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Mizzou has been playing football for 130 years. As we wait and hope that season 131 will start on time, we're going to take a look back through Tiger history and identify the best of the best.
Over the next six weeks, we'll pare down our list of 64 players (selected, seeding and put into regions by position) to the best player in Tiger history. And PowerMizzou.com subscribers will make the pick.
The brackets will be posted and explained below. Then, on our premium message board, we will start a poll for each matchup. The polls will remain open through the week, closing on Friday night. The winners will move on to the next round, we will update the bracket and publish a new story and new polls the following Sunday. After six weeks, we will have the best Tiger football player as selected by our subscribers.
There are no guidelines for the voting. You can vote for the player you think is the best, you can vote for your favorite player, you can vote based on what they did at Mizzou, what they did in the pros, who had the best hair or what high school they went to. It's your vote, do with it as you please.
Today, we open the vote on the Final Four matchups.
Anyone can see the bracket in this story, but to vote, you'll need to be a subscriber. Sign up for your membership today and you won't be charged until September 1st.
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Before we preview the Final Four, let's take a look at how we got here.
QUARTERBACKS AND RUNNING BACKS REGION
Form held through the first two rounds as four quarterbacks representing three distinct eras in Tiger football made it to the Sweet 16. Chase Daniel beat Brad Smith by a three to one margin in one Sweet 16 matchup while Pitchin' Paul Christman barely slipped by Phil Bradley in the other. In the regional final, Daniel got 84% of the vote against Christman and the top seed moved on to the Final Four.
WIDE RECEIVERS AND TIGHT ENDS REGION
This was probably the most loaded bracket of the four. All-Americans, Hall of Famers and national award winners dotted the bracket throughout. The top four seeds moved on to the Sweet 16 where College Football and NFL Hall of Famer Kellen Winslow beat Mizzou's single-season and career record holder Danario Alexander. In the other matchup, two-time all-American Jeremy Maclin dominated the vote over Mackey Award winner Chase Coffman. In the Elite Eight, Maclin got nearly 2/3 of the vote in taking down Winslow to move on to the Final Four.
OFFENSIVE AND DEFENSIVE LINEMEN REGION
This was the region of chaos that ultimately ended up with the chalk winning out. Three double digit seeds of recent history made it to the Sweet 16. On one side, Sheldon Richardson beat Shane Ray in the closest vote of the competition so far. On the other side, Justin Smith got at least 96% of the vote for the third straight week in moving on past Aldon Smith. In the Elite Eight, it was Justin Smith dominating once again with 96.8% of the vote over Richardson. None of Smith's opponents received more than 3.4% of the votes in the first four rounds.
LINEBACKERS AND DEFENSIVE BACKS REGION
This bracket was the most straightforward of them all. Johnny Roland and Roger Wehrli were head and shoulders above the competition throughout. Top-seeded Wehrli got at least 72% of the vote in each round, beating Darryl Major, William Moore and Sean Weatherspoon. Roland, the No. 2 seed, was even more dominant, getting at least 78% of votes in beating Travis McDonald, E.J. Gaines and Eric Wright. When the two met up, it was Wehrli moving on with a surprising 78.5% of the total.
THE FINAL FOUR
CHASE DANIEL VS JEREMY MACLIN
The most prolific quarterback in school history runs up against the two-time all-American receiver and return man who helped plant his name atop all of the record books at Mizzou. The winner in this round will be the best offensive player in school history and will move on to the title tilt.
Daniel set pretty much every passing record in the books at Mizzou while leading the Tigers to a No. 1 ranking and a school record 12 wins in 2007, a season in which he finished fourth in the Heisman Trophy voting. He is widely viewed as the player that put Mizzou on the national map in this century.
Maclin was a two-time all-American in two seasons at Missouri after missing his first year with a torn ACL. In 2007 he set the national freshman record with 2,776 all-purpose yards, including more than 1,000 receive and 1,000 on kickoff returns. He set the school record for all-purpose yardage in just two seasons and held the single-season receiving record with 102 catches for 1,260 yards and 13 touchdowns as a redshirt sophomore.
Both were key cogs in Mizzou's run to No. 1 in 2007 and starting the season as a top five team in 2008.
JUSTIN SMITH VS ROGER WEHRLI
Two top seeds and the two most dominant defenders in school history meet up in the other semifinal. The winner will take bragging rights as the top defensive player in Mizzou history and will advance to the title match next week.
Smith was an honorable mention all-Big 12 player as a freshman in 1998 before making the first-team in 1999 and 2000. He was an all-American in 2000 as well when he set school records with 11 sacks and 24 tackles for a loss. He still ranks second on Mizzou's career list with 22.5 sacks despite playing just three seasons and is the career leader with 50 tackles for a loss. Cincinnati took Smith with the fourth overall pick in the 2001 NFL Draft. He was a five-time Pro Bowler and a two-time all-pro in 14 seasons with the Bengals and San Francisco 49ers.
Wehrli was a force in the defensive backfield, intercepting ten passes, including seven in his all-American senior season (a school record that stood for 39 years). But he was also one of the best return men in the country, setting the Big Eight record for punt return yards and leading the nation as a senior in addition to returning a kickoff 96 yards for a TD. He played 14 years for the St. Louis Cardinals, had 62 takeaways, made seven Pro Bowls and the 1970's all-decade team. He was inducted to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2004.
