1 - One football game remains.  Who wins it--Florida or Oklahoma?

2 - Give me the one storyline you're most interested in for Mizzou (or in Doug's case, Kansas) Spring Football in two months.

3 - Missouri stands at 13-2 in basketball right now, and despite being labeled as the conference's "Biggest Disappointment" by Andy Katz and Adrian Branch on ESPNU, that has to be just about the best any self-respecting Mizzou fan could have expected at the beginning of the season (despite the gut-wrenching quality of the Xavier loss).  At this point, seeing what you have (or haven't, ahem) seen, what do you expect from this team in Big 12 play?

4 - I may have already asked this question a while back, but who's your favorite player on this (or in Doug's case, KU's) team?

5 - Give me the four teams that will receive first-round byes at the Big 12 Tournament.

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It's going to be inevitable to talk about Missouri in 2009 without talking about losses--Daniel, Coffman, Maclin (probably), etc.  However, there is a potentially strong identity for Missouri to carve out of what is returning...namely, threats in the running game.

Returnees

Derrick Washington (5'11, 215, junior)

Derrick Washington was, to say the least, feast-or-famine in 2008.

• First five games: 67 carries, 500 rushing yards, 10 TDs (plus 9 catches, 92 yards, another 2 TDs) (7.8 yards per touch)
  
• Next two: 15 carries, 28 rushing yards, 2 TDs (plus 8 catches, 70 yards) (4.3 yards per touch)
  
• Next four games: 59 carries, 381 rushing yards, 4 TDs (plus 7 catches, 66 yards) (6.77 yards per touch)
  
• Final three games: 36 carries, 127 yards, 1 TD (plus 5 catches, 49 yards) (4.3 yards per touch)

Thanks to his outstanding receiving ability, his per-touch averages were never really too terrible, but three things were clear regarding Washington: 1) his success took the Missouri offense to a stratospheric level, 2) he struggled mightily against the better rush defenses on the schedule (OU, Texas, Northwestern, OSU), and 3) he didn't look nearly as explosive at the end of the season.  Now, (1) needs no explanation--matching the Daniel-Maclin-Coffman trifecta with an unstoppable running game is just about unfair.  Really, (2) doesn't need an explanation either--better defenses stop good players better.  That's, like, science or something.  However, (3) needed a bit of an explanation...and it possibly just got one:

Why the drop-off in the second half of the season? Was Washington injured? Gary Pinkel never mentioned his tailback in his weekly injury reports, but, for what it’s worth, a relative of Washington’s recently posted on a MU message board that the tailback injured his knee in MU’s second game, which eventually required his knee to be drained to relieve swelling.

Now, this obviously wasn't a tremendously significant injury, as Washington's most productive stretch--Nevada, Buffalo and Nebraska--came after the second game.  Plus, he went for 151 total yards and 2 TDs in frigid temps up in Ames late in the season.  Regardless, it's as good an explanation as anything else to explain why Washington was struggling.  When #24 is on, he exploits even tiny holes and runs through arm tackles.  Against OU and Northwestern in particular, even when there were holes to be exploited, he was only getting 4-6 yards instead of 8-12.

Mizzou's chances for a surprise North title in 2009 rely on Washington being both healthy and productive, and while I'm 90% optimistic he will be both, his late-season struggles prevent me from being 100% optimistic.

De'Vion Moore (5'9, 195, sophomore)

Obviously after one season of mostly junk-time work, it's hard to get a read on De'Vion Moore's potential, but it's tempting to go in one of two extreme directions:

1. Barring one big carry against Colorado, here were his stats during conference play (junk time or no): 19 carries, 69 yards (3.6 per carry), 0 TDs.  Not amazing stuff.  It seems clear early on that he has the ceiling of Marcus Woods and the floor of Earl Goldsmith.  He's shifty but not all that productive.
   
2. Did you see that one big carry against Colorado (4:03 of this video)?  Holy crap!  He got a whole and just exploded away from every defender!  Kid's got some serious jets and could make a nice inside-outside combo with D-Wash in '09.

As always, reality probably lies halfway between the two extremes, but with three years of eligibility remaining, there's still plenty of potential in De'Vion to be exploited.  And he certainly makes for an interesting change of pace with Washington running mostly between the tackles.

Redshirts

Drew Temple (5'10, 190ish, RSFr)

We obviously don't know a ton about Drew Temple at this point, but his Rivals video tells us that he runs a lot like his older brother Tony--stringing runs outside until a hole develops, then trying to explode through it--only, it appears, he maybe seeks out contact a bit more.  How that translates to success at Mizzou, who the heck knows, but for as disappointing as Tony Temple was at times, I think we would all be pretty happy to have a TT proxy in the backfield for another few years, huh?

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Yeah, we're not going to spend a ton of time on this one...I've never been much a fan of torture porn...

• Not sure what to say about this one, as the only truly necessary stat is the fact that over a 19-minute span (17:00 of the first half to 18:00 of the second half), Mizzou outscored Angola Coppin State by a score of 51-16, and then tried as hard as possible not to extend the lead anymore.

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That Laurence Bowers dunk from last night? A SportsCenter Top 10 highlight.

"Mizzou's 13-2" Links!

• Mutigers.com: Tigers sink Eagles, 88-55
• CoppinStateSports.com: McKee Moves into Second Place on Career Scoring List; Tigers Beat Eagles
• PowerMizzou: Laurence, Lawrence highlight Tiger win
• The Trib (pre-game): Critics don't bother Lawrence (though he doesn't name mcboomofdoom directly)
• The Trib (post-game): Lawrence lights up Coppin State
• The Missourian: Lawrence lights up Coppin State (that's right--same highlight)
• KC Star: MU pops Coppin State 88-55

  DeMarre Carroll followed every word, nodding his head in apparent understanding.

  No matter that Terry Moore — a sportscaster from Shenzhen, near Hong Kong — was speaking Chinese.

  “I speak no Chinese,” Carroll said, “but I’m an active listener.”

  So ended Missouri’s nonconference basketball season, with the 13-2 Tigers accepting plaudits from all over following the Tigers’ 88-55 victory over Coppin State. Including flowery congratulations from the Chinese TV journalist visiting the Missouri School of Journalism.

  Through a translator, the Chinese journalist with the American-sounding name, asked Carroll, Keith Ramsey and Matt Lawrence: “What chance do you think you can get yourself into the NBA, thanks.”

  ...

  Later, in a hallway inside Mizzou Arena, Lawrence was still shaking his head but smiling over the exchange.

  “He started off speaking in English, and then I realized he switched to Chinese,” Lawrence said. “I didn’t realize he was going to have a translator.”

• Post-Dispatch: MU aces its final warm-up act

No idea why I'm linking to this (it's still waaaaay too early), but I just knew you needed some Bracketology in your life, so here you go.  Gonzaga-Missouri in the West Region 7-10 game.  Better than the Kansas-Davidson draw, I'll say that much.

NFL Draft or Mizzou?  Well, it might finally be coming to an end: in two days, Jeremy Maclin announces his intentions for 2009.

Finally, in recruiting news, hold your breath: Ronnie Wingo is visiting Arkansas, and let's just say I'm pretty sure he's going to be told exactly what he wants to hear about playing running back, his coach actually staying there for five years, et cetera.  Chances are, if Wingo hasn't committed to Arkansas by Monday, his odds of becoming a Tiger end up getting awfully high, even though Tennessee is trying to sneak in the back door...

1998 (Florida)
1999 (Florida State)
2000 (Miami-FL)
2001 (Miami-FL)
2002 (USC)
2003 (USC)
2004 (USC)
2005 (Texas)
2006 (Florida)

2006 was the year of the Big Ten (three quarterfinalists) and SEC (both finalists).  2007 was the year of pure, unadulterated chaos.  How else can you explain a year that produces a #1 seed that has never played in the BCS National Tournament before (in such a dynastic sport, no less)?  What the hell would have happened in the season that made no sense?

(And oh by the way...the Alternate History idea is catching on.  Sweet.)

2007

I've already looked at 2007 a bit, so this time we'll avoid my own analysis and go with that of WhatIfSports.com.

Conference Champions: BYU, Central Florida, Central Michigan, Hawaii, LSU, Missouri, Ohio State, Troy, USC, Virginia Tech, West Virginia

At-Large Bids: Boston College, Florida, Georgia, Kansas, Oklahoma

Biggest Snubs: Arizona State, Tennessee

Oh, and the "No conference mates in the same quadrant" rule made me flip 7-seed USC and 8-seed OU...meaning, we don't face the prospect of OU in the quarterfinals...just USC.  Yay.

Round 1

#1 Missouri 69, #16 Troy 31 in Columbia
#8 USC 34, #9 West Virginia 20 in LA
#12 Hawaii 42, #5 Virginia Tech 28 in Blacksburg
#13 BYU 31, #4 Kansas 29 in Lawrence
#6 LSU 37, #11 Boston College 17 in Baton Rouge
#3 Georgia 44, #14 Central Florida 20 in Athens
#7 Oklahoma 45, #10 Florida 35 in Norman
#2 Ohio State 54, #15 Central Michigan 7 in Columbus

First of all, check out that BYU-Kansas game.  KU blows a 20-10 lead and, down 31-23, scores on the last play of the game...then misses the two-point conversion.

And how's THIS for Mizzou luck: Hawaii and BYU make the quarterfinals, and #1 Missouri draws...USC.  There are no bigger "Re-seed after the first round!" proponents than those in Columbia...for one week, at least.

Quarterfinals

#1 Missouri 29, #8 USC 21 in Columbia (I swear, I ran that only once!)
#12 Hawaii 52, #13 BYU 34 in Honolulu
#6 LSU 35, #3 Georgia 31 in Athens
#2 Ohio State 28, #7 Oklahoma 19 in Columbus

The biggest game ever played at Faurot Field takes place in 30-degree temperatures, with spitting rain and wind.  I guess that benefits the team that doesn't live every waking moment in 70- or 80-degree glory, huh?  Seriously, how big would this be--beating USC in front of 70,000 people at Faurot Field?  And how big would the pop have been when Mizzou blocked a punt, up 20-14, with 6 minutes left?  Wouldn't that have put the 2003 MU-NU fake FG pop to shame?

Semifinals

#1 Missouri 44, #12 Hawaii 21 in the Fiesta Bowl
#6 LSU 38, #2 Ohio State 17 in the Orange Bowl
#8 USC 29, #13 BYU 17 in the Rose Bowl
#7 Oklahoma 63, #3 Georgia 42 in the Sugar Bowl

I was going to be all sorts of ticked off if we'd lost to Hawaii after beating USC, but no.  It's a finals date with LSU in N'awlins, just like I projected in my own picks.  Does What If Sports think we had a better chance than I thought we had?

Finals

#6 LSU 43, #1 Missouri 34 in New Orleans

Guess not.  And they even spotted us 14 points...

2007 BCS National Champion: LSU

Now that 2008 is officially over and we officially turn our eyes toward recruiting (in one month) and spring football (in two), I thought we could take the time to talk about each unit on the team and how it's shaping up for 2009.  One exciting thing about 2009 in comparison to 2008 is, well, there's more to talk about and debate.

Returnees

Blaine Gabbert (6'4, 225, sophomore)

Gary Pinkel's first 5-star signee, Gabbert played in junk time in five games, completing 5 of 13 passes for 43 yards.  In a lot of ways, he is the anti-Daniel.  He is tall (Justin Whitlock won't get away with calling him "sawed-off"), cannon-armed, and extremely highly-touted.  He's also mobile and, it seems, down-to-earth and sculptible.  He has all the tools to be a massive success, but there are two primary concerns (for me, anyway):

1) Unlike Daniel, he wasn't a massive winner in high school.  In fact, I believe his team (Parkway West) had a losing record in his senior year before he got hurt.  Now, you can't pin this all at the quarterback's feet.  If the rest of the team is terrible, there's not much a guy can do.  Chase Daniel had an extraordinary amount of talent surrounding him at Southlake Carroll, not to mention top-flight facilities and an innovative, soon-to-be-snatched-up-to-the-college-ranks coach.  However, one problem I always had was simply that if you put Chase Daniel on any high school team of any caliber, he'd have figured out a way to win more than he lost.  Maybe I'm horrendously incorrect there, but it's been a red flag for me on Gabbert since back when he was a Nebraska commit.

2) This could be completely and totally coincidental, but he got hurt his senior year in high school (foot and shoulder) and again in two-a-days (shoulder sprain).  Maybe he'll never be hurt again, but three injuries in about 14 months is at least a small red flag that he might be injury-prone.

Jimmy Costello (6'3, 225, sophomore)

A walk-on from Liberty who impressed Gary Pinkel enough that he was given a scholarship without actually seeing the field, Costello might be more of an option at quarterback than any of us might have thought.  Pinkel went so far as to compare him to Hugh Millen, a former walk-on at Washington who made it to the NFL.  I can't say I know a single thing about this kid, but a) he's a good size, and b) Pinkel likes him.  That means I like him, and that means we might actually have a 4-way QB race in March.  How freaking fun is that??

Incoming recruits after the jump.

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First of all, I can't believe I just read through the entire Fiesta Bowl unintentional open thread from last night...but it was worth it...if for the "Everything's coming up Milhouse" reference if nothing else.  Anyhoo...

On a day when my first "A 2009 Walkthrough" post goes up later today, I'm not alone in my looking ahead--first, Dave Matter takes his first look at the '09 North by looking at skill positions.  And for those with InsideMizzou subscriptions, IM's Erik Johnson steals my thunder by looking at Mizzou's 2009 QBs one day before I do.

Five-dollar tickets...a 2-11 opponent...it's Mizzou's final cupcake game of 2008-09!!

Kim English: making strides.  Keith Ramsey: recipient of a complimentary article with a "block" pun in the headline (and one without).

Finally, we end with two wrestling links...that's right, wrestling links!  First, congrats to Mizzou heavyweight Mark Ellis, Big 12 Wrestler of the Week.  We've got ourselves two hellaciously underclass good heavyweights.

Next, a moment of silence for Ben Askren's wrestling career--it's officially over.  Askren is officially an MMA fighter now.  And to commemorate the occasion...we hit the YouTubes.