Monday Musings

There is just something about getting back from Columbia with sunburn; you know you probably had a great weekend if that happens. Still seemed strange to have the home opener on a weekend when the temperature struggled to get into the 70’s, but I will take that weather over what we have had before any day!

Football:

Having seen all three games, I am pleased with the progression we have made on most accounts. Like The Boy, I am anxiously awaiting the NU game simply to see if our thoughts on how the defense is not showing all their cards right now are going to be proven true. That being said, we still are not doing a great job lining up in the simple 4-3-4 and getting pressure, though we did a better job this past week (albeit against weaker competition). I think it will be important for the defense to gain more confidence over the next two weeks (with one of those weeks being a bye), but that is what I am looking for from them at this point.

As for the offense, not sure what else there is to say. I am a little concerned our passing game was a tad tilted this past weekend with Maclin and Rucker accounting for so many touches (18 of 30 receptions). Franklin and Perry are going to need to step up their game in coming weeks to continue to make up for the fact that Alexander is gone. 1600 yards on the season is pretty ridiculous when we continue to say the offense played decently but not great. Maybe our idea of great is getting somewhat skewed (like how we are all kinda disappointed in Chase Daniel’s 380+ total yard effort). I don’t look for much next week against Illinois aside from continued improvement by the defense and a nice amount of time for the reserves to play in the 2nd half. And good for you Chase Patton, good for you.

Volleyball:

Well, the fears were kinda confirmed this weekend that without Juliana Klein, Mizzou will struggle against top talent in the league. Does this mean their season is over? By no means, but it means they will have to work hard to continue to win the games they can win to keep the momentum of the program going while Klein recovers from her tough setback.

The ladies took on and took down the Roos of UMKC this past week, but fell and hard to UT down at Austin in straight sets, or three games, whatever you want to call it. The ladies take on ku at home in what should hopefully be the first of many well-attended matches on the season before heading out to Ames this weekend. These are matches where the team is going to need to grow up and come together to cover up some of the holes they may have now. Good news is that they have played tough matches on the road already this season and should be able to draw upon that experience as an aid. But it is going to be important for them to win the matches they can win to keep the season rolling along.

Soccer:

I had no idea what to expect out of the team this weekend on the road, facing the #1 and #3 teams in the country. Looking at the results, I would have to say I am pleased with them. The ladies took on #1 Stanford on Friday and tied the score in the 77th minute. Unfortunately, I am guessing talent won out as Stanford notched a late tally and took the game 3-2. Coming back yesterday, the ladies actually held the lead for a good portion of the match off of a goal from Michelle Collins before Santa Clara rallied for a goal late in the first and the winner late in the 2nd.

The ladies come back home this coming weekend to take on a decent Cal team (getting some love in the western regional poll as of last week) and a TCU team I could not find on the rankings. Win them both and I think you have to consider the non-con a real success for the ladies. Backtrack at all this weekend and you will start to hear the nay-sayers about the team and their past start coming out of the woodwork. Basically, keep the momentum going and hit the conference season and get some early wins and confidence.

Cross Country:

The women could not have asked for anything more, as they traveled down to Nashville and took the Commodore (Vanderbilt) Classic by 5 points over Georgia Tech and a group of 15 schools total. The high finisher for the Tigers was a 5th place taken by freshman Kinsey Farren…in her first collegiate race. That is quite the debut. The ladies also took 8th, 10th, 12th and 15th to round out their group and a really nice showing overall.

An interesting and pretty impressive performance by the men this past weekend down in Nashville at Vanderbilt. The men came in 3rd to Belmont (who went 2-3-4-5-7) and Georgia Tech, but did so running all freshmen. All five runners for Mizzou were frosh of some kind (RS or true) and showed we have some good talent in the pipeline since this was a decent field of 15 schools. Overall, the men had four runners place in the top 20, with frosh transfer Ben Brammeier taking top spot with a 10th place finish.

Both teams will be off this week before heading up to Minnesota for their annual appearance in the pretty prestigious Roy Griak Invitational.

Random Thoughts:

Will be interesting to see what sort of tweaking is done to the Fed Ex Cup considering Tiger Woods won it going away and skipped an event entirely. And yes, while he went 2-1-1 in the other three, I do not imagine that was quite what the planners had in mind. The amount of money Tiger won this year got a good deal closer to what he gets from his endorsements, since I believe he won 10 million for the Cup and just over 10 million in regular winnings.

In back to back weeks I have a fantasy football team which has taken on Tony Romo and Carson Palmer

I just heard a “HOLY TOLEDO” from Gus Johnson on replay from last week in the NFL and got excited all over again…I don’t even know what the play was or the game for that matter, but damn that dude can make ordering drive-up food exciting.

Penn State was less than impressive against Buffalo with Michigan on the horizon.

Has there ever been a worse, more publicized start than Notre Dame?

Hopefully some teams will start clinching division titles this week in baseball. The Mets would have run away with it had they not had to play and lose to the Phillies all the damn time.