Missouri coach Gary Pinkel addresses media members during the first of three Big 12 football media days.

Confident MU quarterback Chase Daniel meets the press Monday at the Kansas City Marriott Downtown.

Kansas City, Mo. ? With his 2008 Cotton Bowl Championship ring displayed prominently on his right hand, Missouri University sophomore Jeremy Maclin sat tall and laughed with reporters.

Down the hall to his right, senior quarterback Chase Daniel tossed his moxie onto media members who lined up eight deep to get a piece of the MU quarterback, some with more success than many of the tacklers Daniel danced around a season ago.

Splattered among them were seniors Chase Coffman and William Moore, both soft-spoken, both exuding confidence with every breath.

At the center Monday at Big 12 Media Days at the Kansas City Marriott Downtown, of it all was Mizzou coach Gary Pinkel, talking only of getting better and winning a Big 12 championship before worrying about a national title.

It hardly looked like a Missouri team worn down by coming oh-so-close a season ago. It hardly looked like a pack of Tigers lacking self-confidence from lingering effects of two heartbreaking losses to Oklahoma last season.

It looked more like a Missouri team ready and willing to live up to the hype surrounding the encore season to last year’s remarkable 12-2 run.

“What made us really good last year was that our guys who were returning stepped up and got better,” said Daniel, a Heisman Trophy finalist in 2007. “Our veterans have to get better in order for us to get where we want to be.”

By all accounts, that spot is one step beyond where the Tigers finished last year. After knocking off Kansas late in the year in a titanic clash of bitter rivals and the Nos. 2 and 3 ranked teams in the nation, Missouri was in position to play itself into the national title game. But a second slip up against OU in the Big 12 championship game cost MU its chance at the title.

The Tigers responded by trouncing Arkansas in the Cotton Bowl, but something still was missing. That’s when Pinkel responded by immediately moving forward to the 2008 season.

“I told our seniors, as soon as we got back from the Cotton Bowl, this is a whole new football team,” Pinkel said. “We have to rebuild our chemistry. Did we have a good base, did we have good leadership, did we have good visual aids on how to lead? Yeah. But this team, if you’re going to win at a high level, has to be special internally.”

That’s why Pinkel is not impressed with Daniel’s numbers from a season ago. He’s proud of the numbers his high-profile spread offense put up, and he’s proud of what his sparkplug quarterback from Southlake, Texas, did as an athlete and a leader. But hardly thinks either feat was good enough.

“If Chase has numbers that are as good as last year’s, that’s pretty good,” Pinkel said. “But you don’t get better that way.”

The Tigers enter 2008 as the hunted. Many expect Missouri to finish atop the Big 12 North for a second straight year. The players themselves say anything less would be a major disappointment. But the focus for this team is not about matching last year’s run. It’s about surpassing it. And if that means talking about national championships – a thought Pinkel called “ridiculous,” considering the Tigers haven’t even won a Big 12 championship yet – then so be it.

“We work toward that,” senior safety Moore said. “And we feel like we have a right to talk about it.”

Near the end of his so-called one-on-one session with reporters, Daniel shared a story about the resolve of his team, providing a glimpse into why the Tigers believe the upcoming season can be even more magical than last year.

“After the Oklahoma loss (41-31 in Norman), I’ll never forget this,” Daniel said. “I looked around the bus, and I didn’t see any panic. That’s when I knew were were going to be all right. And we were. We went out and won the next week (41-10 over Texas Tech) and had a pretty good season.

“Now we have to take the next step. This year’s already been a lot more intense, but we don’t need to talk about it, we know our goals are out there for us. The way we’re going and the way we’re working, it could be a special season.”