ZooRahBlog

Reading The New QB at Mizzou

Sometimes you can get a sense of what will be in the upcoming season by reading what the beat writers who normally cover teams say about them.  If my reading is right, Mizzou's going to be fine with Blaine Gabbert at the helm of Mizzou's offense.  It also sounds like the Mizzou TB's will be a load to contain for opposing defenses.  Here's Bryan Burwell on Gabbert and here's Dave Matter of the Columbia Daily Tribune on Gabbert.

Mizzou's Andrew Jones Works at Becoming an Every Down Receiver

Post-Dispatch article here.

Mizzou's Revamped Receiving Corps

Mike DeArmond story here. 

Preseason, coaches and players tend towards even keel.  When they think they are going to be good, they downplay it.  When they think they are going to be bad, they speak with optimism.  That's why this story concerns me a bit.  Then again, you don't replace a Mackey winner (Chase Coffman), a two-time All-American (Jeremy Maclin), and  a great set of hands (Tommy Saunders - even if he wasn't very speedy) during the first week of fall practice.

Honoring Aaron O'Neill

Class-act Gary Pinkel will continue to honor the late Aaron O'Neill, the redshirt freshman linebacker who died in 200x following a summer workout.  He will give O'Neill's jersey number, #25, to a freshman linebacker who will wear that number throughout his career.  When that player leaves, another freshman linebacker will carry on the tradition.  The first to wear that number will be Zaviar Gooden, a Pflugerville, Tx. freshman.

WWZD?

Lorenzo Williams was one of those rare individuals. One-half hard work and one-half sunshine pumper. A person so likeable you could never figure out why Columbia city officials wouldn’t give him a license to sell the snow cones Williams offered in a street-side stand one summer before the city found out about it.

On the field, Williams finished his career at Mizzou as a first-team All-Big 12 conference defensive lineman. He is the lone defensive starter from Missouri’s Cotton Bowl victory not back for the 2008 season.

Even with the return of Willy Mo, Spoon, Stryker, Ziggy, and others, the loss of Zo is a huge loss, not only because he was such a good DL but because he was such a good leader.  Zo was the one who destroyed a white board before the Nebraska game, the game where the Mizzou defense finally stopped looking like a paper tiger and began looking like a fearsome unit.

The Heart of a Tiger

A 38-7 victory over a disinterested Arkansas team in the Cotton Bowl wrapped up a glorious 12-2 season, but a hunger pang persists. It's all about advancing a program that last season won its first Big 12 North title and got its first New Year's Day bowl victory since a Sugar Bowl triumph over Florida after the 1965 season.

For that, Daniel was showered with accolades. He finished fourth in Heisman voting, the highest for a Missouri player since Paul Christman finished third in 1939. Daniel also was the Big 12 Offensive Player of the Year after throwing for 4,306 yards and 33 touchdowns. A cherry on top this summer was the Big 12 Male Athlete of the Year Award.

Despite Daniel's lofty statistics, the Missouri quarterback still believes he has plenty to improve on.

That brings us here, to the long, hot summer of 2008. What could Daniel possibly have left to work on? There are three things.

• Improve his footwork

• Hone his accuracy

• Harness his deep pass

 

"I can get better throwing deep and improve my accuracy with repetition, doing stuff like this seven-on-seven work," Daniel said. "I am trying to improve my footwork by working with a Bosu Ball. It's difficult. I stand on it, trying to keep my balance. It works on strengthening your feet and ankles, too."

From GameCock central. The reason the Tigers will be so good is because of the talent that they have on both sides of the ball and the drive and leadership of Chase Daniel.  He is the heart and soul of the Tigers.

Cross posted at Market Power

Mizzou Draft Prospects

Mizzou looks loaded this year, and here are their current draft prospects according to Bill Coats.

Cross-posted at Market Power

Alexander to Miss the Early Part of the 2008 Season

The injury bug has bitten Tiger WR Danario Alexander yet again.  Last year Alexander suffered a broken wrist against Illinois, an injury that paved the way for redshirt frosh Jeremy Maclin, himself coming off of a serious knee injury, to the starting lineup and consensus All-American honors.  In the Big XII Championship* game, Alexander blew out a knee.  Last week, he reinjured the same knee and will be out for at least the Illinois and cupcake non-conference portion of the season.  That leaves the Tigers with 4 experienced WR's at this point.

I feel badly for Alexander and wish him well.  But even though the Tigers are short on WR's with experience, they have one of the best throwers in the nation.  Chase Daniel is an accurate thrower and the new WR's won't have to worry much about having to make the extra effort just to catch the ball. 

This injury paves the way for, perhaps, Jared Perry to re-emerge in the WR corps or for incoming players such as WRs Rolandis Woodland and Wes Kemp or TE prospect Andrew Jones to contribute early.  Other recently-converted WR's, like LaRoderick Thomas or Earl Goldsmith, will also see some extra chances to play.  I'm not saying any of the frosh will be the next Jeremy Maclin

After the Illinois game, the remaining 3 non-conference games - against SEMO, Buffalo, and Nevada are ripe for developing some in-game skills and confidence amongst the newcomers.  Hopefully by then Alexander will be back at full-strength, giving the Tigers more depth at WR.

The early experience for the new WR's and the new TE's will pay off down the line.  In the meantime, I wish Danario a speedy (a relatively pain-free) recovery.

*I originally had this as the Kansas game.  I'm sorry for the mistake.

Emergence of the Small QB

Mike DeArmond writes on the emergence of the short QB:

Skip Stitzell figures Chase Daniel and Todd Reesing can draw themselves up as close to 6 feet tall as either can get and take a bow.  

The glass ceiling on “little” quarterbacks may finally be cracking in college football because of the play last season of Daniel at Missouri and Reesing at KU. And throw in Cody Hawkins at Colorado, too.

 

“More and more, coaches are looking beyond how tall a quarterback is,” said Stitzell, founder of the Quarterback Edge development program and a coach for the national Elite 11 camps who on Tuesday was working Missouri’s annual football camp at William Jewell College in Liberty.

 

“Daniel and Reesing, and the kid at Colorado, opened up a lot of eyes.”

How can a QB who isn't 6' 5" tall succeed in college?

 

The reason is the spread offense, the habit of dropping the quarterback 6 to 7 yards behind the line of scrimmage, and increasing the gaps between linemen.

 

“It’s not as hard to look over those big linemen,” Stitzell said. “They can see more.

It also helps that both of these QB's are mobile and can use their legs to get them some time.  We'll have to see how Reesing plays this year with the tougher schedule faced by Kansas.  Daniel is one of those kids that comes around once in a very great while.

When Opining About a Coach, Winning Changes Everything

Unlike his contemporary on the basketball sidelines, Gary Pinkel came down hard and swift in handing out judgments against one of his football players.  And there was much rejoicing.

One of the great qualities of Gary Pinkel's leadership is his ability to be direct, and get to what's important. He doesn't want to be Dr. Phil. His office isn't the set of "Oprah."

While Pinkel is now comfortable sharing his emotions with his Missouri football players, he doesn't spew psychobabble in a transparent attempt to show the outside world that he's connecting with his guys on some deep, mystic level.

Does Pinkel care about his Missouri football players? Sure. That's why he pushes them to reach a higher standard, and to observe the rules that govern his program. And that requires consistency and toughness.

...So we weren't surprised when Pinkel came down swiftly to dismiss sophomore linebacker Marquis Booker from the squad after the player's weekend arrest on suspicion of unlawful use of a weapon — a loaded 9mm Ruger — plus an underage liquor law violation.

If Mizzou had not gone 12-2 and thoroughly dismantled Arkansas in the Cotton Bowl, no doubt someone, if not Bernie M., would have been railing against the renegade program, noting that two All-Big XII performers, one a consensus All-American, had not been disciplined, at least not for the public to see.  You see, winning changes everything, especially the media perception of a program.  Just sayin'.