Posts Tagged ‘columbia daily tribune’

Missouri Tigers News and Notes: Danario Alexander, Teammates at Combine

February 26th, 2010

The NFL Combine kicked off Wednesday, and a quartet of Missouri Tigers will spend the next few days in Indianapolis in an attempt to impress NFL scouts leading up to the NFL Draft in April.

Here are a few notes on the Combine and other goings-on around Missouri athletics:

Dave Matter of the Columbia Daily Tribune has an excellent outline of each Missouri player's itinerary in Indianapolis .

Of the four, which includes Kurtis Gregory , Jared Perry , and Sean Weatherspoon , Danario Alexander is the only one expected to forgo participating in drills. As Matter noted , citing a report from Sports Illustrated last week, Alexander will need time to recover after undergoing surgery Feb. 16 on his troubled left knee to repair cartilage damage suffered during last month's Senior Bowl.

The surgery, which is now the fourth to be performed on the receiver's left knee since 2007, is also expected to keep Alexander from participating in Missouri's pro day on Mar. 4.

If there's one person who can surely sympathize with Alexander's situation, it's former teammate and current Cincinnati Bengals tight end Chase Coffman , who was unable to participate in last year's Combine because of a broken bone in his foot.

Geoff Hobson, a writer for the Bengals' official Web site, has an excellent piece that chronicles Coffman's rookie season, in which he was inactive for the first 12 games before missing the remainder of 2009 while on injured reserve following surgery to remove bone spurs from his ankle.

In hoops, the Tigers blew out Colorado , 92-63, at Mizzou Arena on Wednesday evening, but the victory may ultimately prove costly.

Junior forward Justin Safford landed oddly after converting a layup early in the first half, injuring his left knee. Safford, who is averaging 8.6 points and 4.1 rebounds a game this season, did not return and is feared to have torn at least one ligament in the knee, according to Columbia Daily Tribune writer Steve Walentik. If an MRI proves that to be the case, Safford will likely miss the remainder of the season.

With March Madness around the corner, the beginning to the MU softball team's season has been lost in the shuffle somewhat.

Currently ranked No. 6 in the nation in the USA Today/NFCA poll , the Tigers (3-2) split a two-game series with No. 2 Arizona last weekend and now head to Columbus, Ga., for the NFCA Leadoff Classic (Feb. 26-28), where they'll encounter three teams ranked nationally, including No. 4 Michigan.

Meanwhile, the baseball team also recently got its season underway. The Tigers, picked to finish seventh in the Big 12, won two of three at last weekend's Cactus Classic in Tucson, Ariz., to begin the season. MU now travels to Auburn, Ala., for the Auburn Classic , where the Tigers will face unranked opponents Florida Atlantic, Boston College, and Auburn over the weekend.

Comments Off »

Posted in Big 12 Football, Breaking News, College Football, Danario Alexander, Missouri Tigers Football, NCAA

Tags:

Missouri Football Players Not Subject To Suspension After Recent Incident

February 17th, 2010

Now that a few days have passed, an official police report has shed more clarification on the incident outside a Columbia, Missouri pizza parlor early Saturday morning that involved three Missouri football players .

A pair of spokesmen for the Columbia police department on Monday confirmed to Columbia Daily Tribune MU beat writer Dave Matter that Blaine Gabbert , Tyler Gabbert , and Andrew Gachkar were the players involved, as was originally reported.

According to the spokesmen, the names of 12 people were included in the report, but only those of the players were being released.

The identities of the remaining nine are available only through a formal records request, police spokeswoman Officer Jessie Haden told Matter on Monday.

The police report indicated that no one involved was arrested, nor is it expected that any legal action will be pursued, despite one of the MU players apparently having sustained considerable injury as a result of the incident.

The 12 people included in the police report consist of the three players, a group of men allegedly involved, and an unspecified number of witnesses.

As the story goes, police arrived at Gumby's Pizza in downtown Columbia shortly before 1:30 AM Saturday in response to call about a disturbance that began inside a restaurant restroom.

Initial reports indicated that a verbal exchange between Blaine Gabbert, Tyler Gabbert, and Gachkar and a group of unidentified males began when one of the MU players was being harassed while in the restroom.

That scenario has since been reversed, according to Matter, who on Tuesday reported that police confirmed it was the players who were standing on the outside of the restroom.

The confrontation escalated into the restaurant's main area when, according to the players, the men started "mouthing off." A physical exchange reportedly ensued and, though brief, resulted in Tyler Gabbert suffering from a broken nose , which occurred when one of the men "sucker-punched" the freshman quarterback, an unnamed source told the Tribune.

Gachkar was said to have cut his hand on a plate during the skirmish. He later received stitches to close the wound. Gabbert will reportedly undergo surgery to repair the broken nose.

Blaine Gabbert went unharmed, though one source did say he was thrown to the ground by authorities and handcuffed. That claim has yet to be substantiated.

Noah Schmidt, a general manager at Gumby's, told the Tribune that he informed police that the MU players did not provoke the other men into fighting. Rather, Schmidt said it was impossible to determine who was to blame because of all the "confusion" at the scene.

Although no citations were handed out or arrests made, it is suspected by police that each of the men involved where experiencing some level of intoxication from alcohol at the time of the incident. Gachkar, 21, is the only one of the three players legally permitted to drink.

MU spokesman Chad Moller confirmed to the Tribune that none of the players will be suspended.

Blaine Gabbert, a 20-year-old sophomore, threw for 3,593 yards and 24 touchdowns last season in his first as the Tigers' starting quarterback. Blaine Gabbert's brother, Tyler Gabbert, 18, was one of the prized pieces of MU's 2010 recruiting class. A four-star quarterback prospect from Ballwin, Mo., he is expected to challenge for the backup job for the upcoming season after enrolling at Missouri in January.

A junior from Kansas, Gachkar was the Tigers' second-leading tackler in 2009, registering 80 in 13 games from his linebacker position.

Photo credit: St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Comments Off »

Posted in Andrew Gachkar, Breaking News, College Football, Missouri Tigers Football, NCAA, blaine gabbert

Tags:

RB Gilbert Moye Leaves Team, Will to Transfer From Missouri

February 9th, 2010

The crowd that is Missouri's offensive backfield has become a little less dense.

Running back Gilbert Moye has left the team and will transfer from the university upon completion of the current semester, school officials confirmed to the Columbia Daily Tribune on Monday.

According to MU beat writer Dave Matter, a source close to Moye confirmed the news, as did team spokesman Chad Moeller, who told the paper Monday evening that the running back has, indeed, parted ways with the team.

Matter reported that Moye intends to transfer to a program from either the Southwestern Athletic Conference or Southland Conference—both of which are part of college football's Football Championship Subdivision (FCS), formerly known as Division I-AA—where he hopes to play his old high school position of quarterback.

Missouri will now enter next month's spring practices with three scholarship running backs on its roster, but that number may very well double entering preseason workouts. The trio of senior Derrick Washington, junior De'Vion Moore, and sophomore Kendial Lawrence will be joined in the fall by freshmen Marcus Murphy (DeSoto, Tx.), Henry Josey (Angleton, Tx.), and Greg White (DeQueen, Ark.), all of whom were part of MU's recent recruiting class.

Considering Moye's past in the MU program—which was laden with variety but light on production—his decision to leave should not be altogether surprising.

A former standout quarterback from Diboll High School in Texas, Moye was quickly converted to the safety position upon his arrival in Columbia in 2007 as one of the country's top-rated "athletes." After a redshirt season, he played in 11 games in 2008, with a significant portion of his time spent on MU's kickoff return unit. All the while, Moye was receiving plenty of reps in practice while learning from one of the best safeties in MU history—current Atlanta Falcon William Moore.

But along with the 2009 season came yet another position switch. In an attempt to utilize Moye's coveted blend of size, speed, and athleticism, the Missouri staff moved him to running back, where the 6'2", 220-pound native of Jasper, Texas, figured to challenge for a backup role.

However, with Washington and Moore entrenched as the team's top two backs, Moye struggled at times with inconsistency and fumbles during preseason workouts in August, resulting in him losing his No. 3 role to Lawrence.

Buried on the depth chart as MU's fourth option at running back, Moye was nearly invisible this past season, rushing for only 35 yards on six carries, all of which came versus Furman on Sept. 19.

 

Photo courtesy of Columbia Daily Tribune.

You can find this article and more at my page at Examiner.com.

Comments Off »

Posted in Breaking News, College Football, Missouri Tigers Football, NCAA

Tags:

Missouri Tigers Football News and Notes: Sheldon Richardson Firm on Commitment

February 1st, 2010

Just wanted to pass on a couple notes of interest as we move within three days until National Signing Day:

Sheldon Richardson Update

At this time last year, MU fans were in a tizzy over the decision of five-star recruit Sheldon Richardson , the former defensive tackle/tight end from St. Louis. Richardson ultimately ended a heated recruiting war on national signing day '09 by selecting Missouri over a host of other big-time programs that included Miami (FL.).

However, after learning that he would not qualify academically for the 2009-10 school year, Richardson enrolled at College of the Sequoias, a junior college in Visalia, Calif. Rated by Rivals.com as one of the top defensive tackles in the 2009 class, Richardson played mostly defensive end this past season in junior college, racking up 65 tackles, including 17 for loss, and earning regional honors.

And as the Columbia Daily Tribune's Dave Matter reports, Richardson now plans to redshirt during the 2010 season  before graduating in December, giving him three seasons of eligibility in Columbia, where he's expected to enroll in time for the 2011 winter semester.

Though Richardson is not obligated to uphold the terms of the letter of intent he signed in 2009, he has made it clear he is not re-opening his recruitment. In fact, he is included on MU's list of commitments for the 2011 class at Rivals.com.

“I’m very solid,” Richardson told the Tribune, referring to his commitment. “As solid as it can get. There’s really no more solid than what it is.”

Here's some video on Richardson.

 

Speaking of the 2011 class...

Missouri played host to more than 50 potential recruits from the class of 2011 over the weekend. Among those in attendance were several players who should be counted among the state's top-20 when rankings are released later this year.

According to Power Mizzou , MU's Rivals.com affiliate, among those in town were cornerback Bernard Thomas and running back Darrian Miller of Blue Springs, wide receiver Devonte Majors (St. Louis), running back Robert Standard (St. Louis), and Columbia's very own Wesley Leftwich , a receiver from Hickman High School who has already fielded an offer from the Tigers.

"It means a lot," Leftwich told Power Mizzou, "to know they're making me that big of a priority."

Leftwich is currently being recruited by the likes of Notre Dame, Iowa, and UCLA.

The site also reported that Missouri's coaching staff is expected to begin handing out more offers for the class of 2011 after its current recruiting efforts are wrapped up this week. No offers were extended over the weekend.

 

Pittsburgh To The Big Ten?

Now for a story that, though not confirmed, is sure to only pick up speed in coming days.

Bleacher Report senior writer Kristofer Green touches on this story in more detail.

According to multiple unsubstantiated sources, the University of Pittsburgh has accepted a bid from the Big Ten to become the conference's 12th member. As the story goes, athletic department officials from the university this past week held closed-door meetings with student-athletes to inform them of the decision, leading to a virtual firestorm on Twitter, where Pitt student-athletes announced the news.

Those announcements have since been erased, according to reports, though it is unclear whether the student-athletes were asked to delete them.

Thus far limited primarily to Pittsburgh message boards, it's only a matter of time before more and more blogs jump all over this. As of now, no reputable news outlet has yet to confirm this story with both Pittsburgh and Big Ten officials. Until then, I find it hard to get too involved.

If, indeed, Pittsburgh has accepted an invitation to join the Big Ten, it does not necessarily put an end to the candidacy of schools like Syracuse, Rutgers, and Missouri, which has been one of the presumed front-runners to join the conference.

Though 12 members would allow the Big Ten to institute a conference championship game between two six-team divisions, some sources have reported that Big Ten officials may strive to add up to five teams , making the conference as large as 16 schools.

In December, the Big Ten's Council of Presidents/Chancellors stated it was time for the conference to once again explore expansion. Commissioner Jim Delany was then told he would be given 12 to 18 months to compile a list of candidates.

The idea that Delany would need less than two months to not only formulate that list but pinpoint the conference's most lucrative option is what makes this rumor—and that's all it is at this point, a rumor—a bit hard to believe.

 

For this article and more, visit my page at Examiner.com .

 

Photo credit: St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Comments Off »

Posted in Breaking News, College Football, Missouri Tigers Football, NCAA

Tags:



eXTReMe Tracker