Ouch...

...PowerMizzou is reporting that starting CB Domonique Johnson is leaving the Mizzou program because of "personal reasons." He's not the single best player on the defense or anything, but it's hard to disagree with the fact that our defense was better when he was in there. "Personal reasons" could be any of 10,000 different things, but it still stinks.

As for what it means for 2007...the way I see it, it will be a dogfight between Hardy Ricks (who started a few games while Johnson was injured) and Del Howard for the starting job. I liked what I saw out of Howard, but Ricks had the upper hand, at least at the end of 2006. Other possibilities, I guess, are Trenile Washington, Paul Simpson, and maybe Castine Bridges. It's good that we've got the depth that we do there, but somebody now needs to step up. My early (biased) prediction: Howard.

UPDATE, 2/23: According to Graham Watson, Howard moved to safety, and there are no plans for moving him back. Which means I was proven wrong in an impressively short amount of time. Go me.