by Bob Priddy, Missourinet Contributing editor
(Friends; For some reason, Mediacom failed to publish all of last week’s postings. One looked at ten Missouri counties that were especially interested in the Lake of the Ozarks Casino proposition defeated last month. The second one will look at what the casino industry might have up its sleeve next.
However—–
For blog history reasons, we are publishing last Tuesday’s sports essay today–or we hope we are—and we will then publish our regular Tuesday sports post later today–or we hope we will. Actually, we hope Mediacom publishes it. At last.
We solicit your interest particularly in the story about the two OTHER Missouri football teams headed for bowls.
On Wednesday, we will post the piece we intended to post last Monday and on Thursday we will post the column intended for last Wednesday.
With some luck we should be back to our regular schedule next week.
Or maybe not. We aren’t sure Mediacom, our long-standing internet supplier, will do its job this time either.)
(BOWLS)—A second Missouri football team is headed for post-season play. Truman State University rallied from an 0-3 start to finish 7-4, demolishing Southwest Baptist 55-3 in the regular season finale.
The Bulldogs are off to the America’s Crossroads Bowl for the fourth time in five years. Their game December 7 will be a rematch with Tiffin, a team they beat 28-27 in 2022. Truman State is in the Great Lakes Valley Conference. The Tiffin Dragons represent the Great Midwest Athletic Conference. The school is in Tiffin, Ohio and finished the regular season 8-3. The schools are similar in offense and defense. Truman outscored opponents an average of 33-21. Tiffin came in at 35-18. Tiffin QB Alex Johnson threw for 2780 yards. Truman Sophomore QB Dylan Hair thre for 2235 yards and ran for 516 more.
The America’s Crossroads Bowl is played in Hobart, Indiana. The game is played on the field of Hobart High School. It is one of three bowl games for Division 2 teams that do not make the 28-team field playing for the national championship. Six of the remaining 134 D2 teams play in the post-season bowl games, held on December 7 this year.
Last week we mentioned that the University of Central Missouri Mules will play a Heritage Bowl game on December 7 against the University of Texas-Permian Basin in the Heritage Bowl in Corsicana, Texas. It is played at the Corsicana High School stadium.
(MIZBOWL)—And where will Missouri go bowling? Depends on who you consult. CBS Sports thinks the Music Bowl against Michigan on December 20 in Nashville, giving Missouri a second straight clash with a Big 10 team. College Football News says it’s the Las Vegas Bowl December 27 against former Big 8 rival Colorado. Athlon Sports likes Missouri in Las Vegas, too, but against Washington. And ESPN thinks it will be USC that will be the opponent in the Las Vegas Bowl. Action Network says it’s the Gator Bowl in Jacksonville Florida January 2 against Louisville. 24/7 Sports agrees on the Gator Bowl but would match Missouri with Duke.
(MIZCONNECT)—Only two quarterbacks and three receivers in Missouri history have connected for 20 or more career touchdowns. Brady Cook and Luther Burden III linked up for their 20th TD in last weekend’s game against South Carolina. Chase Daniel did it twice—25 with Chase Coffman and 22 with Jeremy Maclin.
(MIZARK)—Missouri looks to go 9-3 against Arkansas Saturday, a team that is 6-5 and still smarting from last year’s 48-14 whipping. Arkansas is 0-6 against Missouri on Faurot Field and 2-9 overall. But the last two games there have been Missouri’s by only two points each. (ZOU)
Oh, about the basketball team. It has won five straight games against lesser opponents after opening with a loss at Memphis. (ZOU)
(CHIEFS)—The Chiefs are 10-1 after wasting a 20-9 halftime lead against the Carolina Panthers with their too-familiar second half doze threatened them with a loss to team with clearly less credentials. The Panthers got a two-point conversion with 1:46 to go to tie the game at 27-all. Patrick Mahomes bailed out the Chiefs again with a 33-yard run that put them in field goal range and backup kicker Spence Schrader gave them the win with a 31-yard field goal as the clock reached zero.
One expected the Chiefs, now 10-1, to have an easier time with the Panthers, who drop to 3-8.
Individually, Travis Kelce moved into the number three NFL career record book for most career receiving yards, moving past Antonio Gates and now trailing only Jason Witten of the Cowboys and Hall of Famer Tony Gonzalez, who got most of his years while playing for Kansas City.
(SPEAKING OF GREAT CATCHES)—A young Chiefs fan, who looks to be 9 or 10 years old, hoping to get a high five, or at least noticed, by his favorite player—Nick Bolton—was reaching over the railing at the Chiefs’ tunnel and went over it head first.
But Defensive Tackle Tershawn Wharton caught him. He was lifted, unharmed, back to the grandstand.
(CARDINALS)—Weekend reports contain nothing significant for the Cardinals but, as is sometimes the case, tell about the good fortunes of FORMER Cardinals. In this case it’s about former closer Giovanny Gallegos. He has signed a minor league deal with the Dodgers. He’s 33 and didn’t live up to expectations with the Redbirds last year, appearing in only 21 games and posting a 6.53 ERA. In 2021 and ’22, Gallegos saved 14 games in each year. His lifetime ERA is 3.49. This means the players are eligible for arbitration.
On the outside looking in are relievers Adam Kloffenstein
The Cardinals have offered contracts to NL reliever of the year Ryan Helsley, and four other pitchers—JoJo Romero, Andre Pallante, and John King as well as position(s) player Brendan Donovan. They did not offer a contract to pitcher Adam Kloffenstein.
Speeding right along—
(ANDRETTI)—-Michael Andretti’s dream of fielding a Formula 1 team appears at last to be coming true. The key has been the alignment with Cadillac for engines—the team will be known as Cadillac F-1—and with TWG Global, owned by billionaire Mark Walter who owns, among other things, the Los Angeles Dodgers. TWG also owns Andretti Global. Michael’s role in the operation is unclear after stepping away from the team several weeks ago and taking an advisory role.
Father, Mario, has been named to the board of directors of the team. Mario ran Formula 1 races for 15 years, 1968-1982 and was the F1 champion in 1978 while driving for Lotus, becoming only the second American (Phil Hill in 1961 was the first) to win the title. He is the only driver to win the Indianapolis 500 (1969), the Daytona 500 (1967) and the F1 championship. Until recently he had been one of the drivers for the IndyCar Experience in an Indy car made into a two-person vehicle driven at racing speeds before Indycar races. He’s 84.
The CEO of the TWG Global business will be Dan Towriss, who joined Andretti as co-owner of Adretti Global Motorsports. Andretti stepped away from the team several weeks ago and will be an advisor.
(FORMULA 1)—Max Verstappen wrapped up his fourth straight Formula 1 championship with a sixth place finish at Las Vegas. George Russell and Lewis Hamilton gave Mercedes their first 1-2 finish of the year with Carlos Sainz in a Ferrari taking the other podium slot.
Verstappen is the fifth driver in F1 history to win four straight world championships. Two races remain but Verstappen’s points lead cannot be overcome.
(INDYCAR)—Two men, one face, one trophy. Sculptor will Behrends has carved his second bust of Josef Newgarden, the winner of this year’s Indianapolis 500. The face will be engraved into the famous Borg-Warner trophy, the second consecutive year Newgarden’s image has been through this process, by Reid Smith. Behrends has been creating winners’ busts since 1990 and Smith has been the engraver since 2021.
Newgarden will try to become the first driver to win three straight 500s next May 25th.
(NASCAR)—Joey Logano has celebrated his third NASCAR Cup championship with a reflective speech on the culture of NASCAR. Here’s the highlight:
“When I think about what we do on the racetrack sometimes, it’s kind of pointless, right? We drive around in circles just to end up in the same place at the end of day. You kind of think about it, that’s kind of goofy. But if you take the opportunity God’s given us to talk to people, to inspire others to live a life of generosity, that’s when these scenarios and driving in circles isn’t just driving in circles anymore. … When you think about (the flooding) in Western North Carolina, I’d say probably at least one person at each table around here probably made a huge impact at some point for the Hurricane Helene victims. I saw a lot of too people up there helping out and that, to me, is probably something that I’m most proud of this industry, being a part of that.”
He’s the fifth driver to win three NASCAR championships.
(Photo credit: Bob Priddy, Indianapolis 2019)