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Chase Daniel was Missouri's starting quarterback for three seasons, following Brad Smith holding the job for four.
So head coach Gary Pinkel and his Tigers were understandably inundated with questions Tuesday about sophomore Blaine Gabbert taking over next season.
“Blaine Gabbert is not Chase Daniel,” Missouri offensive lineman Kurtis Gregory said. “He's a new quarterback. But I talked to Chase and Chase goes, “I didn't go in trying to replace Brad Smith and be Brad Smith because I'm not Brad Smith.
“So Blaine has just got to take care of himself.”
Pinkel said Mizzou won't do the same things with Gabbert as it did with Daniel as a senior. The approach will be closer to what the Tigers asked of Daniel as a sophomore in 2006.
As far as the questions, Pinkel said: “Anytime you have a transition quarterback, everybody sits back and goes, “Wow, what's going to happen?”
Promote from within
Pinkel didn't have to deal with staff turnover much in his first eight years at Missouri. So it was a change when offensive coordinator Dave Christensen took the head coaching job at Wyoming and defensive coordinator Matt Eberflus left for the Cleveland Browns.
As replacements, Pinkel promoted David Yost and Dave Steckel, respectively, from within. He said that should limit any sort of shock to the Tigers' system.
“I've kind of got the Bill Belichick approach,'' Pinkel said. “I try to train people within my organization so that when there is some transition that you can move people up to different positions.''
Strong 1-2 punch
Missouri's running game could allow Gabbert to ease in as the Tigers return 1,000-yard rusher Derrick Washington.
The 6-foot, 225-pound junior is expected to get his carries, but Pinkel said the Tigers have other ways to utilize him.
“The great thing about Derrick, too, is he's got great hands,” Pinkel said. “You can get the ball in his hands a lot of different ways.”
Pinkel said Washington and De'Vion Moore give the Tigers perhaps their best 1-2 punch in his time as head coach.
Big game for Tiger
Senior defensive lineman Jaron Baston got all excited talking about Missouri-Nebraska on Oct. 8. What's not to like, he said, about an 8 o'clock kickoff on a Thursday night on ESPN?
“Those atmospheres, those are the moments why people go through all the winter conditioning, the summer and all the hard practices,” Baston said. “Just to have those national spotlight games and everybody watching you — that's what you play football for.”
— Rich Kaipust
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