The Big 3

[Pitt Gorilla]

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/notebo...amedayFinal083

It's early. There are a dozen major plot twists still to come. A Stanford or a Pittsburgh or a Colorado may yet have something to say about the chase for the 2008 national championship.

But as we stand today, three weeks into the season, three teams stand above and apart from all the rest: USC, Oklahoma and Missouri.


Heisman hopeful Chase Daniel leads a potent Missouri offense.




And of those three, USC stands on its own plane after making Ohio State look like Ohio State can look when it plays the big boys: slow, weak, soft and overmatched.

The big three have won their eight games by a combined score of 429-114. And they all have played at least one somebody.


USC has taken on two teams that won a combined 20 games in 2007, and squashed them both. This is a complete team, dominant right now in all phases. Gazing down the Trojans' schedule, it's hard to envision where the challenges will come from between now and January.


Oklahoma has cranked up its passing game to another level in routing Cincinnati and Washington. The Sooners are scoring points in gushes, pushing quarterback Sam Bradford up the Heisman Trophy lists.


But he isn't even the leading Heisman candidate in his own league. That would be Missouri QB Chase Daniel, who has more touchdowns (seven) than incompletions (six) the past two weeks. Which is just silly. The Tigers put 52 on Illinois in the opener, 52 more on Southeast Missouri State and then a whopping 69 on Nevada (a 2007 bowl team) on Saturday.
Missouri and Oklahoma don't meet in the regular season, which could make the Big 12 championship game slightly enormous (if both of them can beat Texas, among others, in a salty league).


None of this means the Southeastern Conference won't have a say in the proceedings. But so far, the SEC is specializing in UglyBall, taking a little of the luster off its top teams.


Georgia wheezed its way to 14 points against a South Carolina team coming off a loss to Vanderbilt. And the Bulldogs needed a Gamecocks fumble into the end zone to avoid a potential overtime. The Dogs haven't looked like anything special yet.


Florida was decidedly unspectacular against young Miami at home Sept. 6. The Gators looked susceptible up front on offense to pressure in that game and will have to prove they can beat a blitz consistently in a league that will bring a lot of heat.


Auburn scored three points Saturday. And won.


LSU might yet be up to a defense of its national title, but the Tigers haven't played any meaningful games to get a true gauge on their quarterback play.


So at this moment, a trio of teams have separated themselves from the pack. But at this stage last year, the big four were USC, LSU, Oklahoma and Florida. All went on to lose more than once.


Remember that. Nobody wins anything permanent in mid-September.

['Hamas' Jenkins]

I still don't feel comfortable with this. What can I say, I'm a Missouri fan. I'm used to having my heart ripped out and stomped on, and until I see a lot more from this defense, I'm just not all that optimistic that they aren't going to lay an egg somewhere along the line and give up 55 points.

[Ebolapox]

welp, at least one of my teams is good. that should save a bit of sanity this year.

[Mizzou_8541]

Originally Posted by 'Hamas' Jenkins

I still don't feel comfortable with this. What can I say, I'm a Missouri fan. I'm used to having my heart ripped out and stomped on, and until I see a lot more from this defense, I'm just not all that optimistic that they aren't going to lay an egg somewhere along the line and give up 55 points.

As a Mizzou fan, I will stand firm with "cautiously optimistic"

[Frazod]

DaKCfloriDuH will be along shortly to explain that THE ENTIRE SEC is the greatest conference EVAR!! and all of these other various pretender organizations who are not fortunate enough to play in THE GLORIOUS SEC are mere pretenders and would all lose handily to even the lowliest MAGNIFICENT SEC team, because, dammit, they actually play defense in the SPECTACULAR SEC.

[KCinNY]

Originally Posted by 'Hamas' Jenkins

I still don't feel comfortable with this. What can I say, I'm a Missouri fan. I'm used to having my heart ripped out and stomped on, and until I see a lot more from this defense, I'm just not all that optimistic that they aren't going to lay an egg somewhere along the line and give up 55 points.

All of us lifelong Mizzou fans can't help but be cautious with our optimism...but DAYUM--Chase and co. look like they can hang 50 points on anybody.

[cdcox]

Originally Posted by frazod

DaKCfloriDuH will be along shortly to explain that THE ENTIRE SEC is the greatest conference EVAR!! and all of these other various pretender organizations who are not fortunate enough to play in THE GLORIOUS SEC are mere pretenders and would all lose handily to even the lowliest MAGNIFICENT SEC team, because, dammit, they actually play defense in the SPECTACULAR SEC.

Nevertheless, for the moment, the SEC still has 3 teams that could end up in the NC game.

[Moobs]

I'm neither a MU or OU fan, but I'm salivating at the thought of that game.

First to 50 wins?

[Pitt Gorilla]

Originally Posted by Moobs

I'm neither a MU or OU fan, but I'm salivating at the thought of that game.

First to 50 wins?

OU wins. MU's offense is like PS3, but OU is stout all around.

[Frazod]

Originally Posted by Pitt Gorilla

OU wins. MU's offense is like PS3, but OU is stout all around.

I figure our only chance is to put up enough points on them early to survive late, because they always wear us down in the second half with their giant inbred mutant linemen.

[Mizzou_8541]

Originally Posted by Pitt Gorilla

OU wins. MU's offense is like PS3, but OU is stout all around.

Agreed. Unless D improves.

[Pitt Gorilla]

Omaha World-Herald writer likes Chase & the Tigers.

http://www.omaha.com/index.php?u_pag...u_sid=10432763

COLUMBIA, Mo. — OK, sixth-ranked Missouri, here's the deal.

As a brand-new member of college football's Big Boys Club, certain lessons need to be learned.

Even when you smash a lesser opponent — like in Saturday's 69-17 win over four-touchdown underdog Nevada — people usually want to know more about what you didn't do than what you did.

With that in mind, I came to Faurot Field to dissect the Tigers' surprisingly wobbly defense.

More questions arose Saturday after Missouri gave up first-half scoring drives of 81, 62 and 66 yards. In the first three games, a defense with 10 returning starters has allowed nine scoring drives of more than 50 yards.

But writing about that today would only be nitpicking in light of the performance of senior quarterback Chase Daniel.

At his current success rate, the Tigers may not even need to field a defense.

Daniel, who is in his ninth consecutive year of operating the spread offense, looked Saturday like he was sitting on his living room couch manipulating a control panel.

In 2½ quarters, he completed 82.1 percent of his passes (23 of 28) for 405 yards with four touchdowns. There were no interceptions and no sacks. It would have been no sweat, too, except for the brutally humid conditions between downpours.

During the past two games, Daniel has led 13 offensive possessions. The result: 12 touchdowns and one field goal.

"We want to score every time we touch the ball," he said.

Every time?

"We know that's probably not going to happen," Daniel said. "But there is like a 25 percent chance we can."

Daniel even has hopes of playing an entire game without an incompletion.

"We talk about that all the time," he said. "There have been multiple practices where we haven't had the ball touch the ground in group work or 11-on-11 work.

"Last game was fairly close (he hit 16 of 17 in 1½ quarters). Today, I had some throwaways. We're doing the right things we want with the football right now. But that would be the perfect game."

Of Saturday's five incompletions, two were dropped. On another, pass interference easily could have been called.

On the only pass of the day Daniel shouldn't have thrown — a swing toss that a Nevada defender nearly intercepted — MU receiver Jared Perry grabbed the tipped ball for a 5-yard gain.

It's not like Nevada's defense was a bunch of stumblebums.

Last week, the Wolf Pack held Texas Tech's Graham Harrell, last year's national passing yardage leader, to a 41 percent completion rate and less than 300 yards while intercepting two passes.

None of that is good news for any future Missouri foes, especially those in the North Division forced to start walk-ons in the secondary.

The MU media relations staff on Saturday passed out old-time Viewfinders — those of you from the Internet generation can look it up — as the start of a $25,000 Heisman Trophy campaign to promote Daniel. He finished fourth in the voting last season and was part of the awards ceremony.

All-America wide receiver Jeremy Maclin, who caught touchdown passes of 80, 14 and 49 yards from Daniel, smiled when asked if he felt overlooked in the Heisman promotion.

"I'm doing everything I can to get Chase back to New York," Maclin said. "That guy deserved it last year, and he deserves it so far this year.

"He's the best quarterback in the country. By far."

Is Missouri closing in on becoming the best team in the country?

MU coach Gary Pinkel said he is pressing his players to perform at a championship level.

"This is about us winning championships," he said. "That's how we're grading our players."

But which championship, Gary?

"The Big 12 North. That's our focus," Pinkel said, before deadpanning: "Nice try."

OK, so the head coach won't bite. He doesn't need to. If his quarterback keeps playing like this and the under-achieving defense gets its act together, Missouri will be in the hunt for No. 1 to the end.

[ChiefsCountry]

The biggest advantage Mizzou has this year over OU is Arrowhead will be more of a Mizzou tilt than OU.

[triple]

I think Missouri's defense is too suspect to call them an elite team.

They are very good and capable of beating anyone, but you probably can't go a whole year winning every week if they're all shootouts

[ClevelandBronco]

Originally Posted by Pitt Gorilla

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/notebo...amedayFinal083

It's early. There are a dozen major plot twists still to come. A Stanford or a Pittsburgh or a Colorado may yet have something to say about the chase for the 2008 national championship....

A Colorado? Maybe.

But not THE Colorado. That's just not happening.