Graham Watson: Welcome to the chat. I'm going to do my best to get to as many questions as I can within the hour. Let's begin.

davedonnell: WOW!! Just read about MU linebacker with a gun. Is there possibly any good reason that a young student athlete should be carrying a gun? Also having attended college and being somewhat intelligent at that point I would have certainly known someone in my car had a gun as at that age it is something that would have been shared/bragged about. Oh wait, we didn't need guns as students and might have been afraid of being arrested. I hope we don't hear any excuses about his childhood environment as this behavior is not accapted anywhere. I also recall when I made choices to be with people who made bad choices I was held responsible for those choices by parents, coaches etc... All involved should admit to either being aware or just simply that STUPID!!! What should be done to deter this in the future regardless of the talent involved. And by the way, great example for the recruit as obviously alcohol was involved as well and I'm sure the recruit was not 21.

Graham Watson: The recruit is a signee and I'm sure this wasn't the first time he's been around alcohol. He's a prep schooler, so he's a year removed from high school.

I don't know what can be done about something like this, but I will say that it's happening all over the country. There are several teams that have been having issues during the offseason. Mizzou is not unique.

tgraves707: Do you believe that sophomore cornerback Carl Gettis is as good as the hype?

Graham Watson: Yes. CG has been all over the place this spring. He's making big hits. Picking off passes. He's been impressive. You can just tell he's comfortable with the starting role now. I think he could be a William Moore-type player as he continues to mature.

George: Seriously, the NCAA seems to have come down a lot harder on Mizzou after the Ricky Clemons flip-flops than on KU's academic integrity or USC and Reggie Bush's HOUSE!!!!! What gives?

Graham Watson: Well, the Reggie Bush this isn't cleared up yet. I think that has the potential to be really bad for USC. As for KU academic stuff, they lost two scholarships just like Mizzou did. I don't know that the NCAA came down harder on Mizzou than either of those two schools at all.

cdt: Since you cover MU football so well, I wanted to ask your opinion. It seemed to me that in order to beat the best (Oklahoma, Texas) for the Big 12 title, MU needed to get bigger, faster, stronger and better and carry a little more intensity. Have you noticed any of these improvements during the first couple of practices? Is there a recruit coming in that is as talented as Maclin? Because I truly believe MU needs to have more athletes of his caliber to compete for a national title.
Thanks.

CDT.

Graham Watson: I noticed those improvements last season. I think you left out the two things that make great teams - commitment and leadership. Missouri finally had both last year and I'm seeing that carry over to this season. there's no doubt that this team realizes what it takes to be one of the best teams in the country. Remember, this is uncharted territory for Mizzou. It's not going to happen overnight, but I do think this team is headed in the right direction.

It's going to be difficult to replicate Maclin's ability, so I'm leaning toward no on this question, but I do think Mizzou has a lot of talent coming in.