A Terrible Day in Columbia, Mo.

I will keep this short.  I have been a Missouri Tiger fan for seven decades.  I saw my first game at Memorial Stadium in 1969 and have been hooked on Mizzou football since.

Today I returned to what is now Faurot Field at Memorial Stadium for the first time since prior to the Covid-19 pandemic.  I was excited when I walked into the stadium but that feeling didn't last long.  Missouri went three and out on its first possession and Tennessee responded by punching Missouri in the mouth and scoring in less than two minutes.  And the Volunteers continued to score on each of their seven possessions in the first half.  At halftime the score was 45-10 Tennessee and it got worse in the second half as the Vols ran it up on the Tigers.  The final was 62-24 and it could have been worse.

I am not happy with the way Missouri's 2021 season is progressing.  They are now 2-3 and will be lucky to win more than four games this year.  Coach Eliah Drinkwitz is in his second year and the honeymoon is over.  He hired a new defensive coordinator in Steve Wilks this past off season.  Wilks changed the Tigers defensive scheme to a 3-3-5 today, but without success.  As a fan who pays for the privilege to buy tickets, tickets and parking, I am not happy.  Wilks will be lucky to make it to the end of the season.  Drinkwitz is a good coach and will get more time, but he had better turn this around soon.

Barry Odom Dismissed by Mizzou

I had heard the rumors all week and had hoped they were wrong. But, this morning my beloved University of Missouri fired Head Football Coach Barry Odom after finishing the year with a 6-6 record.

The season started full of promise and the Mizzou PR machine cranked out enough crap that many of us bought into the belief this could be the university's best football team in ten years.  After all the Tigers had their toughest SEC opponents at home and a relatively easy non-conference schedule.  Plus the MU hype machine told the fan base that Kelly Bryant was the second coming of Chase Daniel.

I should have known something was wrong when the Tigers shot themselves in the foot in their season opener at Wyoming.  Mizzou scored two touchdowns on its first two possessions only to be outscored the rest of the way by a mid major.that ended the year with a 7-5 record.

But then the team bounced back winning five in a row (all at home) against the likes of West Virginia, South Carolina and Ole Miss. In fact after beating Mississippi on October 12th the Tigers were ranked at #22 in the nation.  And that was the beginning of the end.

Mizzou went on the road for games at Vanderbilt and Kentucky and lost both of them to two, to be honest, crappy football teams.  In the process Missouri looked terrible and fans and friends started to question just how good the team was.  The following week certainly didn't help as Mizzou had to play Georgia in Athens.  And the #4 Bulldogs dominated the Tigers in all facets of the game shutting out Missouri 27-0.

It just got worse, the following week Florida came to Columbia and the #8 Gators shut down the Tigers 23-6.  And the Tigers again couldn't find the end zone.  The last time that happened was against Kentucky two weeks prior.  The fans in my section at Faurot Field were irate at the end of the game at the lack of offense.  But, there was hope the Tigers would get bowl eligible the following week against Tennessee.  (As an aside, bowl eligibility became academic since the NCAA ruled against Missouri's appeal in late November for losing institutional control to a woman who wrote papers and took tests for players on her own before deciding to turn the football, baseball and softball teams into the NCAA).

The win against Tennessee never happened.  The Vols beat Mizzou 24-20 in a game in which Mizzou struggled to move the ball in the second half.  Tennessee was obviously the better team and as I walked back to my parking space I stopped to use the men's room in the Hearnes building and fans were banging the stalls chanting "Fire Odom now!"  In retrospect, Coach Odom had one week left.

His final game was against a horrible Arkansas team yesterday afternoon in a half full War Memorial Stadium in Little Rock.  After five straight losses Mizzou won by a count of 24-14.  Both teams were using quarterbacks that were barely on the roster at the start of the season.  Arkansas ended the year at 2-10 and lost every game in the SEC with the wins coming against mid major schools.  To put it bluntly Arkansas was terrible.

So, having finished the season with a win, I was optimistic Odom would be retained for one more year since his contract had been extended by two years in 2018.  I also thought the Athletic Department would insist on changes in his coaching staff, especially demanding the replacement of offensive coordinator Derek Dooley who had come to Mizzou before the 2018 season.  Well, I was correct.  Dooley and all of the Tigers assistants are probably out of jobs now depending on whom Mizzou Athletic Director Jim Sterk decides to hire.  According to what I heard this afternoon Sterk is conducting a "national search"for the next head coach.  (National search, is code for please keep buying season tickets and contributing money to the athletic scholarship fund, while we try to figure out what we're doing).

One thing people need to remember about this season is the Tigers lost their best defensive player in Cale Garrett the first week of October in the game against Troy.  Garrett dominated opposing offenses and was a preseason first team all SEC pick.  The Tigers also had numerous injuries on defense that led to both starting corners being out of the game against Tennessee.  There's no doubt Tennessee took advantage of the younger inexperienced defensive backs who started the game for Mizzou.  And it ended up costing Missouri the game.  You certainly couldn't blame Odom for the injuries.

The question I will always have, unless it comes out at some point, is what happened to the team between the Ole Miss game and the Vanderbilt games?  Mizzou was confident and its offense moved the ball at will against the Rebels.  Seven days later in Nashville, the Tigers were feckless.  And the offense remained that way for the rest of the season.  Granted Clemson transfer QB Kelly Bryant was nagged by injuries for the rest of the season.  But, at times it appeared as if the offense was just going through the motions.  What happened on the practice field or in the locker room to cause this breakdown?  Was there dissension on the team and if so what caused it?  And if it did exist why wasn't this coaching staff able to stop it?  My point is the Tigers looked like two different teams from the time they were 5-1 and the next game against Vandy.  I hope one of the young reporters in the University of Missouri Journalism school might be able to come up with an answer, if in fact there was a split between the players.

I've been watching Missouri for 50 years since I saw my first Mizzou game in 1969 against Illinois.  So, I'm not about to give up my season tickets now and stop donating to the university.  But, if someone from the Athletic Department reads this I want them to know I am not happy about the dismissal of Barry Odom.  Hopefully Mizzou is not starting that cycle of hiring a coach, firing him five years later and blowing up the program in the process.  Hopefully there are people in the department who remember that 20 year period the Tigers went through in the 80s and 90s where Missouri rarely had winning teams or went bowling.  Jim Sterk take your time in hiring a new coach and please pay them more than most other SEC coaches are making.  The state, alums of Mizzou and football fans of the Tigers deserve the best.

Florida Bound

My beloved Missouri Tigers football team is headed to Orlando on New Year's Day to take on the Minnesota Golden Gophers in the Citrus Bowl.

Mizzou is 10-3 and got there by winning the Southeast Conference East Division and then losing the league championship to Alabama.  The Tigers got beat by the Crimson Tide 42-13.  (Yes, I know it happened a week ago but it has taken me some time to get past it).

But that's history now.  The Tigers and the Gophers will kickoff at Noon Central Time on New Year's Day on ABC.  M-I-Z

Tigers Put it all Together

I won't dwell on this but my beloved Missouri Tigers basketball team put together two solid halves tonight and smoked the Arkansas Razorbacks 93-63.  The Tigers led 48-22 at half, in what I believe was the team's best half of the year.  Mizzou dominated Arkansas on the boards and at the Free-Throw line.

Missouri finishes it's home season with a perfect 16-0 record.  The 22-8 Tigers complete their regular season in Knoxville on Saturday afternoon when they take on the Tennessee Volunteers.

All Hail the Crimson Tide

OK, this is late in being posted but I still need to say it.  Congratulations to the Alabama Crimson Tide on winning the 2013 NCAA Football Championship. 

If you watched the game you know it was no contest.  Had it been a prize fight it would have been stopped in the second quarter.  The Tide totally dominated Notre Dame in the 41-14 win.  My thought at the end of the game was Notre Dame was about the same level as Florida, Georgia and South Carolina.  The Irish would have been beaten by LSU and Texas A&M.  If Notre Dame played Alabama 20 times Alabama would win each time and they would all be mis-matches.  The Tide are just that good.

Congratulations to the SEC on winning it's 9th BCS championship in 15 years.  The next closest conference in BCS wins is the Big 12 with a whopping two victories.

I Would Go Broke

Good thing I don't pick college football games for a living.  Yesterday I was critical of the University of Louisville football team and compared them to Northern Illinois.  Man, was that a mistake.

Louisville dominated Florida last night in the Sugar Bowl and upset the SEC power 33-23.  In looking back I should have been more careful.  The Gators had been feckless on offense against lesser teams for the past four weeks of the season.  One of those games was against my beloved Mizzou Tigers.  Missouri had a chance to tie the game on the final play of that game 14-14, only to have a pass sail just over the head of an open receiver.

So, to all of the Louisville Cardinals fans I may have offended, my congratulations to you and your team on a nice win and a good season.

Missouri Tigers Basketball

 Don't look now, but my beloved Missouri Tigers are the highest rated SEC team in the latest AP Basketball Poll.  The Tigers check in at number 12 this week just in front of the Florida Gators.  The Tigers and Gators will meet in three weeks at Gainesville on Saturday afternoon the 19th.

The Tigers are ten and two, with a loss to Louisville and a loss to UCLA at Pauley Pavilion in overtime last Friday night. Key wins in the Mizzou season include Stanford, VCU and Illinois.  The Tigers have one more non-conference game this weekend and that is full speed into the School's first year in the SEC.  Go Tigers!  M-I-Z!!!

Happy New Year!

As the title of this post indicates, I really hope that you and the ones you love have a Happy New Year.  It was a good one, except for the hoosier neighbors down the street waking everyone up with fireworks at midnight.  

You may have noticed this is written on January 2nd, mainly because I spent New Year's Day sampling the Smorgasbord of NCAA football bowl games.

I also learned, again, that if it's New Year's Day the Big 10 (or maybe it's the Big 12 or possibly the Big 14) will choke big time.  The Big Ten went a whopping one and four.  The only winner in the group was Northwestern which finally won a bowl game for the first time since 1949.  The Big Ten losers list includes Nebraska, Michigan, Purdue and Wisconsin.  At the same time the SEC conference played three games yesterday winning two of them (South Carolina in the Outback Bowl and Georgia in the Capital One Bowl).

And a final thought on the Bowl games yesterday; Northern Illinois had no business playing in the Orange Bowl.  Florida State had their way with the NIU in a 31-10 romp.  My guess is Louisville of the Big East will  suffer a similar fate this evening in the Sugar Bowl when they run into the Florida at the Super Dome.  For the record I forecast a 31-14 Florida win.

Now ESPN is Trying to Save Face

It's bad enough that ESPN is totally irresponsible, but now it's parent company is trying to help the child save face, and it says something about the way ABC/Disney do business. At halftime of the ACC Championship game, ABC's talking idiots in the studio said, I kid you not, "Well it will be interesting to see what happens with Les Miles and Michigan after the LSU game is over".

What? Miles said in his news conference, which anyone could see, he is staying at LSU. But, ESPN/ABC just won't admit they screwed up big time. At the SEC Championship game Miles told a CBS reporter..."I WILL be at LSU next year". End of story. Period.

But, what do the ESPN talking heads say at halftime? They question where he is going. Can you believe that? The ESPN/ABC producers are idiots.

Bottom line is ESPN screwed up badly. They screwed up about as bad as Dan Rather did on the George Bush story, which ultimatly led to Rather's retirment. But, what makes it worse is ABC/ESPN just won't say hey folks we screwed up. Somewhere, there is an executive telling the talking heads how to spin it. And that is just pathetic.