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FOOTBALL ZONE |
2008 Tigerboard Football Prediction Contest Open! Posted by Nick - 8/24 6:11pm | You can now start submitting your score predictions for the 2008 Tigerboard Football Prediction Contest. Pretty much everything is the same as in years past except we are paying 3 places this year. $300 for 1st, $150 for 2nd, and $50 for 3rd.
Enter your picks now!
Must be registered to play.
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Tigers Stalk National Championship Posted by Nick - 8/1 1:49pm | This guest article comes to us from CorpusTiger. Thank you CorpusTiger!
Missouri Tiger football fans are indeed "strangers in a strange land" as we approach the 2008 football season. Tickets for the "Arch Rivalry" game in St. Louis are impossible to get (and those that are found are purchased through the Illini website); seats for the away game at Texas are being rationed severely as portions are halved and halved again; recruits who formerly snubbed Mizzou are staying home and lining up for the chance to take a place in the Tigers' offensive and defensive systems; multiple Tiger players (Chase Daniel and Jeremy Maclin) are mentioned as candidates for the 2008 Heisman trophy; national magazines proclaim the Tigers' William Moore to be the best college safety in America; these same magazines also list Missouri as one of a handful of teams likely to play in the FedEx National Championship game on January 8, 2009. Something or someone has turned the college football world upside down in just a few short years, and we don?t have to search far for who it is.
Three years ago Chase Daniel rode north out of Texas, looking for a coach who believed in him and who would give him the opportunity to fulfill his potential. Credit Coach Pinkel for recognizing Daniel to be the game-changer and touchdown-maker that he is, but credit Daniel for being the person that he is, and for setting an extraordinary example that has been followed by his teammates up and down the line. Those of us who have played organized sports on at least the high-school level know that, in truth, more often than not, the stars of the team set both the tempo and the attitude that their teammates and the coaching staff have to follow. Imagine, if you can, Chase Daniel with a bad attitude, and imagine how destructive he could be. The fact that opposing coaches and players marvel at Missouri?s "team attitude" and "one-for-all" spirit is a credit to Coach Pinkel and his staff, but it is more of a credit to Daniel, who, as perhaps the greatest player in college football today, chooses to remain a "team player". A tip of the cowboy hat to you, Chase, for being the person and player that you are, and for bringing hope and joy to legions of Missouri fans who had begun to believe that they would never see the good football times again. We shall not see your kind ride by again anytime soon.
A tip of the cowboy hat, also, to Chase Patton, the home-town hero from Columbia Rock Bridge who has chosen to follow his heart and to play backup quarterback for Ol' Mizzou rather than trade in his Division I status for a couple of snaps at a subdivision school. Patton is probably the third or fourth-best quarterback in the Big 12, but his candle remains dimmed because he plays behind the best college football player in America today. Chase Patton, we thank you for your service, we?re proud of you, and, as always, we hope we never find out how good you really are.
Now for the upcoming season. I?m going to resist the "drug high" that we were all on during the 2007 season by being decidedly pessimistic about the Tigers' schedule. Of the three toughest games that face us this year (Illinois in St. Louis, Nebraska at Lincoln, TEXAS at Austin), 2.5 of them are "away" games. We'll be lucky to win one of these games, and may in fact lose all three of them (of course, in actuality, Chase will throw for a hundred touchdowns and a zillion yards in Austin, as he gets his one chance to show Mack Brown what a real college quarterback looks like, so we can tuck this one in our back pocket). The Huskers' butts still hurt from the kicking we gave them last October in Columbia, so they and the 90,000+ fans that cheer them on in Lincoln will be eager for the rematch. And as for Illinois, well, the Zooker is building a Big Ten dynasty, every year laying on better and better players, and the Illini don't like to lose in St. Louis.
The remainder of the schedule looks only slightly less difficult, as Colorado, K-State and Okie State look tough in Columbia, the season-ending match with KU in Kansas City is no walk-over, and any trip to Ames, Iowa is an adventure. The only "gimmees" on the schedule look to be Baylor and the three blind mice that someone scheduled as home games in September.
Overall, I see us winning the Big 12 North again with a 10-2 record, and, since the Big 12 Championship game in Kansas City is a home game for us, defeating either Texas or Oklahoma in that game. On a neutral field, Oklahoma would take us (as they did twice last year), but 85-90% of the fans in attendance at Arrowhead that night will be rooting for the Tigers, so I'll give us the game there.
The BCS will not want to snub us again, so, yes, we will play in the FedEx National Championship game on January 8, 2009, even with two losses (as did LSU last year). As for who we play, and who wins the game, I?ll let you decide.
These are unforgettable days to be a Tiger fan. Let's enjoy them with class. We lost for years and tried to maintain our dignity. Let's try to maintain our dignity this year as we pummel opponent after opponent. Let's show America that we can win with class as well as lose with class. We've earned these good times; let's enjoy them with grace and dignity as we watch THE MISSOURI TIGERS, THE BEST COLLEGE FOOTBALL TEAM IN AMERICA, school opposing players and coaches on how to play the game. GO TIGERS !!!!
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Preseason All Big 12 Teams Announced Posted by Nick - 7/18 1:18am | Eight Missouri Tigers were selected to the Preseason All Big 12 Teams announced on Thursday. With its eight selections, Missouri lead all Big 12 schools.
Chase Daniel nabbed Preseason Offensive Player of the Year honors along with the QB slot. Joining Daniel on the offensive side were TE Chase Coffman, OL Colin Brown, WR Jeremy Maclin, and PK Jeff Wolfert.
On the defensive side, the chosen Tigers include LB Sean Weatherspoon, DE William Moore, and in the PR role, Jeremy Maclin.
The individual honors come just a day after Missouri was picked unanimously to repeat as Big 12 North Champions by the media. |
Football Recruiting Receptions Posted by Nick - 2/12 5:44am | It's that time of the year again. Time for the annual recruiting receptions. Here are the details that I have.
St. Louis Reception
This is a great annual event - what a great year to come and celebrate last year's season as well as hear about our exciting recruiting class for this next year!
6:00pm Reception with Mizzou Coaches
7:00pm Program with Steve Savard as Master of Ceremonies
Location: Edward Jones Building (270 and Manchester) in the Edward Jones Lobby and Auditorium
Cost: $5 for adults, under 19 admitted free
Cash Bar with complementary snacks
Alumni Marching Mizzou will provide entertainment!
Kansas City Reception
The Tiger Club of Kansas City is proud to once again host a recruiting reception featuring Coach Pinkel and his staff introducing Tiger fans to this year's crop of exciting recruits.
This years event will be held at The Sheraton (formerly Adams Mark) by the Truman Sports Complex. The program will begin at 7:00 on Wednesday, February 13. Admission is free to paid members of the Tiger Club and just $5 for non-members. There will be cash bars open.
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Mizzou Signs 23 Recruits Posted by Nick - 2/7 1:39pm | Columbia, Mo. -- Twenty-three standout student-athletes have signed a National Letter of Intent (NLI) to attend the University of Missouri and play football for Head Coach Gary Pinkel, as announced today by Mizzou's head coach.
Momentum from Mizzou's historic 2007 season which saw the Tigers win a school-record 12 games and claim the Big 12 Conference North Division title, as well as the Cotton Bowl championship, undoubtedly carried over into recruiting efforts this year. Mizzou's coaching staff has assembled a recruiting class which was ranked today by Rivals.com as the nation's 24th-best recruiting class overall, based on their point system. The Tiger class stood as 5th-highest in the Big 12 according to Rivals, which is the best showing in Pinkel's time at Mizzou, beating the previous bests of 6th in 2003, 2004, and 2007.
The top-25 ranking for the class of 23 high school standouts marks the highest ranking under Pinkel. The previous six classes rated, according to Rivals: 29th in 2002, 28th in 2003, 29th in 2004, 39th in 2005, 47th in 2006 and 33rd in 2007.
Mizzou fared perhaps as well as it ever has in-state, as it signed seven of the state's top-10 players, according to Rivals, including five-star blue-chip quarterback Blaine Gabbert (Ballwin, Mo.), who was rated as the state's top-rated player, as well as the nation's top-ranked pro-style quarterback prospect. Nine in-state standouts in all signed with MU this year.
The Tiger coaching staff continued its outstanding work mining the pipelines of Texas, as it signed 12 Lone Star state student-athletes. Mizzou also signed one student-athlete each from the states of Iowa and Michigan.
According to the Rivals.com rankings, Mizzou's 2008 recruiting class rates ahead of 44 other schools that participated in bowl games during the 2007 season. Just a handful of the other bowl teams from last year that Missouri bettered include: Maryland (31st), Boston College (32nd), California (33rd), Tennessee (34th), Kansas (38th), Arkansas (39th), Penn State (40th), Wisconsin (41st), and West Virginia (42nd), among many others.
Five different position groups were ranked among Rivals' top-25 classes, including quarterback (1st in the nation), tight end (15th), defensive back (20th), offensive line (21st) and defensive end (25th).
"We are very pleased to have such a talented group join our program and our University," said MU Head Coach Gary Pinkel. "I feel that this is an outstanding class that will help the program continue to move forward. We've had a great season, and it is good to see the excitement about our program, in the state of Missouri, and around the country. I don't think there's any question that this season helped, and I'd like to commend the efforts of our entire staff who worked so hard to make this happen. As always, we continued to emphasize keeping the best Missouri kids home, and we feel very good about our success there, and of course, our hard work in the state of Texas has paid off again." he said.
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