kicker Posted October 27, 2006 Report Posted October 27, 2006 From KOGT.com Oct. 26, 2006--He wasn't supposed to be in the game, wasn't even supposed to be in a Missouri uniform. In fact, had things gone according to his plans eight months ago, Tommy Chavis wouldn't have been within 250 miles of Columbia on Saturday afternoon. Yet there he was, standing in a driving rain on the Faurot Field goal line as Kansas State quarterback Josh Freeman handed off to James Johnson on fourth down from the 1. Chavis stood up Wildcats tackle Nick Stringer at the line of scrimmage, keeping the hole Johnson needed from ever opening. It seems ridiculous to say one play changed the outcome in a game that ended with the Tigers owning a 41-21 advantage. But Chavis' stop probably had a bigger effect on it than any other. It came with the Tigers trailing 7-3 with 11:46 left in the second quarter. "I didn't get that much time, but when I was in, I contributed to the win," said the reserve defensive end, who made two tackles against Kansas State. Chavis, the 6-foot-2, 275-pound sophomore, could just as easily have been in Miami, Okla., last weekend, playing defensive tackle for Kilgore College in a game against Northeastern Oklahoma. He'd gone to Kilgore after being under-recruited as a defensive lineman in the Beaumont, Texas, area. By the end of his senior season at West-Orange Stark, he tipped the scales at a mere 235 pounds, and many coaches were scared off by his lack of size. A few schools, including Southern Methodist and some Division II programs, had shown interest in signing him, but he figured if he waited a while, some more attractive offers would come his way. They did not. "I qualified with my cores and everything. I had good grades in high school, but I guess, in all the shuffle of trying to hurry up and get guys coming out of high school, they just passed me up," Chavis said. "I went ahead and went to junior college and bulked up a little bit, got a little bit faster, a little bit stronger and had a pretty good season." Chavis was one of only two freshmen starting on the Kilgore defense. He beat out a couple of sophomores to earn his spot at defensive tackle. His play caught the attention of members of the MU coaching staff in February as they studied film trying to identify which junior college players they wanted to add to the Class of 2007. Defensive coordinator Matt Eberflus and defensive line coach Craig Kuligowski agreed Chavis was worthy of an early invitation. They contacted coaches at Kilgore to make the offer. That's when they learned that Chavis had been eligible to play at an NCAA school coming out of high school. Because he was a qualifier, he had the option of leaving junior college after only one season. The Kilgore coaches told Eberflus that if the Tigers wanted him, they could get him in the Class of 2006. Chavis, who at the time was taking part in spring football to prepare for his second season at Kilgore, eventually made an unofficial visit to Columbia in March and committed to play for the Tigers shortly thereafter. He had three years of eligibility remaining when he signed his letter of intent. "I just took over the East Texas area last year," Eberflus said. "He was already at Kilgore. I wasn't in the area to know about him as a high school kid. I came to find out he was a little bit undersized at the time. He gained some weight when he was at Kilgore, and he had a great freshman year for them. We get him for four years. It's a real good situation." Nobody, except maybe Chavis, expected him to contribute much in his first season in Columbia. He hadn't had the benefit of taking part in spring football and he was coming in at a position -- defensive end -- as deep as any on the MU roster. Seniors Brian Smith and Xzavie Jackson and sophomore Stryker Sulak had all started at least seven games coming into this season. But Chavis arrived in June with no intention of redshirting. He went through the team's conditioning program and quickly picked up the defensive schemes so that he was ready to make an impact when practice started in August. "He's a real big, physical, strong kid," Eberflus said. "That's the thing you've got to look at with any position, Are they physically ready to do it?' We're talking about the mental side, but are they also physically ready to do it? He was." Chavis worked his way up to the No. 2 spot on the depth chart, but he was still only playing an average of two snaps for every six for starter Brian Smith, the school's all-time sack leader. That could change now that Smith is sidelined for the rest of the regular season with a freak hip injury suffered during David Overstreet's fumble return for a touchdown in the third quarter of Saturday's victory. Jackson has moved over to take Smith's spot at defensive end, and Sulak has assumed Jackson's post. But Pinkel said the Tigers will continue to rotate their linemen, which means more plays at defensive end for Chavis and DeMarcus Scott, who's also seen time at defensive tackle. "I just need to get out there and just be more consistent, play hard right now and stay focused," Chavis said. "That's all I really need to do."
Lucky Posted October 27, 2006 Report Posted October 27, 2006 Just another Mustang takin' it to the next level.............Mustangs know only how to WIN !
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