Mizzou football 2010

[Transmogrified Tiger]

Yeah, Washington wasn't remotely an NFL prospect. Not nearly big or strong enough to stay between the tackles, and not nearly fast enough to run on the outside. Not that he's terrible, he's good for Mizzou's purposes and it'll probably be a step down to Lawrence/Moore, but he's not ideal and he didn't have much of a football future.

[robbotis]

Yeah, Washington wasn't remotely an NFL prospect. Not nearly big or strong enough to stay between the tackles, and not nearly fast enough to run on the outside. Not that he's terrible, he's good for Mizzou's purposes and it'll probably be a step down to Lawrence/Moore, but he's not ideal and he didn't have much of a football future.

Lawrence is lightning though! He could, big could, be a 3rd down back in the NFL. I'm excited to see him.

However, does it really matter when Mizzou will pass the ball 80% of the time?

[JL21]

However, does it really matter when Mizzou will pass the ball 80% of the time?

RMN had a great point in their roundtable last night.

Mizzou is a passing team. Considering the way Mizzou tries to use the horizontal and short passes to "establish" the short game the way a lot of teams use the run, losing their starting RB might not hurt them as much as it would other teams. (In some ways, TJ Moe is as important to the short game as any RB.)

http://www.rockmnation.com/2010/9/1/166 ... #storyjump

[robbotis]

However, does it really matter when Mizzou will pass the ball 80% of the time?

RMN had a great point in their roundtable last night.

Mizzou is a passing team. Considering the way Mizzou tries to use the horizontal and short passes to "establish" the short game the way a lot of teams use the run, losing their starting RB might not hurt them as much as it would other teams. (In some ways, TJ Moe is as important to the short game as any RB.)

http://www.rockmnation.com/2010/9/1/166 ... #storyjump

I buy it. They are effective, so asking them to reinvent the wheel doesn't make sense. It's the same approach the Patriots take. However, they often run from a normal, non-shotgun foundation, when near the goal line. I wish Mizzou would do that.

[Lesson]

I held back tears while reading this article:

When scrawny L'Damian Washington arrived in Columbia from Shreveport, La., last fall, Mizzou assistant coach Josh Henson ushered him into his dormitory and onward to a campus cafeteria that evidently was unlike anything Washington had seen before.

"I remember the smile on his face; he was just in awe," Henson said. "His first question was, 'Coach, I get to eat this stuff?!'

"I said, 'Yeah, you can eat as much as you want. You can even go back and get seconds.' He just took off."

The moment, Henson said, coaxed a tear when he told his wife about it that night because of some of the circumstances of Washington's gnawing hunger.

When Washington's mother, Sonya, collapsed at one of his high school basketball games when he was 15 and died later that night because of complications from a blood clot, the four distraught brothers were weeping and hugging in the hospital parking lot when Washington's high school coach, Stephen Dennis, arrived.

Suddenly orphaned 10 years after the father of the eldest three was shot and killed, they made a vow as they tried to console one another.

"We all came together and said no matter what, no one can break us apart," said Washington, the third of the children, who will be one of Mizzou's new crop of receivers when the Tigers open the season against Illinois on Saturday at the Edward Jones Dome. "We're always going to be together no matter what, through thick and thin.

"That was a statement that we strongly stuck with."

Despite enormous challenges for the group that was then 19, 17, 15 and 9 and had to fend off being put in foster homes, Washington said his Christian faith always reassured him there was a plan for them.

With only the eldest, La Courtney, out of high school and working what jobs he could find, money was scarce and at times food was a luxury. Early on, they were forced out of their house.

"They turned off their lights and the other different utilities, and they kind of had to split up a little bit," said Dennis, the coach from Green Oaks High.

For a time, Henson said, that meant Washington was staying one night with one friend, another with a different family.

"They were almost on the streets," he said. "Close to it."

But with the help of a supportive community and Ebenezer Baptist Church, whose pastor, Jimmy Smith, Washington still speaks with weekly, the boys were able to be reunited in a new home by the time Mizzou began recruiting Washington his senior year.

"You go in to meet the guardian, and he's 20 years old," said MU assistant Barry Odom, who smiled as he recalled visiting the home and added, "It's really unmatched."

Despite his birth rank, to many it was clear that L'Damian was the leader.

"Somehow they kind of looked towards me, probably because of the success I was having on the football field," he said. "And I always had my head on straight."

So much so that even amid the anguish and chaos Washington became such an accomplished citizen and student that the community held a day in his honor when he graduated. Hundreds attended, Dennis and Henson said, and Washington even was given a key to the city.

Perhaps not surprisingly, though, beyond the opportunity to eat all he could, the transition wasn't simple to Mizzou, which Washington chose after committing to Louisiana Tech and entertaining options from Nebraska and, late, Louisiana State.

Moving hundreds of miles away posed issues, including nuisance paperwork for matters such as apartments or car insurance.

"The world isn't really designed for kids who don't have parents or somebody who can kind of do that stuff for you," said offensive coordinator David Yost, recalling MU's need to work with its compliance department to help Washington in what ways it could.

More problematic, as his older brothers were struggling to find and keep work, youngest brother Tomarious, then 11, was ill. Washington felt not just homesick but neglectful.

"I know I could not have handled that when I was 18 or 19, and most people probably couldn't have," MU receivers coach Andy Hill said.

Many days, Washington said, he'd let his feelings get the best of him, and several times he considered returning home.

"When you say 'a foot out the door,' can you be more specific, please?" he said jokingly and adding, "It definitely crossed my mind."

But MU coaches persuaded him that the best way he could take care of his brothers was to take care of himself with education and football, even if he was redshirting.

Washington is majoring in psychology, he said, smiling, with the hope "it will help me understand myself at times, too."

Dennis reiterated the point of staying in school when Washington called saying he wanted to come home.

"I say, 'Come home?!'" Dennis said. —"'What are you going to do at home?'"

Among other ways Dennis appealed to Washington was to invoke the name of his mother, who had worked at a hospital and who Dennis described as a rock and Washington said "brightened whatever room she stepped in."

"And she was like the No. 1 cheerleader at all sporting events," recalled Washington, who laughed as he remembered her yelling, "That's my baby, that's my baby" and added, "She's still with me now, and I can hear her."

Low-key as he might be, Washington tends to have a similarly inspirational impact on those whose lives he's touched.

"He just brings me joy," Dennis said.

Said Henson: "It's one of those stories that if you want something bad enough and put your heart and mind to it, circumstances are what they are, but you don't have to let them control your life. You can still choose to be a good person and accomplish things in life."

http://www.stltoday.com/sports/college/ ... 32e7a.html

[albertmvpujols]

This has been an ugly start for Mizzou...

[JL21]

Yeesh, what a turd they dropped in the first half.

[cardsfansince82]

Can't play much defense and thus can't get any rhythm on offense. I'm surprised how much more physical Illinois looks. They played about as bad as possible, but luckily the game is still within reach.

[TGantz]

Wes had some great catches in the second half. The one with the offensive pass interference was great. Then he made up for it with a great 3rd and long catch over the middle.

I love how they're using Moe. Kind of a Wes Welker type role.

[albertmvpujols]

Holy [expletive] that Gettis pick was awesome!