Big Man On Campus

Before he found the ESPN airwaves on Saturday afternoon as the newest signal caller for Missouri, he was Punting-Passing-& Kicking his way on to television as a middle schooler from Ballwin, MO. 

Yes, Blaine Gabbert has been front and center on the football field for some time. 

So to say he wasn't prepared to handle the pressure of following Chase Daniel as Missouri's new QB would be... well, wrong. 

His stat line from the Edward Jones Dome in St. Louis this past weekend?

25 for 33 / 319 YDs / 3 TD / 0 INT / 9.7 YD-ATT

Think Mike Farrell regrets writing this back in 2007?

"As always, there are some standout signal callers across the country. Pennsylvania's Terrell Pryor is being compared to Vince Young, and he is our current No. 1 player in the country. But after Pryor, things fall off a bit. Blaine Gabbert from Missouri has all the measurables at 6-5, 229 with 4.65-second speed. However, he's from Missouri.

The last few quarterbacks to come out of Missouri with any sort of reputation were Adam Barmann, Scott Carroll, Chase Patton and Darrell Jackson. Who? Exactly. The future looks a little brighter with Josh Freeman starting at Kansas State as a true freshman..."

Jason Whitlock is already on board along with all the Missouri and Illini fans who were able to watch Gabbert at work on Saturday. 

Me? Oh, I've been a Gabbert fan for quite some time actually. 

Call it a football man-crush or a player of intrigue, but I seem to find one every year in the Rivals 150. 

In 2005 it was Auburn's Tray Blackmon. In 2006, it was Florida's Tim Tebow. In 2007, USC's Marc Tyler and Ronald Johnson took the cake. And 2008's player I fell in love with- Nebraska's Blaine Gabbert. 

"Wait, he said Nebraska instead of Missouri."

Yes, had his words held true, it wouldn't have been Illinois Gabbert torched September 5th. Instead, Florida Atlantic would've fallen victim inside the walls of Lincoln's Memorial Stadium. 

That's because on May 15 2007, the 6'5"-220+ lb. quarterback declared his commitment to Nebraska, giving the Huskers arguably the most prized athlete to come out of the state of Missouri since Jackie Joyner-Kersee.

"I felt Nebraska was the right school for me. I just had the feeling when I went up there," Gabbert proclaimed to Rivals just days after pulling the trigger.

But by October's end, the eminent change of scenery in Lincoln made Gabbert re-evaluate his decision. 

Mid-way through the Big 12 season, Bill Callahan's backside was starting to the feel the heat sitting atop the Big Red podium and the senior at Parkway West sensed trouble at his future university. 

"I have de-commited from the University of Nebraska. I felt that the turmoil and uncertainty in the program led me to evaluate my other options. Usually when an AD goes, the boosters aren't very happy with the entire program. Really, when that happened, I knew I had to look out for myself and that's what I did."

And just as the Huskers saw Josh Freeman do in 2006, they watched Blaine Gabbert switch his commitment to a rival Big 12 North school less than 2 weeks later. 

When that happened, I knew that Missouri was destined to be a phenomenal program for at least a few more years; the stars just seemed to align in the Tigers and Gabbert's favor.

His senior season of high school, the future star played only 5 games, hampered by a foot injury. The injury may have ended up doing more good than damage however as it gave the QB time to perfect his throwing motion and perfect his tools as a signal caller. 

Despite the injury, Gabbert still impressed scouts enough to garner and invitation to the Army All-American Game and flourished as the starter for the West squad, helping future Notre Dame WR Michael Floyd become offensive MVP. 

Then in 2008, he arrived in Columbia to begin his career as a Tiger. Instead of being thrown into the fire, likely what would've been the case at Nebraska, the freshman was able to see time in blowouts and learn the system behind "Mr. Everything" Chase Daniel. More importantly, while Daniel was working with his group of playmakers on the field (Chase Coffman, Jeremy Maclin, and Tommy Saunders), Gabbert was building relationships with a group of relatively unknowns (Denario Alexander, Jared Perry, and Wes Kemp) on the practice gridiron. 

By 2009, Blaine had been named the team's most improved offensive player and appeared poised for a breakout season despite analysts claiming Missouri was on the decline because of the loss of "playmakers". 

Remember those "unknowns" that were doing the dirty work on the practice field in '08? I'd say they're "playmaker" worthy and it's all because of Gabbert. (1st Game Statistics)

Alexander: 10 receptions / 132 yards 

Perry: 4 receptions / 93 yards / 1 TD

Kemp: 8 receptions / 154 yards / 2 TDs

I know what you're thinking- "Easy to talk big and back a player after a first game like this. Where were you before Illinois?"

Well, you can believe what you want, but I've been saying it publicly for the last several months- regardless of whether I blogged it or not. There is no other conference player I'm more excited to see come into Manhattan this fall. And with his tools (6'4, 4.6 speed, cannon arm, precision accuracy, knowledge of the game, quality student- 3.8 GPA) I thoroughly believe Blaine Gabbert will put his predecessors in the shadows. Ya, even if they are Brad Smith and Chase Daniel. Gabbert will be that good. He's already the big man on Mizzou's campus and if I were a betting man, he'll probably become the big man on 4 other campuses between now and November 28th- one for each road game his Tiger's take.