Oct. 15, 2000

Complete Release in PDF Format
Download Free Acrobat Reader

MISSOURI TRAVELS TO TEXAS TO BATTLE THE LONGHORNS
The Missouri Tigers (2-4, 1-2) travel to Austin, Texas this week to take on the21st-ranked Texas Longhorns. The Tigers will be looking to bounce back from a 38-17 loss to archrival Kansas last Saturday in Columbia on Homecoming. Texas is coming off of a 28-14 road victory at Colorado last week after being thumped by its archrival Oklahoma the week before.

Saturday's contest will mark the first meeting between the two schools in Austin since Aug. 31, 1996. That game marked the kickoff of the Big 12 Conference era. The Longhorns won that game in a contest that was delayed by a monsoon, 40-10.

Missouri won the last meeting between the two schools on Oct. 18, 1997 in Columbia, 37-29. The victory was the first of three consecutive wins by the Tigers that eventually led to their first bowl appearance since the 1983 season.

THE MISSOURI-TEXAS SERIES
Texas leads the all-time series 11-5, but the series is even at 1-1 since the inception of the Big 12 Conference. The two teams first met back in 1894 in Austin when Mizzou blanked the Longhorns 28-0. The Tigers claimed four of the first six meetings between the two schools through 1916 before Texas ran off a nine-game winning streak through 1996.

Missouri snapped that string at home in 1997 with a 37-29 victory. The Tigers led 17-16 at halftime before outscoring the Longhorns 20-13 in the fourth quarter. Despite 235 rushing yards and two touchdowns by future Heisman Trophy winner Ricky Williams, Missouri used a balanced offensive attack that produced 518 total yards to turn away the Longhorns.

Missouri, who was coming off of a 41-11 blowout loss at Kansas State the week before, put up 252 yards on the ground while quarterback Corby Jones passed for 220 yards. Fullback Ernest Blackwell rushed for 85 yards and a 67-yard touchdown run while Brock Olivo scored twice and racked up 81 yards on the ground on 16 carries.

Missouri led 10-3 in the second quarter before Williams got around the Mizzou defense and sprinted 80 yards for a touchdown to tie the game. The Longhorns scored again on their next possession on a 6-yard run by quarterback James Brown.

The Tigers rallied and scored the next three touchdowns of the game on touchdown runs by Olivo, Blackwell and Devin West to take a 30-16 advantage. Texas got within a touchdown twice in the fourth quarter but could not get over the hump.

TEXAS BECOMES MISSOURI'S FOURTH RANKED OPPONENT
Missouri will face its fourth ranked opponent of the season this week in the Texas Longhorns. It will the third time time that the Tigers have played a ranked opponent on the road.

Missouri has played No. 3 Clemson (lost 62-8) and No. 1 Nebraska (lost 42-24) on the road already this season. They lost to then No. 20 Michigan State, 13-10, in Columbia.

Missouri is 1-25 under Head Coach Larry Smith against ranked opponents. Their lone victory was a 51-50 double-overtime spectacular at Oklahoma State in 1997 when the Cowboys were ranked No. 12 in the country.

SCOUTING TEXAS
After suffering a humiliating 63-14 loss to archrival Oklahoma, Texas got things back on track last Saturday with a 28-14 victory at Colorado. Head Coach Mack Brown, in his third season at Texas, saw his defense respond by shutting down the Colorado offense to just 133 total yards. The Buffaloes two scores came on a fumble recovery and then a 13-yard touchdown run following a Texas fumble on their own 13-yard line.

Meanwhile, Texas quarterback Major Applewhite and running back Hodges Mitchell combined to eat up the Colorado defense. Applewhite, who has been sharing time at quarterback with sophomore Chris Simms, flew solo against the Buffaloes and passed for 308 yards and three touchdowns. Mitchell, who was second in the Big 12 in rushing a year ago, enjoyed his best game of the season with 129 yards on the ground on 25 carries. He also caught two passes for 46 yards, including a 42-yard touchdown reception from Applewhite.

The Texas pass offense is ranked 12th in the country entering Saturday's game, averaging 292.3 yards per game.

Despite allowing 63 points to Oklahoma, the Longhorns defense is still ranked 12th in the country, giving up 283.3 yards per game. Their rush defense, led by All-American nose tackle Casey Hampton, is ranked 19th in the country. The opposition is averaging 101.5 yards per game on the ground against Texas.

KEEP AN EYE ON THE NOSE TACKLES
Saturday's game will feature two of the best nose tackles in the Big 12 Conference, Texas' Casey Hampton and Missouri's Pat Mingucci.

Hampton, a pre-season All-American, has 41 tackles and three quarterback sacks on the season. Last year, the 6-1, 310-pounder made 101 tackles (50 solo) and three sacks. He posted 21 tackles for 75 yards in losses.

Mingucci has come into his own this season. At 6-2, 269, the Jefferson City, Mo. native has 34 tackles, two sacks and five tackles for loss. Mingucci had a career-game against Nebraska's All-American center Dominic Raiola. He racked up 12 tackles against the Nebraska center and helped hold the Huskers I-backs to 128 yards. Nebraska got 58 of those yards on one play on a run to the outside by Correll Buckhalter.

ANYONE HAVE TICKETS?
Several Missouri players will have a chance to play in front of their home folks this Saturday in Austin. The Tigers have 12 Texas natives on the roster including several starters and key reserves: OG Adrian Cole (Houston), CB Antoine Duncan (Dennison), special teamer Eric Earthly (Humble), tight end Brandon Ford (Galveston), DG Cedric Harden (Humble), CB Larry Hollinquest (Pasadena), NT Jemarcus Joshua (Houston), center A.J. Ricker (Klein), CB Andre Roberson (Houston) and WR Eric Spencer (Houston).

Three redshirt freshmen: WR Shirdonya Mitchell (Arlington), DG Milton Phifer (Grand Prairie) and ILB Henry Sweat (Irving) are all natives of Texas.

MISSOURI HEAD COACH LARRY SMITH
Larry Smith is in his seventh season at Missouri (24th overall) He has a record of 32-42-1 at Missouri. He became Mizzou's 30th head football coach on Dec. 15, 1993. With 18 years as a head coach in NCAA Division I before coming to MU, Smith was the most experienced coach ever hired by a Big Eight Conference school.

He has a 24-year career record of 142-122-7, and coached previously at Tulane (18-27, 1976-79), Arizona (48-28-3, 1980-86), and Southern California (44-25-3, 1987-92). He was out of coaching in 1993.

Smith is one of only two active coaches who have taken four schools to bowl games, along with Lou Holtz (South Carolina) and one of only four who've ever done it (Earle Bruce and Bill Mallory). Smith ranks 11th among active coaches in career victories.

A native of Van Wert, Ohio, Smith is a 1962 graduate of Bowling Green State University. He served as a collegiate assistant coach at Miami (Ohio), Michigan and Arizona before beginning his head coaching career.

THREE NEW OFFENSIVE COACHES AT MISSOURI
Much was made in the preseason about Missouri's new offensive system. The Tigers have three new offensive coaches in 2000 that have opened up the Missouri offense.

Co-offensive coordinator Bill Cubit and offensive line coach Sam Pittman coached at Western Michigan University last year and led an offensive attack that was ranked 11th nationally in passing offense (311.8 yards per game) and 23rd in scoring offense (31.1 ppg).

Cubit spent three seasons at Western Michigan and helped the Broncos to a top-25 ranking in passing offense all three seasons behind quarterback Tim Lester. Last season, Cubit's offense broke 26 school and conference records. In 1998, Western Michigan became just the 14th school to have a 3,000-yard passer, 1,000-yard runner and 1,000-yard receiver. The Broncos repeated that feat last season.

Pittman is no stranger to Big 12 football. Before his stint at Western Michigan, the El Reno, Okla. native spent two seasons as the offensive line coach at Oklahoma. His offensive line helped produce the nation's 18th and 34th best rushing attacks in 1997 and 1998.

Missouri's third addition to the offensive coaching staff is no stranger to the Tigers. Chris Tabor, who spent the last three seasons as the offensive graduate assistant, takes over as the Tigers' running backs coach. Tabor worked mainly with the offensive line and scout teams while a graduate assistant. He spent the 1994 season coaching running backs at Hutchinson Community College under current MU Co-Offensive Coordinator Andy Hill.

TIGERS LOOK TO REVIVE THE RUN
After struggling with the running game through the first four weeks of the season, the Tigers chalked up 182 yards on the ground against the 8th ranked rushing defense in the country, Oklahoma State, two weeks ago. Missouri will need that kind of performance again this coming week against Texas after the Tigers' running game hit a wall against Kansas last week. Missouri was only able to accumulate 10 yards rushing against the Jayhawks, although Mizzou had 36 yards in losses due to quarterback sacks of Darius Outlaw.

History shows that Missouri must run the football successfully to win. The Tigers are just 7-23-1 in the last seven years under Larry Smith when they pass for more yards than they rush for. The validity of that stat can be questioned though in 2000 since in both of Mizzou's wins, the Tigers threw for more yards than they rushed for.

JUSTIN SMITH CHALLENGING FOR BRONKO NAGURSKI AWARD
In 28 games, junior defensive end Justin Smith has become one of the most dominant defensive players in MU history. Smith has recorded 224 tackles and 14 1/2 quarterback sacks, which puts him four sacks away from breaking the career record held by current New York Jets defensive tackle Rick Lyle. Smith tied Lyle and three other players for the single-season sack record last season with eight.

"Smitty" has impressed national audiences the last month against No. 8 Clemson, No. 25 Michigan State and No. 1 Nebraska. Smith chalked up 13 tackles (11 solo) against the high-powered Clemson Tigers in Death Valley.

Against Michigan State, Smith had freshman quarterback Jeff Smoker seeing No. 96 in his sleep. Smith hit Smoker four times, forced him to fumble it once and batted down a pass that he almost picked off. Smith also had a quarterback sack on Smoker that was called back for a penalty.

Against No. 1 Nebraska, Smith was at it again. He racked up seven tackles, three for loss, and sacked quarterback Eric Crouch twice. Smith also got a number of licks in on Crouch on option plays.

On the season, "Smitty" is Missouri's second-leading tackler with 46. Ten of those tackles are for 55 yards in losses.

Smith, who is playing at 270 pounds this season, bench presses and power cleans 500 pounds. He possesses amazing quickness with 4.5 speed and has a vertical leap of 30.5 inches.

The accolades have begun to mount for the Holts Summit, Mo. native. As a freshman, Smith was tabbed the Big 12 Defensive Freshman of the Year and was named first team All-Big 12 last season. Already in 2000, "Smitty" has earned preseason first team All-America honors from Playboy, College Football News, and Football News. Athlon and The Sporting News have chosen Smith to the second team.

"Smitty" was featured in the Aug. 21 issue of ESPN The Magazine in an article by Gene Wojciechowski.

Off the field, Smith was a second team District VII GTE/CoSIDA Academic All-American as well as a first team Academic All-Big 12 selection.

OPPONENTS WANT NO PART OF "SMITTY"
Smith's stats are extremely impressive when considering that no team has run the ball to his side all season long. Missouri has seen the rolling pocket go away from Smith all season long, particularly by Western Illinois, Clemson, Oklahoma State and Kansas. Nebraska ran the option at Smith a small number of times in the second half against the Tigers.

Against Kansas last week, the tape will show that Smith was dealing with three, sometimes four, defenders on every play.

TIGERS TURN TO THE OUTLAW
With injuries to last year's starting quarterbacks Jim Dougherty and Kirk Farmer, the Tigers have turned to redshirt freshman quarterback Darius Outlaw to lead the offense.

Outlaw is 1-1 as Missouri's starting quarterback. He led Mizzou to a 24-10 victory over Oklahoma State when he threw for 191 yards and rushed for 22. He rushed for his first career touchdown and threw one touchdown pass.

His second starting assignment wasn't so good last week against Kansas, despite throwing for a career-best 237 yards which included a 60-yard TD pass to Eric Spencer. Outlaw was sacked three times in the game and threw four interceptions.

The Powder Springs, Ga. native, who sat out last season as a partial qualifier, saw limited time against Western Illinois and Clemson before being forced into the game at Nebraska mid-way through the third quarter. In that game, Outlaw went 5-for-11 passing and rushed for 29 yards including a 27-yard scramble.

BAD BREAK FOR FARMER
Quarterback Kirk Farmer enjoyed the best game of his career despite a 46-39 overtime loss at Colorado in game five in 1999. He threw for a career-high 182 yards, rushed for 31 yards, including a gutsy 21-yard touchdown scamper in the fourth quarter.

The following week, Farmer broke his leg along the visiting sideline in the second quarter against Iowa State at Faurot Field in a game the Tigers lost 24-21.

In week four against Nebraska, it happened again. Farmer arrived as a big-time collegiate quarterback, putting up career-highs in passing (13-for-25, 214 yards, 1 TD), rushing (9-for-83, 1 TD) and even receiving (1-for-35) ... and then it happened again. With just over seven minutes to play in the third quarter, Farmer broke loose for a 33-yard run and then fell on his shoulder as he was tackled. He suffered a broken clavicle in his left arm and will be sidelined for at least three weeks.

SPENCER STANDS OUT ON A BAD DAY FOR THE MIZZOU OFFENSE
Looking for bright spots on a poor offensive showing last week vs. Kansas? Look no further than 5-10, 170-pound wide receiver Eric Spencer. The Houston native "played like a champion" according to teammate and fellow wide-out Justin Gage.

Spencer matched a career-high with eight catches on Saturday for a career-best 153 yards. He caught his first touchdown pass of the season, a 60-yard bomb from Darius Outlaw in the first half.

The talented junior looks to be coming into his own. Last week against Oklahoma State, Spencer had three catches for 55 yards, including maybe the play of the year when he caught a tipped pass that was batted in the air by the OSU defender and sprinted to the two-yard line before being tackled out of bounds.

Spencer is also Missouri's punt returner. Against the Cowboys, he returned two punts of over 20 yards, the second one was a 28-yarder, the longest punt return at Mizzou since 1991.

EVERY TEAM NEEDS A DOYLE
If there is one individual on the Missouri roster that describes a football player, it is sophomore linebacker Sean Doyle. Twice this season, Doyle has fought through a painful injury to put up huge numbers for the Tigers from his inside linebacker position.

Extremely questionable heading into the Michigan State game with a high ankle sprain, Doyle racked up 12 tackles and was named co-defensive player of the week. He repeated that performance again last week against Kansas. After missing the Oklahoma State game with a badly pulled hamstring, Doyle started against Kansas after just two full days of practice and led the team with 17 tackles.

A legitimate All-Big 12 candidate, Doyle now is tied for the team-lead with 50 tackles on the season in five games.

HEART OF A SENIOR
Senior nose tackle Pat Mingucci earned his fifth year of football back. A partial qualifier in 1996, the Jefferson City native did what he had to in the classroom to earn his fifth year of eligibility. Now, Mingucci is getting it done on the gridiron.

While Texas' Casey Hampton is getting all of the attention, Mingucci's performance this season has been outstanding. He has 35 tackles from his nose position and five for loss.

He has played his best games against the top running backs. Michigan State's T.J. Duckett got most of his yards running over the tackles instead of going up the middle against Mingucci. Nebraska's Dan Alexander had 13 carries for 34 yards, mainly because of the play of Mingucci. He racked up a career-high 12 tackles against the Huskers.

HAMMER-TIME
Junior place-kicker Brad Hammerich is hoping to get plenty of opportunites to kick the football this season. Hammerich led the Tigers in scoring last season with 52 points, a number surely Mizzou hopes to see increase in 2000.

When breaking down Hammerich's numbers from a year ago, it is easy tell why Missouri feels that he is one of the best in the conference. Despite missing his first PAT of his career against Clemson, Hammerich is 39-for-40 in his career. He is 14-for-21 in field goal attempts - 8-of-9 from inside 40 yards, 6-for-10 from 40 to 49 yards and 0-for-2 from beyond 50 yards. Hammerich pushed a 50-yard attempt against Michigan State about two-feet left and had the distance.

ROBINSON ON THE "BUTKUS LIST"
Mizzou linebacker Jamonte Robinson is one of 70 players on the "Butkus Watch List." In three of Missouri's six games, Robinson has recorded double-figures in tackles. He has also been a key component on Mizzou's special teams.

Robinson leads the Tigers with 50 tackles on the season and is 15 tackles shy of breaking into Missouri's all-time top-15.

12-GAGE IS A LETHAL WEAPON
Yes, he wears No. 12 and his last name is Gage. What a perfect nickname for a guy who is as deadly as the real thing.

Sophomore Justin Gage has become the Tigers "big gun" in 2000. After being moved to wide receiver this past spring, Gage is the man. At 6-5, 200 pounds, Gage has made a habit of jumping over shorter defenders and making fabulous catches. He caught a 35-yarder against Michigan State and a 25-yarder against Nebraska.

Speaking of Nebraska, Gage torched the Huskers defense with five catches for 125 yards and a 48-yard touchdown reception. Gage also caught a TD pass against Western Illinois in Mizzou's opener. He had a career-high six catches against Oklahoma State.

Gage, who played three games at quarterback last season as a freshman, still has a cannon for an arm. Against Michigan State, he hooked up with John Dausman on a double-pass for a 70-yard bomb, the longest pass play at Mizzou in six years. Gage's arm was used again against Nebraska when he caught a screen pass from Kirk Farmer and proceeded to throw it back to Farmer for a 35-yard gain.

By the way, did we mention Gage is also a back-up post player on Quin Snyder's Missouri basketball team? While Gage is taller than his defensive back opponents on the gridiron, he spent last winter guarding guys four and five inches taller than he is such as NBA first round draft picks Marcus Fizer and Chris Mihm.

BLAKLEY HOPES TO BE BIG 12's BEST TIGHT END
Junior tight end Dwayne Blakley is off to another fine start for Missouri. He has 14 catches for 180 yards and a touchdown in six games this season.

Blakley has now grabbed 41 receptions in his career for 475yards and eight touchdowns.

Blakley looks to be in line to go down as one of MU's great tight ends of all-time. NFL Hall-of-Famer Kellen Winslow was an All-American for Ol' Mizzou in 1978. That season, Winslow caught 28 passes for 479 yards and six touchdowns.

In 1993, A.J. Ofodile set a single-season record for tight ends with 55 catches for 589 yards and four touchdowns.

GILPIN QUIETS HIS CRITICS
After a tough 1999 season, the Missouri punting game has rounded into form in 2000. Junior punter Jared Gilpin is posting impressive numbers, particularly in the last two games.

Gilpin is averaging 41.2 yards per punt so far this season, good for 37th in the country. For the fourth straight week, he boomed a punt of over 50 yards (53) and put two punts inside the 20-yard line. Against Michigan State, he booted three punts of over 50 yards (53, 55, 53) and boomed another 55 yarder against Nebraska.

More important than Gilpin's distance has been his punt placement. In 41 attempts, he has placed 13 punts inside the opponents 20 yard-line. Compare that to last year when Gilpin put 10 inside the 20 for the entire year.

6-8 GAVINS IS MIZZOU'S TALLEST PLAYER OF ALL-TIME
Missouri has never had a player stand 6-foot-8, especially at defensive tackle. Junior Michael Gavins has used his size to the best of his ability so far this season.

Against Western Illinois, Gavins blocked an extra point with his chest. In the Oklahoma State game, the Miami, Fla. native enjoyed the biggest quarter of football of his career. In the fourth quarter, Gavins deflected a pass up in the air and caught it for an interception and rumbled five yards to set Mizzou's third touchdown of the day. On the very next series, Gavins got his big paw up in the air again and batted down another OSU pass attempt.

WHITTINGTON PLAYING BIG ROLE
Like his brother Bernard who is in his seventh season with the Indianapolis Colts, Missouri's Daryl Whittington is using his senior season to blossom into a fine football player and potential NFL prospect.

Whittington spent his first four years at Mizzou struggling to add weight to his 6-6 frame. Finally this off-season, Whittington added close to 15 pounds and is playing at nearly 260 pounds.

The atheltic St. Louis native is splitting his time between outside linebacker at defensive end and is playing very well. He accumulated a career-high seven tackles against Clemson after recording a sack and a fumble recovery against Western Illinois. Against Kansas, Whittington notched four tackles, two of those tackles were for loss.

Missouri defensive coordinator Moe Ankney has been quoted as saying: "Daryl is going to make us look really dumb when he is playing on Sundays next year."

"THE DUKE"
Junior linebacker Duke Revard has earned playing time this season at inside linebacker and has given the MU defense a boost the last couple of weeks. With starters Jamonte Robinson and Sean Doyle fighting nagging injuries, Revard has stepped in in a big way.

Two weeks ago in his first career start against Oklahoma State, Revard recorded a career-high nine tackles including a quarterback sack. With Robinson being hampered by an ankle injury against Kansas, Revard stepped up his play again. He made five tackles and recovered a fumble in the end zone for a touchdown.

For the year, Revard is tied for the team-lead in sacks with three and has six tackles for loss.

MISSOURI BLOCK PARTY
In 1999, Missouri blocked six kicks, tying a single-season record set back in 1994. With three blocked kicks against Western Illinois, one would think the single-season record may be in jeopardy in 2000.

The Missouri "Raiders" team, otherwise known as the punt return team, reaked havoc on the Western Illinois punting unit all night long. On the very first series, WIU botched a snap and the Tigers tackled the Leathernecks' punter at the WIU 2-yard line. Mizzou scored two plays later.

The other big play by the "Raiders" unit was made by walk-on Grant Thornburg. The Palmyra, Mo. native filled in for Justin Smith and came up with a blocked punt that was recovered in the end zone by Western Illinois for a safety.

Missouri's other blocked punt was by Justin Gage in the second quarter.

The Tigers Michael Gavins also recorded a block when we wiped out a PAT attempt by WIU.

Missouri has now blocked 31 kicks since Larry Smith came to Ol' Mizzou - 15 PATs, 10 punts and six field goals.

TOAST OF PALMYRA, MO
Redshirt freshman Marcus Caldwell and sophomore Grant Thornburg are the talk of Palmyra, Mo. Both walk-ons have earned significant playing time this season.

Caldwell earned his first career start against Oklahoma State at free safety while both Caldwell and Thornburg have provided Mizzou two very good special teams players.

Caldwell has racked up 13 tackles and an interception in his two starting assignments while Thornburg blocked a punt against Western Illinois which led to a Missouri safety.

CURRY MOVED TO WIDE RECEIVER
Sophomore Terrence Curry has been moved from cornerback to wide receiver to help add depth to MU receiving corps. The Tigers lost redshirt freshman Brandon Barnes in the Clemson game with a broken ankle and are now without John Dausman.

At Kirkwood High School, Curry caught eight passes his senior season, averaging 31 yards per reception. Seven of the eight passes he caught were for touchdowns.

Curry made his first start and caught his first career pass against Oklahoma State.

BAD BREAKS II
Senior wide receiver John Dausman, who was lost for the season last year with a torn ACL, suffered another ACL tear, this time in his other knee against Nebraska. Dausman was blocking down field and got tangled up on the Missouri sideline.

EARNING PLAYING TIME
In Missouri's 50-20 blowout over Western Illinois, at least 23 players saw their first action as Missouri Tigers on Faurot Field. No offense to the movie "Rudy," but the Tigers had a few Rudy's - walk-ons that have put in the time and earned a chance to play in front of 50,000 fans.

Walk-ons Darren Baldwin, Jesse Belfield, Marcus Caldwell, Scott Jones, Michael Harden, Brian Heits, Shan Schauffler and Grant Thornburg

Thornburg made his presence felt by blocking a punt that led to a safety while Jones recorded his first career tackle on special teams.

Thornburg, Jones and Caldwell were all named to Missouri's Champion Club against Western Illinois.

TIGERS SCORE AGAINST HUNGER
Again this year, Head Coach Larry Smith and the Missouri Tigers have teamed up with the Central Missouri Food Bank to stop hunger in its tracks. Interested persons can pledge money for every point the Tigers score in 2000. The proceeds help the food bank and more than 120 charities in its 29-county region providing free food to soup kitchens, shelters and food pantries.

For more information, call 1-800-764-3663, or 573-474-1020.

Since the program began six years ago, close to $1 million has been raised and more than 12 million meals have been provided to Missourians in need.

MISSOURI DEBUTS NEW $13.1 MILLION PRESS BOX
The skyline has changed in Columbia thanks to a new $13.1 million press box that adorns Memorial Stadium. The project, which actually started before the 1999 football campaign, was designed by Ellerbe Becket. The contractor of the project was Walsh Construction while the operation was managed by the University of Missouri Construction Management.

The new press box consists of six levels and stands 110 feet high, 321 feet wide. The structure consists of 35 suites, 418 Tiger Lounge seats and 147 working press positions, doubling the amount of the old press box.

TIGER TIDBITS