there's a chance the Bulls make it a game through at least the first 15 minutes. We'll see. All I know is, Naaman Roosevelt is the Bulls' only proven big-play threat, and Mizzou is still very good at taking away a team's #1 weapon. If Gettis (and whoever else) shut down Roosevelt, Willy (who is not altogether mobile) will be facing many passing downs and a pass rush hungry after a couple of mediocre weeks. Without the big plays for UB, this one should get ugly. Mizzou 52, Buffalo 13.

Poll

BTBS projections say Mizzou by 37.

Too optimistic for Mizzou?

22 votes

Not optimistic enough?

76 votes

98 votes | Poll has closed

Mizzou pistol whips Nevada, 69-17

RPT — Sat, 13 Sep 2008 21:29:15 -0000

(Photo courtesy Jonathan Brownfield, MUTigers.com)

Well, I'm absolutely soaked after the floods came on the walk back to the car after Mizzou's 69-17 thrashing of Nevada, so I'll go ahead and open up this thread for postgame reaction while I head off to take a shower.

The postgame podcast should be posted sometime soon, and Good, Bad, and Indifferent will be available after the jump on this post later in the day.

UPDATE, by rptgwb at 5:37 p.m.: Good, Bad, Indifferent now after the jump.

FINAL STATS

And, just a quick note, take anything "Bad" with a grain of salt. I do indeed realize that it was a 69-17 win over a very formidable non-BCS team.

GOOD

The Mizzou offense... Here's my thorough, in-depth analysis: They're really, really good. Three minutes into the game, Mizzou was on pace for over 3,100 yards of offense. We'll break it down a bit further:
Chase "Golden Watermelon Balls of Fury/Booger" Daniel: Hey, remember what "Heisman candidate" Graham Harrell did to Nevada? Chase Daniel laughs at you, sir. 23-of-28 for 405 yards and 4 TDs in a performance that broke the school record for career passing yardage? That would get you in the "Great" category, if it existed.
D-Wash: His 59-yard touchdown run on the first possession completely changed the complexity of the game. Nevada figured out early it had to respect the run, and that opened up the offense to have the numerical explosion it did.
Jeremy "Cheat Code" Maclin: It is sad that, outside of his long touchdown reception on the second drive, I though he was contained for most of the day? I come back to the stats and see that "contained" apparently means 239 all-purpose yards and 3 touchdowns.
Chase Coffman: Thrust the Nunchuck Upwards failed to get his trademark hurdle in this game, but he represented Aaron O'Neal's No. 25 jersey well, finishing with six receptions, 127 yards and a touchdown. Plus, he gave us in Tiger's Lair the thrill of counting his FIVE stiff arms on one play during a video replay. Looks like Thrust Nunchuck Upward learned how to Punch Nunchuck Forward.
Jared Perry: A quiet six catches for 98 yards and a touchdown (not including one called back for holding), but most importantly for Perry, no drops, when it looked like several passes could have eluded his grip.
The "other" corners: Carl Gettis locked down his half of the field, and Kevin Rutland and Tru Vaughns looked much improved today, with both making several plays on the ball at its highest point. And, although not a corner, Del Howard made a few solid plays today after being questionable at best recently.
The Salute to America: The crowd was DEAD until the B-2 flew over Faurot. Plus, the tribute to Mizzou linebacker and Iraq veteran Zach Milligan (pictured above the jump), was an awesome moment.

BAD

Conventional Wisdom: All we ever hear is about how much Pinkel hates running up the score. What should we make of the fake field goal? Everything I know has been turned upside down. What's next? War is Peace, Freedom is Slavery, Ignorance is Strength? Pinkel blew my mind in Orwellian fashion.
Blaine "Matthew Stafford" Gabbert: Anyone else getting concerned about his inability to back down his throws?
The Hail Mary: Mizzou seems to love giving up points on the last play of the half. I'm interested to know who was responsible for Marko Mitchell streaking down the sideline with NO ONE near him when everyone in the stadium knew what was coming.
Dap is due: This isn't a true "bad," but can we give some major love to Colin Kaepernick? As discussed in the podcast, those playfakes were absurd. Seeing the triple option out of the Pistol formation is a sight to behold.
Penalties: The stat sheet only shows 50 yards lost to penalties, but considering the plays they called back, they were worth a lot more. And a few holds ruined what was a very productive day of downfield blocking.

INDIFFERENT

The tenants of The Zou: The 54,000-plus attendance figure wasn't very impressive, but given the horrible weather, I can't rail on it too much.
The blueprint is established: If you watch enough tape on Mizzou, the blueprint of how to exploit the Mizzou D is beginning to emerge. When Mizzou blitzes up the gut, exploit the soft zone with hooks. When Mizzou blitzes outside or runs a base D, run either a screen or draw. The Mizzou D-Line has been EXTREMELY prone to getting upfield too fast at the expense of filling gaps (Kansas could kill MU with the shovel pass all day long in November).
What to do?: Where do we go from here with William Moore? I've got to believe he needs to start backing off the line of scrimmage. He's yet to come up with any huge plays on the blitz, and his presence up front leaves Garrett and Howard hanging out to dry. Granted, I'm not in practice every day, but wouldn't it make more sense to have the hard-hitting but air-vulnerable Garret on the LOS and put the ball-hawking Moore back in coverage?
The O-line: It didn't seem like a great day, but I can't find anyone or anything to single out and complain about. It's nice to be an O-lineman when Chase distributes the ball as quickly as he does when he sees a blitz coming.
Kickoffs: Wolfert had me scared earlier with subpar kickoffs early in the game, but he was launching them by game's end. Plus, as Beef noted in the podcast, the coverage was outstanding, led by Team Velodrome: Gachkar and Ebner (with some help from Lambert).

The comments are open... What am I missing?

Mizzou-Nevada: Beyond the Box Score PREVIEW

Bill C. — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 16:30:04 -0000

It's Thursday, so you know what that means...BTBS Day!! At some point in the season, I'll be able to start using 2008 '+' numbers, but the +'s need quite a decent sample size to be even remotely accurate, so for now I'm still going with the "2007 #'s + adjustments" method.

Mizzou-Nevada Projections

Mizzou Rushing

2007 Mizzou Rushing Offense EqPts+: 178.77
Nevada Rushing Defense EqPts/Gm: 10.78
Projection #1: 19.27
Nevada Rushing Defense EqPts+: 132.50
2007 Mizzou Rushing Offense EqPts/Gm: 16.21
Projection #2: 12.23

Avg Projected Mizzou Rushing Output: 15.75

Adjusted for 2008: 19.00 (Washington > Temple in my eyes, and if Nevada sells out to stop the pass, look out.)

Mizzou Passing

2007 Mizzou Passing Offense EqPts+: 149.55
Nevada Passing Defense EqPts/Gm: 11.41
Projection #1: 17.06
Nevada Passing Defense EqPts+: 126.17
2007 Mizzou Passing Offense EqPts/Gm: 18.40
Projection #2: 14.58

Avg Projected Mizzou Passing Output: 15.82

Adjusted for 2008: 19.00 (Mizzou's offense is harder to stop than Texas Tech because of both the running game and the use of tight ends. Tech may have a Jeremy Maclin equivalent--okay, better--in Michael Crabtree, but they don't have a Chase Coffman equivalent.)

Nevada Rushing

Nevada Rushing Offense EqPts+: 133.67
2007 Mizzou Rushing Defense EqPts/Gm: 8.29
Projection #1: 11.08
2007 Mizzou Rushing Defense EqPts+: 151.97
Nevada Rushing Offense EqPts/Gm: 14.49
Projection #2: 9.53

Projected Nevada Rushing Output: 10.31

Adjusted for 2008: 7.00 (So far, Mizzou's been sturdy against the run, and combined with the loss of Luke Lippincott, UNR should find it hard to move the ball on the ground.)

Nevada Passing

Nevada Passing Offense EqPts+: 126.17
2007 Mizzou Passing Defense EqPts/Gm: 12.14
Projection #1: 15.32
2007 Mizzou Passing Defense EqPts+: 141.07
Nevada Passing Offense EqPts/Gm: 12.58
Projection #2: 8.92

Projected Nevada Passing Output: 12.12

Adjusted for 2008: 14.00 (Nevada's passing game is inconsistent, but pretty decent at the deep ball. Until Mizzou slows down a passing game, we have to give the edge to the opponent here.)

Projected EqPts Score: Missouri 38, Nevada 21

Home Field Adjustment (+~3 for home, -~3 for road): Missouri 41, Nevada 17

Special Teams

Nevada K Brett Jaekle is pretty decent. He missed two FGs last week, but he went 16-for-21 last year and is a decent option. New punter Brad Langley has done a bang-up job so far, averaging 46.9 yards per punt. One problem, though: in two games, Nevada's had a punt blocked and a punt returned for TD. You don't want to have weaknesses in your punting game when you come to Columbia. The return game for Nevada has been more or less a wash this year so far--Dwayne Sanders hasn't had many opportunities to return punts, and Brandon Fragger's been decent but not spectacular in a handful of kickoff returns. Two problems: 1) Nevada's settling for too many FGs (I'll address that below), and 2) Jeremy Maclin returns punts for Mizzou.

And once again, Mizzou has Jeff Wolfert--Nevada doesn't. Never in my life have I taken a 45-yard FG for granted (KNOCK ON WOOD), but that's where we've gotten with Wolfert.

Key Players: Nevada

QB Colin Kaepernick

I hate being predictable, but you have to put Kaepernick at the top of the list. Luke Lippincott is out, and while Nevada's other RBs--Vai Taua, Brandon Fragger--are at the very least competent (Taua might eventually turn out to be as productive as Lippincott), LL's absence does put more pressure on Kaepernick to create on his own. So far he's responded with decent stats--386 passing yards, 143 rushing yards in two games--but he needs to step up his game against the best team on Nevada's schedule. Also, after committing next to no turnovers last year, Kaepernick has three in the first two games of the year--2 INTs and 1 fumble. Missouri's given up quite a few yards so far this year, but if Kaepernick is careless with the ball, Mizzou is more than capable of making him pay.

One other thing--Nevada had numerous chances deep in Texas Tech territory and wasn't able to punch the ball into the endzone, with or without Lippincott. They attempted SIX FG's against Tech, and as was discussed in the offseason, settling for FGs against Mizzou = slow death. It's up to Kaepernick to will the ball into the endzone, and he hasn't proven he can do that consistently against a decent defense yet this year.

WR Marko Mitchell

The key to keeping up with Mizzou, other than not settling for FGs, will be scoring as many easy points as possible--long plays, turnovers, etc. For the "long plays" part of that equation, it's all about Marko Mitchell. Mitchell was a fantastic deep threat last year, and this year has been more of the same so far--in basically 1.5 games against Texas Tech and Grambling, Mitchell has 12 catches for a 16.3-yard average and 1 TD. Aside from maybe a Kaepernick scramble on a broken play, Mitchell represents Nevada's best chance at easy points, and he'll have to come up big at least twice for Nevada to have a chance.

OT's Mike Gallett and Alonzo Durham

Texas Tech racked up four sacks last week. Missouri racked up 5 sacks (four from the DEs) against a mobile QB in Juice Williams. While Mizzou's blitzing has been entirely ineffective, Stryker Sulak and Tommy Chavis are poised for a big game if the O-line--the OT's in particular--can slow them down. SEMO thrived in the "quick delivery" department, and Mizzou's pass rush was somehow held in check last week, but I don't expect that to happen again.

FS Uche Anyanwu

Anyanwu had a solid game against Tech, with 6 tackles and 1 TFL. He and CB Antoine Thompson--3 pass break-ups last week--are the biggest playmakers in Nevada's secondary, and a lot will be expected of them if Mizzou is going to be held under 5 TDs. I was going to put LB Josh Mauga here because of his blitzing prowess, but...well, until given a reason to, I just don't fear other teams' blitzes. It's all on Nevada's secondary to make plays...or at least not miss any tackles.

Key Players: Missouri

TE Chase Coffman

I'm putting him here because of what I said during the score projections. Nevada was able to bump Texas Tech's WRs and confuse Graham Harrell into a 19-for-46 performance. Aside from two plays, they held Michael Crabtree in check (unfortunately for the Wolfpack, those two plays went for 50 and 82 yards...ouch). If they choose to give Jeremy Maclin the Crabtree Treatment, they can limit his effectiveness too. Combined with tight, bumping coverage of the other receivers, you'd think Nevada would have a pretty good recipe for physically defending the spread.

Only...Mizzou doesn't mind physical. They'll just throw to Chase Coffman 12 times, and...

RB Derrick Washington

...give Derrick Washington 15-20 carries. Washington is a strong, physical runner, and he and Coffman are the two reasons I just can't really fear any specific defensive strategy.

CB Castine Bridges

S Delstin Garward (Justin Garrett + Del Howard)

Here's what I said about Nevada's passing game back in June:

On non-passing downs, Nevada isn't very aggressive in the passing game--their 0.865 Passing S&P is lower than the national 0.884 and disproportionately lower than a lot of their numbers compared to the national average. However, on passing downs, it appears they go deep...a lot. Their success rate isn't that much higher than normal on passing downs, but when they connect, it's a huge play. Their 0.862 Passing S&P on passing downs has got to be one of the higher numbers in the country.

Two things concern me about this: 1) Mizzou was having Castine Bridges give a massively soft cushion on SEMO WRs last week. Maybe that changes this week, but if not, Nevada's horizontal passing game on non-passing downs could find all sorts of dink-and-dunk success against the Mizzou secondary, namely Bridges. So that's why Bridges is on there.

As for Garrett/Howard...well, if it's a passing down, chances are good that Mizzou's blitzing. And if they're blitzing, chances are good that they're sending William Moore. So that leaves Delstin Garward as the last line of defense...a role not filled very capably against Illinois.

Summary

Nevada is capable of scoring some points, and they've got enough physical guys on defense that they can wear you down if you let them. Their combination of dink-and-dunk prowess on non-passing downs and deep-ball prowess on passing downs has me a bit worried. I think Nevada will put up some yards. But let's go with the Star Factor here.

Nevada's Stars

Colin Kaepernick
Marko Mitchell
Joshua Mauga (potentially)

Missouri's Stars

Chase Daniel
Derrick Washington
Jeremy Maclin (the receiver)
Jeremy Maclin (the kick returner)
Chase Coffman
Colin Brown
Stryker Sulak
Ziggy Hood
Sean Weatherspoon
William Moore
Carl Gettis
Jeff Wolfert

Missouri is giving up too many yards, and I expect that to continue somewhat on Saturday. But they've just got too many playmakers. I think the BTBS projection (41-17) may be just about dead on with this one, but until someone holds Mizzou under 52, I'm going with the trend*.

* Two times = trend, right?

My Prediction: Missouri 52, Nevada 17.

Poll

The BTBS Projection says Mizzou 41, Nevada 17 (which just so happens to be about where the betting line is). I didn't want to more-or-less duplicate a poll at Mizzourah, but...well...

25-point margin = too high. This one's going to be a battle.

27 votes

25-point margin = too low. Nevada simply can't keep up.

61 votes

88 votes | Poll has closed

Mizzou-SEMO: Beyond the Box Score PREVIEW

Bill C. — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 13:00:05 -0000

We're going to set up projections the same way we did for Illinois (I will not give SEMO the short shrift!), only to get enough of a sample size, I'm not going with SEMO, but with "FCS Tier 6", the estimated amalgamation of the worst FCS teams to play D1 opponents in 2007. (I've explained this before, but basically I combined the 1-AA/FCS teams into six tiers and grouped their stats together thusly.)

So without further adieu...

Mizzou-SEMO Projections

Mizzou Rushing

2007 Mizzou Rushing Offense EqPts+: 178.77
FCS Tier 6 Rushing Defense EqPts/Gm: 19.77
Projection #1: 35.34
FCS Tier 6 Rushing Defense EqPts+: 50.18
2007 Mizzou Rushing Offense EqPts/Gm: 16.21
Projection #2: 32.30

Avg Projected Mizzou Rushing Output: 33.82

Adjusted for 2008: 28.00 (Pinkel doesn't run up the score)

Mizzou Passing

2007 Mizzou Passing Offense EqPts+: 149.55
FCS Tier 6 Passing Defense EqPts/Gm: 17.32
Projection #1: 25.90
FCS Tier 6 Passing Defense EqPts+: 45.11
2007 Mizzou Passing Offense EqPts/Gm: 18.40
Projection #2: 40.79

Avg Projected Mizzou Passing Output: 33.35

Adjusted for 2008: 28.00 (Pinkel doesn't run up the score)

SEMO Rushing

FCS Tier 6 Rushing Offense EqPts+: 47.00
2007 Mizzou Rushing Defense EqPts/Gm: 8.29
Projection #1: 3.90
2007 Mizzou Rushing Defense EqPts+: 151.97
FCS Tier 6 Rushing Offense EqPts/Gm: 7.57
Projection #2: 4.98

Projected SEMO Rushing Output: 4.44

Adjusted for 2008: 2.50 (I liked what I saw against Illinois)

SEMO Passing

FCS Tier 6 Passing Offense EqPts+: 38.82
2007 Mizzou Passing Defense EqPts/Gm: 12.14
Projection #1: 4.71
2007 Mizzou Passing Defense EqPts+: 141.07
FCS Tier 6 Passing Offense EqPts/Gm: 4.44
Projection #2: 3.15

Projected SEMO Passing Output: 3.93

Adjusted for 2008: 4.50 (are the troubles with Mizzou's Passing D enough to accidentally give up a long pass to SEMO at some point?)

Projected EqPts Score: Missouri 56.0, SEMO 7.0

Special Teams

SEMO's special teams unit actually isn't that bad. Doug Spada is a stud punter--he averaged 42.6 yards per punt last year and uncorked a 47.6 yard average over 5 punts last weekend against SW Baptist (including two inside the 20). He's an average kicker--he went 2-for-4 on FGs last weekend, including misses from 34 and 35, but made a 47-yarder--and only averages about 59 yards on kickoffs, but let's be honest: he's going to be punting a lot more than he's kicking off or booting FGs, so this plays to his strengths. Their return game is nothing amazing, but it's also nothing terrible.

Unfortunately for SEMO, a) Mizzou just shut down a much better return game than SEMO has to offer, b) SEMO's never tried to tackle Jeremy Maclin before, and c) we've got Jeff Wolfert, and they don't. Special teams should be worth at least another 3-7 points on the scoreboard.

FCS Tier 6 Teams: Top '+' Rankings

Before I get to the "key players" for each team (I will not give SEMO the short shrift!), I wanted to look at something. It doesn't take a genius to realize that "FCS Tier 6" probably averaged at or very near the bottom in most categories, '+' rankings and otherwise. However, my '+' rankings tend to show that, well, everybody's decent at something. So let's look at where "FCS Tier 6" ranked the highest.

#31: Defensive 3rd Down Line Yards+
#53: Defensive Q2 Rushing S&P+
#58: Defensive 2nd Down Line Yards+
#62: Offensive Q2 Rushing S&P+
#67: Offensive Q4 Passing S&P+
#72: Defensive Q2 Line Yards+
#77: Defensive Q4 Line Yards+
#80: Defensive Q4 Rushing S&P+
#81: Defensive 3rd Down Rushing S&P+
#85: Defensive Redzone Rushing S&P+

Now, the Q4 numbers are easy enough to understand--chances are, the other team's scrubs are in by that point. That might even explain the three Q2 categories. But the Defensive Line Yards phenomenon is rather interesting. Eight of the 10 categories have to do with rush defense in some way, and I don't completely have an explanation for that. In fact, let's just move on...

Key Players for SEMO

QB Houston Lillard

If SEMO's going to exploit Mizzou's current weaknesses in the secondary, the ball's going to come from Lillard. He was a very impressive 27-39 for 387 yards and 3 TDs against SW Baptist last week and won the Ohio Valley's Offensive Player of the Week award, and even though that was against NAIA competition, that at least shows that he can throw, right? Of course, it would help if he had preseason All-OVC RB Timmy Holloman in the backfield with him, but Holloman was ruled ineligible for the first five games of '08. And backups Mike Jones and Jacob McKinley didn't exactly light SW Baptist ablaze.

WR Miles Edwards

If SEMO's going to exploit Mizzou's current weaknesses in the secondary, the ball's probably going to be caught by Edwards, who had 204 yards and 2 TDs (including an 80-yarder) against SW Baptist. He was SEMO's leading WR last year too, with 480 yards and 7 TDs.

LB Jared Goodson

He's SEMO's most highly-touted defensive player, a preseason All-OVC selection, though he only had 3 assisted tackles against SW Baptist. So maybe I'll go with senior LB Nick Stauffer instead--he had 10 solo and 6 assisted tackles, plus a fumble recovery. Either way, I'll be honest--I expect nothing from him this week.

CB Eddie Calvin

The junior Rockwood Summit alum had a career day last week, registering 3 first-half INTs. Lord knows he'll get to find out just how good he really is this week. If he comes up with 3 more against Chase Daniel, he probably has a future in the NFL awaiting him.

Key Players for Mizzou

WR Jeremy Maclin

He needs to have a big play in the first quarter so they have no qualms about taking him out as soon as possible. I want to see lots of Jerrell Jackson, Michael Egnew and Wes Kemp.

QB Chase Patton

He needs to be 100% healthy so that we don't even think about tearing off Blaine Gabbert's redshirt.

CBs Castine Bridges, Kevin Rutland, Tremane Vaughns, Trey Hobson, and whoever else plays opposite Carl Gettis

This one should go without saying. Does Mizzou really have a weakness at #2 CB, or was the Illinois game a giant outlier? Somebody here needs to step up, and I guess it'll probably be Bridges.

Ss Justin Garrett and Del Howard (the return of Deltin Garward!)

I put Garrett on the spot last week, and his performance wasn't overly encouraging. If Garrett and/or Howard are the cause of another deep-ball breakdown this week, I'll officially become the fan of the Hardy Ricks Fan Club...and maybe the Zaviar Gooden Fan Club too.

Summary

Nobody get hurt. Nobody get hurt. Nobody get hurt. Nobody get hurt. Nobody get hurt. Nobody get hurt. Nobody get hurt. Nobody get hurt. Nobody get hurt. Nobody get hurt.

Missouri 59, SEMO 7*

(In these types of games, there's absolutely no idea to predict the score. Who knows when Pinkel will call off the dogs, and how many points the backups for both teams may score? Mizzou should end up with between 49-63 and SEMO 0-14. But all I know is...SEMO's really, really not good, and we may accidentally score 60.)

SB Nation - Del Howard

ROCK M PHOTO GALLERY

Mizzou 2009, Part Twelve: The Secondary

Secondary

2009 Mizzou Football Preview Series

Mizzou Links, 8-7-09

Spring Football Update: The Secondary

Cornerbacks

Safeties

A 2009 Walkthrough: Safeties

Returnees

Redshirts

Incoming

Potential Incoming

2008 vs 2009

2009 Mizzou DBs on the YouTubes

Who starts at safety opposite Kenji Jackson in 2009?

Hardy Ricks

Del Howard

Gilbert Moye

Zaviar Gooden

Jarrell Harrison

Jasper Simmons

Other

Rock M Roundtable!

Mizzou-Buffalo: Beyond the Box Score PREVIEW

Buffalo

Pittsburgh

BTBS projections say Mizzou by 37.

Too optimistic for Mizzou?

Not optimistic enough?

Mizzou pistol whips Nevada, 69-17

Mizzou-Nevada: Beyond the Box Score PREVIEW

The BTBS Projection says Mizzou 41, Nevada 17 (which just so happens to be about where the betting line is). I didn't want to more-or-less duplicate a poll at Mizzourah, but...well...

25-point margin = too high. This one's going to be a battle.

25-point margin = too low. Nevada simply can't keep up.

Mizzou-SEMO: Beyond the Box Score PREVIEW