Mizzou's last Olympian is one more win from a medal: Linas Kleiza put up a 15 & 7 as Lithuania thumped China and moved to the semifinals.  They'll face Spain on Friday, right before the US plays Argentina.

 Practice reports!

• mutigers.com - "Senior CB Castine Bridges returned to practice after resting Tuesday, and he participated in most everything, despite donning the red injury bib still. Bridges broke up a pass intended for WR Jeremy Maclin at one point early on in 11-on-11 work. Later in the session, freshman LB Will Ebner intercepted a ball over the middle as the reserves went against each other..."
• PowerMizzou - "Chase Coffman and Danario Alexander both participated in practice with red pullovers on. They were held out of full contact drills, but both caught passes. Jared Perry is still out with a shoulder injury. Brian Coulter, whose MRI was negative according to Mizzou, was also in a pullover."
• Dave Matter (who also throws in a Jaron Baston Q&A) - "Freshman defensive end Aldon Smith practiced for the first time on Wednesday after getting clearance from the NCAA Eligibility Center on Tuesday. He lined up behind fellow freshman Marcus Malbrough on the stretch lines. It’s safe to say Smith will redshirt this season after missing the first two and a half weeks of camp."
• KC Star - "Because of injuries to Danario Alexander and Jared Perry, no position could reveal more today than receiver, where true freshmen Jarrell Jackson and Gahn McGaffie could get extra playing time."
• Post-Dispatch - "Having missed one of his main targets for a week, Chase Daniel wasted no time finding Chase Coffman during Wednesday’s practice. During 7-on-7 drills in the red zone, Daniel hit Coffman for two consecutive touchdowns, eliciting cheers from the offense. Still wearing a red jersey because of the little finger he broke two weeks ago, Coffman was held out of other drills."

 The kids, they grow up so fast...

 Here's a quick Q&A with Thurman Murman Jimmy Burge.  Meanwhile, the Missourian checks in on Wes Kemp and the P-D raves about Jerrell "Young Grasshopper" Jackson.

 MAILBAG!!!

 Finally, Ben Askren?  Still crushed.  Last time he was this down on himself was his redshirt freshman year, and he emerged from that with an eventually-unbeatable new style of wrestling.  Pretty sure he'll emerge from this in somewhat the same way, if he doesn't move on to MMA or something.  ESPN has a really nice story as well.

We go with a different theme for today's Roundtable.  We're such a fan of the "Official Guide to Kansas City" that Bring On the Cats put together last March that we're going to create an Official Guide to Columbia for the tens of visitors from Reno, Buffalo, Cape Girardeau (okay, also Boulder, Stillwater and Manhattan) that we expect to welcome to Columbia this season.

But first, a question:

1.  What lot are you parking in this year?  It appears everybody got bumped back a lot, and I have NO idea what we'll be doing for tailgates this year.  And no, Doug, this question doesn't really pertain to you.

And now, to the visitor's guide...

2.  Tell us your favorite feature of Faurot Field (that's a lot of F's) and the immediate surrounding area.  You too, Doug.

3.  Bars and Nightlife: give us your choices.

4.  Restaurants and Other Entertainment: ditto.

5.  Anything else you'd like to share about the greatness that is Como?

Audience participation requested on this one: share your own favorites for Q's #2-5 in comments...

Continue reading this post »

Game-Changing Stats

• Overall Offense (close games)
  
• Pass Offense (particularly in Q4)
  
• Pass Defense (particularly in close games)
  
• Offensive Line Yards
  

Top Ranks

#1: Defensive Q4 Passing S&P+
#4: Defensive Q3 Passing S&P+
#6: Defensive Passing Downs S&P+
#6: Defensive Q4 S&P+

Bottom Ranks

#124: Offensive 3rd Down Rushing S&P+
#122: Offensive 3rd Down S&P+
#119: Offensive Non-Passing Downs Passing S&P+
#118: Offensive 1st Down Passing S&P+

Man oh MAN are people jumping on the Pitt bandwagon.  Holy smokes.  Rarely does one win vault a 5-7 program in a decent-but-not-great conference into people's preseason Top 25 polls, but Pitt's 13-9 nut-punch to West Virginia was quite the attention getter.  In all, Pittsburgh went 3-4 in one-possession games--meaning they could have ended up anywhere between 2-10 and 9-3, so if nothing else they're experienced in tight situations.  But in a conference with at least four rock solid teams (WV, Cincy, Rutgers, USF), Pitt might still find it hard to keep up when they've still got a few clearly-defined weaknesses.

There's no question that the Panthers were a rock-solid defensive team last year.  They were #6 in Passing Downs and #28 in Non-Passing Downs.  They were #33 against the pass in close games, and they were #36 in Line Yards+.  There's a bit of turnover here, but things look pretty good.  They lose both DEs, but Freshman All-American Greg Romeus waits in the wings.  And they're super-deep at DT--not only do both starters return, but so does 2006 starter Gus Mustakas, who was injured early in '07.

The D-line's main job is to filter the ball-carrier to Scott McKillop.  McKillop only had a handful of tackles for loss (9)...but he also had 2.5 times more tackles than anybody else on the team (151, #1 in NCAA).  He and the other LBs--Adam Gunn & Shane Murray--are not gigantic play-makers in the "behind the line of scrimmage" sense, but they do their job very well.  And with the front seven doing its job, the secondary won't have a ton of pressure on it, and it should be able to cope with the loss of two starters.  As a whole, the defense only gave up 297 yards per game in 2007, and while maybe that isn't replicable, they'll certainly give up less than 350 yards again, which is good enough if the offense is worth anything.

And the offense will be worth something if two players return from injury and do relatively well.  First is QB Bill Stull, who was 14-for-20 for 177 yards and 1 TD in 2+ quarters of the 2007 season opener before he tore a ligament in his thumb and was shelved for the season.  His backups--Pat Bostick and Kevan Smith--were, shall we say, less than stellar.  True, they combined to complete 60% of their passes...but that 9-17 TD-INT ratio was pretty putrid.  It's Stull's job to lose, and he should be a solid upgrade.  The second key injury recoveree is WR Derek Kinder.  Kinder is less important than Stull, but this WR corps simply isn't very dangerous, and Kinder's 2006 numbers (847 yards, 14.9 yards per catch) would be a welcome upgrade as well.  

The passing game has nowhere to go but up, but you know that LeSean McCoy will be solid in the running game.  Now..I'm not amazingly impressed with McCoy--he's not a major breakaway threat, he just moves the chains.  Pitt's rushing offense was not great (#98 in close games), and the O-line has to replace 3 starters.  McCoy will serve as a nice play-action decoy, but I'm not convinced that the sophomore stud will carry the Panthers toward a Big East title run.

Verdict: Pittsburgh gets West Virginia and Rutgers at home, and they should by all means be improved enough to make a bowl game in Dave Wannstedt's fourth season.  But they'll have to show me they're better than Rutgers, USF, Cincy, and (of course) West Virginia before I believe it.  They have a lot of ground to make up.

Continue reading this post »

 As was mentioned last night, Ben Askren's first trip to the Olympics lasted two matches--he pinned Hungary's Istvan Vereb in match #1, then was dominated by Cuba's Ivan Fundora, 7-1, in match #2.  I couldn't tell how wrestling was organized, but I assumed it was something of a round robin preliminary round with three matches or something, but I guess not.  The KC Star has more.  Askren didn't take it well.

 Now to something happier...practice reports!  Danario Alexander was running routes!

• PowerMizzou: "Earl Goldsmith once again made some nice plays. He had a one-handed grab and then later snatched a near interception from Kevin Rutland. One Tiger was heard to yell, "Earl, way to save our butts!""
• Dave Matter's blog: The eight freshmen whom Pinkel identified on Monday continued to get reps with the first and second units on Tuesday. Tight end Andrew Jones worked extensively with Daniel on the first team, while Egnew was a popular target of Chase Patton and Blaine Gabbert on the second team. … Defensive end Jacquies Smith played a great deal on the second team, subbing in for redshirt freshman Michael Keck. … All three freshman receivers, Jerrell Jackson, Gahn McGaffie and Wes Kemp, were busy working with the top units. Thursday’s scrimmage will be heavy on the backups and freshmen.
• KC Star: "One of the members of the d-line came in and shoved one of our offensive linemen after the play," Fisher said. "I did the stupid thing and got involved when I shouldn’t have. It was just pushing and shoving." As he explained that, Fisher was panting from some post-practice punishment. "A thousand yards," Fisher said after running that distance.
• Post-Dispatch: "That’s all up to Rex," Missouri coach Gary Pinkel said. "Rex is just letting [Danario Alexander] do a little bit more work everytime. He’s doing fine. He’s a tremendous athlete . . . tremendously positive attitude. We’ll see. I’m not sure when he’ll be back. We said Nebraska, it would be great if we had him back by then . . . we very possibly could get him back earlier than that. That would be nice, not only for him, but certainly for our football team."

 With Olympic swimming & diving on TV, the Trib checked in with Jeff Wolfert to see if he was doing any reminiscing.  Wolfert's story somehow never gets old.

 How's Jacquies Smith feeling about playing as a true freshman?  PowerMizzou asked him.  (They also posted Tuesday's Top Tigers.)  And speaking of Q&A's, the Trib talked to Kenji (pronounced KEN-juh) Jackson.  (There's a new Trib Podcast up as well, btw.)

 And if that's not enough true freshman action for you, the Missourian caught up with Michael Egnew.  Oh yeah, and the KC Star took on Beau Brinkley.

 The Post-Dispatch, not knowing that it was True Freshman Tuesday, talked about LBs and comfortability.

 Football recruiting update: 4-star RB Knile Davis will be visiting at the end of September.

 Oh yeah: Aldon Smith was cleared to play.  One down, two to go.  Slowest.  Clearinghouse.  Ever.

 Finally, it looks like Michael Snaer's recruitment is going to take a bit longer.  (He's now got 5 stars, by the way.)

In the absence of an Opponent Week BTBS piece, instead you get more talk about other conferences!  It's been fun to notice how teams in different conferences start to resemble their conference mates after a while.  Pretty much every Big East team had a stout pass defense in '07 (aside from Louisville, who had the nation's worst), and seemingly every team had O-line inconsistencies as well.  Let's see how they stack up for '08.

And it just struck me that I should probably put Notre Dame somewhere, so they'll go at the end of Part Two tomorrow.

Game-Changing Stats

• Offensive Success Rates (particularly Q1)
  
• 3rd Down Offense
  
• 3rd Down Rushing Defense
  
• Passing Downs Defense
  

Top Ranks

#1: Offensive Rushing EqPts+
#1: Defensive Rushing EqPts+
#1: Defensive Passing S&P+ (close games)
#1: Defensive 2nd Down Passing S&P+

Bottom Ranks

#103: Defensive Q3 Rushing S&P+
#97: Defensive Q3 Line Yards+
#96: Defensive Q1 Line Yards+
#85: Offensive Q3 Passing S&P+

We've pretty well established that there's a "top tier" of 7 teams nationally--Georgia, LSU, Florida, OU, Missouri, USC, and Ohio State, in some order.  If there's one team that could crack into that tier, it's West Virginia.  It's easy to get the feeling that they blew their best chance at a national title last year--they're probably not going to be #1 in Offensive Rushing EqPts+ AND Defensive Rushing EqPts+ this year.  But with a schedule of 7 home games and 5 winnable road games (ECU, Colorado, UConn, Louisville, Pitt), WV and new (former interim) coach Bill Stewart will have a chance to make a run.  Lord knows they've got the speed for a run.

We'll start with what you know.  Pat White?  Noel Devine?  Good.  Really, really good.  Now that that's out of the way, what else does WV have?  How about 5 returning starters on the OL?  Does that sound like a good thing?  LT Ryan Stanchek was an All-American in '07, and he's joined by four other seniors (and a senior "block first" TE in Sam Morrone) up front.  Meanwhile, Devine will have some company in the backfield with returnees like Jock Sanders and newcomers like Terence Kerns and Zach Hulse.  Really, the main question mark is at WR, where Dorrell Jalloh is the only returnee that caught more than 12 passes in '07.

As good as WV was on offense last year, the numbers suggest the defense was almost as good.  In fact, in WV's two losses against USF and Pitt, the main breakdowns happened on the offensive end (hence the top two 'Game-Changing Stats' coming on offense).  Fortunately for the Mountaineers, their top two tacklers return; unfortunately, that's about it.  Nine of the next 11 tacklers on the list are gone.  They have to replace their two best D-linemen and all four starters in the secondary--bad news considering pass defense was a WV strength.  If WV fails to break into the aforementioned Top Tier, that would be why, and naturally that's been a primary focus in August practices.

Verdict: WV has a favorable schedule (they get Auburn, USF and Rutgers at home) and the most explosive backfield in the country.  But I can't shake a couple of thoughts: 1) Pat White got hurt twice last year (setting up both losses), and he's not going to take any less of a pounding in '08, and 2) the defense really did bail them out a bit at times, giving up 14 points or less 6 times in '07, and the pass defense in particular is going to take a hefty step backwards.  And for that matter, 3) their head coach has 1 career 1A win (and a 9-25 record overall after three failed years at VMI).  I can't help but think they're going to slip at some point(s), but they're still obviously the class of the Big East.

Continue reading this post »

 We're just a day away from Askren's medal chase...and the KC Star and Trib have a couple nice articles.  From the Trib: 

If he wanted to, Askren could have been the darling of college wrestling. Instead, he was something more complicated than that. If he had kept the wild hair, the colorful personality and the wide-open style but muzzled his urge to admit freely that no one was in his league, he would have been universally adored for giving the sport a shot of pure charisma. But, Lord, it was hard to be humble, and Askren never saw the profit in pretending to respect lesser opponents.

"It’s more important to be me than to be loved by everyone," Askren said. "Of course I could say the politically correct things everybody wants to hear, but, A, that would not be true to myself, and, B, that would be boring. I don’t want to be either of those things.

"People are too scared to break the mold of society. I’m not worried about pissing people off."

 Practice reports!

• Mutigers.com: "On the injury front, junior WR Jared Perry did not practice today after suffering a mild shoulder separation in Saturday's scrimmage. Team trainers hope to have him back before the end of the week. Senior TE Chase Coffman dressed out for the first time since having surgery last Tuesday on his broken finger, but he did not participate in contact drills, and was limited to running routes, without catching the ball."
• PowerMizzou has an approximate depth chart.
• Dave Matter has a longer version of yesterday's quick "8 freshmen will play" blog post.
• And then he puts up two practice reports (Part I, Part II) as well.  From Part II: "From my novice perspective, I thought the No. 1 offensive line held up well against the top D-line in 1-on-1 pass-rush drills, especially left tackle Elvis Fisher against Stryker Sulak. The more I see of Fisher, the less I think last week’s line shuffle was some sort of panicked shot-in-the-dark move by the staff. He’s athletic enough to keep his feet moving on the edge and has enough power to outmuscle defensive ends."
• KC Star: 'According to veteran Tigers, [eight true freshmen playing] shows just how deep the latest recruiting class is, not how desperate the team is to rush true freshmen. "What has changed is the level of talent," senior captain and wide receiver Tommy Saunders told The Star. "You see it in every class. It’s not just one or two. Every year the players who come in are better and better."'

 Which players do Mizzou's best players admire?

 Injured ankle?  No problem for Brian Coulter.

 The Post-Dispatch checks in on Wes Kemp...

 Good things happen when there's stability in the coaching staff...

 Finally...ouch.  Ian Kinsler's got himself a (sports) hernia.  Ggh...Mizzourah's got more...

 Scrimmage reports!  All the usual suspects check in with their descriptions of Saturday's "sloppy" scrimmage.

• Mutigers.com - "Freshman DE Jacquies Smith recorded three sacks while fellow freshman Kenji Jackson scooped up a bobbled pitch and returned it 49 yards. Earlier, Jackson had a sure interception snagged from the air by a leaping Wes Kemp."
• The Trib - '"We’ve got a lot of work to do if we want to be ready for this first football game," Pinkel said. "Obviously, that’s my job to get it done."'
• Dave Matter's Blog - "[Brian] Coulter limped off the field after two plays of the third unit’s first series. I know fans want to read that he’s going to redefine the defensive end position at MU and make people forget Justin Smith, but let’s seriously hold off the jersey retirement ceremony. For one, Coulter hasn’t been healthy since he stepped on the field. The latest setback could reveal further damage. Secondly, Coulter has to outplay the No. 2 defensive ends before he can even think about unseating Stryker Sulak or Tommy Chavis, two of the better defensive ends in the Big 12. That’s not happening any time soon, if ever."
• PowerMizzou - Player of the Day: Gotta be Wes Kemp. Before today, I would not have mentioned him as a freshman that might play, but when Perry went out, Kemp got reps with the first team offense and really looked good. The DeSmet product could find his way on the field yet.
• KC Star - '“Chase Patton is playing as good as I’ve ever seen him play,” Daniel said. “He made one bad read out of 35 snaps today. I’m not perfect. He’s not perfect. But he’s playing at a much higher level than he used to play at.”'
• Post-Dispatch - "But errors in execution irked Pinkel. In a red-zone sequence starting at the 20-yard line, the No. 1 offense advanced to the 5 against the No. 2 defense. But a false start forced the Tigers to the 10. Too many balls rolled on the ground from fumbles and bad snaps. The first major skirmish of camp broke out in the end zone between Elvis Fisher, the newly minted starting left tackle, and defensive lineman Dominique Hamilton."

 PowerMizzou has a nice story on the emerging youth on the defensive line.  Not only are all four backups RSFr's--Michael Keck and Chris Earnhardt at DE, Terrell Resonno and Dominique Hamilton at DT--but now they're getting a push from a couple of true freshmen--DEs Jacquies Smith and Marcus Malbrough are both getting snaps with the 2nd team now.

 The Trib's Steve Walentik checks in on some of the other true freshmen.

Gabbert’s status might be of greatest interest to fans, but a few other freshmen figure to have far bigger impacts than the backup quarterback if they make it into Missouri’s rotation.

Linebacker Will Ebner remains the only true freshman promised a chance to play this season, but the Tigers are also likely to turn to a couple of rookie pass catchers to help overcome the loss of All-American tight end Martin Rucker and survive until junior wide receiver Danario Alexander can make it back onto the field. Alexander is not expected to play until October after a second surgery to repair a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee.

Wide receivers Wes Kemp, Gahn McGaffie and Jerrell Jackson and tight ends Michael Egnew and Andrew Jones could all get chances to bolster a receiving corps that has looked thin and is getting thinner. Earlier this week, senior tight end Chase Coffman underwent surgery to repair fractured right pinky finger. Then in yesterday’s scrimmage, junior wideout Jared Perry sustained what Pinkel described as "real mild dislocation" in his right shoulder while attempting to reel in a fade pass against Tremane Vaughns.

Coffman and Perry are expected to play in the season opener against Illinois, but their injuries emphasized the Tigers’ need to identify some capable backups.

The 6-foot-4, 225-pound Kemp, who starred at DeSmet High School in St. Louis, could yet be one of them. He saw action with the No. 1 offense after Perry exited and enjoyed one of his most productive days since practice started. Largely unnoticed over the past week, he hauled in two catches for 51 yards. He made a good adjustment on a slightly underthrown deep pass from walk-on Luther Roweton and turned it into a 29-yard gain.

 Granted, the major change happened a few days ago, but the Post-Dispatch has a relatively large story up regarding the changes to the O-line.  And probably more interestingly, they also have a story on just how good a recruiting job Andrew Jones ended up doing with a couple now-classmates last year.

 Oh goodie, Bernie Miklasz is paying attention to Mizzou again.

 Quick recruiting blurbs: Texas DE Terrance Lloyd has set up his first official visit, and it's to Columbia.  Meanwhile, Texas WR Cobi Hamilton has a top two of Mizzou and Arkansas.

 In soccer news, Mizzou's second exhibition game went off without a hitch--they destroyed Illinois State, 5-0.  Sophomore Alysha Bonnick had a hat trick.

 Finally, to the surprise of...well...me, Aaron Crow did NOT sign with Washington after all.  He'll play for the Fort Worth Cats for the time being.  I hate it when draft picks don't sign--I don't understand why every league doesn't just have a setup like the NBA.  You get your rookie contract, it's not worth a helluva lot, and then you make an insane amount when the rookie contract runs out.  Mizzourah has more thoughts on that.

Meanwhile, in an 11th hour move, MU prospect Jared Cosart signs with the Phillies.  They must have thrown a ton of money at him (as he was picked in the 38th round), but he seemed to be having an amazing summer and piqued their interests.  More on the summer Cosart was having (or had) can be found here.  It seems like a new draft strategy is to draft a few Cosart-types (signed to play in college, said "If I'm drafted after the __ round, I'm going to college") late...and if you decide that you're not going to be able to sign one of your top picks, you can throw high-round money at them just in case.  The Pirates threw huge money at a couple of late-round picks thought unsignable, after their 2nd round pick demanded too much money after coming off of an arm injury.

(And by the way...bully to my Pirates for whipping out the checkbook on this draft class.  Their minor league system was horrendous a month ago, but they acquired 8 decent pieces for Bay, Nady, and Marte, and now they've signed 30+ members of a risky and relatively bold draft class.  I'm not signing up for 2013 World Series tickets just yet, but this has been the most positive month for the future of the Pirates since...uhh...1997?)