Now that we’re into the third week of spring football, I’m going to change things up a little bit. Since practice has gotten a bit monotonous and there aren’t many personnel moves to report, I’m going to use my blog space to write small features, which alleviates the problem of Mizzou not getting in the paper because of space.

If something happens at practice, I’ll have that here right at day’s end, but most of the time it will be updates on players or something I’ve observed during practice. Those stories will be up in the morning or by the late evening if you’re a night person like me and linked on the main Mizzou page as stories.

With that said…

There is one note of interest.

Linebacker Connell Davis has left the team because of personal reasons, coach Gary Pinkel said.  I don’t know what this is about. Perhaps he saw the proverbial writing on the wall, but I thought Davis would see some time this year. He did have a couple nice plays on special teams last year.

Either way, this really thins out the linebacking corps especially after losing Marquis Booker a couple weeks ago. Currently, walk-on Chad Collard is backing up Sean Weatherspoon and walk-on Marlon Galbreath is backing up Van Alexander to fill out the depth at the weakside and strongside linebacking positions.

Pinkel said there won’t be any position changes for the guys currently on the roster, but some of the incoming freshmen might be up for a move. Pinkel said a lot of that will depend on the size of some of the guys coming in. Will Ebner and George White are the only linebackers listed in the class, but a guy like Zavier Gooden (6-foot-2, 195 pounds) could make that move, something that was speculated during his recruitment.

** One other note (I know, I said this would be quick), Danario Alexander and William Moore both took reps in practice today. Neither participated in contact drills. Alexander probably had the most work as he ran routes and played catch with the quarterbacks. He said he was a little hesitant with his knee, but that he felt OK for the most part.

“At the beginning of practice, I was kind of uncomfortable on it, but as practice went on it felt good,” Alexander said. “I wasn’t doing a major plant on it or anything. I was kind of taking it easy.  I think I’m just easing in right now, just to get to running around or whatever.”