By Bob Priddy, Missourinet Contributing Editor
(ALL-AMERICAN)—Before we get to anything else: Missouri’s Cody Schrader has been named to the Associated Press All-America First Team. He joins Heisman Trophy winner Jayden Daniels of LSU and Ollie Gordon of Oklahoma State in the backfield.
Luther Burden III is on the second team. Kris Abrams-Draine makes the second team defensive unit.
Javon Foster is a third team offensive All-American at tackle.
The AP All=America team was picked by 18 voters who put together the weekly Top 25 football ratings.
(MIZ: Roundball)—-The Missouri Tigers outscored the second-ranked Kansas Jayhawks for the first sixteen minutes of the game in Lawrence Saturday and outscored them in the second half by three. But those last four minutes were killers as the Tigers couldn’t buy a bucket but Kansas reeled off fourteen unanswered points.
73-64, Kansas, the final.
Coach Gates isn’t interested in moral victories but for Tiger fans, the game might have shown team growth as it heads toward its pre-conference wrap-up games against Seton Hall next Sunday, Illinois on the 22nd and Central Arkansas on the 30th.
(MIZ: Football)—The Tiger football team might be able to say, it took a Heisman Trophy winner to beat us in the LSU game. They probably aren’t saying it because it’s regarded as an excuse. But LSU Quarterback Jayden Daniels could not be stopped in LSU’s 49-39 win over the Tigers this year. He threw for 259 yards and ran for 130 more against a Tiger defense that has won national praise. He had help from LSU’s defense that stopped Missouri in the waning minutes. The Missouri Tigers had the Geaux Tigers down 39-35 before Daniels threw a touchdown pass with less than three minutes left. The defense stopped Missouri twice, the last time on intercepted pass returned for a touchdown that stopped a Missouri drive that could have led to a tying field goal at the least. Daniels threw for 50 touchdowns and rushed for more than 1,000 yards.
Missouri running back Cody Schrader was eighth in the voting with one first-place vote, two second-place votes and 22 third-place votes. It’s the highest finish for a Tiger player since Chase Daniel was fourth in 2007, equaling Paul Chrisman’s finish in 1939.
(REPLACING CODY)—The transfer portal has drawn to Missouri a running back with some strong credentials who might be a yardage chewer to replace Cody Schrader. It’s Marcus Carroll, who rushed for 1,350 yards at Georgia Tech in 2023. He wound up in the end zone 13 of the 274 times he carried the ball.
(CHIEFS)—The Chiefs’ loss Sunday night was their fourth in six games, and another reminder of how much they miss Eric Bienemy, their former offensive coordinator who is now the offensive coordinator and assistant head coach for the Washington Commanders. His presence has not done any miracles for Washington, though, which is 4-9, losers of nine of their last eleven games, and 32nd in the league in scoring.
Some observers point to some friction in Washington between Bienemy and some of the players because of his high-discipline philosophy. The Chiefs are clearly playing sloppier offensive football this year than they did when Bienemy was around. While they might complain about the referees, the plain truth is that the receivers and the quarterback don’t seem to be in sync as much as usual and the number of dropped passes is disheartening.
The Chiefs lost to the Bills Sunday 20-17 and receiver Kadarius Tony went from being hero to being the goat in a matter of seconds. Tony scored what would have been the winning touchdown but was the reason the play was called back. He lined up offside, not by a little but by a lot.
Quarterback Patrick Mahomes completed a pass to Travis Kelce who while running for more yards turned to his left and threw a lateral to the trailing Tony who went into the end zone untouched. But there was that flag that killed the TD.
While Mahomes raged and coach Andy Reid mused about why the refs didn’t warn the Chiefs that Tony had lined up offside, Referee Carl Cheffers wasted no time saying the Zebras are not there to tell players to follow the rules:
“It’s one of those things we don’t want to be overly technical on, but when in his alignment he’s lined up over the ball, that’s something that we are going to call as offensive offside,” he told pool reporter Matt Derrick. “So that’s what the down judge saw. He saw that the alignment was over the ball and that’s what he ruled on the field. That’s what he called….Ultimately, if they looked for alignment advice, certainly we are going to give it to them. But ultimately, they are responsible for wherever they line up. And, certainly, no warning is required, especially if they are lined up so far offsides where they’re actually blocking our view of the ball. So, we would give them some sort of a warning if it was anywhere close, but this particular one is beyond a warning…So really regardless of whether or not he was warned at other times during the day, if it was an egregious alignment to where he was over the ball – whether he had warnings or not – it would still be a foul.”
The Chiefs are 8-5. The’ll get out take their frustrations about the Bills game against the Patriots next weekend. The Pats are 3-10.
Now, the Baseball:
(ROYALS)—The Kanas City Royals haven’t made any big waves in the off-season. Their signing of Will Smith is a reunion; Smith started his career with Kansas City. He’ll be 35 next July but is a low-risk opportunity fot the Royals, who have signed him to a one-year, five-million dollar deal. Smith has the distinction of picking up three World Series rings in the last three years. He’s the first major leaguer to do that with three different teams (Braves in 2021, Astros the net year and the Rangers this year). In fact, his record goes beyond baseball. He’s the only person in baseball as well as the NFL, NBA, and NHL to do this.
His numbers with the Rangers were not outstanding but were reasonable in today’s game: 57.1 innings itched in 60 games with an ERA of 4.40. He’s 33-41 in his career with a 3.67 ERA and 113 saves.
There are other intriguing arms still out there and General Manager J. J. Picollo has let it be known that the club has about $30 millon in the budget for new players. It appears the first five-million has gone to Smith.
(CARDINALS)—The Cardinals finally pulled the trigger on Tyler O’Neill last week and one of the best parts of the deal is that he can’t come back to haunt them in the immediate future if he managers to get through a season in good health. He’s in the American League now with the Red Sox and the Cardinals have picked up a couple of young pitchers in return.
One of them, Nick Robertson, is expected to be with the team when it comes north in ’24. Evaluaters say his fastball averages better than 95, looks more like 97 and has some wicked movement. His changeup is only about eight mph slower but it moves and he has a slider that he developed late in the last season that raised some eyebrows.
The other pitcher is Victor Santos, who has spent a couple of years in Triple-A. He’s 23, has good command, and throws strikes. Slider/changeup/sinker guy with a pretty good strikeout ratio. He missed the 2023 season but is spending the winter in the Dominican League and is having a good season there.
Now, a couple of notes from the Zoom Room:
(INDYCAR)—Development of the new hybrid powerplant is moving a little slower than the series had hoped. The series will open 2024 with the same engine that it has used for several years and won’t go to the new hybrid system until after the Indianapolis 500 in May.
IndyCar has two engine suppliers—Chevrolet and Honda. But Honda has started counting its pennies a little more closely and says it’s considering pulling out of the series after 2026 because of high costs. Honda supplies power plants for as many as 18 entries in IndyCar races but says the cost/benefit ratio isn’t working as well as it wants it to work.
IndyCar has been trying to lure a third manufacturer into the series for several years. Honda has been a supplier since 1993.
(NASCAR/NHRA)—-Tony Stewart, who started a drag racing team two years ago is replacing his driver. With himself. He’s getting into the seat that his wife, Leah Pruett, had occupied. She’s taking the year off because the Stewarts want to start a family. He still is part owner of Stewart-Haas Racing in the NASCAR Cup Series
(Photo Credit: Partial screen shot from broadcast of Chiefs/Bills game)