Olympic fantasies and links

• Ivan Maisel has a great series about the no-huddle spread offenses that are sweeping college football by storm. It's pretty cool to say we were actually ahead of the curve on this one. I can remember in the first quarter of the '05 game against Nebraska (the first year the Tigers went with the spread) a couple Husker fans were sitting behind me (in the Mizzou student section oddly enough) and during the first quarter they kept bashing our "gimmicky" no-huddle offense and insisted that it would never work against the top teams in the country. They left immediately after Jason Simpson forced that huge fumble in the second half and I haven't heard from them since. One can only assume that after they left the stadium they proceeded to get into their vehicle and immediately drove it directly off a large cliff.

• Included in Maisel's series is a story about how defenses are adapting to these new fast paced offenses. That got me thinking about how MU's defense must really benefit from constantly playing at that tempo. Matt Eberflus has to have one of the best conditioned units in the country.

• In my opinion the Tigers have had more success implementing the spread offense than any team in the NCAA but Maisel only ranks them as the fifth fastest team in college football. The Big 12 must be hands down the fastest conference in the nation. Six teams made Maisel's list including KU at sixth and...Baylor at 10?

• Linas Kleiza came up big for Lituania in the Olympics yesterday, hitting a game winning three point shot against heavily favored Argentina. I'm thoroughly enjoying all the drama surrounding Team USA. I can't decide if I like them to take gold or not. The focus seems to be there and I think they realize at some point they will be tested and will have to win a close game so they shouldn't panic like they did when faced with adversity in Athens. But there is still an almost complete lack of pure outside shooters (besides Michael Redd) and, other than poor chemistry, that was USA's achilles heel in '04.
  

• A good article from Dave Matter about the MU coaching staff's ability to find hidden gems on the recruiting trail. He includes a list of the ten best sleepers currently on the roster. Since the arrival of Brad Smith this program has been built on diamonds in the rough and that has to give you a lot of confidence in the staff's ability to evaluate talent. Even guys like Chase Daniel, Coffman and T-Ruck were players that flew somewhat under the radar in high school.

• And finally, a very good article from the Missourian that I somehow overlooked last week on--in my opinion, the most underrated contributor from '07, Justin Garrett. Everyone talks about how much Willy Mo stepped up, and he certainly did, but you can't overlook how important Garrett was down the stretch. He was no All-American like Pig Brown but he was a playmaker. I think he's a potential All-Big 12 player this season.
  

• Also included in that Missourian story is the first reported fight from fall practices, which I always find very exciting to read about. This altercation involved Jared Perry and Carl Gettis. Gettis has a nose for these kinds of things. Him and Maclin were involved in a little confrontation in the spring and last season and I remember him nearly getting into a fist fight on a kickoff against Iowa State.