Tuesday morning’s practice brought good news for Tigers fans, as WR Danario Alexander was seen running routes and catching passes. Alexander, who’s rehabbing a torn ACL, said he didn’t know when he woke up this morning that he’d be participating in today’s workout, but he was cleared by head trainer Rex Sharp.

“Today is really the first time of me running routes,” Alexander said. “I came out not expecting to practice, but I felt pretty good about my leg. It felt pretty good. It was a confidence booster, coming out and being able to do what I did today.”

Alexander could be a big part of the Tigers’ offense, joining Tommy Saunders, Jeremy Maclin and Jared Perry. He caught 37 passes for 417 yards and two touchdowns last season, so it was considered a huge blow when the injury happened and when he later suffered a setback in rehab. The training staff has targeted MU’s game Oct. 4 against Nebraska for a possible return.

“That’s all up to Rex,” Missouri coach Gary Pinkel said. “Rex is just letting him do a little bit more work everytime. He’s doing fine. He’s a tremendous athlete . . . tremendously positive attitude. We’ll see. I’m not sure when he’ll be back. We said Nebraska, it would be great if we had him back by then . . . we very possibly could get him back earlier than that. That would be nice, not only for him, but certainly for our football team.”

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Halfway thru Tuesday’s practice, Pinkel huddled the players at midfield and invited UM President Gary Forsee to speak to the team. Forsee spoke for a few minutes and received a loud applause from the team when he was finished talking.

“I’m appreciative of that,” Pinkel said. “It’s the first time I’ve had a president of the university since I’ve been here (9 years) ever come and talk to our team. It was interesting. He talked to them about leadership and things that are real important as far as making a team work. And then he thanked them. He thanked them for what they had done to help the University of Missouri. I always tell our players, ‘We’re all on the same team here’ . . . the professors, coaches or the administration. We all represent the University of Missouri. I think they all appreciated that, that the positive publicity that’s been happening through football and other sports is tremendously positive for this university.”

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TE Chase Coffman, who had surgery on a broken pinky finger last week, ran routes for the second consecutive day but did not catch any passes. Coffman said after practice that he plans to start catching balls tomorrow.

“Today my finger is feeling good and I’m ready to start doing stuff again,” Coffman said. “It’s painful watching everyone else, but they’re letting me just run routes and pretend like I’m catching the ball. Tomorrow (he can catch balls) . . . that’s the plan.”

Meanwhile, DE Brian Coulter had an MRI Monday on his injured foot. According to the Tigers, the MRI was negative. Coulter did not practice Tuesday and continued to wear his protective boot. He remains day to day.

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At today’s practice, a scuffle broke out when the No. 1 defense was going against the No. 2 offense. When everyone got up from the pile, it appeared to be DE Ziggy Hood and OL Austin Wuebbels who were mixing it up.

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Pinkel said after practice that the Tigers were expecting to hear some news today from the NCAA Clearinghouse regarding the eligibility of Drew Temple, Rolandis Woodland and Aldon Smith.

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Scouts from the Green Bay Packers, Minnesota Vikings, Miami Dolphins, New England Patriots and Cleveland Browns were on hand for today’s practice.

- Jeremy Rutherford