Parker Eshelman photo

Linebacker Sean Weatherspoon points to the crowd after returning an interception for a touchdown late in the second quarter of No. 6 Missouri’s 52-3 victory over Football Championship Series foe Southeast Missouri State last night at Memorial Stadium. •  Slide Show: Missouri 52, SE Missouri 3

The suspense evaporated from Missouri’s football home opener back in June of 2007 when school officials from MU and Southeast Missouri State agreed to play a rare intrastate showdown, a one-year deal that came with a $250,000 check delivered from Columbia to Cape Girardeau.

That amounted to roughly $35,000 for each touchdown the No. 6 Tigers piled on last night in a 52-3 victory that was every bit as lopsided as the final score indicated. In fact, it was MU’s largest margin of victory in Gary Pinkel’s eight seasons with the Tigers.

The carnage unfurled despite a Missouri sideline that saw established veterans sit out the second half and watch with the other 62,305 in attendance, the fourth-largest crowd for a home opener in team history.

"That," Pinkel said, "was a huge statement by our fans."

They were rewarded with a first half of maximum efficiency by the home team as Chase Daniel directed five touchdown drives on Missouri’s first five possessions and threw for 245 yards and three touchdowns on 16-of-17 passing. He completed his last 14 passes after his lone misfire, an overthrow to Chase Coffman along the sideline.

"It was a little bit high to Chase, and I was hoping he’d make a circus leap like he usually does," Daniel said. "But, yeah, one incompletion, we’ll take that every day."

After the Tigers (2-0) grabbed a 42-0 lead on Derrick Washington’s third touchdown of the first half, Daniel tugged on his baseball cap for good with 8:45 left until halftime.

"No disrespect to SEMO, but we thought we could come out here and do some good things," Daniel said. "That’s what we expect no matter the opponent. No matter if it’s USC, Alabama, SEMO. It doesn’t matter. We want to score every single time we touch the football."

Daniel’s exit set the stage for the night’s real drama and an answer to a young season’s juiciest story line. Fifth-year senior Chase Patton replaced Daniel for a three-and-out series before halftime, but neither senior quarterback jogged on the field for the first play of the third quarter. Instead, freshman Blaine Gabbert took his first college snap, ending months of speculation whether the rookie passer and Daniel’s heir apparent would see action this season. Since the start of preseason camp more than a month ago, Missouri coaches had been especially guarded discussing Gabbert’s role for this season, leaving any questions about him mostly unanswered.

"I was kind of out of the loop, too," Gabbert said.

Gabbert didn’t know if he’d play or redshirt this season until Thursday when coaches told him he’d alternate with Patton in relief of Daniel.

"We said from Day 1 we were going to let him compete," Pinkel said of Gabbert. "We felt we’d split both of them, and if Chase Daniel gets hurt we’d play both. That won’t change next week either. … That’s valuable for both, and I think that’s the right thing to do for our football team."

If Gabbert’s career goes as well as his first pass attempt - an inside screen Jerrell Jackson turned into a 14-yard gain - the MU offense should be in good hands for years to come. The rest of Gabbert’s MU debut was less productive. He completed 3 of 8 passes for 27 yards and ran for 17 yards on three carries.

"I’m not going to lie. I was pretty nervous," Gabbert said. "But once you get out there it all just slows down. You zone in and just play football."

Meanwhile, Patton completed 7 of 8 passes for 64 yards, led both of MU’s second-half scoring drives and said all the right things after the victory.

"All I can do is worry about what I’m doing," he said. "It’s kind of fun to go out there and alternate. Obviously, I’d want it to be just me, but Blaine’s a great player and has developed well over these last few weeks."

The win improved Missouri to 8-0 against teams from the Football Championship Subdivision and 5-0 under Pinkel. After leading his Redhawks (1-1) to slaughter, SEMO Coach Tony Samuel acknowledged the obvious mismatch in talent.

"If it was the NFL, it would have been a preseason game," he said.

Early on, though, you would have never noticed Missouri’s defense played without star free safety William Moore. With Moore and his sprained right foot sidelined - he was ruled a no-go midway through the week - linebacker Sean Weatherspoon picked up where he left off against Illinois, scoring his second defensive touchdown in as many games. Weatherspoon returned his second-quarter interception of Houston Lillard 65 yards for a touchdown, becoming the first player in team history to return picks for touchdowns in consecutive games. He intercepted Illinois’ Juice Williams twice last week, returning the second to the end zone.

That only added to MU’s early annihilation. Already ahead 14-0, the Tigers couldn’t resist an early dip into their bag of tricks. Late in the first quarter, Jeremy Maclin took a direct snap from the SEMO 28 and threw a rope into the right flat, where Daniel snatched the lateral and heaved across the field to Washington in the end zone for another score.

On the night, the Tigers gobbled up 592 yards of offense - a quarter of a million dollars well spent.

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