Wasson: How long can Missouri’s high-wire act continue to last?
By David Wasson
Published:
We wrote here in this space 3 weeks back that it might be time to start considering an all-in move on the Missouri Tigers.
At that moment, Mizzou was 2-0 and ranked No. 6 in the country. Now, Mizzou is 4-0 and ranked No. 9. There aren’t many possible scenarios we can dream up that would involve an SEC program actually moving down 3 spots in the polls despite remaining undefeated, but then again …
This is Missouri we are talking about. And the Tigers’ past couple of outings have us asking not how an undefeated conference team moves down in the polls, but instead: How long will Mizzou’s high-wire act last?
The Tigers opened with great promise, if you recall, thumping Murray State and Buffalo by a combined 89-0. All-American wide receiver Luther Burden III was at the tips of pundits’ tongues as a difference maker, and quarterback Brady Cook was doing Brady Cook things to fuel a high-octane offense.
Defensive coordinator Corey Batoon’s unit was swarming all over the field to give the Tigers back-to-back shutouts for the first time since 1966 — and consecutive shutouts to start a season for the first time since 1935.
This is our year, Mizzou fans were starting to holler. Flocking to ol’ Faurot Field to watch the Tigers was no longer gauche and instead a great way to spend a Saturday. Eli Drinkwitz was starting to gain Coach of the Year traction, and Missouri was being spoken of in the same sentences as Georgia and Alabama.
Two weeks later? Yeah, the Tigers won twice … but there are times when victories almost feel like losses. First, Mizzou needed to rally past 24th-ranked Boston College at home in a game that should have been nowhere near as close.
Sure, you say, but Bill O’Brien has Boston College respectable again, and Missouri hadn’t really been tested by the early cupcakes. Drinkwitz would figure it out, correct the correctables, and they’d roll over Vanderbilt the next week at ol’ Faurot.
Except no one sent Vandy the memo.
Instead, the Commodores gave Mizzou all it could handle, forcing the Tigers into a ton of mistakes and dragging them deep into the double-overtime pool. Once there and looking shakily around for floaties, Mizzou needed a game-winning field goal from Blake Craig (who had already missed 3 attempts earlier in the game) to survive.
That is the key word in the SEC, right? Survive?
Problem is, you shouldn’t need to survive in double-OT against Vanderbilt if you want to be a serious contender in the nation’s deepest conference and for a spot in the expanded 12-team College Football Playoff.
Mizzou should be thriving against the Boston Colleges and Vanderbilts, before the other big boys in the conference come calling. Because coughing up red-zone trips and spreading kicked footballs into far corners of end zones is not a recipe for SEC success.
Not that all is dire in Columbia. Running back Nate Noel gashed Vandy for 199 rushing yards, and Cook has thrown just 1 interception all season. But Cook also has been maddingly middling so far (236.5 yards per game and just 4 touchdown passes), and can’t seem to buy a completion downfield (just 3-of-12 in passes thrown 20-plus yards). And, it’s worth mentioning: Burden is on his side.
Still, it gets no easier moving forward. Mizzou surely spent the entire idle week trying to tune up its offense heading into a trip Saturday to College Station to take on No. 25-ranked Texas A&M. After another confectionary treat in the form of Massachusetts on the road, the Tigers get Auburn at home and then play at top-ranked Alabama to close out October.
It’s no longer talking the talk time for Missouri, and high time to start walking the walk. The nation’s current 101st-easiest schedule is about to get precipitously harder, and without the ability to spark up big plays – the Tigers will be exposed faster than the George Santos for Congress campaign.
Want to be elite, Mizzou? It’s high time you ramp it up on both sides of the ball and play like the preseason top 10 the rest of the country thought you were. Because if not, the Tigers will quickly figure out how slippery the trip down the mountainside is compared to the long hike uphill.
An APSE national award-winning writer and editor, David Wasson has almost four decades of experience in the print journalism business in Florida and Alabama. His work has also appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times and several national magazines and websites. His Twitter handle: @JustDWasson.
