Destination: San Antonio

By Mike Bushnell

Published Sept. 14, 2007

San Antonio is home to 1.3 million people, the Alamo, the River Walk and SeaWorld. It's also a city where the Missouri football team hopes to be on Dec. 1, when the Big 12 Championship game comes to the Alamodome.

With nearly every major offensive player from last season's eight-win campaign returning, the 2007 season represents the Tigers' best chance to win a Big 12 North championship since the league was founded in 1996.

For a team that hasn't won a league title of any kind since MU won a share of the Big Eight in 1969, expectations and excitement couldn't be higher.

Anticipation for the season was jump-started last spring when the Big 12 media and The Associated Press both picked the Tigers to win the North ahead of their rivals, the Nebraska Cornhuskers.

"We know the expectations," senior tailback Tony Temple said. "We know what our goals are this year, and we have to go out and get them."

Missouri, which opens its home schedule Saturday against the Western Michigan Broncos, will go as far as the offense takes it. And all eyes are on junior quarterback Chase Daniel, who has earned national recognition with his recent play.

Missouri coach Gary Pinkel frequently speaks with reverence when asked about his quarterback and claims he's unlike any player he's ever coached, which includes Daniel's predecessor, Brad Smith, who is regarded by many as the best natural talent to ever play at Missouri.

"He continues to amaze and impress me," Pinkel said of Daniel last spring. "He's a dynamic player to say the very least."

Pinkel also said Daniel is dedicated and as good at reading defenses as the coaching staff.

"He is a student of the game," Pinkel said. "He knows offenses and defenses as well as a coach."

Pinkel said Daniel, who stands at only 5 feet, 10 inches, has gotten this far thanks to hard work.

"If he were an average competitor and worker, he would be an average quarterback," Pinkel said.

It also helps that Daniel has the nation's best tight end duo in senior Martin Rucker and junior Chase Coffman.

"Having all the weapons around me that I do makes things really easy," Daniel said. "There's someone to throw to on every play."

And to this point in the season, Daniel has thrived. He has gone 68-for-96 for 689 yards and 8 touchdowns, all without throwing a single interception. In last Saturday's game at Mississippi, he broke the Big 12 record for consecutive passes without an interception at 206.

Rucker said Daniel is a unique talent.

"Chase is so accurate and smart," Rucker said last month after a scrimmage. "We feel confident every snap because he's there."

Missouri's offense was expected to be potent, but it has also been quick so far. The Tigers routinely snap the ball with more than 10 seconds left on the play clock, leaving defenses unfocused.

"We're an attack offense," senior wide receiver Will Franklin said. "We just want to go, go, go, go all the time. We can hit you any time with a big play. The sky's the limit for this offense. You never know what we'll come up with next."

Missouri has kept its opponents on their toes with several trick plays and different variations on the spread offense this season. Rucker has lined up at quarterback a few times so far, and although he has run every time, it seems likely that, at some point this season, he will throw a pass to Daniel, who lines up at wide receiver every time. But Rucker won't say what the offense has planned.

"I don't know if I ever will throw to Chase," he said. "You'll just have to wait and see. But we did try once during two-a-days and it didn't turn out so well."

Although the offense is in great shape, for the Tigers to compete in the Big 12 they will have to step up on defense, which has fully lived up to its reputation as being soft through the first two games. Already, MU has allowed 969 total yards to two sub-.500 teams who were led most of the game by inexperienced quarterbacks.

Pinkel has acknowledged that both the rushing and secondary aspects of the defense need work.

"We know we have a lot to improve on," he said. "Pass rush is something we need to work at. As you go you get better, and we expect we will."

Yet MU has just one sack in two games. Senior lineman Ziggy Hood said the line would be weakened by the departures of seniors Xzavie Jackson and Brian Smith after last season.

"We knew that losing Xzavie and Brian would hurt, but they're not here anymore, and we have to step up and assert ourselves," Hood said.

After letting Mississippi running back BenJarvus Green-Ellis rush for 226 yards in the best game of his career last Saturday, Williams said the defense now knows what it has to do.

"We have to work so hard in practice," he said. "Everything's fixable. We can do so much better."

In the secondary, cornerbacks senior Darnell Terrell and sophomore Hardy Ricks have struggled, but safeties junior William Moore and senior Pig Brown have shined. Brown has two fumble recoveries and an interception and initially had a third against Ole Miss before it was credited to Terrell.

"I just go out there and play hard," Brown said. "It's all about going out there and going after the ball, and that's what I'm trying to do."

In addition to wrestling with their own defensive problems, the Tigers have to navigate a tough, but manageable, Big 12 schedule. Despite finishing 4-4 in conference play last year, MU would have won the North if it had beaten Nebraska.

Missouri gets the Cornhuskers at home this year, and the Tigers have won the last two match-ups at Faurot Field. If the Tigers enter that game 4-0, there is a strong likelihood that a national audience could see the game on ESPN as the network's prime-time game of the week. Because of the historical mediocrity of the Missouri football program, a featured home appearance on ESPN would be a big achievement for Columbia. But if they can pull off a victory on Oct. 6, it will go a long way toward securing the elusive December trip to Texas.

The 2007 season is and will be Missouri's best chance in decades to make noise on the national football scene. And if the offense stays as good as advertised, anything's possible.