And here we go once again...
1) While your team was expected to go 4-0 to start the season, now that it's actually happened, what has been the most pleasant development of the first month? (And for those mizzou fans out there, you can answer "Jeremy Maclin," but that's pretty predictable. Just sayin'.)
2) As things begin to shake down, who are your North and South sleepers?
3) Offensive Freshman of the Year: Jeremy Maclin, Sam Bradford, DeMarco Murray, or Michael Crabtree? Seriously, how good are the freshmen in the conference this year??
4) Is it possible to come up with a worse slate of Big 12 games than the foursome of OU-CU, NU-ISU, KSU-UT, and BU-ATM? If there's an upset in that bunch, which one is it?
Bonus) MU-Nebraska kicking off at 8:15pm...a good thing or a great thing?
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The Beef: The most pleasant surprise for me has been Martin Rucker’s season to this point. What I truly wanted was a year where Rucker was the decided focus of the TE touches so he could up his own stock and potentially make it so that Chase returns next year to do the same, all the while giving our TE recruits time with him. Rucker’s season has been great so far and his plays of dragging people are just fun to watch.
My North sleeper is whoever wins between ku and ksu…though I don’t know when they play. The winner of that game could potentially have a shot at the top depending on how things fall.
My South sleeper is...um...aTm. I only say that because I think the Miami loss knocks them back to a point where not as much is going to be expected. However, if there are issues with Lane and the coaches or whatever, I reserve the right to change my vote to no one.
Sam Bradford wins it….
If there is an upset in there, it is NU/ISU...but I really doubt it. The others...ugh...just ugly.
I only say good thing on the game and its placement because I believe we will be joined in progress and not have our own start. While that seems small, I think it counteracts much of what our fans assume will happen with this game. Our crowd will be SO jacked at the beginning that you NEED to have that on TV from an exposure standpoint, and the starting time potentially negates that. A small thing, but if you are going to be on ESPN, you want it all and this is not likely to give it to us.Doug: 1) The ability to do what is expected. Say what you will about the schedule KU has for non-conference games, but the fact remains the Jayhawks took care of business. They didn't fall victim to letting teams back in late or allowed themselves to fall behind and have to crawl back (Nebraska). However, they are not always goingt to play with a runaway lead, and K-State will be a huge test of how this team handles major adversity.
Michael Atchison: 1) That Illinois and Ole Miss appear to be pretty decent teams. Illinois has gone on the road and pretty easily handled two BCS-league programs, and Ole Miss put a little scare into Florida this weekend. Frankly, though, when it comes to Mizzou, Maclin is the only big positive surprise. I expected Coffman, Rucker and Franklin to be as good as they’ve been, I expected Daniel to be a little sharper than he’s been the past couple of weeks, I expected our running game to break more big plays than it has, and I hoped against hope that the interior of our defensive line would hold up against the run better than it has. The first four games have given me reason to be both hopeful and terribly nervous.
2) North sleeper - Kansas. If KU gets the win over K-State on the road, that puts them in a very good position to win the North especially with Nebraska, Iowa State and Baylor in Lawrence, and yes, they lose homefield against Missouri, but hopefully the team will be playing with sky-high confidence at that point.
South sleeper - I guess I'll go Oklahoma State since they beat Texas Tech over the weekend, but in the South, everyone not named Oklahoma should be considered a sleeper... or at least sleeping.
3) Yeah, come on down... Sam Bradford. Who da thunk it?
4) Upset picks? I'll take Iowa State to cover against Nebraska and Baylor over Texas A&M.
Bonus - How many drunk fans can you fit into Missouri's stadium? You'll find out the answer on Saturday.
2) Does “sleeper” mean a team that has a shot to make it to the Big 12 championship game other than Texas/Oklahoma and Missouri/Nebraska? If so, in the south, the answer is NO ONE. Really, right now there are some guys playing touch football on Stankowski Field who have exactly as much chance of winning the south as Baylor, Texas Tech, Oklahoma State and Texas A&M. In the north, I suppose the answer is Kansas. I know the schedule has been soft, but they’ve completely obliterated the competition. Really, though, the race might be wide open. I still think the schedule favors Mizzou, but would any of you really be shocked if Kansas, K-State or Colorado stepped up and won a couple of games they shouldn’t? I wouldn’t. And if one or more of those surprise wins comes against the Tigers or Huskers, it throws the race into chaos.
3) I’ve personally seen Maclin play three times and score six touchdowns. Normally, I couldn’t fathom that there’s a player who could take the award from him, but he’s probably no better than third in the race right now. Murray isn’t going to win it because he’s splitting carries with Allen Patrick and is on the same team as Bradford. Strictly from an offensive perspective, Maclin probably doesn’t win it because so much of his impact is on special teams, and he’s one of four relatively equal receivers at Mizzou (along with Rucker, Coffman and Franklin, and Danario Alexander is coming back). Crabtree is posting video game numbers: 52 catches, 775 yards, 11 touchdowns. In four games. Are you kidding me? But as good as Crabtree has been, I suspect the answer is Bradford. He’s the most important player on the league’s best team, and he’s not just managing games, he’s dominating them, completing 78% of his passes for over 1,000 yards in four games, with 14 touchdowns and just two picks. If he’s anywhere near that good during the conference slate, he’s not just offensive freshman of the year, he’s offensive player of the year.
4) I bet someone could construct an algorithm to come up with a worse group of games, but not by much. Oklahoma and Texas are unupsettable (how’s that for a word?) in these games. Iowa State appears to be the lousy fighter with the big right hand. They got outboxed by lightweights Kent State, Northern Iowa and Toledo, but they coldcocked Iowa. Given Nebraska’s suspect state of mind (they’re two plays away from owning a three-game losing streak), I wouldn’t be shocked if the Cyclones pull it off. I certainly don’t expect it to happen, but it’s more likely than Oklahoma or Texas taking the fall.
Bonus) You know, I really don’t care. Beat ‘em in the morning, beat ‘em in the evening, makes no difference to me. Personally, as someone who brings two young kids to the games, though, it stinks, as I know there’s every chance that I won’t be there at 11:45 when it’s over. But I also know it’s not about me. I’m sure it will be a supercharged atmosphere, which will be fun. I’m also convinced, though, that some of our fans will, um, fail to properly pace themselves. Take care of each other, people, and stay away from the brown acid.ZouDave: Even sitting at home sick I'll still get my response in quickly!
The Boy: 1) Honestly, the answer might simply be that Chase Daniel took some chances and was reminded of which throws he can and can't make. Better he's reminded of it against Western Michigan and Illinois State than Nebraska and Oklahoma. I guess there's a chance that these INT's are signs of things to come (in a bad way), but knowing how he learned from his mistakes last year, I think the odds are in his favor on this one.
1 - Uh...Jeremy Maclin? Yes, that's pretty predictable. I guess the real question is: Besides Jeremy Maclin, what's been the most pleasant development of the first month? Well, Seth definitely took what is in my opinion the next best answer which is Rucker's dominance. The guy has been amazing, at another level than I ever thought he could be on. And other than those two things, I'm not (pleasantly) surprised by anything. So maybe that's my answer: I'm pleasantly surprised by the fact that my high expectations are being met so far. We've only trailed once all year, and that was 6-0 against Illinois. When we took the lead back 7-6, I told my dad and the friends I was watching with that we were not going to trail again for the rest of the season. I was obviously kidding, but here we are and I'm still right!
2 - Another fairly easy answer that Seth already took: the winner of kansas and KSU. Personally, I'm picking KSU in that game, but if ku goes in there and wins then you can officially count me as impressed by them.
3 - I think this is a trend we're seeing all over the country, and I can't explain it. From the ones you've mentioned, to players like Noel Devine at West Virginia or Stafon Johnson at USC or Tim Tebow at Florida last year or Darren McFadden 2 years ago at Arkansas. There are freshman all over the place that are just incredible. Kids these days *grumble grumble*.
And of course, the best one in the Big XII is Jeremy Maclin.
4 - In my opinion, the ONLY one that could possibly go against the norm is ksu-UT. And it's only because UT has not looked good this year, and ksu has a strong enough defense that it could cause problems early and take the crowd out of the game. I'm not picking them to win, I'm just saying it's the only one I see as possible.
BONUS - Couldn't ask for anything better than this. It's exactly what we'd want, everything is setup precisely how any of us would have done it if it was all our choice back in August, and this is our time. I can't wait for 10/6.
2) I was prepared to say Kansas even though I realized that their odds of winning in Manhattan next week aren't altogether fantastic...but then I looked at their schedule. There's a chance 5-3 wins the North again, but I'd say the odds favor 6-2. Being that Kansas plays at College Station and Stillwater (where OSU is 10x the team they are on the road), a loss in Manhattan would significantly injure KU's chances, though NU and MU have definitely proven fallible enough that said loss wouldn't knock them out of the race by any means.
3) I understand that Sam Bradford will win it if he doesn't nosedive simply because he plays QB for the conference's best team. That said, Michael Crabtree's numbers are absolutely astounding. It's one thing to put up ridiculous numbers against UTEP and Rice...it's another to do it in conference. Granted, OSU's defense is worse than Missouri's (I think), but still...considering Tech will play 13 games, Crabtree has a legit chance to hit 2000 yards and 30 TD's. Atch is right--that's video game numbers. And considering he's doing it as a freshman...good god...they had him return a couple kicks against OSU too. If he breaks a couple of long returns, then there's absolutely no reason why he shouldn't squeeze his way into Heisman consideration. I know he plays for Tech, but...no other Tech receiver has done what he is doing right now. I guess we finally see what happens when Mike Leach's system gets its hands on a high-profile WR recruit.
4) Honestly, I'm going with ATM-Baylor. 2006 aside, Baylor has played ATM well in recent years, and being that a) the game is in Waco, b) ATM's been getting (justifiably) railed for their horrid (coaching) performance on national TV last Thursday, and c) while Baylor isn't good, they're still confident after a 3-1 start, the Bears will have a chance. Of course, ATM could respond to the criticism by playing their absolute best and destroying BU, 44-3, but I still think this one's the most ripe for an upset. I think ISU is d-u-n after blowing that lead to Toledo (they blew a late two-TD lead without Toledo's offense touching the ball), I think the revenge factor is enough to limit KSU's chances against Texas, and I don't think CU's offense will get more than about 150 yards against OU...so that leaves Baylor.
*) Another 6:00 kickoff (a la 2003) would have been perfect, but still...the later the better. It is definitely a shame that the ESPN audience likely won't see the beginning of the game, when the atmosphere is guaranteed to be three steps beyond electric, but that's the only negative. That, and the fact that the odds of this game finishing before midnight are minimal.
Okay, I have a meeting shortly, but...time to open up the floor. Any outstanding issues? Who's Atch going to piss off this week? :-)The Beef: Well...it was me in week 1 and Dave in week 2...should we unleash him on the Hawk or is that just not fair.
Michael Atchison: I’ll take on any of you pencil-necked geeks™ (1962, “Classy” Fred Blassie). Who wants to dance? Anybody? Thought so.The Beef: Does anyone else find it ironic that the smallest of Sanity members in size talks the most crap? Like one of those little barking dogs...all the time barking...
ZouDave: What does that make you and me, then?The Beef: Big dumb animals I believe...
The Boy: Big dumb animals who apparently don't have any outstanding issues for the group...ZouDave: you're an outstanding issue.
Michael Atchison: I’m a fit six feet tall and 165 pounds. That’s Marvin Hagler in his prime, baby.
I've got nothing. We're basically right where I thought we'd be. We're not quite as good on defense as I'd thought, but I wasn't expecting much. I'm happy with our receivers, I'm happy with our running backs, I'm happy with our line, and despite his "poor" performances over the last 2 games I'm happy with Chase Daniel.
And I'm happy we haven't attempted a 2pt conversion since the Illinois game.
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
Mizzou Sanity Roundtable: Week 4
Tuesday, September 18, 2007
Mizzou Sanity Roundtable: Week 3
I probably should have split this into two parts, but...well...as you'll soon find, the entire second half of this exchange is 100% without substance, and I would feel bad if you were to wait till tomorrow for Part Two and then went, "This is what I waited for??" So instead you get all ~4,000 words at once.
1. We're almost through with the non-conference slate. At this point, what's your biggest concern regarding your team? (And be more specific than "offense," "defense," or "special teams.")
2. Are you more or less confident about your team's chances of winning the North now than you were at the beginning of the season?
3. What have been the biggest surprises (good and bad) in the Big 12 as a whole so far?
4. Prediction for your team's game this week?
Bonus question: how freaking bad is the Big Ten this year?The Beef: 1) My biggest concern is that we do NOT have any sort of blitz packages. I have only seen us blitz a handful of times over these first three games, and I keep thinking/hoping/praying that we are keeping things intentionally vanilla on defense. Now, we should be doing a better job of creating pressure just lining up 4-3-4, but we are going to need those packages (both run and pass) to do what we want to do come conference season.
Doug: 1) The impending over-use of Aqib Talib. In two straight series against Toledo, an offensive possession and defensive set, Talib was on the field for every single play. I understand that he's probably the best play-maker KU has had in quite awhile, and Mark Mangino is trying to take advantage of that fact, but you can't wear the man out, otherwise you lose the best corner in the conference.
2) I am equally as confident. I think our defense is a little worse than I thought it would be (right now) and our offense is a hair better. I also think the league as a whole is weaker than I thought it would be.
3) OU winning the way they have. kU taking care of business they way they have. UT doing it the way they have. ISU winning last weekend….good for them.
4) Since I have to believe I came the closest last week on the score prediction (missed by 3 points total) I feel confident in saying, I think we will win. I don’t think Daniel sees the 4th quarter and I think Derrick Washington scores his first TD in some extended work in the 4th quarter. I like Mizzou 48-17.
5) Penn State all the way baby!!!
2) Actually, more confident. KU has really be clicking on offense, yes, they started slowly against Toledo, but eventually they piled up the points and shook off the turnovers and miscues in the first half. The biggest test for Kansas in winning the North comes immediately at the start of conference play when they travel to Manhattan. If KU beats KSU, a strong possibility, I think the Jayhawks will be in great shape to win the North.
3) The good and the bad in the Big 12 comes from the Sooner State. Oklahoma is really good. I mean, really, really good. Like causing-major-frustration-for-the-BCS-in-November good. And, as good as Oklahoma is... that's how bad Oklahoma State is. The Cowboys were supposed to be a break out team this year, especially with a question mark of team for Texas. Instead, the Cowboys just seem broken.
4) Ned's coming to Lawrence! Does that mean FIU is breaking their D-I leading losing streak? Hell 2 da naw. KU 42 FIU 10.Michael Atchison: 1. The third quarter lull. This is a symptomatic of something we’ve seen repeatedly in recent years, namely the inability to handle prosperity. We’ve seen it before where a big win is followed by an uninspired performance. Now, we’re seeing big leads being built up in the first half, only to be followed by relatively passive play to open the third quarter. To be as good as they can be, I think this team needs more of a mean streak, a go-for-the-throat mentality, and I haven’t seen that yet.
ZouDave: If not for me doing a presentation at 8:00am, I think this would have been our fastest roundtable yet. Ultimately, I'm responsible for that and it's up to me to fix it. We just have to get better.
2. About the same, really, maybe about one percent less confident. The rushing defense scares me still. I’m worried that there’s going to be a game or two where the offense sputters or gives up a big play – an interception or punt returned for a touchdown – and the opponent is going to go up by 10 or 14 points and control the game with the run. With that offense, Mizzou is always going to be in the game because a touchdown seems to be a possibility on almost any play. But there’s not much room for error.
3. Off the top of my head, I’m surprised how hard Texas has had to work to make it to 3-0. I just assumed that they’d roll people, and that hasn’t happened. I’ve only seen a little bit of one of their games (against TCU) so I’m in no position to diagnose it, but it looks funny on paper. I’m also a little surprised at how easy Kansas has made it look. I realize that their schedule has been pretty slight, but that hasn’t stopped them from yakking on their shoes before in the non-con. I expected that they’d win all of those games, but I thought that they’d look bad in doing it at least once. But it has been clear sailing.
4. The only thing that keeps me from thinking that the score will be completely out of hand is Gary Pinkel’s reluctance to run it up. That said, I think it will be tough for the Tigers NOT to score 50 this week. I’ll take Mizzou, 56-13.
Bonus question: I don’t know. The knee-jerk reaction is to pile on and savage them, and Michigan, Minnesota, Northwester and now Iowa (wow, didn’t see that coming) certainly have some ugly losses. But Michigan bounced back and beat down Notre Dame, which is a bad team, but it was a thorough destruction, and Illinois went on the road and whipped Syracuse (again, bad team, but thorough beating). Don’t get me wrong, the league isn’t good, but I’m not sure it’s as bad as everyone would have you believe.
1 - Run defense. I was really hoping we'd have an easy time against WMU, who came in with I believe -25 yards rushing on the season. Ok, not really, but they hadn't run at all this year. And they didn't exactly gash us, but they did still more than double their previous 2 games' effort in one game against us. It was working just well enough that they didn't have to abandon it, and they actually used it to make a minor comeback. This is WMU and we were at home, nothing should have been easy about them running the ball. It's a concern. Nebraska is a strong running team, Texas A&M is a strong running team and Oklahoma is a strong...everything. We're simply going to have to get these 14 - 21 point leads against NU and aTm otherwise I'm not sure we can stop their ground game long enough to score.
2 - Since I was pretty confident that this was the year, I'm going to say the same. I haven't seen anything from Nebraska that makes me fear them more. I already knew that the game against them is the one we have to win to have ANY chance at winning the North. It's not going to be an easy game, but I just don't see from them a team that is clearly better than us at any position. And while ku has certainly looked strong, we have no idea how much of it is because they're actually really good or if they're just playing against opponents that make them look good. We may not know the answer about ku until November, because even if they lose some conference games that might not mean they're necessarily good or bad. Getting way ahead of myself here, but what if the game at Arrowhead between Mizzou and ku is a winner-goes-to-the-title-game event? As Andre the Giant says "Dere will be no soo vye vohs!"
3 - Uhhh, Christ I don't know. I'm not surprised ISU sucks, but I am surprised they beat Iowa and not their other 2 opponents. I'm not surprised Mizzou is 3-0. I'm not surprised NU is 2-1. I'm not surprised ku is 3-0, and only mildly surprised they're beating teams by 40. I'm not surprised Oklahoma is this good, as I predicted them to be undefeated champs of the Big XII. I'm mildly surprised Texas is struggling. Not surprised by aTm, Tech, Baylor, Colorado or k-state. Who's left? Oh yeah, Oklahoma State. Yeah, I'm REALLY freaking surprised by them. They suck out loud. They're Mizzou 2004 only not as skilled, all the way down to losing at Troy on national television. I was counting on them to beat both of the kansas schools and I'm not sure I see that happening now. Both games are in Stillwater, so maybe things are better by then or maybe both teams continue their road struggles but them being down really throws the whole North back into a quagmire. OSU could easily be 0-3 against the North this year. Too bad they're not on our schedule.
4 - This one is hard to predict because I don't know where Pinkel will take his foot off the gas, but I do know it will happen before halftime. We have to score heavier in the first half than we ever have if we want this one to be the laugher it should be. I think Chase makes up for his "bad" game last week and comes out like he did against Ole Miss. 300 yards and 4 scores in the first half, focusing on Franklin and Coffman this time since last week was the Rucker and Maclin show. Temple will get another rushing TD, but won't get enough carries to get 100 yards. Chase Patton gets the 3rd and starts the 4th, and Dominic Grooms gets to finish the game out. Washington will see extended time. Maclin will be on the field most of the game, getting more yards. Jason Ray gets his first score from Patton in the 3rd. Final is 52-13.
BONUS - Not bad enough that ESPN will stop talking about them. No matter what the Big Ten does, it's news. And no matter how much noise the Big XII makes, we're still terrible.Doug: Oh yeah, on the Big Ten. It's really not that shocking. Every year, teams lose players to elegibilty and the Draft, and it is becoming harder and harder for the powerhouses to just reload. That said, I think Ron Zook is actually a pretty bad coach, Lloyd Carr needs to retire and no matter what the Big Ten does, ESPN will always pimp the conference hardcore, because the Big Ten is the Yankees-Red Sox of college sports.
The Boy: 1. Ditto on the run defense. WMU's RB's were far from strong, and they ran around the corner untouched numerous times. That will be an eensy teensy problem when Nebraska comes to town. I've said on numerous occasions that Marlon Lucky can't create much on his own, but he's pretty competent at running fast in open space. I do think we're holding back on revealing blitz packages and things like that, and I think we'll have some tricks up our sleeves on 10/6 in that regard. However, Lucky will get his yards. And double ditto on the fact that ATM and OU can indeed run the ball. KSU possibly can too. Luckily we're capable of winning shootouts. It ain't preferrable, but we're capable of doing so.
2. Maybe a hair less confident...which is funny because I've actually been less impressed with Nebraska than I thought I would be. I think my drop in confidence simply stems from the fact that I always get less confident when the big moment approaches. I've been scarred too many times, yadda yadda yadda.
3. I guess I'm willing to cut OSU one single ounce of slack for their suckage because they've been beset by injuries. The troika of Reid-Bowman-Savage was supposed to carry them to success, but Savage has missed the last two games and Reid got banged up against FAU. That said, watching the team against Troy, there was a definite smell of "2004 Mizzou-level cancer"...with Reid laughing on the sidelines in the fourth quarter. It's definitely easy to suspect that there are two different camps forming on the OSU sideline, and that's just deadly. Bottom line is, OSU's season rides on the Texas Tech game this Saturday. Win that, and there's plenty to play for. Lose that, and the road to 6 wins gets almost unmanageable. After presumably beating Sam Houston next week, they'd still have to win 4 of 7 against Texas A&M (road), Nebraska (road), K-State, Texas, Kansas, Baylor (road), and Oklahoma (road). That means pulling at least one strong upset, and for a team with apparent chemistry problems, that's damn near impossible.
Then again, those chemistry issues could all be only in my head. We shall see.
4. Being that we do have a competent 2nd string offense, it really will be pretty hard to stop before 50. And being that the defense only gave up 17 points to WMU, I don't see ISU hitting double digits. I'll say 52-6...though our 2nd string defense is so young and thin that I guess a late ISU TD is possible.
Eh, screw it...52-6.
5. Bad enough that I could see Illinois doing us a favor and reaching 6 wins. Seriously, Oklahoma "Chemistry Problems" State beats Schnellenburger Atlantic by 36, then Minnesota loses to them? Ugh.
And now...just like last week...I open up the floor. Anybody have any questions for the Sanity Quorum?The Beef: Can Atch and I fight again about something?
ZouDave: Are you asking for permission?The Beef: Well…gives us something to fight about and let us go “Good Cop, Bad Cop” on it…we have to entertain our 7 readers
The Boy: Go ahead...by all means...The Beef: Ok….but we need something to fight about…gold pants? Attendance? Time of game? Good fans vs. people with kids? :-)
The Boy: I must say, I love how the NCAA created the running clock rule last year, realized that one tiny little portion of it (the fact that the clock started even in the last two minutes of each half) didn't work too well, and scrapped the whole thing. I've ranted about this before, though, so I'll stop there.
And there's nothing better than an old gold logo on yellow pants. Mmm, mmm, mmm...The Beef: Alright…how about this….
ZouDave: An argument on the Subscribers board on Tigerboard is centered around the idea of whether or not it's okay to be annoyed by people who wear Mizzou shirts to football games that are not Mizzou colors. I did see a lot of people on Saturday wearing green, blue and red shirts that said "Mizzou" on them. I'll admit it, this annoys me. I'm okay with girls wearing pink shirts, because at least nobody is going to confuse that shirt for that of another school or something. But when I see blue or red in the Mizzou crowd, I immediately assume this person is NOT here for Mizzou.
Because of the spread offense being so popular and so many passes being thrown, as well as the departure from the wishbone and option which kept the clock running, are we stricken now with 3 and a half hour games or is there something that can be done?
So what say you, oh wise ones? Should Mizzou fans make more of an effort to wear team colors at our games? And should I have the right to slap people wearing Cardinals hats, Rams hats or (for the love of God) Joe Montana Chiefs jerseys at a Mizzou home game?
And I think "stricken" is the wrong word. I'm not at all concerned with the length of the games, because I love college football. If we're getting more plays in a game, I'm okay with it. It's not like it's inherently helping one team over another, so there isn't a clear advantage that can't be countered with controlling the ball when you have it.
Bring on the games and damn the length. I'm all for it.The Beef: I am just trying to be mindful of fans who look for any and all excuses…and I am waiting for “the games are too long” to start entering the fray.
The Boy: My wife wore a gray Mizzou shirt Saturday, only "MIZZOU" was spelled out in red. Basically looks like an OU shirt...which makes sense, since she grew up a big OU fan (10 minutes from OKC). From afar, though, it was simply a grey shirt, and it blended in with the others. That, plus the fact that she brought some great muffins to the tailgate, made it an okay thing in my book.
As for the games...the only part I mind is a) it seems to add like 20-30 to live blogging, which sucks, and b) it takes longer for me to enter the play-by-play into my database when there are an extra 15-30 plays. In other words, it only affects the nerdiest portion of my brain.Doug: The easiest thing that can be done is change the clock stoppage on first downs to only the last two minutes of the first half and the end of the game.
Michael Atchison: Holy cow, the FC (fanatical correctness) movement kicked into overdrive this week. I don’t have much interest in arguments over what makes “good fans,” as they always devolve into some form of “I enjoy my leisure activities with more vigor than you enjoy yours!” It’s quite possible that you obsess over football more than the average person, but that’s not exactly an accomplishment, you know? I probably enjoy a nice viognier and the collected works of The Hold Steady more than you, but I don’t think that makes you less of a person. Since Saturday, I’ve read lectures about when and if it’s ever appropriate to fail to attend a game, the colors fans should wear (including a budding movement to outlaw gold – one of our colors – in favor of a theoretical sea of black that will never happen), when standing is not only appropriate but mandatory, and whether it’s traitorous to prefer an early kickoff to a late one. Would it make for a better atmosphere to have the whole stadium color-coordinated? I suppose. I always wear the colors for football (though I don’t always do the same for pro sports; I’ve shelled out $150 for tickets, parking and concessions so guys can make seven figures to play a game; do I really have to dress like them, too?), but I can’t get too fired up if a handful of folks are in pink, purple or mauve, as I really don’t think it affects much of anything. I can’t imagine shuffling out of Faurot Field after a heartbreaking two-point loss, pointing at the girl in the green shirt and shouting “j’accuse!”
I think you would shave a few minutes off the game that way. I think the NCAA had the right idea with starting the clock once the ball was set on change of possession. I think that gave new wrinkle to game planning that coaches did not want to even attempt to adjust for that change and so the NCAA caved. Limit the clock stoppage and I think you'll see the pace move along nicely.
People care about different things at different levels of intensity. If someone bothers to spend the time and money to attend a game, I’m not going to get too exercised over what they wear.
And you should always have the right to slap any grown man wearing any jersey of any sort. It’s the equivalent of wearing Underoos.The Beef: We are going to have to point most of our folks to reference.com to figure out what viognier is/are.
Michael Atchison: Well, obviously, there’s an exception for Wayne Chrebet.
I go gold unless it is blackout…then I go black…unless it is too cold…then I wear a jacket that happens to be yellow’ish but not by design. I will say my first Mizzou sweatshirt was blue with white letters…
Black out will never happen…but it does make us look more slimming…the best blackout we ever had was the 2003 NU game…which when it started raining ironically became one of the better gold rush’s because of all the rain ponchos.
And really? I cannot wear a Jets jersey when I see them play at home in a couple of weeks? It is Wayne Chrebet though. I got it on sale…in Baltimore no less (don’t ask).
I sort of enjoyed Mike Leach’s rant last year wondering why the NCAA Football committee was trying to make sure that games would include less football. Though sometimes, as I sit through the fourth quarter of a 90-degree scorcher or a 40-degree rainstorm, I wish the games moved more quickly. The 20-minute halftime is here to stay because marching bands are sacred. The NCAA probably ought to adopt some NFL-style rules and limit the stoppages. Is it really important to stop the clock to move the chains in the first quarter? The pros seem to manage without it. Let’s only stop the clock for out-of-bounds plays and first downs in the last five minutes of each half. How’s that for a start?ZouDave: I know it may not be "cool", but I like wearing jerseys to games. They're comfy, they're going to fit the color scheme, and I just don't mind them at all. I don't own very many, and generally only wear them on game day or maybe an old one to mow the yard, but I'm good with jerseys.
Michael Atchison: Rule 10 says it’s OK only if you belong to an age demographic that I departed some years ago. And mind you, it’s ESPN. They think it’s OK to put Skip Bayless on the air.
Besides, ESPN says it's ok!
http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=rules/070905 (rule 10)
Obviously, it’s a matter of personal taste. If you’re the kind of person who wore a Darth Vader costume to the last Star Wars movie (Revenge of the Ewoks, or whatever it was called), you should feel perfectly comfortable pretending you’re a 21-year-old college student who plays football. Who am I to judge?ZouDave: That's it! You're only about a 5 minute drive from me. I'm kicking your ass!
Michael Atchison: Oh, hell, you wore the Vader costume, didn’t you?ZouDave: you're dead to me
Michael Atchison: I’ll be at the Gymboree in downtown Parkville (just a stone’s throw from your office) at 9:00 a.m. tomorrow if you want to settle this like men in the giant pit of ambiguous foam rubber shapes.Doug: Hmmm... yeah... I got nothing.
The Beef: So can we just rename these Sanity Roundtables, “Who will Atch piss off this week?”Michael Atchison: I give you guys tips on how to dress for success and what wine pairs with spicy Asian cuisine, and somehow I become the villain. The era of the Esquire man is over.
The Beef: I already knew how to pair wines...I just did not know how to spell viogneir...and clearly neither does Microsoft.Doug: I think we should just be saving all of this for "Mizzou Sanity: The Unauthorized Story"... you know when we hit the big time.
The Beef: I wonder how much of this our esteemed leader decides to leave in there.Doug: I think every sports-related blog needs at least some Skip Bayless bashing at least once a week.
The Boy: Oh it's all staying. I unexpectedly got pulled into a meeting and came back to a long conversation about ambiguous foam shapes, Vader costumes, and yelling "J'accuse!" at sorority girls or something. If I had to read it all at once, Sanity readers do too.
Tuesday, September 11, 2007
Mizzou Sanity Roundtable, Week 2 (Part Two)
As promised, here is Part 2 of the Longest Roundtable Ever. We pick up where we left off...as our heroes were looking for another question to discuss...and itching for a fight...
ZouDave: Sure, I'll ask a question:The Boy: Honestly, I think the Ath Dept was pinned in a bit for 2008 by having the KU game in KC. They had to have six home games (pretty sure we'd have all revolted if we were to only get 5 games at Faurot in a 12-game schedule), and with the Illinois game already locked down, they had to find three home games to fill the schedule. Enter SEMO, Nevada, and Buffalo. As a whole, I choose to believe that we're still going to be aiming for a 4-game non-conference stretch of Illinois, other major conference team ( i.e. Ole Miss), mid-major team (i.e. W'ern Michigan, Nevada), and 1-AA team, but I guess that won't always work out, especially with the 'KU in KC' kink. I have to figure they could have found somebody better than Buffalo, but...whatever.
What does everyone think about the lack of excitement in our upcoming home non-conference games? I don't mean just this year (as I think our non-con this year is fine, aside from the fact that the 2 best games aren't in Columbia), but looking forward to next year and beyond we aren't seeing teams worth talking about scheduled to come to Columbia. Thoughts?
That said, as Atch pointed out the other day...ewww. 2008 is a gruesome home schedule (SEMO, Nevada, Buffalo, Oklahoma State, Colorado, Kansas State), though it obviously offers us a decent opportunity to go 6-0 at home...which is nice, I guess.
The Beef: I was it the midst of typing the same response, but The Boy beat me to it.Doug: The same issue that faces Missouri next year is facing KU this year. With moving the MU game to Arrowhead, the merchants in Lawrence demanded six games for the year. So, that was partly the reason KU had to schedule a couple of patsy home games to make up for the loss of the Missouri game. However, I think KU fans are just excited to have four almost "guaranteed" wins to begin the season.
In the end, I also don’t understand the notion of not coming to a game because of the opponent. It might just be me, but I have gone, go, and will continue to go no matter who we play. We made that commitment and that is what we do. Now, I can understand when things come up, but I am not so sure our fans can have it both ways. We cannot not show up for games, and then bitch about the opponents. We need to start filling Faurot, and let’s be honest, there are NOT 68K mizzou football fans out there….there are barely 62-63 based on attendance trends I have seen. And honestly, if people are saying they don’t go to games because they don’t like the opponents, well….that does not sit well with me. Like it or not, money makes the world go round and we cannot afford to have crowds of 50K people just because our fans don’t like who we are playing, but at the same time, demand more from our team and our schedule. The excuse rings hollow with me.
The Boy: We do seem to make a lot of excuses for our fans. "It was too hot." "It was too cold." "The forecast said there was a 40% chance of showers." "(fill in team) sucks." "The Cards won the World Series last night." Well guess what...Michigan might go like 4-8 this year, and they'll still probably draw 100K for every game. We do probably have to come to grips with the fact that our fan base is as fickle as they come. Part of that is geographical--neither KC nor StL is a one-team town obviously, and they definitely seem to care as much or more about their pro teams as their college teams, but still...you could find tons of examples like that with other states/schools. I guess the only thing that will even begin to solve the problem would be quite a few big seasons in a row, but...well...if the fans were to pack the stadium every game and actually give us something of a homefield advantage, those big seasons might come a bit easier. And besides that, we're really not drawing too terribly much better than we were in the 1999-2001 dark years, and we've won a decent amount lately...ZouDave: I will certainly echo the sentiments of Seth earlier, because when I have a chance to go to a Mizzou home game I take the opportunity. I can't say the same for road games, much as I would like to, but this will now be the 3rd season I've had season tickets and I'm not going to miss any games. My dad has missed 1 game of each season (including this one) but always with good reasons, never because of who we were playing or weather or anything like that.
But hey...at least we're not Kansas!
Back to the point...I will go to Mizzou home games regardless of who we are playing. But, I am disappointed with our 2008 schedule and I find it hard to believe that we couldn't have found an opponent comparable to Ole Miss to start another home-and-home with and our home game would be in 2008. I don't know if Ole Miss was available or interested again, but that certainly seems like a team our fans would like to continue seeing. If there's any truth at all to the Georgia rumors and that one of the reasons the AD said "not interested" was because it would have meant going on the road in 2009 with a new QB, well that's just horrible. If that is indeed their stance, and it wasn't a direct quote from Mike DeArmond but it appeared to be a summation from talks with one of Alden's employees, then we can probably expect a non-con like 2008 in 2010 and beyond because they're going to want to protect our new QB. Terrible, terrible mindset and if that's true then that's the kind of thing that will keep this program from growing. I know you don't want to go out and schedule murderer's row, even when you have a senior QB, but at this point we really shouldn't shy away from a series with anyone in the country no matter what our situation at QB is expected to be. The 2009 home schedule is really only saved by Nebraska and Texas, because Bowling Green, SMU, Baylor and Iowa State are just as bad as 2008's games. I guess there's always 2010 (the year we make contact...with good teams at home) because we have Colorado, Oklahoma, K-State and kansas and still have 2 non-con games to schedule. Bring on Vandy and Duke!
The kudos, I guess, I can give Mizzou for 2009 is that we don't have a 1AA school on the schedule. Outside of Illinois, we don't have anyone really, but at least we're playing four 1A teams.
And is it pretty much a given that the season ticket package next year is going to include the ku game at Arrowhead? I'm expecting it, just want to be ready.
The Beef: I think also part of this problem centered around the fact that the type of football series we are looking for against a big name opponent is often signed years in advance, and the change in the kU game happened only recently, and given the AD knows they HAVE to have six home games, we were not left with my options.Michael Atchison: With all due respect, BEEF, I hope the athletic department doesn’t think along the same lines. I’ve got a million different entertainment options, and college football isn’t inherently better than any of them. And frankly, though I’m there each week, going to a game in Columbia is a bit of a pain in the ass. I load up the family in the car, drive four hours round trip, and endure sunburn, frostbite, downpours and the complaints of small children. It’s a lot easier to get motivated to make the effort when a conference foe or an SEC team is the opponent, but when Buffalo comes to town (and really, three years ago, I didn’t know they had a program), I’m only going because it’s part of the ritual. And I don’t mind doing it once (or even twice) a season, but three is pushing the limit. It shapes up as little more than an exhibition. A game isn’t much good without drama, and that one’s got none.
Just food for thought on the matter.
Now think about the people who don’t have season tickets because it’s too big a strain on the budget, or because they can’t spare six full Saturdays, or whatever reason. But maybe they’re willing to buy tickets to a game or two a year. Those are the people who make a difference in the bottom line. There are 40,000 masochists who’ll be there no matter what. But for the casual fan who doesn’t live and breathe college football, he peruses the schedule and sees Southeast Missouri, Nevada and Buffalo, and his eyes glaze over. Those games are non-starters for single-game sales, and they’ve knocked him off the fence if he was mulling season tickets.
I also think it’s a mistake to attribute any particular motivation or characteristics to “the fans.” As reading Tigerboard after a game will prove, our fans don’t think or feel any one particular thing. You say we need to start filling Faurot. We’ll never do that by projecting to fans that it’s their obligation to pony up dollars for an uninspired product. It’s the athletic department’s job to make them want to come, not the fans job to come no matter what.
The Beef: See…but I do not completely buy that. I am not calling for total blind devotion here, but Missourians, I feel, too often fall-back to the moniker of “you have to Show Me” as some sort of god-given right to distrust something, or, and more practically, take way too long to come around to something. As The Boy pointed out, Michigan will likely have a losing record and draw. Penn State drew about the same for Florida International as they did for Notre Dame. Now, are we those programs? Oh god no. But the same thought process I am talking about is found in these examples. We need our fans to back this program more than they do and those teams will come. And yes, you can get into chicken vs. egg debate all we want, but to me, the notion of not coming to a game because of who we are playing is a ridiculous idea. And yes, before you ask it, I am more excited to see Nebraska than Buffalo, but not so much that the thought of not coming would enter my mind, and the fact it does, or any of the myriad of other fairly real reasons The Boy mentioned before, irks me somewhat and shows me where we fall short as a fanbase in some instances.ZouDave: Just a quick search, and I see that Kentucky has only 11 games on their 2008 schedule right now and they've already got 6 home games that year. One of their open dates is 9/20, the date we're bringing in Buffalo.
I can't find their 2009 schedule, and ours is already done, but perhaps we could have contacted them to find out if they'd come to us in '08 and we could maybe return to them in '10? Obviously this is meaningless, because it's set already, but Kentucky certainly isn't a no-name opponent while at the same time isn't someone Missouri should be afraid of. That would be a pretty good matchup, and it's a border state which is never a bad thing.
The Beef: That’s all well and great….but I think we can all agree it does not come down to who WE want to play, but who other schools want to play as well. Because this opening exists does not mean it was not explored by one side or another. The circuit of AD’s is really a pretty small one when it comes to D-1 football, imagine sort of like a “want-ad” section of a newspaper. :-)Zou Dave: Just using Kentucky as an example again, they already have their patsies that year in Akron and Temple. Again, I know I'm speaking totally in hypotheticals but I just don't see why either side would have shied away from that. I doubt it was ever brought up, which is fine I'm not going to pout about it. But it certainly would be a helluva lot better than Buffalo.
Michael Atchison: When you bring Michigan and Penn State into the discussion, you’re pulling in the statistical outliers. Enormous schools in enormous states with enormous stadiums and enormous traditions. In truth, we draw awfully well, especially given the past generation of history and the relatively small population within 75 miles of the stadium.Doug: You know, after Quin Snyder left... it's nice to know MU fans still have something to argue about among themselves... incessantly.
http://www.ncaa.org/stats/football/attendance/2006/2006_football_attendance.pdf
Last year, we drew on par with West Virginia, and we trailed only the very big boys (Texas, A&M, Nebraska and Oklahoma) in the Big 12. The base is pretty good. The challenge is to leverage the rest.
And I think you’re conflating the way you think things ought to be (everyone should come out no matter what) with the way things really are. And do you really think not coming to the game because of an opponent is a ridiculous idea? If so, I doubt you’ve ever been faced with whether to leave home at 4:00 on a Tuesday night to see the basketball team face Coppin State.
The Boy: Heh...seriously...I apparently left work at the wrong time. And looking through this exchange...yeah, I have nothing to add. I can kind of excuse the fans for not wanting to attend some of these games, and I can kind of excuse the A.D. for making the decisions they made...it's just not that great a situation, but you know what? If we end up 9-3 or something in 2008, then I'll probably forget all about this debate. I'm a win whore.Michael Atchison: Looking back, I’m just bummed that I inappropriately used the word “conflating.” You don’t get to use that word everyday, and it’s a little disheartening when you whiff.
And really, I just want to keep picking at BEEF until he tries to fight me in the parking lot this weekend. Though it wouldn’t be the first fight among Mizzou fans this year. My father in law saw one in the bathroom at the Ed Jones Dome. We have us some quality partisans.
The Boy: As far as I can tell, BEEF is 0-1 in parking lot tussles, so I like your chances. And we almost got caught directly in the middle of an MU-fan-on-MU-fan tussle in Bowling Green in 2002. Worst trip ever.The Beef: You can doubt it all you want, but I’ve done it before….I’ve held season tickets for basketball while not living in Columbia, and made every single game while doing so.
I don’t even know what conflating means, no matter which way you used it!
You talk about leveraging the rest….I believe after 12 years, 5 bowl games and 2 different runs of success in there, those folks aren’t there. We don’t sell out a game unless someone else brings at least 6K fans to it. We’ve had Ohio State come into town when we were good and not sell out (unless the excuse of the early game was the excuse of the day that day). I have seen us play Clemson in front of less than 60 thousand. Ole Miss last year was not a great crowd. The opening of HUNTING SEASON kills our attendance, and that is during conference season. My point is, our fans have really shown no better turnout for good games or conference games than they have for most other games, NU and late 90’s KSU excluded.
And yes, with the difference in how basketball and football is televised (and NO need to get into that mess on one of these!) I think there IS a difference between Coppin State in basketball and Buffalo in football. There are three times as many basketball games at home than football games, and the chances of Buffalo/Mizzou football being televised are, needless to say, WAY less than the odds of a game with Coppin State being televised. If people cannot see a football game, and choose not to go to it because we aren’t playing someone good enough, that does trouble me. Again, for me, the comment should not be, “I don’t want to see them play Buffalo.” It should be, “I want to see the Tigers play.” Call it Polyanna all you want.
The Boy: Polyanna!!Michael Atchison: I read that you’re going to post this exchange on Sanity. Should be a real ratings winner. If we could only get McLean Stevenson to chime in as the bumbling single father of two teenage girls, the triumph would be complete.
And yes...it's probably not worthwhile to have a conversation with us about attending games...we're stupid. We drove 30 hours round trip in 2000 for a game (Clemson) we knew damn well we were going to lose by 50. And we had awful seats to boot! Granted, we didn't have jobs or kids...and we were still in school...but still. We're stupid.
(I'm not bragging about this, by the way...actually, if you ask my wife, this reveals a massive character flaw...I'm just sayin'.)
Obviously the best case scenario is, we win big for a couple of years (or, more honestly, 30 years) and Mizzou becomes a 'brand name'. You want to see them because they're Mizzou. That's what the Penn State's and Michigan's of the world are, and that's how they draw what they draw. Right now, Mizzou is just an entertainment option, and only wins (not big games or good schedules) will fix that.
The Boy: I almost joked that we should get McLean Stevenson to do a Mizzou Exchange, but luckily I looked at his Wikipedia page first. Might be kind of difficult with that whole "died of cardiac arrest in 1996" thing...The Beef: I thought he died over the Sea of Japan...
The Boy: Moment of silence, please.Michael Atchison: Seriously, I think a roundtable tribute to McLean Stevenson would be more entertaining than Seth and me arguing over what is the appropriate level of fanaticism.
And I’m guessing that I’m the only one here who watched Hello Larry during its initial, glorious run.
Doug: Probably, but I've seen all of his M*A*S*H episodes on in repeats.The Boy: safe to say, the post-worthy portion of the Roundtable is over...though you could debate whether a post-worthy portion has actually begun yet...
The Beef: Until someone tells me what conflate actually means, it ain’t over...ZouDave: http://www.m-w.com/dictionary/conflate
The Beef: Sheesh...kind of a let down after all of that...
Monday, September 10, 2007
Mizzou Sanity Roundtable, Week 2 (Part One)
1) What's wrong with the Mizzou defense? (Doug, feel free to answer in as sarcastic a way as possible)
2) What can be done about it? (Doug, feel free to answer in as sarcastic a way as possible)
3) What was the most pleasant surprise about your team's effort on Saturday?
4) Who's going to beat OU this year? And (if no one does), how earth-shaking is the outcry if OU, LSU, and USC all finish undefeated this season?
5) Predictions for your team’s game this week?
---
ZouDave: 1 - Why, nothing at all! The defense has only allowed 1 score in the 4th quarter of this year and it's forced 5 or 6 turnovers in 2 games, and of course it's part of a 2-0 team and may be the only defense that has beaten two teams from BCS conferences so far this season. How dare you even insinuate that something is wrong with the Mizzou defense with such a loaded question! There's insightful questions, sir, and then there are inciteful questions (yes, it's now a word, suck on it). Choke on your lies, The Boy! CHOKE ON YOUR LIES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Ok, that was weird. The above is one of those "half-kidding" comments that has plenty of truth in it but can't really be anything other than sarcasm. There are statistics and points that would support the above, saying our defense is doing exactly what it should be doing so there's nothing to worry about. Obviously, that's not a healthy view. I also don't think a view saying that our defense is absolutely "broken" is a realistic view, because it is doing some things pretty well. Those things just happen to be in the 1st and 4th quarters. Meanwhile, the offense is playing lights out in the 2nd and 3rd quarter and apparently Gary Pinkel has figured out a way to only make his players play half of the game and still be winners. And there's my answer: what's wrong with Mizzou's defense is they're only playing half of the game. Do we have talented players on defense? Absolutely. Do we have experience on defense? Absolutely. Can they execute properly? Absolutely. We get stops and force turnovers and make big plays. But it seems to only happen when they feel like their back is actually against the wall. It's like they have bought into Chase Daniel and the offense too well. We were so concerned with the offense getting cocky because of pre-season press or so concerned that the press about the defense being horrible was correct that we never saw coming what actually happened: The defense read the offense's press clippings, sees us score 28 points in a single quarter and think "well, this one's over."
2 - So what can we do to fix it? Quite frankly the players need to be slapped in the face, be it figuratively or literally. I don't know if it's going to take Chase and the Captains holding a players-only meeting (I know Chase isn't a Captain, but we all know who the leader of the team is) and challenging the defensive players to step up and make plays no matter what the situation is, or if it's going to take Pinkel rolling the dice over these next two games and letting players like Gachkar, Lambert, Gettis, etc., take the playing time of upper classmen to send a wake-up call. I simply refuse to believe that what is wrong with our defense can't be fixed. If Ole Miss had scored one play sooner, we would still be pitching a shutout for 4th quarters this season. We've given up just 6 points in the 1st quarter of the season, and that was when the defense was on the sidelines watching a punt get blocked. So we've given up 12 points in those select 4 quarters so far this season...that right there tells me this defense can play better. But for crying out loud, do it the whole game! Nobody expects you to hold a team under 10, but hold them under 20 and we're in the Big XII Championship Game without breaking a sweat!
3 - I won't say it's a surprise, but it was pleasant to see (hear) Tony Temple get back to where we expect him to be. That's simply more like it. And since I haven't seen the game yet, I don't know if it's because he made plays or the line blocked better or both but whatever it was, keep doing it.
4 - Since I picked OU to go 12-0 and then defeat Missouri in the Big XII Championship game, I'll go ahead and reiterate: nobody. Nobody is going to beat OU this year. But I do know that if on that first Saturday in December you have an undefeated USC and LSU out there, the entire BCS brain trust is going to be on their knees praying Missouri pulls the upset or else they're going to have another giant black eye and the scream for a playoffs system will become exponentially more deafening.Doug: 1) You have a guy named "Pig" as your star player. Seriously, just from what I've seen watching the box scores, it seems like the defense just stops playing as hard as they see the score being put out of reach. And, once the scores got closer again, especially against Illinois, the defense managed to buckle down and get a couple of stops when needed. Now, Illinois and Ole Miss are decidely different teams than Oklahoma and when playing the Sooners, it will require every minute of game time to keep the Sooners close, let alone have a chance to win.
The Beef: 1. My belief right now having watched both of the games is that we are very plain and vanilla on defense. Whether that is by design or not may be the bigger question. I cannot remember us blitzing at all in these two games. We seem to simply be lining up 4-3-3 or 4-2-5 (of which we have played a decent amount) and just going from there. Now, you would expect your front 4 to generate more pressure than they have regardless of rush schemes, but I am hoping at this point we simply have held back some defensive wrinkles. But to piggy back off of Dave (quite the mountain to climb J) a slap in the face and a questioning of their pride and manhood could work. We have proven we have been able to game plan before (games vs. TTech with the “SWITCH!!” defense and other games), but we just need to do it consistently.
2) What can be done? I dunno. Does Gary Pinkel have a defense chart next to that two-point conversion chart? If yes, then he should probably burn both. There won't be a wake-up call coming in the next two weeks against Western Michigan and Illinois State, where Missouri should roll easily, but if both teams make a handful of late scores, then I would be really concerned going into Nebraska and Oklahoma. But, then, you already knew that.
3) I take no pleasure in the beat-down KU distrbutied on Saturday, so I'll just go ahead and say, they took care of expectations, and hell, exceeded my prediction. This was not the time for a letdown, and thankfully, KU kept focus on the current game. As a sidebar, I know that many fans of other schools have panned Kansas for playing SE Louisiana, however, Western Kentucky, which just moved from DI-AA to DI-A this season, and kept their home debut scheduled with West Virginia Tech, from the Mid-South Conference... of the NAIA, to the tune of an 87 to 0 victory.
4) I don't think anyone beats OU this year in the regular season. If the Sooners face the Huskers in the Big 12 Championship, that would be the best chance for a stumble. Same goes for LSU, if they face a regular season foe in the SEC Championship game, the chance for a loss is there. However, I don't think USC makes it undefeated. I believe there are a couple of likely upset candidates: Cal, high-powered offense no defense, but it's in Berkley, and UCLA always gives the Trojans a game, I think those are the two games where USC could slip-up.
5) KU 35 Toledo 14
2. I think this game coming up against W. Michigan will be a nice way to start fixing the problem. They will certainly run some interesting schemes and looks that we will need to game plan for and adjust to as the game goes on. The other thing that I think will help us is time. Let’s be honest, we still have 3 more weeks before we really need anything from our defense. Time and not having the expectation we will fix it overnight will help. But at the same time, we need progress this week. As I mentioned in my musings, we took the step we needed to on the o-line this past week, we need to do same now on defense while continuing to move forward on offense. But I also believe we have not seen everything from the group.
3. Our fans showing up was the most pleasant surprise of mine, though I still laugh at how many fans of road games (some of your more diehard by definition) absolutely hate and have no trust in our head coach. Makes me cringe, laugh and cry at the same time. But back to my point, Mizzou had a tremendous showing in The Grove I felt, and while this is certainly a destination type of game for our fan base, I was still pleased to see the turnout where it was.
4. Not only will those 3 teams finish undefeated, but I like Penn State to throw a 4th in there and officially gum up the works, while presenting the perfect 4 team playoff possibility. But you guys know me, the BCS-anarchist…the louder the outcry the better.
5. I take Mizzou 52-20 this weekendMichael Atchison: 1) I’m not sure I can really give a fair answer to this because I didn’t see the Ole Miss game, but I suspect that it’s a two-pronged problem up front. First, there’s just not much pass rush. It’s a lot easier for the back seven to play pass defense when Brian Smith and Xzavie Jackson are crashing in from the edges, or when Attiyah Ellison is detonating the pocket. I also think there’s an issue with defensive line depth. The starting four guys are serviceable, but not great, and it seems to me that there’s a pretty significant drop from first team to second team. When the first four guys start to wear down, or when the second four guys have to pick up the slack, I think we start to cede the line of scrimmage to our opponents. And if you don’t control the line, you don’t control much.
ZouDave: Beef, you genius! You found our problem! If we are using a 4-3-3 then we are just showing off at this point. Eleven men? BAH!
2) If you’re asking for genuinely sophisticated analysis – and I sense that you are – you gotta give me some time (a high five to whoever gets that reference). But off the cuff all that occurs to me is to come up with some creative ways to put pressure on the quarterback. Bring a linebacker. Bring a safety. Bring a corner. Do it often and from many different angles. Sure, that might leave the defense exposed if the offense picks up the blitz, but that back seven is pretty exposed as it is when the front four gives the quarterback time to do his taxes in the pocket.
3) This team is living Groundhog Day, which leaves little room for surprise. The last three games (including the Sun Bowl) have been pretty similar. The offense goes from ruthlessly efficient early to strangely stagnant late, and the defense holds on for dear life. If there was one particularly pleasant surprise, though, it came when I checked the box score. Ole Miss: 38 rushes for 229 yards. Mizzou: 37 rushes for 218 yards. With the way GreenJarvus Ben-Ellington gashed our defense, I was pleased (and a bit stunned) to see the rushing stats come out a wash. If we can be even running the ball against opponents all year long, I like our chances.
4) When we did the roundtable picks, I had OU going through the regular season unblemished, and I see no reason to change. And if those three go undefeated, the outcry will be large, but it won’t matter. As long as fans support the game the way they do, it makes little difference that they get all exercised for a few weeks in December or January. It doesn’t eliminate the hurdles that have to be cleared before we get a playoff.
5) I think the offense does its Harlem Globetrotters routine this week. Mizzou wins 55 -13. Chase Patton plays the entire fourth quarter.
Yeah, yeah. I'm a smartass. Sue me.
45-10 with chase patton playing significant minutes in the 4th is my prediction.The Beef: Damn...I knew I would stumble on to the problem.
The Boy: Sweet jesus, do we crank through these Roundtables quickly...
To further the point though, and like Atch said, we need to come from different angles. I spent a considerable amount of time watching our D-line this weekend and do don't much that is out of the ordinary. I can only remember one point when a safety came in for a blitz, and I do not recall seeing an LB getting in there, not even on a run blitz. Again, I am "hopeful" this is at least a little strategic in the grand scheme of things, though if it is entirely strategic is was very close to a misjudgment of pretty considerable size by the coaching staff to think we could go vanilla and win those first two games easily.
Oh, and I wasn't able to ascertain Atchison's reference above, but Google came through for me. Great show. Anyway...
1) I really hope it's as simple as "they take their foot off the gas pedal" or "their schemes have been intentionally vanilla so far" and not "teams figure them out and pound them in the 2nd and 3rd quarters. We'll find out soon enough. There's no doubt the D has stiffened back up when it counts, though, so that lends credence to the "gas pedal" theory. And as I mentioned before, I guess that's a better problem to have than "the defense just sucks" or something.
There's also something to the fact that we have two starters (Ziggy and Pig) whose names combine to form Napoleon's favorite ice cream dish . (And by the way...I found this when I was searching for that pic. Excellent.)
2) Personally, I don't see a problem with inserting the 2nd string as soon as we get a 17- or 21-point lead. They might give up points too (they'd probably give up points...who's even on our 2nd string??), but there wouldn't be a problem with enthusiasm, and it might give the 1st string a chance to refocus a bit.
I highly doubt Pinkel will do that, however. His style suggests that he'll just keep demanding better results from the same personnel. And that's not necessarily a bad thing...if we're going to win big this year, it's going to be with Lorenzo Williams, Ziggy Hood, Tommy Chavis, Stryker Sulak, Brock Christopher, Van Alexander, Sean Weatherspoon, Darnell Terrell, Hardy Ricks, William Moore, and Pig Brown.
In the end, though, I guess the best scenario is what Beefy was suggesting above...that the defense was intentionally bland to this point, and that they will spice things up when things matter...i.e. October 6 and beyond.
3) Honestly, the most pleasant aspect for me was our 3rd down conversion rate...passing the ball, at least. After stalling on 3rd down the first two drives, the offense started putting the pieces together. Six-yard pass to Rucker on 3rd-and-5...TD pass to Franklin on 3rd-and-goal from the 10...14 yards to Coffman on 3rd-and-7...11 yards to Rucker on 3rd-and-5...40 yards to Rucker on 3rd-and-7...TD pass to Coffman on 3rd-and-4 with 0:09 left in the first half...that string of consecutive 3rd down conversions was the ballgame, and as I said before, it's great to have all the weapons that Chase has, but converting all those third downs is still damn impressive. Now we just need to improve on 3rd-and-1 and 3rd-and-2 as well...though I think I just made a case for our throwing on those downs as well!
4) If anybody's going to do it, I'd pick one of their two main rivalries: Texas or Oklahoma State. So far they've been infinitely superior to all other Big 12 teams in regard to speed, athleticism, and taking care of business, but things do change throughout the course of the season. Injuries or a major blow to the confidence of Sam Bradford could hurt the Sooners. That said, the odds are pretty good that they'll roll through undefeated.
As for the outcry...I've been calling for an 'And One' championship game for a while. I love that every game matters in college football--if you lose one, you're at the mercy of the undefeated teams ahead of you, if you lose two, you're done--and if you get more than 4 teams involved, then a 2-loss team would have a chance. I don't like that. People calling for an 8- or 16-team (or more) tournament always reference the excitement of March Madness. Well...March Madness is great, but it's March Madness. College Football is College Football. They offer different kinds of excitement, and I'd prefer to keep it that way.
Anyway, the perfect scenario for an And One outcry would be four undefeated major conference teams (and a bunch of 2-loss teams, for that matter). I, too, doubt USC will pull off the trick this year with their schedule, but my best case scenario would be for USC, LSU, OU, and a fourth team (gee, what a surprise that The Beef would pick Penn State...) to all go 12-0 or 13-0. Cross your fingers.
5) Pinkel usually calls off the dogs pretty quick. I say we start slow offensively (as we have both games so far), pick up steam in the 2nd and 3rd quarters (as we have both games so far), and...yeah, Chase Patton plays the last 7-10 minutes. MU wins 44-14.
Should we keep this going (since it's only Monday and all)? Anybody else have any questions to throw out there?
(Part Two, in which Atchison and BEEF start sniping at each other like frat brothers at a Bowling Green game, tomorrow.)
Wednesday, September 5, 2007
Mizzou Sanity Roundtable: Week 1 in Review
1) What was the most impressive thing about your team's performance on Saturday?
2) Least impressive?
3) Predictions for your team's game this Saturday.
(Obviously I say 'your team' because we don't all root for Mizzou here.)
---
ZouDave: Most impressive - Jeremy Maclin. First game of his college career and he gets a receiving TD, punt return TD, and a huge run on a reverse. And now he gets to become a go-to guy for the team as he steps up to replace Danario Alexander. He may have set the bar too high for himself, but man what an opening performance. Maybe in 4 years we'll be remembering this 2007 Illinois game as Maclin's "Coming Out Party" much like 2002 was for Brad Smith.
Least impressive - the running game. I know Illinois is a good team and all but for crying out loud, we return a 1000-yard rusher from a year ago with almost the same offensive line and this is what we get out of our running game? That's part of the reason we couldn't keep this game out of reach when we got the ball back up 37-20 in the 3rd. Strong doses of Tony Temple should have been all that was necessary to make it into a snoozer, but instead we're trying to get cute with reverses or still relying on the pass when their defense basically has nothing to lose.
Prediction for Saturday - Missouri starts to get better, faces a team not quite as physical and takes the gun off of our own foot. Chase Daniel keeps doing what he's doing, which is throwing TDs and not getting intercepted, Temple and the O-Line make a bit of statement with a 100-yard day from him and the defense isn't put in a position to defend short fields quite as often. And there are no 2-point conversion attempts in the game. Mizzou 44, Ole Miss 17.The Beef: Most Impressive: I will go with Pig Brown. Pig made a few big plays last year, but obviously nothing quite like this. He certainly will not repeat that performance in each game, but it should certainly scare some people into going away from him, and any time people game plan to go away from someone on your defense, I think that is a good thing. One small side-mention to the INITIAL defensive game plan as being impressive….Ill did next to nothing on offense before the injury and quarterback replacement.
Doug: 1) Kansas turned in a team effort Saturday against Central Michigan, and that was by far the most impressive thing about the game. Normally you might expect a few gaffes, mistakes and errors that come with the first game of the season, not to mention a new starting quarterback and running backs. Instead, KU turned in a fantastic performance, highlighted by Todd Reesing throwing for 261 yards and 4 touchdowns, Brandon McAnderson running roughshod over the Chippewas for 110 yards ( in the first half), and 10 Jayhawks catching passes. The defense was just as stellar, allowing only 139 rushing yards total and no Chippewa broke 50 individually. Plus, quarterback Dan LaFevour threw for only 172 yards and a late-game touchdown while being sacked twice.
Least Impressive: The offensive line. I do not put Temple’s bad output so much on Temple himself, but on the line’s inability to deal with the stunting and shifting Ill threw at them. A mediocre performance all the way around (I will not say poor since we did amass 400+ total yards on offense).
Prediction for Saturday: I think Dave really said it all. I looked at the Ole Miss stats and some news from it, and I come away not impressed…it was not a TRUE road win as I am sure they had half the crowd in Memphis and their offense is pretty non-existent at this point. We do need some more pressure on the QB, since I do not believe Adams is all the mobile, but we should REALLY stack the box against them and force them to beat us on the pass. Everything else Dave said is pretty much what I would say…and I will have some more LIVE-IN PERSON ON THE SCENE THOUGHTS about it next week (was that enough rubbing it in the face of everyone else that I am going to the game?)
This was a game people expected Kansas to win, but it was supposed to be closer. CMU was coming off a MAC title and a Motor City Bowl victory. Kansas was supposed to be adjusting to a new quarterback and life without Jon Cornish. To put up this decisive of a victory should give Kansas fans hope for the coming weeks.
2) Raimond Pendleton who did everything right in his punt return for a touchdown, right up until the five yard line when he decided to go air-born into the end zone and wound up getting flagged 15 yards for un-sportsman-like conduct. And, oh yes, left us with this photo. What the hell is that?
3) After Saturday's performance, this week's game against D-IAA opponent Southeast Louisiana would seem to be a quintessential trap game. Except for one thing, the Michigan Wolverines... thanks, guys! Fair to say, I don't think any D-I school will take any other D-IAA school lightly the rest of the season.
Kansas 42 SE Louisiana 3Michael Atchison: 1) What was the most impressive thing about your team's performance on Saturday? Their sense of drama. Overall, it was such a scattershot effort that it’s hard to point to anything the team did consistently well. But the sheer number of spectacular moments (both good and bad) was hard to fathom. Maclin’s two scores. Daniel’s quick recovery after being knocked looney tunes. The adventures in kicking. And, of course, Pig Brown. Quick, name another defensive player who has had such a dramatic hand in the outcome of a game as Brown did. Time’s up.
The Beef: Well damn...that might be the fastest we have ever or will ever go around the table...under 2 hours…even though doug did not answer ANY of his questions correctly.
2) Least impressive? The run-blocking disaster has been mentioned by others, so I’ll say the offense’s inability to finish drives. For as much as the offense moved the ball, they really only accounted for twenty-four points. Too many drives disintegrated once they reached Illinois territory, and the offense went the last twenty-seven minutes of the game without putting the ball in the end zone.
And can I beat a dead horse here for a minute? Gary Pinkel is a smart guy who knows more about football than I ever will, but I’m still completely incredulous about the two-point try, even after he acknowledged that it was a mistake. He has allowed “the chart” to become a proxy for rational thought. Even consulting “the chart” in the first half of a close game is an abdication of reason that ignores the context of the game. A basketball team would never try a desperation three-pointer because they trailed 30-27 with two minutes left in the first half; the score is going to change too much and in too many unpredictable ways. Football is no different. Here’s my suggestion: Burn the chart, and keep in mind a few simple rules. Don’t think about the two-point conversion until there are less than ten minutes left in the game. If you’re behind, and scoring two points would cut the lead to eleven, eight, seven or three points, do it. If it would tie the score, do it. If it would increase your lead to seven points, do it. Otherwise, forget it.
3) Predictions for your team's game this Saturday. I think the offense puts together a more consistent performance, and I think the defense does enough. Missouri 38, Ole Miss 24.The Boy: Seriously...well done...in that case, here's another question:
The Beef: Most impressive thing I saw (and I did not SEE any of it) was probably the OU thing….not so much because of the final score, or even the fact that OU has a good amount of YOUNG skill position players on offense, but that they did it with their foot off of the gas for most of the 4th…as I believe that last TD came pretty early. kU is in there as well…though I think their true test will come in conference play given their OOC)
4) Most and least impressive thing about some other Big 12 team from last weekend?
Oh, and here are my answers to #1-3...
1) I'm going to say the defensive playmaking. Yards allowed were, to put it gently, a bit of a problem. A lot of that had to do with the strange advantage they drew from the fact that nobody could have scouted Eddie McGee (he was a complete unknown, a la Brad Smith in 2002), and a lot was due simply to lapses, but when it was time to make a play, the defense continuously came through, from Weatherspoon's strip of McGee at the 2 (which led to Pig Brown's TD), to William Moore's gorgeous diving INT midway through the 4th quarter, to Brown's game-clinching INT with a minute left. And beyond that, as has been pointed out before, the scouting report on Juice Williams was good. I do think this defense has a decent amount of potential, though they don't have too terribly long to prove me right on that one.
2) Going last has its drawbacks--I was going to say either the O-line or the two-point conversion. So instead I'll just mention that Will Franklin didn't have a very good game, and with Danario Alexander out for the forseeable future ( please let him be back for Nebraska), he'll need to become the go-to guy once again to keep the pressure off of Jeremy Maclin.
3) It won't surprise me if Ole Miss does try to replicate what Illinois did to us schematically, but they just don't have the speed of the Illini. And if 425 yards was a failure, then...well...Ole Miss is going to need some turnovers and freak plays to keep up. And hopefully the fact that there were about 26 freakish plays (for and against Mizzou) last Saturday, this one will be a little more tame. Mizzou 34, Ole Miss 17.
Least impressive would have to be UT I suppose…again…on score only. Big spreads were not locks this weekend (as USC came nowhere near hitting theirs) and I assume UT is not that bad…but it was still interesting to see. Okie State was pretty unimpressive as well given where a lot of people had them, though I personally did not understand some of the hype.ZouDave: Most Impressive - Well, I would say ku laying a beating on Central Michigan but I'm simply never going to be nice to ku, so I'll actually go ahead and say Kansas State's defense. Seriously, they looked fast, aggressive, mean and talented. They're going to be one of the best defenses in the conference this year and that will help their offense more often than not. KSU might be the polar opposite of Missouri this year. That remains to be seen for sure, obviously, but looking at a single game you had one struggle to win with their offense doing most of the work and one struggling to lose with their defense doing most of the work. I was very impressed with KSU's defense.
Doug: 4) Oklahoma proved they would not miss a beat when it came to breaking in a new quarterback and running back. Even beating up on a DI floormat like they did to North Texas becomes incredibly impressive when they do it to such a magnitude. Seriously, best of luck Todd Dodge.
Least Impressive - Iowa State. They lost to Kent State, for crying out loud. The only way it gets worse is if Michigan is in our conference, which they're not.
Also impressive, Colorado finally winning the CSU rivalry game, if anything that buys Dan Hawkins so good will ... Kansas State hanging with Auburn for three quarters (though to be fair, I think that had more to do with Auburn horrific offensive play-calling) ... Kansas' new uniforms, I'll admit I wasn't sold initially, but now seeing them in action, they are quite impressive looking, now if they would just stick around for a couple of seasons.
Least impressive goes to the Texas Longhorns who should have had a much easier time with Arkansas State. I'm sure Mack Brown will get the kinks ironed out, but that's the kind of performance you do not expect from Texas.
Also on the "not impressive" list... K-State's forgetting that a football game last four quarters ... Baylor, Iowa State, Oklahoma State, yeah ... that chart in Gary Pinkel's back pocketMichael Atchison: The only other Big 12 action I saw at all this weekend was the second half of the Kansas State-Auburn game, and I was impressed by how poised K-State looked in that environment. They stood toe to toe with Auburn like they expected to win, and they easily could have. The least impressive (strictly statistically speaking) had to be Sam Keller, who (despite the predictions of the faithful) failed to establish any of Nebraska’s career passing records in the win over Nevada. He’s on pace to be a poor man’s Harrison Beck.
The Boy: I more or less answered my own question yesterday, so I'll simply add this: since Marlon Lucky is obviously going to win Heisman #1 this year (followed by, presumably, #2 in 2008), do you think they'll give Sam Keller another couple years of eligibility so he can win the award that is so rightfully his in 2009? Or...can they maybe award Co-Heismans?
Thursday, August 30, 2007
Mizzou Roundtable: Big 12 Predictions
In just a matter of hours, Iowa State will kick off both the Gene Chizik era and the Big 12 football season. About damn time. But I pooled the thoughts and (ahem) talents of various Mizzou Sanity posters—The Beef, Michael Atchison, Doug, and ZouDave—to pull together the official Mizzou Sanity 2007 Predictions. Doug was busy at work, so he served as the tie-breaker only.
I’m calling this a roundtable, but...well, on this one I’m the only one talking.
The way it should be, if you ask me.
Anyway, here's a week-by-week rundown of the predictions. Two things to keep in mind: 1) when 4-5 people are voting, chances are there will be no major upset predictions (especially since everybody was making their picks independent of feedback from the others), and 2) all four Mizzou fans started to pick an 11-1 season, thought better of it, and picked a random loss. One picked CU, one picked KSU, and two picked ATM. Since that made Doug the tiebreaker on the ATM game, he picked ATM to win. Naturally. Anyway...
Weekend of September 1
Unanimous
Iowa State > Kent State (August 30)
Kansas > Central Michigan
Missouri > Illinois
Nebraska > Nevada
Oklahoma > North Texas
Texas > Arkansas State
Texas A&M > Montana State
Texas Tech > SMU (September 2)
Auburn > Kansas State
TCU > Baylor
3 out of 4 Mizzou fans agree
Colorado > Colorado State
Georgia > Oklahoma State
--
Weekend of September 8
Unanimous
Arizona State > Colorado
Iowa State > Northern Iowa
Kansas > SE Louisiana
Kansas State > San Jose State
Missouri > Ole Miss
Baylor > Rice
Oklahoma > Miami-FL
Oklahoma State > Florida Atlantic
Texas > TCU
Texas A&M > Fresno State
Texas Tech > UTEP
3 out of 4 Mizzou fans agree
Nebraska > Wake Forest
--
Weekend of September 15
Unanimous
Florida State > Colorado
Iowa > Iowa State
Kansas > Toledo
Kansas State > SMS
Missouri > Western Michigan
USC > Nebraska
Baylor > Texas State
Oklahoma > Utah State
Oklahoma State > Troy
Texas > Central Florida
Texas A&M > UL-Monroe
Texas Tech > Rice
--
Weekend of September 22
Unanimous
Oklahoma State > Texas Tech
Colorado > Miami-OH
Kansas > Florida International
Missouri > Illinois State
Nebraska > Ball State
Baylor > Buffalo
Oklahoma > Tulsa
Texas > Rice
3 out of 4 Mizzou fans agree
Toledo > Iowa State
Texas A&M > Miami-FL
--
Weekend of September 29
Unanimous
Oklahoma > Colorado
Nebraska > Iowa State
Texas > Kansas State
Texas A&M > Baylor
Oklahoma State > Sam Houston
Texas Tech > Northwestern State
--
Weekend of October 6
Unanimous
Texas Tech > Iowa State
Kansas State > Kansas
Missouri > Nebraska
Texas A&M > Oklahoma State
The Beaker was the tiebreaker
Baylor > Colorado
Texas > Oklahoma
North
Missouri 1-0 (5-0)
Nebraska 1-1 (4-2)
Kansas State 1-1 (3-2)
Kansas 0-1 (4-1)
Colorado 0-2 (2-4)
Iowa State 0-2 (2-4)
South
Texas 2-0 (6-0)
Texas A&M 2-0 (6-0)
Oklahoma 1-1 (5-1)
Texas Tech 1-1 (5-1)
Baylor 1-1 (4-2)
Oklahoma State 1-1 (4-2)
--
Weekend of October 13
Unanimous
Kansas State > Colorado
Texas > Iowa State
Kansas > Baylor
Oklahoma > Missouri
Nebraska > Oklahoma State
3 out of 4 Mizzou fans agree
Texas A&M > Texas Tech
North
Nebraska 2-1 (5-2)
Kansas State 2-1 (4-2)
Missouri 1-1 (5-1)
Kansas 1-1 (5-1)
Colorado 0-3 (2-5)
Iowa State 0-3 (2-5)
South
Texas 3-0 (7-0)
Texas A&M 3-0 (7-0)
Oklahoma 2-1 (6-1)
Texas Tech 1-2 (5-2)
Baylor 1-2 (4-3)
Oklahoma State 1-2 (4-3)
--
Weekend of October 20
Unanimous
Colorado > Kansas
Oklahoma > Iowa State
Oklahoma State > Kansas State
Missouri > Texas Tech
Texas > Baylor
3 out of 4 Mizzou fans agree
Nebraska > Texas A&M
North
Nebraska 3-1 (6-2)
Missouri 2-1 (6-1)
Kansas State 2-2 (4-3)
Kansas 1-2 (5-2)
Colorado 1-3 (3-5)
Iowa State 0-4 (2-6)
South
Texas 4-0 (8-0)
Texas A&M 3-1 (7-1)
Oklahoma 3-1 (7-1)
Oklahoma State 2-2 (5-3)
Texas Tech 1-3 (5-3)
Baylor 1-3 (4-4)
--
Weekend of October 27
Unanimous
Texas Tech > Colorado
Missouri > Iowa State
Texas A&M > Kansas
Kansas State > Baylor
Texas > Nebraska
North
Missouri 3-1 (7-1)
Nebraska 3-2 (6-3)
Kansas State 3-2 (5-3)
Kansas 1-3 (5-3)
Colorado 1-4 (3-6)
Iowa State 0-5 (2-7)
South
Texas 5-0 (9-0)
Texas A&M 4-1 (8-1)
Oklahoma 3-1 (7-1)
Oklahoma State 2-2 (5-3)
Texas Tech 2-3 (6-3)
Baylor 1-4 (4-5)
--
Weekend of November 3
Unanimous
Nebraska > Kansas
Texas Tech > Baylor
Oklahoma > Texas A&M
3 out of 4 Mizzou fans agree
Missouri > Colorado
Texas > Oklahoma State
The Beaker was the tiebreaker
Iowa State > Kansas State
North
Missouri 4-1 (8-1)
Nebraska 4-2 (7-3)
Kansas State 3-3 (5-4)
Kansas 1-4 (5-4)
Colorado 1-5 (3-7)
Iowa State 1-5 (3-7)
South
Texas 6-0 (10-0)
Oklahoma 4-1 (8-1)
Texas A&M 4-2 (8-2)
Texas Tech 3-3 (7-3)
Oklahoma State 2-3 (5-4)
Baylor 1-5 (4-6)
--
Weekend of November 10
Unanimous
Oklahoma State > Kansas
Nebraska > Kansas State
Oklahoma > Baylor
Texas > Texas Tech
3 out of 4 Mizzou fans agree
Colorado > Iowa State
The Beaker was the tiebreaker
Texas A&M > Missouri
North
Nebraska 5-2 (8-3)
Missouri 4-2 (8-2)
Kansas State 3-4 (5-5)
Colorado 2-5 (4-7)
Kansas 1-5 (5-5)
Iowa State 1-6 (3-8)
South
Texas 7-0 (11-0)
Oklahoma 5-1 (9-1)
Texas A&M 5-2 (9-2)
Oklahoma State 3-3 (6-4)
Texas Tech 3-4 (7-4)
Baylor 1-6 (4-7)
--
Weekend of November 17
Unanimous
Oklahoma State > Baylor
Oklahoma > Texas Tech
3 out of 4 Mizzou fans agree
Kansas > Iowa State
Missouri > Kansas State
North
Missouri 5-2 (9-2)
Nebraska 5-2 (8-3)
Kansas State 3-5 (5-6)
Colorado 2-5 (4-7)
Kansas 2-5 (6-5)
Iowa State 1-7 (3-9)
South
Texas 7-0 (11-0)
Oklahoma 6-1 (10-1)
Texas A&M 5-2 (9-2)
Oklahoma State 4-3 (7-4)
Texas Tech 3-5 (7-5)
Baylor 1-7 (4-8)
--
Weekend of November 24
Unanimous
Nebraska > Colorado
Missouri > Kansas
Oklahoma > Oklahoma State
3 out of 4 Mizzou fans agree
Texas A&M > Texas
Kansas State > Fresno State
North
Missouri 6-2 (10-2)
Nebraska 6-2 (9-3)
Kansas State 3-5 (6-6)
Kansas 2-6 (6-6)
Colorado 2-6 (4-8)
Iowa State 1-7 (3-9)
South
Texas 7-1 (11-1)
Oklahoma 7-1 (11-1)
Texas A&M 6-2 (10-2)
Oklahoma State 4-4 (7-5)
Texas Tech 3-5 (7-5)
Baylor 1-7 (4-8)
--
Weekend of December 1
Unanimous
Texas > Missouri
--
BOWL GAMES
(We didn't actually make predictions on these...just thought I'd see what the possible matchups would be...I had some fun with this.)
BCS National Championship: Texas vs USC (I doubt there will be two undefeated teams, and I'd say the only candidate more likely to make the title game at 12-1 would be LSU...and I don't think a Les Miles team is capable of losing only one game.)
Fiesta: Oklahoma vs Hawaii!
Cotton: Missouri vs Tennessee
Gator: Texas A&M vs Florida State
Holiday: Nebraska vs Oregon
Insight: Oklahoma State vs Purdue
Independence: Texas Tech vs Alabama
Texas: Kansas State vs Memphis
Kansas gets left out at 6-6 again. If Doug had picked Mizzou over ATM, I might have found a place for them.
Wednesday, August 1, 2007
Mizzou Sanity Roundtable
It’s the first official Mizzou Roundtable! Just like The Mizzou Exchange rips off Bill Simmons’ “Curious Guy” bit, this idea very clearly rips off the “Like Father, Unlike Son” bit over at PowerMizzou (along with about 1,350 other similar bits), but...well...I say it’s an original idea because nobody has done a roundtable with this specific group of people.
So without further adieu...joining me for this are Doug, ZouDave, The Beef, Michael Atchison, and Trripleplay. I never ended up with Bill C’s answers, and I will add them if I get them.
As we prepare for another school year's worth of college sports, what was your favorite (college sports) moment of 2006-07?
Doug: The most enjoyable moment of the 06-07 college sports season? For me, it was the entire college basketball season.
David Stern's implementation of draft eligibility requirements for the 2006 draft, paid big dividends for this season of basketball. Without those limitations in place, one can be fairly certain both Greg Oden and Kevin Durant would have jumped straight from high school to the NBA and spent most of the season sitting on the bench (certainly collecting a big paycheck, but that's besides the point).
Instead both wound up creating one of the most exciting college seasons in recent memory, Durant by being an offensive force of nature and Oden by dominating with one hand, his off-hand even. Together, the two provided some of the most memorable performances and games, combining to create one great season. Granted, we still had to deal with Joakim Noah, but Durant and Oden provided high-energy, athletic play without the dramatics or the ponytail.
On a more regional scale, Durant offered up plenty of Big 12 Conference dramatics. Consider the triple overtime game against Oklahoma State, the double overtime win over Texas A&M, the regular season championship on the line against Kansas and the Big 12 Tournament title overtime, also against the Jayhawks. I think it is without a stretch that if you were to pick the top 5 in most memorable Big 12 conference games this season, Texas would be included in at least four of those games.
Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end. Durant and the Longhorns did not see the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament. Some would blame Rick Barnes for his inability to call a set offense instead of relying so much of his freshman uber-star, and while I don't think that's too far off, Durant never seemed to hit the "wall", still turning in 40 minutes and 30 points against USC in the second round loss, showing why Barnes never lost faith in him. And, Oden lead Ohio State to the title game, before turning in his best-all-around performance of the season, proving he will be a force in the NBA, especially with two good hands.
It all added up to the most memorable moment of the 2006-07 college season, and almost made me forget about Joakim Noah. Almost.Michael Atchison: I’m a basketball guy first, but from a purely objective point of view, the most exciting thing I’ve seen in the past twelve months – maybe ever – was Boise State pulling off the Statue of Liberty play to beat Oklahoma in the Fiesta Bowl. That wasn’t a football game, it was a Rocky movie, with the teams throwing and landing haymaker after haymaker, just unbelievable to watch. And that game only reinforced my view that if we ever get to an eight-team playoff, at least one spot (probably two) should be reserved for non-BCS teams. There’s no point in having non-BCS Division I football unless we’re going to give those schools the chance to play for a title. In a system that’s already stacked against the little guy, Boise State (like Utah a few years back) proved that all those Davids should get their shots against college football’s Goliaths.
The Beef: I will follow Atch’s lead here in a couple of ways. I will include overall college and then a Mizzou sports moment in my answer.
From a Mizzou perspective, watching as Ben Askren – the most dominant Tiger athlete ever – made a scorched earth march to another NCAA wrestling title is something I’ll not soon forget, though I only saw that on television. Of all the events I witnessed personally (and there were many), I’ll take the basketball Tigers’ win over Arkansas during the great blizzard of ought-six. I ended up being stranded at the Stoney Creek Inn (along with Senator Kit Bond) for a couple of days, but it was worth it. For me, that was the day Missouri basketball was reborn. Coach Mike Anderson’s team made believers out of a small but exuberant crowd that ringed the court tightly after Randy Wright invited everyone down into the prime seats. We saw a sort of pride, effort and enthusiasm on the floor that had been absent in recent years, and the defense was so hellacious that with about fifteen minutes left in the game, the Razorbacks’ body language unmistakably said “we’ve had enough of this $#!*.” The rest of the season went in fits and starts, but the seeds of future success were certainly planted that night.
I should have offered to go first since people have already taken my answer, especially on Boise St. I have the highlights of that game DVR’ed and cued up so I can just sit down and watch the last two minutes of regulation and the overtime. And screw Chris Myers for RUINING Ian Johnson’s plan to ask his girlfriend to marry him. Don’t know what I am talking about? Go back and watch his interview with Johnson again post-game. With the cheerleader clearly within ear-shot, he says to Johnson something about planning to ask his girlfriend. The give-away is her reaction to over-hearing Myers saying this….all that planning…out the window.
Anyway, yeah, Rocky movie, haymakers, david and goliath….
For me in Mizzou Sports, it would have to be the Homecoming game against K-state. Mizzou, like the offense was relentless (like the rain) and it completed the tour of the Big XII for me, as Mizzou finally beat the Wildcats as a Big XII team. I had seen every other team lose to us at some point in my Mizzou career, this was the last one to fall. I think they showed a mean streak in that game which they are going to need to have all season this year. I know Coach Pinkel does not like to run it up on teams, and I am with him on that, but the offense needs to be balls to the wall until he calls off the dogs each game. Mizzou needs to carry that intensity all year to make our attainable goals of the North and major step on the national scene.ZouDave: I'll start out by saying my favorite college moment this year is NOT the past 2 days at work (and it works since I work at a University). Losing the HD of the DHCP server, that is also acting as DNS for about 1/4 of the computers in the system and all of those computers happen to be a minimum of 200 miles away (and up to about 2000 miles away) from where I am is not fun. And it explains the lateness of my reply.
Trripleplay: So far no one has identified a favorite college sports moment from 2006-07, so I will.
But, once I get done whining like a girl...
My favorite moment of the college season is going to be completely anti-climactic to everyone else's answer, and is based solely on my blind homerism to Mizzou and caring about that above and beyond whatever else might happen in college athletics. My favorite moment of the year was the 1st quarter of the Ole Miss game. The win over Murray State in our first game of '06 meant absolutely nothing, and while it was nice to see Chase tear them in half it was really the only thing that could have happened. There was still PLENTY of doubt about what we had in him and in this team. No more Brad Smith, an offense that we hadn't even seen run properly yet, a QB starting as a true Soph that everyone was calling "sawed off" and we're getting ready to face a SEC team that had just beaten Memphis the week before and had this highly touted QB and this coaching staff coming in from Miami and other places and Ole Miss was supposed to be a team we shouldn't overlook.
Well we didn't overlook them. We overpowered them. We kicked the living crap out of them. And it all started in the 1st quarter, with Mizzou taking the ball first, and this little sawed off QB (last time I will EVER call him that) led his team on an efficient and eye-opening drive that resulted in a Chase Daniel TD run and took less than 4 minutes off of the clock. Mizzou didn't look back until well into October, and it all started with that opening drive against Ole Miss. In an instant, Mizzou fans breathed a sigh of relief that the post-Brad Smith era was in good hands and that there wouldn't be another Corby Jones hangover that leads us into the toilet once again. And in that same instant, other schools had to sit up and pay a little more attention because even though Mizzou graduated something like 71% of its yardage from the year before (named Brad Smith) somehow their offense actually improved. Tony Temple was ripping off 5 yards per carry, the ball was all over the field (7 different receivers on the day), and these 2 newbies named Jared Perry and Danario Alexander showed up immediately to play alongside an already veteran receiving corps of Ekwerekwu, Franklin, and the TE combo from Heaven: T-Ruck and Coffman. And this is weird, but some diver named Wolfert put every single PAT right down the middle and also hit 2 field goals? Oh my.
Even the defense was amazing that day, and in that first quarter. The first play from scrimmage for Ole Miss resulted in a sack. They would be backpedaling against our defensive pressure all day. It was about as big a statement as we could have made in that game. We won 34-7 and it was never that close. Ole Miss' only TD was a gift and we took our foot off the gas in the 4th quarter, even giving Brandon Coleman some time. And congrats to him, he got a rushing TD on the day. That day was the best moment of the year, because my fears were erased and I started to believe this program of ours could actually be going somewhere, and that it was okay to believe that and not always be waiting for and expecting the shoe to drop and Mizzou to mess it all up. Some would argue we did, but I said before the season that if we went 8-4 on the year, winning all of our non-cons and getting out of Texas with 1 win, plus sweeping the kansas schools that I would be a believer. Well, I'm a believer. And it all started on the opening drive against Ole Miss.
Without a doubt, the greatest moment this past season for me was on Friday evening on June 1st at Taylor Stadium, just before the first Missouri-Louisville game started, and I found myself standing in Section E, next to Row 4, Seat 1, looking around me and above me at an incredible mass of people - more than I had ever seen at Simmons Field. The sight of over 3,000 people squeezed in there to watch the Mizzou Baseball team in their first Columbmia Regional - i was like a little boy from a poor family waking up on Christmas morning to find the living room crammed full of presents, all with my name on them.
The rest of the weekend was fantastic (except for the final outcome). But that moment is what I will never forget.The Boy: Duly admonished by trrip, I shall stick to specific moments. From a Mizzou perspective, that moment was when William Moore picked off a Graham Harrell pass and returned it for a TD, making it a) 24-0 Missouri in Lubbock, b) the second straight Harrell pass INT’d for a TD, and c) the exact moment where I thought “This could be a really special season!” Granted, it was only a somewhat special season, one in which Mizzou raced to a 7-1 start and limped to a 1-4 finish—no one can exceed expectations in a more disappointing fashion than Mizzou, huh? But, watching that game at home (and eating Smokin’ Chicks BBQ, I might add), Moore’s INT had me standing on my sofa for a few seconds. No other moment of 2006-07 earned that honor.
What are you most looking forward to for 2007-08?
On a non-Mizzou level, the best moment had to be the Boise State hook-and-ladder against OU, or as Billy Bob from Varsity Blues called it, “Is this the play where I run down field and act like I’m lost? That play never works!” Granted, it wouldn’t have worked if Billy Bob were catching the pitch, but...seriously, the last five minutes (and OT) of that game were just unparalleled. OU makes a dramatic comeback, capped by a 2-point conversion that took about 16 attempts (and 10 minutes in real time) after penalties. Marcus Walker picks off the next Zabransky pass for the TD, giving OU a sudden, shocking lead. The hook-and-ladder ties it. Peterson rips off a 25-yard TD to start the OT. BSU uses a halfback pass for a TD on their possession, then the Statue of Liberty Play (which I’d never seen work at any level) for the win. Bob Stoops damn near runs off the field, looking like he was escaping a hornet’s nest. Then Ian Johnson proposes. This would have been deemed too unrealistic in a movie script.
The Beef: For me, as much as I hate to say it, I am most looking forward to football season. I hate saying that because football impacts me physically, emotionally, psychologically more than any other Mizzou sport. It just gets in me. I will forever remember the ’97 NU game more for what did not happen than the ’03 game for what did happen. So for me, to have a year where the expectations are higher than they have ever been since my arrival to Mizzou (1995) is scary and great. But let’s be honest…it is why I drink before games…I cannot take them sober just because I get so nervous. However, if we make it KC in November with the chance to wrap up the Big XII north (or hopefully wrapped up already)…needless to say, that is going to be SOME afternoon for me.
A close second will be the continued improvement of the Olympic Sports. How will volleyball react to losing the seniors they did, but bringing in the talent on the other side? Wrestling losing Ben Askren from the lineup? What will baseball do (especially given how well Crow and Gibson are DOMINATING the prestigious Cape Cod League this summer)? Softball? Gymnastics? Honestly, the amount of pride those sports generate for me is really high.Doug: What am I looking forward to the most in 2007-08?
Trripleplay: I'm most looking forward to the maturing of the Tiger Baseball pitching staff. Aaron (The) Crow and Kyle (Bob Jr) Gibson are dominating the renowned Cape Cod League this summer. I expect Crow to be in contention for the big XII Pitcher of the Year. Gibson could very well move into the weekend rotation. And then you still have Rick (expect a no-hitter)Zagone, Ian (Throw the Cheese...)Berger, Greg (2-position) Folgia, Scooter(aka Never-Say-Quit) Hicks, et al. I expect a better season than last year.
Well, I don't know that I'm looking forward to it, but I'm certainly anticipating what should be a showdown between Mark Mangino and Lew Perkins. Perkins has already gone on record that he expects more out of the KU Football team than a 6 and 6 season. When you consider the amount of capital that's been sunk into the program since Perkins arrived, and he vastly expanded the trend started by Al Bohl, it is quite apparent Perkins is going to be demanding bigger and better results this season and next.
Also, few can not notice KU has an extremely easy non-conference schedule and is still set with the slightly "easier" rotation with the Big 12 South. Plus, K-State is still in a re-building process. If KU Football is going to make a comeback in the state of Kansas, these next two years are cruicial. If a bowl victory is not achieved this season, and the bottom falls out next year (quite likely), Kansas could be back on the market for a head football coach in as little as two year.ZouDave: October 6. I'm looking forward to October 6.
Michael Atchison: Most of the rest of the distinguished panel have focused on football, and, of course, I’m looking forward to September 1 in St. Louis, October 6 in Columbia, November 24 in Kansas City and December 1 in San Antonio, with plenty of Chase to Chase, Chase to Tee, Chase to the ‘Copter, Chase (handing) to Tony, Chase to Tommy, Chase to Maclin, Chase to Danario, Chase to Perry, Chase to Bracey and Chase to JRay (that’s not an offense, it’s an arsenal) mixed in. I’m also looking forward to enough defensive stops so that not every game reminds me of the BYU/San Diego State score-o-ramas of my youth.
I am pretty confident that Mizzou is going to be 4-0 going into this game against Nebraska (in fact I'll be quite upset if we're not). We have 2 pretty good non-con games to start the year off, but unfortunately both are away from Columbia and I'm going to be unable to attend either of them. Then we get 2 patsies at home (and I'm sure someone will remind me that Western Michigan is not to be taken lightly, blah blah blah, I can take lightly whomever I want. I'm a fan, not a player or coach. They'll do their jobs, I'm going to sit here and expect a walk.) So we really don't get to see any fireworks in Columbia until October 6, and it's the biggest game of the year. There's not another game in the Big XII this year that I'd rather see in person, and that includes Texas vs Oklahoma. I already admitted I'm a homer.
But this game is going to mean SO much to both teams involved, because the loser of this game has such an incredibly steep uphill battle to fight to try and regain the division that it's likely they drop another game they shouldn't because they're so dejected. This matchup has turned into a pretty nasty, feisty little rivalry over the past 4 years. Make no mistake about it, Nebraska and its fans realize that Mizzou is their competition right now. We absolutely MUST win the North immediately if we aim to stay with them, and possibly move ahead of them. It's so crucial it's hard to even think about what it will be like if we don't win. If we don't win that game, I fear the door will be almost shut. If we don't win that game, Missouri is likely going to simply be another Texas Tech. They'll be exciting, they'll be capable of winning 7-9 games in a year, but they'll never really be a threat to win the ones that matter all the time. And while it wouldn't be the worst thing ever to be a perennial Top 30 team that goes to bowls every year, I know that Mizzou fans want more. People from other Big XII schools laugh because Mizzou considers itself a football school, despite not finishing first in the conference since the 60s. Our success and/or lack of it on the football field has absolutely nothing to do with Mizzou being a football school. Mizzou is a football school because of how rabid our fanbase is. There's 50-60,000 people out there every Saturday just DYING for a win. Like Beef said, it's the reason he has to drink before the game because he gets so nervous and can't handle it sober. That's our fanbase. We want it SO badly but it keeps getting yanked away from us when we think it's so close.
Well it will never be closer than October 6, 2007. The atmosphere should top the 2003 game. The intensity should top the 2003 game. The meaning of the outcome certainly tops the 2003 game, and that was the single greatest sporting event I've ever attended. Running into Okie and Beef at midfield after the game and making "snow angels" on the Tiger logo, like we said we would, was just the culmination of the perfect day. We can top it this year. And when we win, there will be no storming the field. That will be a slap in the face to Nebraska; a way to kick them when they're down. A message that beating them has become so common, it's not worth making a big deal out of. Make no mistake, we'll make a big deal out of it, but it will be the 3rd time 5 seasons. Frankly, it will start to get old ;-)
But I wouldn’t be me if I weren’t looking ahead to hoops, and I’m excited to see Norm Stewart’s induction into the Hall of Fame, the Tigers cracking the seal on the sensational new Sprint Center, DeMarre’s debut, Keon’s maturation, and just how many minutes of Hell we can expect (30? 35?) each night. Despite the loss of Kalen Grimes, I think this team can exceed some expectations. The Tigers should be fluent in Mike Anderson’s game by now, and there’s a lot of experience and a fair amount of talent and depth on this club. A top four finish and an NCAA bid are realistic goals for this team, and once you get that far, all things are possible. I’m a believer.
I’m also looking forward to one or two pre- or post-game Oil Change Stouts at Flat Branch Saloon.ZouDave: Distinguished?
The Beef: Yeah…I don’t know who the hell he is talking about….but I think in return, he owes us all Oil Change Stouts post game at some point this year.The Boy: I’ll take Brown Ale. And meanwhile, I have to give the same predictable answer as most others. The volleyball team could be very impressive this year, as could wrestling, baseball, softball, and about eight other sports. But all my life, football has been #1, and now Mizzou’s football team can be #1 as well...in the Big 12 North, anyway. We’ve reached the point in Gary Pinkel’s tenure where 8-4 will be considered disappointing. It’s full-speed ahead, no turning back, et cetera, et cetera. This year shapes up in the most tense way possible—2-3 gimmes, 1 likely loss, and 8-9 ‘should win’ games. The past has not been kind to Mizzou in the ‘should win’ category, but this is a brand new day, a fresh start, clean slate...et cetera. To the extent that I can, being that I post football links on a daily basis, I’ve tried to avoid discussing actually predictions or projections. My brain just can’t handle it right now. I just want to close my eyes and wake up on September 1. Granted, I’ll be at a wedding in Minnesota on September 1, and not at the Edward Jones/TWA/Ted Drewes Dome, but still...just take me to that day.
I also can’t wait to play Hawaii in the Fiesta Bowl. Yeah, I said it.
