| 15 November 2009
The 2007 co-captain, one of the decade’s most beloved MU players by teammates, coaches and fans, addressed Pinkel’s reeling team after practice.Nose tackle Jaron Baston, who considers Williams his mentor, called the former Tiger “one of the greatest leaders who ever played at Mizzou.”
“Whenever a guy like Lorenzo comes and talks to you, you know it’s nut-cutting time,” linebacker Sean Weatherspoon said. “He talked about young guys stepping up. He talked about older guys and doing things the way they should because it’s their last year. … It motivated us. We were ready to play this game on Thursday after we talked to Zo.”
The heart of Williams’ message, Baston said, went like this: “As an individual, you can get beat. It don’t matter if you’re Sean Weatherspoon or Danario Alexander … if you play alone you can get beat by anybody. But together, as a whole team, as a Tiger family, nobody can beat you. Nobody can compete with you.”
As Spoon and Baston recalled, Williams’ speech touched on something Pinkel had been trying to relay to his young team for weeks but hadn’t found a way to deliver it. Big picture stuff. Big picture stuff that went beyond winning the North Division, beyond beating K-State or Bill Snyder and beyond the rebuilding vs. reloading stigma.
“We’re trying to preserve what we’re trying to create here: Excellence,” Pinkel said. “To me, this is a step to preserving what we’ve built here. We’re building a tradition here at Missouri. … That, to me, is bigger than anything. And I stuck that in my players’ face.”
“We were playing for all those guys when Mizzou wasn’t even heard of,” Baston said.
Among them was current Missouri grad assistant Brandon Barnes, a former wideout, safety and linebacker who played for the Tigers from 2000-03. In 1999, during his redshirt year, MU was bludgeoned 66-0 in Manhattan. Barnes, who helps coach MU’s receivers, found Weatherspoon on the field after Saturday’s win.
Said Spoon: “He came up to me personally, and said, ‘Thank you. Thank you.’ ” “Doing it for your brothers,” Spoon explained as MU’s newfound mission statement.
“Do it for everyone who’s put on these uniforms, put on these helmets, been through the locker rooms we’ve been through. It’s all about us. It’s all about Mizzou.”
Dave Matter on Zo Williams get-your-asses-in-gear speech that he delivered to the team earlier in the week. Cue the goosebumps.
Also, no word on how many walls Zo damaged/obliterated during the speech but Vegas has the over/under set at four.
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