Blog Swapping with Mizzourah!--Good clean fun is had by all

For the second straight week, we have a blog swap with our opponents. The Troy one was fun, and this one is even better. It tells me one thing...contrary to the Internet's reputation of harboring a collection of sullen, semi-literate cranks, there are smart, witty fans who are great writers everywhere I look. This has been a great discovery for me, and I hope that football fans make use of this resource. Not every interesting voice on college football is in the press box.

1. That was a great win over an Illinois team that everyone thought was going to be pretty good. You lost a lot of talent last year, and yet it certainly appears that you have good players back. Do you think Missouri has reached the point that every college fan wants--where there is a consistent good team regardless of graduation?

Gary Pinkel really set himself up nicely for '09 as far back as '07. All of our new starters received significant PT over the past year or two, with the exception of Blaine Gabbert at QB and our new kicker, Grant Ressel. The thing that most people don't recognize is that Jeremy Maclin was out for a few games last year. Same with Chase Coffman. The new starters for '09 started in their place in '08, and those new guys played a lot.

Pinkel made a good call (debatable at the time) to not redshirt Gabbert last year, and he was able to prep for games with two NFL caliber QBs in Chase Daniel and Chase Patton. Patton was a hot name around draft time, and had several tryouts with teams before heading to dental school. Obviously, everyone knows of Chase Daniel, who was arguably, the best QB on the Redskins' roster this preseason, before Jim Zorn totally screwed up...but whatever.

As Pinkel put it to ESPN, who had questioned Blaine Gabbert and the rest of the new starters/missing pieces: "It's not like we woke up the day after the Alamo Bowl and went 'What? Those guys aren't here anymore?' We knew what we were doing.". It's funny how much Pinkel has endeared himself to Mizzou fans compared to former Mizzou football coaches.

My note: this part cracked me up, because I swear to god that the coaches I have followed in my life DO wake up the morning after the last game and say "What? Those guys aren't here anymore?"

2. As you may know, there is some history between our programs. Larry Smith was a Falcon, in the Doyt Perry coaching tree. Gary Pinkel used to be our hated rival at UT. And BG has won each of the last two meetings between our teams. What is the mindest of Missouri fans leading up to the BG game?

Being a Mizzou fan, anything scares the hell out of us. Seriously, we've been there for Troy. We've been there for New Mexico. Heck, we even struggled against Buffalo, another MAC East team. Being a Mizzou fan, we are just waiting for the ceiling to cave in on us at some point. I guess that's kind of the 'battered syndrome'. We've always had GREAT days followed by horrible ones. Sadly, it's almost a reflex anymore.

3. Gabbert has lots of tools on offense (Washington did not even get untracked vs. Illinois). What is the book on your new QB, and how has it changed after his debut performance?

Oh, I think we all knew Gabbert would be good. He's probably the biggest named recruit with the accolades he had coming out of high school. I don't think anyone, with the exception if your last name is 'Gabbert', expected that kind of game in his first start against a team that will contend for the Big 10 title. Realistically, we expected to see a better game each time out as Blaine gets better throughout '09. So yeah, I'll be a jerk: I demand a better game than his Illannoy game! 600yds passing, 200yds rushing, and either 11 or 12 TDs might get me to the Furman game, where he'll have to have an even better game. Oh, and I expect Gabbert to throw the ball to himself for at least five of those TDs. Then I'll be entertained.

4. The defense lost lots of talent too. They put a pretty good performance in against Illinois (seemed to contain Williams, for example). Tell me what to expect from Missouri.

Our defense has been our weak link the past two years, which is funny because our D was probably our strong point for years. Our defensive speed is amazing this year. Our DEnds last year were good, but they were a whole lot slower than our ends now. Brian Coulter, Jacquies Smith, and freshman Aldon Smith go in a rotation at ends, and those three are ball hawks. Add in Jaron Baston, who is a solid tackle and a 6-7 330lb Terrell Resonno next to Baston...that's a solid line. It also opens things up for our strong suit at LB. All-America candidate Sean Weatherspoon runs on a motor only reserved for three-year-olds on 10lbs of sugar. Throw Luke Lambert, who has played since his freshman year and has been a STUD, and Will Ebner, who's name you may have heard 15x on Saturday, and Andrew Gachkar rotating at the other backer spot. Cool story on Gachkar: he had a rib removed due to blood clotting and made it back to play a very good sophomore season.

5. If you gave the average Columbia resident one day to live and a choice between golfing and deer hunting, which would they choose?

Being from St. Louis, I'm not a hunter. I hit a rabbit the other day with my car and felt like crap. Not that I'm a tree hugging, PETA whack job. Trust me, I like my beef...but only after it's hit the grocery cooler. Your hunters fall more outside of StL and KC. A perfect day in CoMo would include burgers and Booches, pizza at Shakespeare's, a beer at Harpo's, and hitting the course for 18. Of course, you could take your rifle on the course and nab a deer close to the 15th tee box, and maybe that'll make someone's day.