KcMizzou
11-23-2007, 03:45 AM
Border War: Top five story lines
FIVE TOP STORY LINES
1 Stayin’ alive. At the beginning of this season, who would have thought this game would help decide the national championship? Kansas is slotted for the BCS title game if it wins its next two games, while Missouri will likely make it in with the same result. Saturday’s game will be the first this season pitting two top-three teams against each other. All eyes will be on Kansas City.
2 The quarterbacks. Chase Daniel and Todd Reesing have taken the Missouri and Kansas programs to a new level in a very short amount of time. The winner gets a chance to dream of a national championship for one more week and is likely assured of a ticket to New York City’s Downtown Athletic Club for the Heisman Trophy presentation on the second Saturday in December.
3 Which defense will seize the moment? All we’ve heard about all week is the explosive offenses each team will feature. The defenses aren’t too shabby either, but they certainly will have a tough task ahead of them. This game will come down to which defense can make the most plays, force the most turnovers and put the most pressure on the quarterback. The offenses, without a doubt, will get theirs.
4 Will the fans play nice? Expect a classy game from the players, but what about you? Are you going to lose your cool and forget — somewhere between beer five and beer six — that this is only a football game played by college students? Who knows what the percentage breakdown will be between KU fans and MU fans at Arrowhead, but let’s hope this truly doesn’t evolve into Armageddon.
5 Who will Lee Corso pick? For the first time ever, the ESPN “College Gameday” crew will broadcast from a Kansas or Missouri game. That means that just before 11 a.m., Corso will have to make his prediction, which will undoubtedly make one state happy and leave the other firing mad. Will he put on the mask of Truman the Tiger or Big Jay? Stay tuned.
FIVE PLAYER MATCHUPS
1 MU nose guard Lorenzo Williams vs. KU center Ryan Cantrell: Key to protecting quarterback Todd Reesing is keeping Williams and his front-line teammates out of the Jayhawks’ backfield. William has five sacks and eight tackles for losses. Missouri has 25 sacks in 11 games and 18 of those have come from the four defensive-line starters.
2 KU offensive left tackle Anthony Collins vs. MU defensive ends Stryker Sulak or Tommy Chavis: Collins is key in two areas. Protection in the passing game and opening holes for the running game. He’s even more key because — although Collins is likely to earn All-America honors — he didn’t play last week with an undisclosed injury. He’s supposed to play on Saturday against MU. He needs to for Kansas to be at its best.
3 KU quarterback Todd Reesing vs. MU safety William Moore: Reesing has been great at completing passes only to players in crimson and blue. He has thrown only four interceptions in 360 pass attempts. But Moore, especially since a ruptured Achilles’ ended fellow safety Pig Brown’s season, has owned the passing lanes. Moore leads the Big 12 with six interceptions, has one each in the last three games and is only one short of tying All-American Roger Wehrli’s school-record seven picks set in 1968.
4 MU tight ends Martin Rucker and Chase Coffman vs. the entire KU defensive secondary. No one player has been able to take down either of Missouri’s rough-and-tumble tight ends. And no single Jayhawk likely will, especially Rucker. The senior leads MU with a tight-end record 70 catches for seven touchdowns with a 10-yard average per catch. Coffman has 49 catches for seven touchdowns and an average per-catch figure of 10.4
5 MU quarterback Chase Daniel vs. KU defensive tackle James McClinton. McClinton has 10.5 tackles for loss and 2.5 sacks. He doesn’t have to sack Daniel, but if McClinton doesn’t get into the backfield and apply pressure, Daniel will pick apart the KU defense with pinpoint passes just as he has done to every other MU opponent this season. McClinton is a Lombardi Award candidate. Daniel is a Heisman Trophy candidate.
Five reasons KU will win
1 Coaching. Kansas coach Mark Mangino has excelled all season at keeping his players’ minds off of Missouri, and he’ll be equally successful at keeping his team focused on the Tigers this week. Offensive coordinator Ed Warinner and defensive coordinator Bill Young appear up to the task of making the right calls.
2 Todd Reesing. Watch: The Tigers will take the lead at some point in the game, and KU will score a touchdown to tie or take the lead within three minutes. Reesing’s ability to respond has been the hallmark of this KU offense.
3 Marcus Herford. Missouri will score its share of points on Saturday. Know what that means? More kickoff returns for Herford, the Big 12’s top kick returner, averaging more than 30 ypr.
4 Where’s the Pig? Missouri safety Pig Brown was headed toward an All-America caliber season when he went down with an injury. The Tigers have fared well without him, but they haven’t faced a team of Kansas’ caliber.
5 James McClinton. The guy has a motor like you wouldn’t believe, and he’ll have plenty saved up for Missouri. He’ll stuff the Missouri run game and force the Tigers to beat KU with the pass.
Five reasons MU will win
1 Weapons. No team in the country can cover five receivers consistently, particularly when two of those receivers are at times Mackey Award semifinalists Martin Rucker and Chase Coffman.
2 Not surprised. You’ve got one team that seems pretty “Golly-gee-whiz pretty happy to be here” in Kansas and you’ve got a Missouri team that planned on it.
3 Schedules. The Missouri schedule really has prepared the Tigers for battle better than a steady diet of puff pastries. Illinois is better than any nonconference opponent Kansas has played. Oklahoma and Texas Tech are better than KU’s South Division opponents Oklahoma State and Baylor. The one South foe the two teams have in common, MU beat Texas A&M 40-26 while Kansas edged the Aggies 19-11.
4 Penalties. While Kansas and Missouri have each been called for a league-low 29 penalties in Big 12 games, the Tigers’ opponents have been called for 56 penalties to only 38 for KU foes. The reason? Missouri’s fast-ball offense puts defenses under more pressure.
5 Guts. Missouri will pull out all the stops; that’s how the Tigers have played all season. And that’s what it will take to win.
FIVE TOP STORY LINES
1 Stayin’ alive. At the beginning of this season, who would have thought this game would help decide the national championship? Kansas is slotted for the BCS title game if it wins its next two games, while Missouri will likely make it in with the same result. Saturday’s game will be the first this season pitting two top-three teams against each other. All eyes will be on Kansas City.
2 The quarterbacks. Chase Daniel and Todd Reesing have taken the Missouri and Kansas programs to a new level in a very short amount of time. The winner gets a chance to dream of a national championship for one more week and is likely assured of a ticket to New York City’s Downtown Athletic Club for the Heisman Trophy presentation on the second Saturday in December.
3 Which defense will seize the moment? All we’ve heard about all week is the explosive offenses each team will feature. The defenses aren’t too shabby either, but they certainly will have a tough task ahead of them. This game will come down to which defense can make the most plays, force the most turnovers and put the most pressure on the quarterback. The offenses, without a doubt, will get theirs.
4 Will the fans play nice? Expect a classy game from the players, but what about you? Are you going to lose your cool and forget — somewhere between beer five and beer six — that this is only a football game played by college students? Who knows what the percentage breakdown will be between KU fans and MU fans at Arrowhead, but let’s hope this truly doesn’t evolve into Armageddon.
5 Who will Lee Corso pick? For the first time ever, the ESPN “College Gameday” crew will broadcast from a Kansas or Missouri game. That means that just before 11 a.m., Corso will have to make his prediction, which will undoubtedly make one state happy and leave the other firing mad. Will he put on the mask of Truman the Tiger or Big Jay? Stay tuned.
FIVE PLAYER MATCHUPS
1 MU nose guard Lorenzo Williams vs. KU center Ryan Cantrell: Key to protecting quarterback Todd Reesing is keeping Williams and his front-line teammates out of the Jayhawks’ backfield. William has five sacks and eight tackles for losses. Missouri has 25 sacks in 11 games and 18 of those have come from the four defensive-line starters.
2 KU offensive left tackle Anthony Collins vs. MU defensive ends Stryker Sulak or Tommy Chavis: Collins is key in two areas. Protection in the passing game and opening holes for the running game. He’s even more key because — although Collins is likely to earn All-America honors — he didn’t play last week with an undisclosed injury. He’s supposed to play on Saturday against MU. He needs to for Kansas to be at its best.
3 KU quarterback Todd Reesing vs. MU safety William Moore: Reesing has been great at completing passes only to players in crimson and blue. He has thrown only four interceptions in 360 pass attempts. But Moore, especially since a ruptured Achilles’ ended fellow safety Pig Brown’s season, has owned the passing lanes. Moore leads the Big 12 with six interceptions, has one each in the last three games and is only one short of tying All-American Roger Wehrli’s school-record seven picks set in 1968.
4 MU tight ends Martin Rucker and Chase Coffman vs. the entire KU defensive secondary. No one player has been able to take down either of Missouri’s rough-and-tumble tight ends. And no single Jayhawk likely will, especially Rucker. The senior leads MU with a tight-end record 70 catches for seven touchdowns with a 10-yard average per catch. Coffman has 49 catches for seven touchdowns and an average per-catch figure of 10.4
5 MU quarterback Chase Daniel vs. KU defensive tackle James McClinton. McClinton has 10.5 tackles for loss and 2.5 sacks. He doesn’t have to sack Daniel, but if McClinton doesn’t get into the backfield and apply pressure, Daniel will pick apart the KU defense with pinpoint passes just as he has done to every other MU opponent this season. McClinton is a Lombardi Award candidate. Daniel is a Heisman Trophy candidate.
Five reasons KU will win
1 Coaching. Kansas coach Mark Mangino has excelled all season at keeping his players’ minds off of Missouri, and he’ll be equally successful at keeping his team focused on the Tigers this week. Offensive coordinator Ed Warinner and defensive coordinator Bill Young appear up to the task of making the right calls.
2 Todd Reesing. Watch: The Tigers will take the lead at some point in the game, and KU will score a touchdown to tie or take the lead within three minutes. Reesing’s ability to respond has been the hallmark of this KU offense.
3 Marcus Herford. Missouri will score its share of points on Saturday. Know what that means? More kickoff returns for Herford, the Big 12’s top kick returner, averaging more than 30 ypr.
4 Where’s the Pig? Missouri safety Pig Brown was headed toward an All-America caliber season when he went down with an injury. The Tigers have fared well without him, but they haven’t faced a team of Kansas’ caliber.
5 James McClinton. The guy has a motor like you wouldn’t believe, and he’ll have plenty saved up for Missouri. He’ll stuff the Missouri run game and force the Tigers to beat KU with the pass.
Five reasons MU will win
1 Weapons. No team in the country can cover five receivers consistently, particularly when two of those receivers are at times Mackey Award semifinalists Martin Rucker and Chase Coffman.
2 Not surprised. You’ve got one team that seems pretty “Golly-gee-whiz pretty happy to be here” in Kansas and you’ve got a Missouri team that planned on it.
3 Schedules. The Missouri schedule really has prepared the Tigers for battle better than a steady diet of puff pastries. Illinois is better than any nonconference opponent Kansas has played. Oklahoma and Texas Tech are better than KU’s South Division opponents Oklahoma State and Baylor. The one South foe the two teams have in common, MU beat Texas A&M 40-26 while Kansas edged the Aggies 19-11.
4 Penalties. While Kansas and Missouri have each been called for a league-low 29 penalties in Big 12 games, the Tigers’ opponents have been called for 56 penalties to only 38 for KU foes. The reason? Missouri’s fast-ball offense puts defenses under more pressure.
5 Guts. Missouri will pull out all the stops; that’s how the Tigers have played all season. And that’s what it will take to win.