Missouri could not be found in any of the preseason rankings a year ago; such will not be the case this time around. The biggest reason is QB Chase Daniel back for his senior season after being invited to the Heisman ceremony as a junior. Daniel is a playmaker with an extremely accurate arm and superior vision downfield. His leadership alone will again place these Tigers in a place they finished in ‘07...amongst the top ten nationally as they defending their Big 12 North crown. Moreover, he will continue to have proven targets. Gifted talent Jeremy Maclin was sensational as a freshman. His ability to run, as shown by his impressive return numbers, gives this team a playmaker needed to win tight games. Although All-Big 12 TE Martin Rucker moves on, the other portion of the dual TE committee returns in Chase Coffman (19th in the Big 12 for receptions). He is good enough to play on Sundays, and his return will be a huge plus. For this team to take any next step(s), the defense has to improve against the pass. On O, the rushing attack has to find someone capable of taking the pressure off of Daniel. Losing All-Big 12 center Adam Spieker is going to make such a task more difficult. No one is going to predict/expect Missouri to be back into the national championship race at the conclusion of next November with the target now found on their chest(s). But Daniel is solid enough at QB (against anyone but OU, who isn’t on their docket), and there is promising potential in the surrounding talent so as to make them the North Division favorite. The schedule is ironically the same - a tough opener versus Illinois in neutral St. Louis offsets closing against border rival Kansas in K.C. With Oklahoma off the schedule, this bunch of Tigers will be good enough to return to the conference championship game, which should (by default) be good enough to give them a top ten national ranking.