(MIZZFB)—The Missouri Tigers finished their tune-up schedule by rushing past, over, and through the Ragin’ Cajins from Louisiana-Lafayette Saturday.
Ahmad Hardy was the big battering ram, gaining 250 of the team’s 427 rushing yards and scoring three of the seven touchdowns in a 52-10 win. Only six players in Tiger history have gained more yards in a game than Hardy did Saturday. And he went to the bench with the other starters after the first series on the second half.
For the second straight week, Missouri had two running backs gain more than 100 yards. Marquise Davis rushed for 113 and a touchdown.
The 52-10 score wasn’t as close at the score makes it seem.
Missouri totaled 606 yards to Louisiana’s 121. The defense held Louisiana’s passing game to only two completions in 14 attempts for just four yards. Most of Louisiana’s 121 offensive yards came on an 84-yard run by Zylan Perry in the second quarter.
Quarterback Beau Pribula, coming off his recognition as the Maxwell Player of the Week after his performance against Kansas, had his worst yardage day of his three-game Missouri career, gaining only 174 yards passing on a 15/22 day. Of course that’s because he only played slightly more than one half of football. In his three games as a starter, he is 68/89 passing (76.4%) for 791 yards.
Next up for Mizzou is their first SEC game, against South Carolina, which went into Saturday night’s game as the nation’s 11th ranked team and was clobbered by Vanderbilt 31-7. CBS Sports dropped South Carolina to 36th, down 20 from its previous ranking. CBS says Missouri is 20th, a couple of positions below Vanderbilt, the team that beat South Carolina last weekend.
The Tigers are 23rd in both AP sportswriters poll and the USA Today Coaches Poll.
(HORN)—The Sam Horn era as a Mizzou quarterback is over. His leg injury turns out to be a fractured tibia, the large bone in the right lower leg. He’s undergone surgery and is out for the football season of course. He’s expected to make a full recovery.
Getting the surgery done now will give him to rehab his right leg, important because that’s the push-off leg that helps a right-handed pitcher gain momentum on his pitches, an important factor for Horn who was a 17th round pick by the Los Angeles Dodgers in this year’s MLB draft. He has signed a contract with the Dodgers that left him with the opportunity to play football this year for Missouri.
(MIZZHOF)—MIAHOF has inducted six new members—that’s the Missouri Intercollegiate Athletics Hall of Fame we’re talking about.
Former Athletics Director Mike Alden, who led the athletics department 1998-2015 and engineered MU’s move to the Southeastern Conference called the shift, “transformational…for our university and the state.” His 17-years in that position is the second-longest in school history. Only Don Faurot served longer, his first stint being eight years, 1935-1941 and his second one the longest, 22 years, from 1946-1967.
Longtime Sports Information Director Bob Brendel (1980-2000) is credited with modernizing the sports information office and for helping create the Hall of Fame. After several years in the information office at the State Transportation Department, Brendel has returned to the MU information office as its historian.
One still-active athlete was elected to the Hall this year—WNBA star Sophie Cunningham, who says, “I bleed black and gold to the core,” is the women’s basketball team’s all-time leading scorer who helped the Lady Tigers get to four NCAA tournaments and was a first-team all SEC choice three years.
Volleyball star Alyssa Munlyn, the first four-time AVCA All-American from Mizzou, played 2015-2018 and still holds the record for most blocks in a career.
A member of Coach Eli Drinkwitz’s staff and former record-setting running back Brock Olivo referred to Mizzou “home for me” in his inaugural remarks. Olivo is now the special teams consultant for the Tigers. When he left Mizzou after the 1997 season for a career in the NFL and the Italian Football League, he was the Mu career rushing and touchdown leader.
The final inductee is basketball player Kareem Rush, a first-round NBA draft pick, the key guy in Mizzou’s run to the Elight Eight. He played for five NBA teams and several minor-league pro basketball teams.
They are the most recent of the 262 members of the Hall who are recognized in the concourse of the Mizzou Field House. (ZOU)
(CHIEFS)—A 14-point turnaround play was the difference for the Philadelphia Eagles, who flew out of Kansas City with a 20-=17 win, giving the Chiefs losses in their first two games for the first time since 2014, and handing Patrick Mahomes his third straight loss for the first time in his pro career.
The backbreaker for the Chiefs was a touchdown-bound pass Travis Kelce couldn’t handle at the goal line that wound up in the hands of the Eagles’ Andrew Makuba, who took it back 41 yards before being knocked out of bounds by the last Chiefs player who could have stopped him. From where the Eagles scored the touchdown that turned a possible 17-13 Chiefs lead into a 20-10 Eagles advantage.
The Chiefs came back to score a touchdown at the two-minute mark but an on-sides kick failed and the Eagles ran out the clock.
Rashee Rice has started practicing with the team but wasn’t ready to play against the Eagles.
(BASEBALL)—The Cardinals’ faint hopes of making the playoffs are almost invisible. The Royals seem to be drifting out of the picture. Neither is likely to play more than 162 games this year. The only real question is whether either team will finish with a winning season.
(CARDINALS)—The Cardinals stopped their five-game losing streak with a 3-2 win in Milwaukee Sunday, a day after the Brewers became the first MLB team to clinch a playoff berth.
Miles Mikolas had an up day in this up and down season. He went five innings and gave up only two home runs to move closer to a .500 record for the season. He’s 8-10 now and probably has a couple more starts. The Cardinals scored all three of their runs in the second inning on RBI singles by Jose Fermin and Nathan Church. Reliever Riley O’Brien struck out the last batter of the game to get his fourth save in seven chances one day after he bave p three runs without recording an out in Saturday’s 10-inning 9-8 loss.
Mikolas is finishing strong. In his last four starts, he’s thrown 21 innings and given up six runs, no more than two in any of those four games. He has his ERA down to 4.80.
The Cardinals ended the road trip and the week with a 73-77 record. They need to win nine of their next 12 games to finish over .500, eight of 12 to finish break-even.
Yesterday, the Cardinals announced that Nolan Arenado is being reactivated after a rehab stint shows his throwing shoulder is ready for regulatr duty. He hasn’t played July. 30. Freddie Fermin has been sent down to Memphis to make roster room for his return. He’s had a below-average year at the plate this season, coming back to his usual third base position with a .235 average.
(CARDSWYNN)—The Cardinals and shortstop Masyn Winn have decided not to wait for the end of the season to have surgery done on his torn meniscus cartilage. He had hoped to play through the pain to the end of what was being a historic season in which he was well-positioned to win a gold glove.
He’s officially on the ten-day disabled list but that will take him through the end of a solid season highlighted by his defense. He’s made only three errors all year and his .994 fielding average is the best in the National League. He leaves with 22 outs above average, also tops in the National League, equaled only at the time of his departure by the Royals’ Bobby Witt Jr.
He’s being replaced on the roster by infielder Jose Fermin, called up from triple-A.
The Cardinals have activated Brendan Donovan, who has been on the IL while recovering from a straight left groin that has kept him out of 25 games. He made his first All-Star game appearance this year. Also coming back is left-handed reliever John King, who has been recovering from a back strain since August 26. To make room for Donovan and King, the Redbirds have optioned pitcher Nick Racquet to Memphis and have released second baseman Garrett Hampson.
(ROYALS)—Kanss City’s loss to the Phillies Saturday dropped them below break-even for the first time in a month as the bullpen gave up a lead. The loss left the Royals 6 ½ games behind Seattle for the last playoff spot in the American League and ruined a night that otherwise would have been a big celebration for a landmark game by Salvador Perez.
Perez hit a home run that gave him 300 for his career AND resulted in his 1,000th RBI. He got number 301 later in the game. Perez now ranks eighth on the all time list of homer-hitting catchers. Mike Piazza leads the list with 399.
Sunday, Perez brought the Royals back to .500 to wrap up the week on Sunday. They’re 75-75 gong into the last dozen games. Perez had a three-run homer and finished the day driving in half of the Royals’ runs in a 10-3 win over the Phillies.
Despite the loss, Philadelphia became the second team to clinch a playoff position after San Fancisco lost to the Dogers.
With a dozen games to go, the Royals pretty much have to win all of their remaining twelve games.
(KCRAGANS)—Cole Ragans will be back on the mound for the Royals. He’s missed the entire second half of the season so far. He’s expected to start tomorrow night’s game against Seattle.
(NASCAR)—A fiery night race at Bristol Saturday night reduced the playoff field to a dozen and produced the fourth win of the year for Christopher Bell. Only teammate Denny Hamlin has more victories this year—his fifth coming at World Wide Technology a week ago.
Bell’s win gives Joe Gibbs Racing a sweep of the first round of the playoffs. Chase Briscoe and Denny Hamlin won the first two races.
Bristol was the end of the line for four of the playoff contenders—Alex Bowman, Austin Dillon, Shane Van Gisbergen, and Josh Berry.
Joining the three JGR drivers for the first of three races in round two (at Loudon, NH) are Ryan Bleny, William Byron, Kyle Larson, Bubba Wallace, Tyler Reddick, Joey Logan (who on his third Cup title last year), Ross Chastain, Chase Elliott and Austin Cindric.
(NASCAR)—The after-race behavior of a three competitors in the race at WWTR has drawn a warning from NASCAR officials.
Cars of Ross Chastain, on the left and teammate Shane Von Gisbergen (right), were seen dropping off the inside of the track on the lap after the checkered flag, a technique sometimes used to pick up some rocks and dirt that adds weight to a car that might be fudging on the lioght side of the weight limit.
Joey Logano also was caught taking a dive into the infield on his cool-down lap.
NASCAR has told teams that similar behavior from now on could incur penalties, including disqualifications. Logano was fifth, Chastain finished 24th, and Van Gisbergen finished 25th in the race.
(NHRA)—We don’t usually say much about the National Hot Rod Association, but the retirement of one of its best drivers to focus on raising a family topped a lot of the NHRA news this week. It’s a historic announcement.
Brittany Force announced she will end her 13-year drag racing career, for now, at the end of the season so she and her husband, Bobby Lyons can start a family.
She is the two-time top Fuel world Champion who recently set a record with a top speed of 343.51 mph (did you know that drag strips for the fastest cars are only 1,000 feet long; the traditional quarter mile having been abandoned in 2008 because of the extreme speeds cars were reaching at that distance?). She and her three sisters are daughters of 16-time NHRA Champion John Force. With her departure there will be no one named Force running in NHRA for the first since her father entered the business in 1971.
She is following the lead of Leah Pruett, who stepped aside to give birth to her first child last November. Her husband, former NASCAR champion Tony Stewart, has taken her place in the car and has become the NHRA Top Fuel regular season champion. He recently survived a 300 mph-plus crash with a competitor’s car in the shutoff zone that saw his car land on its side and slide some distance before righting itself and hitting a wall.. He later said he had a bad headache and had banged up his left hand. But he later said, “I’ve been through sprint car crashes way worse than this, I’m pretty sure. We’re good. We’re good. We’re fine. I promise we’re fine.”
Leah says she’s taking back her seat next year.
(INDIANAPOLIS)—The Indianapolis Speedway isn’t done with racing yet this year. IMSA brings its sports car racing series to the track this coming weekend.
Next month, The Indy 8 Hour race will be run October 16-18. Cars from seven classes will compete on the road course, the last event until next spring at the Speedway.
(Photo Credits: Hardy—Instagram; Perez—MLB; Meniscus—orthoedge.com; Chastain & Van Gisbergen—Bob Priddy)