More Gabbert analysis

"'Not only from the aspect of playing and getting into games, but the planning and what goes on the week before and what goes into being a good quarterback. Blaine’s in the quarterback meetings with us. He gets an aspect of how I prepare and how' senior backup 'Chase Patton prepares. That’s a big difference from high school.'"

That's probably an underrated aspect of all this. Gary Pinkel says that if, God forbid, Daniel were to get hurt then he would split playing time between Patton and Gabbert. That means Gabbert is always one play away from being a part-time starting quarterback on a team with BCS aspirations. When you're in that role you're going to prepare a helluva lot differently than how you would if you've got a redshirt slapped on you. 

I'm still not sure I agree with this decision but I'm at least warming up to it.

By the way, although a major injury to Chase Daniel would be personally devastating to me and every Mizzou fan, I think it'd be really interesting to see how that Patton/Gabbert combo at QB would play out. It reminds me a little bit of the Chris Leak/Tim Tebow tag-team that led Florida to the National Championship a couple years ago, although there's a big difference between Leak (who was a four-year starter at a top SEC school) and Patton (who's never started a game. We can also safely assume that Gabbert is nowhere near where Tebow was as a rookie (and that's in no way a knock on Gabbert). 

And staying on the subject of Chase Patton; is anyone else kinda disappointed that, if everything goes well, he'll graduate without ever starting a game? I know it was only SEMO but he looked so efficient on Saturday and he's obviously got the physical tools to be one of the top QBs in the Big 12. Might Patton go down as the greatest backup QB in school history? I don't know the history of backup Mizzou QBs very well but you'd have to think he's near the top of the list. 

As I've said before, it was just really bad timing for Patton. I was thinking today how great it would've been if he could've graduated from high school a year later and come in as a freshman with Daniel. Patton could've redshirted when it became obvious that he wasn't quite ready for Prime Time. That would've allowed Pinkel to redshirt Gabbert this season and then the Tigers would be in the ideal situation next year. Pinkel could either start Patton and let Gabbert play the same role Daniel played as a freshman or he could go with the Patton/Gabbert combo. 

I know, pointless to think about. But you have to admit that would make the QB situation heading into '09 a lot less sticky.