1 - Illinois Week!  On a scale of 1-10, where's your Anxiety Factor right now?  And yes, Doug, I realize you're at 0.

2 - Alright, give me an MU-UI prediction.  And don't just look at what you predicted three months ago.  Fresh new thoughts!

3 - What's the X-factor for UI-MU?  Is it really as simple as "MU's OL vs UI's DL"?

4 - Pick the other Big 12 games (and give me a pointspread):

Wake Forest at Baylor
Western Michigan at Nebraska
Colorado vs Colorado State
Oklahoma State at Washington State
Florida Atlantic at Texas
Arkansas State at Texas A&M
Florida International at Kansas
North Texas at Kansas State
South Dakota State at Iowa State
Eastern Washington at Texas Tech
Chattanooga at Oklahoma

5 - Finally...since it's been the topic of the week at RMN...who's your favorite Food Network star?  Least favorite?  We only talk about the big topics here at Rock M Nation...

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It's Cut to the Chase time!!

Q: Four years from now, do you think you’ll recognize what this offense looks like?

A: Probably not. A lot of questions were asked at Big 12 media days about the spread evolving. Each year it’s constantly changing. If you look at the playbook we had last year and the playbook we have this year, a lot of the main things are the same. A lot of the bread and butter things are the same. But we have eight, nine, 10 different plays that Coach (Dave) Christensen comes up with, which he likes to call gadget plays. We’ll go into every game with eight, nine, 10 gadget plays and we have to remember those so there’s 100 gadget plays by the end of the year. We’re constantly building. We’ll go back to the 2005 playbook and pull out some gadget plays that we think might work, tweak the way maybe one person blocks and it’s a whole different play.

It's hard to make a more definitive statement than Jeremy Maclin did last time he was in The Dome.  But if he wanted to make an even more definitive statement this time around, I wouldn't stop him.  Either way, Maclin knows he's a marked man, and it will be interesting to see how the offense gets him the ball if he's always double-teamed (at least).

No practice reports, but...notebooks!

• PowerMizzou: '"Our defense plays our offense all the time, so they're used to us throwing the ball all the time. That quarterback just did a great job," Pinkel said. "I think that our defense, we were just not a very experienced defensive football team. I think some players came around. I think what was huge for us last year was Pig Brown, to have an impact player like that where a guy can go in and make impact plays, significant plays to change games. I think we have a couple guys maybe this year that have the potential to do that too in William Moore and Spoon and some other guys. Hopefully we'll play better defense from page one."'
• Dave Matter: "Freshman George White has apparently moved from linebacker to defensive tackle. He lined up No. 4 at defensive tackle behind Ziggy Hood, Terrell Resonno and Jimmy Burge."

The Trib takes a look at Elvis Fisher and his general state of readiness.

The Missourian says that "bowl game atmospheres" really don't phase Mizzou anymore.

And for those Mizzou fans who are starting to get worried about all the crazy, unlucky things that could happen in three days, fear not--so is Gary Pinkel.

Today's Illinois links: 1) The Missourian says getting embarrassed in the Rose Bowl has been a good motivator for Illinois; 2) the Champaign News-Gazette gives us a glimpse at a depth chart, and 3) the Sun-Times predicts a Juicy Sequel.  Eww.

On the basketball front...Steve Walentik takes a look at how the freshmen are doing as they prepare for their Canadian field trip.

Finally, on the basketball recruiting front...Michael Snaer must be a Rock M Nation reader.  News of his 9/6 official visit to Mizzou came out directly after I mentioned him in the Links yesterday.  Meanwhile, The Trib takes a look at this week's commit, Keith Dewitt.

Feel it?  Feel those goosebumps?  IT'S THE FIRST GAME-WEEK OFFICIAL RELEASE OF THE YEAR.  WOOOOOOOOOOO!!!

TIGER DEFENSE EXPECTED TO BE STOUT IN 2008
   The Tiger defense was young overall to begin the 2007 season, and through its 4 non-conference games to open the season, it didn’t fare all that well statistically. It allowed 435 yards and 34 points to Illinois in the season opener, and then 534 yards and 25 points at Ole Miss.
   After that point, however, Defensive Coordinator Matt Eberflus’ young pups really began to play well. After the rough start, the Tiger defense held their next 8 opponents under 400 yards of total offense – including sterling efforts against #25 Nebraska (297 total yards, 6 points) and #22 Texas Tech (380 yds., 10 pts.), which represented season-low yard and point totals for both. The defense closed the season with a bang, as well, as they shut down the high-powered offensive attack of Arkansas, holding the #25-ranked Razorbacks to 361 yards and just 7 points, one game after Arkansas scored 50 points to win at #1 LSU.
   Here’s a look at at where Mizzou ranked (and what it was allowing per game) in its first 4 games (all non-conference games), versus where it stood in Big 12-play (8 regular-season conference games only)…

And from fightingillini.com's release...

Illinois looks to defend its back-to-back Big Ten rushing titles as five of the top six rushers from a year ago return. The Illini will have a big hole to fill as single-season rushing leader Rashard Mendenhall (129.3 ypg) is now with the NFL's Pittsburgh Steelers, but quarterback Juice Williams (58.1 ypg) and last year's backup Daniel Dufrene (22.6 ypg) return. Williams broke the school record for rushing yards by a quarterback for the second consecutive year and Dufrene averaged an impressive 6.3 yards per carry, including a 100-yard game in the upset of No. 1 Ohio State. Added into the mix at running back will be redshirt freshman Troy Pollard and true freshmen Jason Ford and Mikel LeShoure.

Monday PC reports:

• PowerMizzou: "A couple of more freshmen could make their debuts soon. Pinkel said that receiver Wes Kemp will definitely see action this season and safety Kenji Jackson could still lose his redshirt. Jerrell Jackson and Michael Egnew will also play at wideout."
• Dave Matter: "Buried within a long discussion of the spread offense, Pinkel offered this interesting thought: He said if the coaching staff had been as experienced with the spread offense in 2005 as much as it is now, it would have tailored more of a West Virginia-type option attack around Brad Smith. Not sure I’ve ever heard that actually verbalized by an MU coach."  (DM's also got an updated depth chart.)
  

Jeremy Maclin: stronger, faster, quicker.  THAT should give you goosebumps.

It's Like Father, Unlike Son!

Unleash the hounds!!

So what to expect on Saturday night when No. 6 Missouri opens the 2008 season against No. 20 Illinois at 7:30 in St. Louis and on ESPN?

A Missouri defense that is not making like Simple Simon.

Defensive coordinator Matt Eberflus is ready to unleash the hounds. Adding complexity and diabolic disguise, this Missouri defense intends to not only bark, but also bite.

“With the experience that we had coming back,” Eberflus said of a defense that returns 10 of 11 starters from the Cotton Bowl victory over Arkansas, “we were able to do a little bit more during two-a-days in terms of install. Improve on our menu in terms of what we want to pull off during the course of the season.”

Translated: Missouri will blitz left when Illinois is fearful of a rush from the right. The Tigers will make it look as if a zone is open when a defender is ready to close for an interception.

That is the way the MU defense closed out last season. That is the way it plans to start this one.

“We’ve got to give our offense the ball,” said defensive end Stryker Sulak. “Our offense is great. They do things with it.”

You can catch some nice audio Pinkel/Daniel audio goodness here.  Meanwhile, Tiger Talk had itself one heckuva crowd last night.  Too bad it's at Buffalo Wild Wings--the root of all evil--this year.

Dave Matter's got his weekly Big 12 notes.

Another day, another "the skeptics are believing" column.

The Chicago Tribune has a couple Braggin' Rights-releated articles: Illinois tries to build on last year, and Daniel standing tall at QB for Mizzou (notice in the web address it has the words "Chase Daniels Misssouri Quarterback"?  Sigh...at least a copy editor caught it in the article, I guess).

Finally, it's not Michael Snaer, but Mizzou Basketball did get its second commit of the 2009 class yesterday: 6'10 faceup PF Keith Dewitt.  This is a pretty good get.  You hope that the second big-man in the class is a bit more of a banger, but Dewitt had offers from NC State, OU, OSU, Miami-FL, Marquette, and others, so there's nothing not to like here.  Get Michael "Now With a Fifth Star!" Snaer and the aforementioned banger, and you've got yourself a pretty damn nice class, Mike Anderson.  Steve Walentik's got more.

...but this is ridiculous (via).

And since I chose to do this as a Fanpost, I need to come up with 75 words, ZouDave style.  I don't think I'm anywhere close yet, so I'll just reaffirm that this looks really painful.  Though if it were to happen to anybody, I do believe it would happen to Rex Grossman...might actually be less painful than losing your starting job to Kyle Orton.

DAMMIT...that was only 74 words.

So the Olympics didn't end so well for Mizzou's last remaining Olympian, Linas Kleiza.  After leading Lithuania to the semis, he crapped out, scoring 0 points in 11 minutes in a semifinal loss to Spain, then putting up only 5 points in 17 minutes in a bronze medal loss to Argentina.  So Lithuania missed out on a medal, and Christian Cantwell was Mizzou's only medalist.

Meanwhile, a week out from Illinois, Dave Matter takes a look at position battles...or the closest things this team has to them.  (Hope you had fun last night, Dave.  You too, Atch.)

Great article from Mike Dearmond about a) if Mizzou is a "program", and b) how we'll know when we are.

Has Missouri again established a football program, or will the graduation of Chase Daniel, Chase Coffman and William Moore and Co. just produce another two-year flash along the lines of Corby Jones, Brock Olivo and Devin West in 1997 and 1998?

“When you get a program,” said Jack Smith, who a year ago conceived a national award-winning MU football commercial featuring running back Tony Temple, “kids are attracted to you because of your name. LSU, Ohio State and Southern Cal. Those are programs.

“We’re getting there.”

Smith smiled and glanced out across a practice field filled with such burgeoning talent as sophomore running back Derrick Washington, redshirt freshman offensive lineman Elvis Fisher and freshman linebacker Will Ebner.

Jack Smith wants to believe. But …

The USA Today takes on Jeremy Maclin and concludes that the sky's the limit.  How fun is it seeing a quote from John Kadlec in a national pub?

Wins = the best Heisman promotion.  Go figure.

So being that it's now the real Illinois Week, I guess we'll have some more interesting Illinois links to share than we did about three months ago.  Case in point, this Rivals.com discussion between PowerMizzou's Gabe and OrangeAndBlueNews' Jeff.

The big losses seem to be Mendenhall and Leman from last year. How does Illinois look to have replaced those guys?

JJ: Illinois will use the running back by committee approach to replacing Mendenhall. ... Senior Brit Miller moves from outside to middle linebacker to replace Leman. Miller started at middle linebacker as a true freshman and had a great spring, camp and shouldn't miss a beat in replacing Leman. He may even be better than the All-Big Ten Leman was last fall.

What would you say is Illinois' biggest strength entering the season?

JJ: The front seven on defense will be the best in recent school history (going back over 20 years) and they should be able to run the ball consistently on every team they face.

Brit Miller > J Leman, and the current Illinois front 7 > the one with Kevin Hardy and Simeon Rice.  Got it.  We're screwed.  Uh huh.

Here's a better Illinois link--it's the Post-Dispatch's Illinois season preview.  Here's Mizzou's too.  And needless to say, the P-D's on the Mizzou bandwagon.  For now.

Drew Temple's practicing.  Finally.

Boo.  More here.  And here.

Following up on rptgwb's volleyball recap from Friday night, here's the official season preview from mutigers.com.  I must say, I'm a bit more optimistic about the season after freshman Brittany Brimmage had a solid B&G game performance.  We need firepower, and if she can fill the void, Mizzou's ceiling is a lot higher.

Finally, I had to share the pain.  After reminiscing on previous earth-shatteringly horrific trips to Lawrence, I dug up the game recaps.  1997, 1999, 2003, and 2005.  You're welcome.  Ironically, the only trip to Lawrence in that bunch in which Mizzou didn't have a better team on paper was 2001...and they won.

In previous years, I would look at the schedule, say "This looks like a ___ record to me," then apply a 1-game Mizzou penalty.  In '06, the schedule screamed "9-3" to me, so I picked 8-4.  Nailed it.  Last year looked like 11-1, so I picked 10-2.  Only, I was incorrect.  This year we play in both Lincoln and Austin...and the schedule still screams "12-0" to me.  And last year knocked the Mizzou penalty right out of me.

Before we embark on a four-month journey that will either result in a) the greatest season in Missouri history or b) a couple (or few) of the most hard-to-take losses in Missouri history, I want to ask a question: If you were asked to create a list of your favorite Mizzou moments before 2007, what would have been on it?  Beating Nebraska in '03?  Winning the Independence Bowl?  Winning the Insight.com Bowl?  A stolen moment like Brad Smith's go-ahead TD against OU in '02 or Eddie Jones' go-ahead TD against NU in '97?  Older fans can maybe pull in memories of beating Notre Dame (on the day my mother went into labor with me) or Nebraska in '78 or USC and Ohio State in '76.

All of those were exhilarating moments--don't get me wrong.  But in all those memories, what was the team's final record that year?  8-5 in '03...7-5 in '05...8-4 in '98...5-7 in '02...7-5 in '97...8-4 in '78...6-5 in '76.  The last 12 months have offered us more memories and more moments-building-into-bigger-moments in any time since Missouri was whipping Navy on January 1, 1961.

Chances are, a re-drawn 'Top 10 favorite moments' list could have at least 5-7 from last year now.  Pig's fumble return...the sea of gold (okay, yellow) against NU...the four quarters of near-perfection against Texas Tech...the three quarters of absolute perfetion perfection (whoops) against Colorado...Jeremy Maclin's kickoff return...every moment of Armageddon at Arrowhead...the week at #1...the Heisman finalist...every moment of the '08 Cotton Bowl.  And most importantly, a 12-win season.  Finally, moments built on top of other moments.  One great win wasn't followed by an inexcusable loss.  It wasn't a perfect season (thanks a lot, Oklahoma...why couldn't you play against us like you played against CU or Tech or WV??), but it was almost perfect.

And it was certainly perfect redemption for one man.  Here's what I wrote almost exactly a year ago:

The bottom line is, despite the fact that Mizzou has improved in five of six seasons under Pinkel, the one season they didn’t (2004) has defined Gary Pinkel’s tenure to this point. And it will continue to do so until Mizzou overachieves in the same way they underachieved that year. Simply exceeding handicapped expectations isn’t enough.

If you haven’t noticed, Mizzou’s exceeded expectations each of the last two seasons (and really, in four of the last five). The 2005 Tigers were picked by most to crash and burn and quietly finish off the Pinkel Regime. They lost to New Mexico and Kansas in beyond-aggravating fashion, but thanks to some Chase Daniel magic against Iowa State and some Brad Smith magic against South Carolina, they finished 7-5. At the beginning of the season, 7-5 would have been a welcome bounceback to 2004. At the end of 2005, 7-5 seemed disappointing.

In 2006, Mizzou was picked preseason #5 in the North. They were supposed to struggle to make a bowl game while turning the page on the Brad Smith era. As I’ve pointed out, the Sporting News picked them to lose to Ole Miss at home. Well, they went 8-5, exceeding preseason expectations...and it felt a bit disappointing. In other words, Gary Pinkel’s teams are experts at exceeding expectations in the most disappointing way possible, even going back to 2002 (predicted to suck, but Brad Smith emerged...and went 5-7) or 2003 (8-5 was quite a lovely step forward, but it still came with super-annoying losses at Colorado and Kansas). Mizzou flashes more potential than others thought they had, then pulls a Lucy Van Pelt (or, I guess, a Tony Romo) with the football.

Pinkel needs to win and win big in 2007. Not necessarily because he’ll get fired otherwise (it would probably take a 5-7 season for that to happen, possibly 6-6) and not necessarily because Nebraska is about to distance itself from the rest of the North. I’ll believe that when I see it (how are the four Heismans for Harrison Beck and Marlon Lucky coming along?). No, he needs to win big because, as I’ve mentioned before, we’re one or two steps away from the dreaded Glen Mason Territory, where a coach at a mid-level school establishes his program enough to go 7-5 every year but never turns a corner. To me, 7-5 this year is the worst-case scenario because he won’t get fired, but he’ll have missed another opportunity to turn a corner and prove himself to future recruits.

That, and he needs to win because this year’s team is the most talented Missouri team in 25 years. Chase Daniel > Brad Smith and Corby Jones. Tony Temple > any Mizzou RB since Devin West. Will Franklin, Danario Alexander, Jared Perry, Jeremy Maclin, etc. > any Mizzou WR corps I’ve ever seen. All-world TE Chamartin Ruffman > Kellen Winslow (combined, not individually...and yes, Barking Carnival, Coffman and Rucker are as good as people say...in fact, the ‘lazy media’ is why Martellus “Rivals 5-star” Bennett is being rated above either or both of them in most publications despite all on-field evidence to the contrary).

...

For the last three years, I’ve constantly defended Gary Pinkel from attack...mostly from Mizzou fans. Which is funny, because I still have no idea if he’s a great coach or just a pretty decent one. As I’ve said before, he’s extremely classy, and he does everything the exact way I want a coach of my school to do...other than win big. Now it’s time for him to check that one off the list as well.

Done and done. Ironically, after exceeding expectations in the most disappointing ways possible for most of his tenure, Pinkel's team only met expectations last year (win the North)...in the most exciting, redeeming way possible.  Funny how things work out.

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South Division

Game-Changing Stats

• Pass Offense (particularly success rates)
• Q1 Offense
• Offensive Points Per Play
• Q2 Defense

Top Ranks

#1: Offensive 3rd Down Passing S&P+
#1: Defensive Q4 Rushing S&P+
#2: Offensive Redzone Passing S&P+
#2: Defensive 3rd Down Line Yards+, Defensive Q4 Line Yards+

Bottom Ranks

#126: Offensive Q1 Line Yards+
#107: Defensive Q2 Passing S&P+
#87: Offensive 2nd Down Line Yards+
#77: Offensive Q4 Rushing S&P+

Remember back in 2005, when OU's offensive line was a complete and total disaster?  Injuries, defections, disappointment...for a number of reasons, the depth was poor, the luck was bad, and lots of freshmen were moving in and out of the starting lineup.  The O-line was OU's biggest hindrance, and OU went from back-to-back national title game appearances to a 7-4 record and Holiday Bowl bid.

There's a plus-side to all that lineup shuffling and youth: two or three years later, your O-line is going to be unbelievable.  Duke Robinson (senior), Phil Loadholt (senior--though he's a JUCO transfer), Jon Cooper (senior), Brandon Walker (senior), and Branndon Braxton (senior) make up probably the best, most experienced offensive line in the country.  They average 6'5, 317, they've combined for 130 career starts, and they form a fortress around sophomore QB Sam Bradford.  As rptgwb suggested the other day, we really have no idea how good Bradford is or will be because the line has made his job really easy.  He was sacked all of once a game last year.  I'm usually skeptical of sophomore QBs who did a little too well their freshman years (cough cough Colt McCoy cough), but...I have no reason to think Bradford's performance will suffer much.

If (if) there's an Achilles Heel on the offense, it's the fact that Malcolm Kelly is gone.  Juaquin Iglesias, Manny Johnson and Quentin Chaney (all seniors) make up quite an experienced WR unit, but Kelly was the #1 threat.  Iglesias has thrived as the #2 guy (he even caught 19 more passes than Kelly in '07), but when you prepared for OU the last couple years, you prepared knowing that you had to shut Kelly down first and foremost.  If Iglesias is facing everybody's #1 CB, will his production suffer?  Meanwhile, Johnson and Chaney have repeatedly showed flashes of big-time ability, but they have yet to produce consistently.  I've heard really good things from my inside source*, however, about RSFr Ryan Broyles.  He's a little guy (6'0, 170) who's doing great things as a slot WR/waterbug.  You never know in advance how guys who look good in practice will look in a game, but keep your eye out for him.  If he's a reliable underneath threat, that opens things up for Johnson and Chaney (and Adron Tennell) to succeed in the "Go long, and I'll find you a couple times a game" role.

* Backup TE Trent Ratterree is the little brother of my high school best friend, so naturally my high school best friend is taking advantage of this and going to every possible practice and scrimmage.

I haven't said a word about OU's RBs and TEs because, well, it's in pretty good hands there.  DeMarco Murray and Chris Brown make for a nice quickness/toughness combo (and they'll look twice as good running behind that O-line), and Jermaine Gresham will catch 50 passes and go pro after '08...opening the door for my boy Ratterree to get some quality PT in '09.

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...is Lou Holtz allowed on TV?  Shouldn't picking Notre Dame to win 11 games (after you picked Notre Dame to win 11 games last year) disqualify you?  Shouldn't that immediately void your contract?  Shouldn't making Lee Corso look not only reasonable and rational, but like a downright GENIUS, end your TV career?  I realize he's self-deprecating and occasionally funny, and it's always fun to look at people who look like cartoon characters, but...come on.  [ /rant ]

Alright, I guess I've talked about other conferences long enough.  I haven't given myself enough time to crank through the non-BCS conference (and anybody who knows me well, knows there's nothing I enjoy more than pretending I know a lot about the Eastern Michigan's and San Jose State's of the world), so I'll just do a Big 12 preview (set up like the others, only with links to my BTBS posts about Mizzou's 8 conference opponents) and uncork an overall national preview post next week.

North Division

Game-Changing Stats

• Defensive Points Per Play
• Redzone Defense
• Q4 Rushing Offense
  
• 3rd Down Defense
  

Top Ranks

#1: Offensive Q3 S&P+
#3: Offensive Q1 Rushing S&P+
#3: Offensive Q3 Passing S&P+
#4: Offensive 3rd Down S&P+, Offensive 3rd Down Line Yards+, Offensive 2nd Down Rushing S&P+

Bottom Ranks

#104: Defensive 3rd Down Passing S&P+
#103: Defensive Q3 S&P+
#99: Defensive Q4 Line Yards+
#96: Defensive Q3 Passing S&P+, Defensive Q4 Passing S&P+

You want to know how Mizzou differs from the stereotypical "spread offense, no defense" team?  Check out some of the '+' rankings in which they ranked in the Top 20. On offense, there was Close-Game Rushing S&P+, Rushing S&P+, and 3rd Down Rushing S&P+/Line Yards+.  On defense, there was Overall EqPts+, Close-Game Overall S&P+, Overall S&P+.  After a poor overall non-conference performance, the Mizzou defense really was one of the best in the country over the last 10 games of the season.  And the rushing offense was solid too.  They had almost no weakness from October onward.

So what does that mean for 2008?  Defensively, good things.  Lots of good things.  Even if they start slow again (and with so little new blood, you have to like the chances of avoiding that), this defense should end up in the Top 20 overall by end-of-season. One thing that Missouri did defensively better than just about any team in the country in '07 was take away its opponent's #1 (and sometimes #2) weapon.  Juice Williams & Rashard Mendenhall, Maurice Purify & Marlon Lucky, Allen Patrick (and to an extent, Malcolm Kelly, though he still did rather well), Michael Crabtree, Todd Blythe, whoever Colorado's #1 weapon was, Jordy Nelson, Brandon McAnderson & Marcus Henry, Darren McFadden & Felix Jones. Just about everybody mentioned had extremely poor games against Missouri, at least until the game was out of hand in Q4.  If you had a good #3 or #4 option, you could move the ball against Mizzou.  But even then, your odds of major success using those options instead of your #1 or #2 are still limited.

I haven't mentioned the offense yet, but...well, you have to figure things are going to go just fine there.  Yes, there are a couple of new components--a RSFr left tackle and the first new starting center since 2004, for instance.  Plus, Tony Temple and Martin Rucker are gone.  Mizzou fans have extremely high hopes in their replacements (and in the case of Rucker's replacement, Chase Coffman is already almost more accomplished than Rucker anyway), but you never know what you're going to get until they show it on the field. 

Either way, though, an offense with Chase Daniel at the helm is going to succeed, and likely succeed big. If 2007 is any indication, there's one way to beat a Chase Daniel-led Missouri team: have a monstrous D-line, and hit Chase a lot.  Really, only two teams on the '08 schedule have really good lines--Illinois and Texas.  Illinois' is still as much about potential and athleticism as anything else, and Texas' was much better against the run than the pass, but those are the two biggest hurdles on the slate.

Verdict: While they may not be receiving any first-place votes, Missouri is as dangerous and proven as any team in the nation's Top Tier (Georgia, Florida, LSU, Mizzou, OU, USC, Ohio State).  They have a Heisman candidate at QB, speed speed speed at WR, the best hands in the country at TE (Coffman), a proven D-line, toughness and speed at LB (led by Sean Weatherspoon), an already-grizzled lock-down CB (Carl Gettis), and the best safety in the country (William Moore)...not to mention the most dangerous return man in the country (Jeremy Maclin) and the most consistent kicker in the Big 12 (Jeff Wolfert).  Barring a complete breakdown on the O-line, or a series of (KNOCK ON WOOD) injuries, Mizzou's got the talent to go undefeated and will be favored in at least 11 of the 12 games on their schedule.  They are, for 2008 at least, the class of the Big 12 North.

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In regard to the discussion here about the logistical problems of continuing both the Illinois series in St. Louis and the Kansas series in KC, share your preference below.