THE DOWNSIDE TO BIG PLAYS?
The big plays in the air were a welcome sight, as MU didn't have much luck in 2003 getting big chunks at once in the passing game. MU had only one game last year (4 against Nebraska) where it had more passing plays of 20 yards than the 3 they turned in on Saturday. MU now also has 2 completions of 30 yards or more in just one game in 2004, when it had only 7 in all of 2003.

If there could possibly be any bad news associated with so many big plays, it would have to revolve around the time of possession in the game. Mizzou's offense was so potent and quick-striking that Arkansas State held a massive advantage in time of possession of 38:24 to 21:36.

Amazingly, MU held the ball for only 12:27 of the first 45 minutes of the game, but still held a 49-20 edge after three quarters of play.

Of Mizzou's 6 touchdown drives on the night, the longest milked only 3:14 off the clock, and the average time of possesion on those drives was a mere 1:52.

PASSING ATTACK LOOKS SHARP IN OPENER
Mizzou spent alot of time in the pre-season working on its passing attack, hoping to increase its efficiency, a year after it ranked 9th in the Big 12 in pass efficiency (116.4 rating) and 11th in the league in passing yardage (166.0 ypg).

While Saturday only counts as one game, it was very encouraging, as MU's passing game was very efficient and very deadly. Tiger QBs completed 16-of-24 passes (66.7%) for 243 yards and 3 TDs, with 1 interception. That was good for an efficiency rating of 184.63 - a mark which is best in the Big 12 thus far.

Junior QB Brad Smith was on top of his game, as he went 14-of-22 for 233 yards and a career-high-tying 3 TDs to 3 different receivers, for a career-best efficiency rating of 188.51 - a mark which leads the Big 12 and ranks 7th nationally through the 1st game.

Perhaps even more importantly, Smith averaged 16.6 yards per completion and 10.6 yards per attempt - vast improvements from last season, when he averaged 9.6 yards per completion and 5.6 yards per pass attempt.

MIZZOU'S HISTORY ON ESPN
This will be the 3rd game MU has played on a Thursday telecast. The first was a 10-6 loss at Oklahoma State on Dec. 4, 1986. The last one was a 6-0 loss on Oct. 8, 1992 in Columbia to Colorado that was played in brutally cold and wet conditions. Both of those were on ESPN, as well.

In fact, Mizzou has historically not fared well on ESPN, a trend that Tiger fans hope gets reversed on Thursday. In 7 previous appearances on ESPN and ESPN2, MU is only 1-6 (1-5 on ESPN and 0-1 on ESPN2). The only win was a 34-31 triumph over West Virginia on ESPN in the 1998 Insight.com Bowl.

MIZZOU-TROY SERIES HISTORY
Mizzou and Troy have met just once previously, with the Tigers claiming a 44-7 win in Columbia on Sept. 28, 2002.

In that game, then-freshman QB Brad Smith led the Tigers to the win, as he amassed 350 yards of total offense (213 passing, 137 rushing), and accounted for 2 TDs on the day (1 passing, 1 rushing). His rushing score was one for the highlight reels, as it came on 4th-and-1 from the Troy State 28 yardline. Content to run a sneak up the middle to keep the drive alive, Smith barreled into the line, spun to his left 360 degrees without being tackled, found himself alone, and bounced outside to the sideline, where he raced untouched into the endzone to put MU up, 21-0.

Smith was 18-of-34 passing in that game. WR Season Coffey, also a redshirt freshman at the time, was MU's leading receiver, with 6 catches for 88 yards, while Thomson Omboga added 2 catches for 41 yards, including a 20-yard TD catch on the opening drive of the game.

Linebacker James Kinney led MU with 11 tackles, and he capped the scoring by taking an interception 14 yards for a TD early in the 4th quarter. Cornerback R.J. Jones tied an MU single-game record by grabbing 3 interceptions in the contest - a feat which earned him national defensive player of the week honors by the Football Writers Association of America.

In all, MU's defense forced 5 Troy State turnovers (4 INTs, 1 fumble) and held the Trojans to only 4-of-11 on 3rd downs, which helped result in a Tiger advantage in time of possession of 35:13 to 24:47.

ALABAMA HAS BEEN A SWEET HOME FOR MIZZOU
With all due respect to Lynyrd Skynyrd, Mizzou hasn't played much in the state of Alabama, but when they have, it's been a sweet home to the Tigers.

Mizzou is a perfect 2-0 in games played in the state, with both games coming in Birmingham in the 1970s. The first was a monumental Tiger upset, as unranked Mizzou downed #2 Alabama in on Sept. 8, 1975 in the season opener for both schools. MU jumped all the way to #5 in the polls after the win.

The other game was a significant win in the history of the program, as well, as it came in the 1979 Hall of Fame Bowl played in Birmingham, when the Tigers downed South Carolina, and Heisman Trophy winning tailback George Rogers, 24-14.

THIRD DOWNS WERE NO PROBLEM IN OPENER
Mizzou's offense was really dialed in on its 3rd down attempts Saturday against Arkansas State, as the Tigers converted on 8-of-10 opportunities for an impressive success rate of 80.0% - a single-game best for Mizzou under the Gary Pinkel era.

The Tigers converted successfully on 3-of-4 3rd-and-long situations, including a pair of 3rd-and-7 plays in the opening drive of the season. Those conversions helped keep alive the drive that culminated in a TD to send MU on the way to its 52-20 win over the Indians.

In 2003, Mizzou ranked 8th in the Big 12 with a 3rd-down success rate of 39.8% (6-of-192.

PINKEL CAN REACH EVEN-STEVEN MARK WITH WIN THURSDAY
Mizzou Head Coach Gary Pinkel enters Thursday's game at Troy with a 91-56-3 career record in 14 seasons, a mark which ranks him 25th among active Division I coaches in winning percentage. In his 4th year at Mizzou, Pinkel can reach the .500 mark if his Tigers pull off a win Thursday. He enters the contest with a record of 18-19 in his time on the Tiger sideline.

HALFWAY HOME THE KEY FOR MU
A trend has developed under Gary Pinkel that shows the key to the game is very simple: Mizzou simply needs to take the lead into the lockerroom at halftime and it will likely have success Saturday. That's because under Pinkel, MU is 15-0 (including 8-0 last year) when it leads at halftime. Conversely, when MU trails at the half, they are 2-19, including 0-5 last year, since 2001.

RUSH DEFENSE NOT IN THE GIVING MOOD
Mizzou's new-look 4-3 base defense got its first test of the 2004 season, and while Arkansas State had 438 yards of total offense, it had very little success on the ground against MU. The Indians carried the ball 36 times on the night, and netted only 88 yards, good for a per-carry average of 2.4 yards. Only 6 of Arkansas State's 36 rushes went for more than 5 yards, while 17 of their running attempts went for 1 yard or less.

The MU defensive line was ranked as the 4th-best in the nation by Lindy's and the 6th-best in the nation by Athlon in the pre-season.

Last season, defending the run was sometimes a problem for Mizzou, as it ranked 7th in the Big 12, allowing an average of 167.2 yards per game.

TIGER OFFENSE FINDS A BALANCE
Head Coach Gary Pinkel, from day one at Mizzou, has always preached his belief in running a balanced offensive attack that is equally potent on the ground and in the air. In his first two seasons as MU, the Tigers were extremely balanced offensively, as MU threw for a combined 4,333 passing yards and ran for a combined 4,035 rushing yards during the 2001 & 2002 seasons.

In 2003, Mizzou leaned on the run quite a bit more, as the Tigers rushed for 3,087 yards (leading the Big 12 and ranking 6th in the NCAA with an average of 237.5 yards per game) and threw for 2,158 yards. Even though the deadly ground game helped lead the way to an 8-5 record for Mizzou last year, much effort was undertaken by everyone to improve the passing game.

If last Saturday was any indication, the Tigers look to be much more in tune with the balance that Pinkel desires, as the Tigers had nearly identical total of 263 yards rushing and 243 yards passing in the win against Arkansas State.

MISSOURI DOESN'T BEAT MISSOURI ON PINKEL'S WATCH
When Mizzou commits mistakes (turnovers, penalties, etc...), MU Head Coach Gary Pinkel often refers to that as "Missouri beating Missouri." Fortunately for the Tigers' 4th-year skipper, that hasn't happened often at all.

In fact, NCAA stats show that in Pinkel's time at Mizzou (from 2001), MU has had the fewest turnovers in the nation, by far.

In the 37 games in the Pinkel regime, MU has committed just 43 turnovers. The next fewest during that same period is Minnesota, with 51. The next best team in the Big 12 is Oklahoma, who rates 9th-best nationally, at 59 turnovers.

In 13 games last season, Mizzou led the nation with just 13 turnovers lost, a year after MU led the nation with just 12 turnovers in 2002 - setting a school record in the process for fewest in a year. Mizzou is coming off a game in which it committed an uncharacteristic 2 turnovers, throwing 1 interception and fumbling the ball away once. MU ended up even in the turnover category in the game, however, as the Tiger defense grabbed an interception and recovered a fumble of their own to even things out. Under Pinkel, Mizzou has committed zero turnovers in 13 of 37 ballgames. Here's the breakdown by year:

GAMES UNDER PINKEL WITH NO TURNOVERS BY MIZZOU
2003 - (7) - Illinois, at Ball State, Middle Tennessee, at Kansas, Texas Tech, Texas A&M, Iowa State
2002 - (4) - Ball State, at Nebraska, at Texas Tech, Kansas
2001 - (2) - Nebraska, at Oklahoma State

BRAD SMITH DRAWING NATIONAL ATTENTION
Mizzou's All-Everything QB Brad Smith has certainly established himself as one of the top players in the country in the last two years. He's been labeled as a top-10 pre-season Heisman Trophy candidate by most publications, and rightfully so, in our opinion.

Two weekends ago there was quite a bit of positive national publicity for the humble signal caller, as he was prominently featured in two highly-visible entities.

First, on Saturday, Aug. 28th, in the pre-game show for the USC-Virginia Tech game on ESPN, Smith was featured as their number-two Heisman candidate.

The very next day (Aug. 29th), a very nice feature on Smith ran in the Sunday New York Times, written by Pete Thamel. Not only was there a big feature and photo in the sports section, but Smith was featured with a full-color photo on the front page of the entire newspaper that day!

The focus of the NYT article revolved around the huge impact Smith has had on the Tiger program, and a quick look at the MU individual career records charts in these pages shows exactly that. Smith enters the Troy game already holding the school career record in total offense (7,041 yards), 4th in passing yardage (4,543 yards), 4th in passing TDs (29), 6th in rushing yardage (2,498 yards) and touchdowns scored (27), and 8th in scoring (160 points).

Smith came out Saturday vs. Arkansas State and lived up to the advance billing, as he directed MU to 52 points (the most in a season opener for Mizzou since 1928) and 506 yards of offense in its 52-20 win. Smith accounted for 296 yards, on the strength of 233 yards in the air and 63 more on the ground on just 6 carries. He was responsible for 4 TDs on the night, as he threw for a career-high tying 3 scores (to 3 different receivers) and ran for a scintillating 34-yard TD.

Smith completed 14-of-22 passes on the night, and ended the game with a personal-best QB rating of 188.51. His previous best was a rating of 168.38 against Kansas as a freshman.

The national publicity will continue for Smith this week, as ESPN The Magazine is scheduled to run a feature on him in its next issue. Stay tuned for details.

SMITH SET TO MAKE A MOVE ON NCAA ALLTIME LIST
Brad Smith enters the Troy game with 2,498 rushing yards in his career, which is just 701 yards shy of breaking the MU career rushing record of 3,198 established just last season by TB Zack Abron. If he averages the 96.0 yards per game that he's put up thus far, he would own the record sometime in game number eight.

Every rushing yard he accumulates this year will get him closer to the top of the NCAA rushing record for a quarterback. He's still got quite a bit to go to reach the record of 3,895 set by Antwaan Randle El of Indiana (1998-2001), but he is on pace to do it. Again, if Smith was to match his per-game average of 96.0 yards per game the rest of the way, he would need about 15 games to surpass Randle El's mark.

Smith ranks 18th on the NCAA's quarterback career rushing yardage chart, entering Thursday's game at Troy. With 63 yards last Saturday vs. Arkansas State, he moved past Josh Harris of Bowling Green, and needs just 36 to surpass fellow Tiger Corby Jones, who ranks 17th on the chart, with his 2,533 yards amassed from 1995-98.

Smith's rushing total of 1,406 yards last season was the 4th-most ever in a season by a quarterback, behind only Beau Morgan of Air Force (1,494 in 1996), Stacey Robinson of Northern Illinois (1,443 in 1989) and Jamaal Lord of Nebraska (1,412 in 2002).

JAMES KINNEY TACKLES A DATE WITH HISTORY
With each tackle, senior linebacker James Kinney will inch closer and closer to the school career tackles record of 415 held by former Tiger standout (and current Iowa State assistant coach) DeMontie Cross (from 1994-96). Kinney enters Thursday's game at Troy needing only 84 stops to surpass the mark, and that certainly seems likely, given the fact that he's registered over 140 stops in each of the last two seasons.

Kinney, a pre-season candidate for both the Butkus and Lombardi awards this year, has developed nicely into a leader of a defense that made big strides last year. The Tiger defenders look to take an even bigger step in 2004, after becoming one of the Big 12's most improved units a year ago. With the permanent move to the 4-3 alignment, the pre-season has been an impressive one for Kinney and his squad. Just how impressive? Each day in practice, Tiger coaches kept score for the offense and defense when they were scrimmaging and going against each other in almost any drill. Whichever side had the most points at the end of the day got to wear the black practice jerseys the next day. The defense took over the black jerseys in the first two or three practices of the fall, and never had to relinquish them during fall camp.

Kinney, who had 147 tackles a year ago, has 332 career tackles entering the Troy game, after a solid outing that saw him register 10 tackles Saturday vs. Arkansas State. That ranks him 8th on the MU career charts, and he'd need to average just 8.4 tackles per game in MU's last 10 games to break the school record.

WATCHING THE AWARD LISTS
Several Tiger players have been named to pre-season watch lists for the nation's most prestigious individual awards.

Here's a listing of those who are being mentioned as candidates for the various awards, for those of you keeping score at home:

TIGHT ENDS MAKE BIG PLAYS
Tiger coaches felt very good about their talent level at tight end coming into the season, and those feelings proved justified in last Saturday's opener versus Arkansas State, as Mizzou's tight ends combined for 5 catches for 104 yards and 2 of MU's 3 receiving TDs on the night. Redshirt freshman Martin Rucker, who is the younger brother of former Nebraska and current Carolina Panther standout defensive lineman Mike Rucker, got his career off to a bang, when he hauled in a pass from QB Brad Smith on the opening drive of the season, and took it 24 yards for a score on his first collegiate catch. It was the only catch of the night for the youngster, but it showed why coaches have been so high on his ability.

Rucker made an amazing surge up the depth chart this fall. He redshirted in 2003, and hurt his shoulder in the spring and missed all but 3 practices. Due to his inaction, he was listed as the No. 5 man on the depth chart at tight end, but he made enough of an impression during the fall to be named the starter for the season opener.

Senior Victor Sesay was the star of the night for the tight ends, as he caught 4 passes for 80 yards, including a 35-yard scoring strike from Smith in the 3rd quarter that made it 49-20 with 1:12 left in the period. The catches, yardage and the length of his scoring catch all represented career bests for Sesay.

Sesay was developing into a go-to receiver for Smith last season, but his year was cut short by a ruptured patella tendon in his right knee during game #9 at Colorado. He ended the year with 15 catches for 154 yards and 3 TDs, which was the 2nd-most TD catches on the team in 2003.

TIGERS START FIVE NEW FACES IN OPENER
Apparently hoping to help improve program sales at games, Tiger coaches elected to start as many as five players without previous playing experience at Mizzou last Saturday in the season opener against Arkansas State.

Earning their first career starts at MU were redshirt freshmen Martin Rucker (TE), Adam Spieker (C) and Tyler Luellen (WT) on offense, sophomore transfer David Richard (LB) on defense, and junior transfer Joe Tantarelli (PK) on kicks.

The trio of offensive newcomers did quite well, as the Tigers racked up 52 points and 506 yards of total offense on the night. Rucker caught a 24-yard TD pass to open scoring on MU's initial drive of the year, and the linemen played very well, as they held their own and helped pave the way for MU's offensive success.

Richard, a transfer from Michigan State (he led the Spartans in rushing as a true freshman in 2002), moved to linebacker in the spring of 2004, and quickly earned a starting spot in MU's new 4-3 base set. He started Saturday and ended with 4 tackles for the Tiger defense.

Tantarelli walked-on to the team during fall camp, and eventually won the battle for the starting placekicker job. He came to Mizzou from Glendale Community College, after spending some time at Arizona State previously. Tantarelli was perfect on all of his kicks Saturday versus Arkansas State, as he went 7-of-7 on extra points, and hit a 17-yard field goal late in the game.

HARVEY ALMOST GETS NIGHT OFF IN SEASON OPENER
Senior punter Brock Harvey had an outstanding fall camp, and was looking forward to proving that he is back to the form that saw him rank 20th in the NCAA in 2002 with an average of 42.5 yards per punt. His offensive teammates had other things in mind last Saturday, however, as Harvey was not called on to punt until midway through the 4th quarter for the first, and only, time in the game. MU's drive stalled out at the Arkansas State 41 yard line, and Harvey came in for his first punt of the season. Unable to boom the ball, he deftly angled the kick for the sidelines, and he executed perfectly, as the ball bounced and rolled out of bounds at the ASU 4 yard line, pinning the Indians deep in their own territory.

Harvey missed all of spring practice in 2004 as he was recovering from surgery on his kicking foot in the off-season. That injury was initially suffered at the tail end of the 2002 season, and it plagued him during the 2003 season, as he was able to average just 36.8 yards per punt.

MIZZOU IS NCAA'S ALLTIME OVERTIME KING
Overtime is becoming old hat around Mizzou. Since the rule was put into effect for the 1996 season, Mizzou is tied for the lead with 9 overtime games played. With MU's 41-40 OT win last year against Middle Tennessee State, the Tigers improved to 6-3 alltime in overtime games, a win total which also is most in the NCAA.

Mizzou went 1-1 in 2002 in overtime affairs, dropping a tough 42-35 home overtime game to #18 Colorado and the very next week winning a 33-27 double overtime thriller at Texas A&M, the week after A&M beat #1-ranked Oklahoma on the same field.

Mizzou made some history with its consecutive overtime games - that marked the first time in NCAA history that a Div. I-A team played overtime games in consecutive weeks.

Interestingly, MU Head Coach Gary Pinkel won the very first overtime game played in Division I history when his Toledo Rockets beat Nevada, 40-37, in the 1995 Las Vegas Bowl. The overtime rule was put into effect for that bowl season, and has been in use ever since. Pinkel is now 5-1 alltime in his career in overtime games, including 3-1 at Mizzou.

TIGERS OWNED 4TH QUARTER IN 2003
Most every team in football focuses on how it plays late in the game, but Mizzou really turned it up a notch, if you will, in the 4th quarter last year.

In 13 games last season, MU held a 136-54 scoring advantage in the 4th period. That was a nice improvement from the slight 88-68 edge they held in the 4th quarter during the 2002 season, and an otherworldly advance from an eye-popping 102-47 scoring deficit the Tigers faced in the 4th quarter in 2001.