Dec. 25, 2008
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SANTA VISITS ALAMO
One of the biggest questions of bowl season revolves around who gets what gifts for playing in their bowl game. The Missouri Tiger players will reap quite a bounty of gifts this year for their appearance in the Valero Alamo Bowl. Per NCAA rules, the bowl game is allowed to provide gifts to each player that total up to $500, and their school is also allowed to provide another $350 in gifts, and those figures are the exact same for each bowl, from the lowest-level game, all the way to the BCS Championship Game.
Here's a rundown of the gifts that Mizzou players will get from the Alamo Bowl folks:
- Play Station 3 gaming system
- NBA Ballers game for PS-3
- Fossil Alamo Bowl Watch
- Mini football helmet, half Mizzou/half Northwestern
- Commemorative autograph football
As noted above, Mizzou is permitted to give another $350 in gifts to each player, here's a rundown of what the Tigers are receiving this year:
- Bowl ring
- Best Buy gift card for the remainder
In addition, the team will get assorted mandatory practice gear and other clothing and travel gear…
SAN ANTONIO – There's a long-standing joke that goes around the football coaching fraternity that says something to the effect of there being no holidays during football season. Never was that old adage more appropriately stated than Thursday in San Antonio, Texas, as the Missouri Tigers celebrated Christmas Day by holding a two-hour full-pad practice at Alamo Heights High School.
Of course, the practice wasn't a punishment or anything out of the ordinary, as the Tigers are preparing for their Dec. 29th Alamo Bowl contest against Northwestern. Head Coach Gary Pinkel said that his team did a good job of focusing in and they had what he termed a good practice, despite the aura of Christmas and all of the things associated with the holiday.
"It was a good day, it was a physical practice," said Pinkel afterward. "The last pads practice of the year so it's the last day to do any real hitting before the bowl game, so it was important to be physical and get accomplished what we needed to," he said.
The play of the day came just a few plays before the end of practice, when the number one offense was up against the number two defense. Junior WR Jared Perry ran an end around and about five yards downfield, put a juke move on junior S Del Howard that left Howard on the ground, as Perry scooted into the secondary for what looked it would be a long touchdown, before the whistles blew the play dead. Of course, Howard claimed he slipped on the new FieldTurf surface, as his offensive teammates bombarded him with catcalls.
Following practice, the Tigers got some downtime in the afternoon, and the majority of the team either went to see movies, visited the Alamo or took the opportunity to catch up on some rest. The evening event was a team trip to Dave & Buster's, where they had a big buffet dinner and hours of games and activites, before returning to the hotel for more evening freetime.
Practice resumes Friday morning at Alamo Heights High School, stay tuned to mutigers.com for continuing updates.
