Mizzou Tiger Talk With Gary Pinkel, L’Damian Washington, and Ian Simon

L’Damian Washington and Ian Simon joined Mike Kelly on Monday night at Buffalo Wild Wings for Mizzou football’s weekly Tiger Talk.

Washington is a senior wide receiver from Shreveport, La. After redshirting his first year on campus, he saw action in 12 games and made five catches. Washington upped his reception total to 20 the following season, including three touchdowns. He even got to end the year in his hometown, where he brought in three passes for 47 yards in the Tigers’ 41-24 Independence Bowl victory over North Carolina.

Last year, Washington was second on the team in receiving yards with 443 and showed big-play ability by getting free for touchdowns of 74 yards at Texas A&M and 69 yards against Georgia. Now, as a senior, the Tigers are looking to take advantage of his speed and explosiveness to burn defenders with the deep ball. So far, he’s caught eight balls for 110 yards and a score in Mizzou’s two victories.

Simon is a sophomore safety from Mansfield, Texas. He appeared in 10 games last season as a redshirt freshman. The hard-hitting safety made 14 tackles on the year and came on especially strong late in the season. He had a breakout performance at Texas A&M when he recorded six tackles, and he also had a pair of two-tackle outings against Tennessee and Kentucky. Simon is currently listed at No. 2 on the depth chart behind Matt White and is coming off an impressive spring that saw him claim the team’s most improved safety award.

Kelly, the radio voice of Tiger football, started the show by asking each player why they chose to attend the University of Missouri. Washington cited the “great family atmosphere” as a huge selling point. Simon, on the other hand, said that Mizzou was the only school recruiting him that cared about his education. That was important to him because, as he put it, football is only temporary, and he’s going to need a strong degree to one day fall back on.

Both players also talked about the pride that former Mizzou players take in being a Tiger and what kind of impact those players have on them. The final question of the night made everyone in the restaurant laugh. Kelly asked Washington and Simon to tell the crowd something funny about one another. To find out what they said, check out the video above, and make sure you attend Tiger Talk at Buffalo Wild Wings every Monday night at 7, or tune in to 100.5 FM to hear your Tigers talk about the season and a wide range of other topics.