FanHouse TonyTemple

Big 12 ... cattle country ... the plains ... cowboys ... boots ... If this were the Pac-10 we'd be talking about filling sandals. I'm a shoe man, personally. Anyway. Some Big 12 figures are going to be difficult to replace, although it's not as bad as you think (similar to last year). Let's review.

TOM OSBORNE, NEBRASKA

Nebraska didn't simply terminate Bill Callahan last year, they terminated the heir to Osborne's throne. Bo Pelini isn't replacing Callahan, no sir. He's replacing his boss Tom Osborne in attempting to transition Nebraska football back to another dominant era. No pressure or anything. So far Osborne's replacements are 0 for 2, but the program thinks it has found its man in former assistant and last year's defensive coordinator at LSU, Bo Pelini. Pelini doesn't possess Osborne's steely but quiet command of his team, but no coach nowadays could. He's a spirited barker demanding tremendous effort and sacrifice. He's tasked with picking up the pieces of mistrust that led to last year's collapse and the worst defensive performance in the program's deep history.

National Football Scouting invited 333 players to the annual Indianapolis Scouting Combine, and only 255 players will be drafted in April. That means at least 78 players who have spent the last few days in Indianapolis won't hear their names called on draft weekend.

But it will actually be more than 78, because some players who weren't invited to the Combine will be drafted. One of those uninvited players likely to be drafted is Missouri running back Tony Temple, who ran for 281 yards in his final college game, the Cotton Bowl, looking like the best player on the field that day.

And looking like the best player on the field in the Cotton Bowl is a particularly impressive accomplishment considering that another player on the field that day was Arkansas running back Darren McFadden, whom many observers consider the best player in this year's draft. While McFadden has been one of the top Combine performers, draft expert Rick Gosselin lists Temple as one of the top 10 Combine snubs.

So why wasn't Temple invited? Part of it is that he entered the draft late, after dropping an appeal for another year of eligibility with the NCAA. Another part of it is his size; he's listed at 5-foot-9 and 200 pounds and looks smaller than that. But it was mostly just an oversight, and one that some NFL team should correct in April.

Last Year: (8-5, 4-4) Unranked.

Fans Are: Losing patience, if that's possible after a solid 8-5 season. Not much was expected of Missouri last year, but then the Tigers went out and won their first six games and very nearly a seventh behind a productive offense and stingy defense. Things fell apart soon thereafter as the Tigers went just 2-5 their last seven games including a last-second bowl loss to Oregon State. Coach Gary Pinkel's name has cooled a bit, but for several years he was a flight risk to more prime destinations.

Expectations: Don't repeat last year's heartbreak. Things were going good on both sides of the ball but both the offense and defense were never quite the same after a very winnable midseason 25-19 loss to Texas A&M. Junior quarterback Chase Daniel is one of the nation's best, so a quality offense is expected. The defense must rebuild but the hope is fresh faces can be more consistent than last year's sometimes dominant, sometimes porous unit.

Questions:

1. Can the offense carry this team?

Sure looks like it. A very good quarterback returns. He'll have both of his productive tight ends back. Tony Temple returns to help the running game. The starting line is loaded with juniors and seniors. This is about as good as it gets for an offensive coach and the Tigers back up their experience with a productive offensive scheme.

The goal for this spring should be to get everyone back on the same page and then start to look for next year's starters as these veterans have already proven themselves over the course of the last two seasons.

2. Can this season be a runaway success?

Absolutely. The schedule is difficult, but not daunting. The only elite opponents this year are Oklahoma and Nebraska and maybe Texas A&M. Every other game is categorically "winnable". Those games tend to come down to coaching and veteran poise. Last year Missouri won its winnable games in the first half of the season then lost them in the second half. If last year's players learned anything from those losses this season could be fairly special, in the range of 9-10 wins and a shot at the Big 12 Championship game if division rivals are taken care of.

3. Any closing thoughts?

Chase Daniel is awesome. He's a system quarterback, but he also has moxie and the ability to make plays with his feet. To date he's a better player than the more ballyhooed Brad Smith and should go down as one of the all time Missouri quarterbacks. Coach Pinkel is a quality coach but this season is fairly critical for him in that he must stay loose and avoid collapses like the one that happened last year. He is now the dean of Big 12 coaches and the last man to be named "dean" was soon pushed out the door (Iowa State's Dan McCarney).