Look, I am fine having a conversation at any other point about SEC officiating, which legitimately is a problem, but not in response to Tennessee fans throwing items onto the field. That can't be rewarded. The only thing in regards to this that needs to be addressed is making sure the offending Tennessee fans (or as many as possible, I'm aware that finding all of them will not be possible) are kept out of Neyland going forward. You don't award a toddler's temper tantrum by giving them what they want or they will just keep doing it. That's what this is.

You are proving his point, actually.

I appreciate the projection, but Missouri not only has to beat Vanderbilt and South Carolina (somewhat doable? Maybe?) but also do that AND beat one of A&M/UGA/UF/Arkansas. I'm not saying it's impossible, but it's going to require one of those teams just forgetting that they roster any running backs for 60 consecutive minutes of gametime.

Eh, there's no way Texas A&M is just gonna line up against us and get 300 yards rushing. They'll give five or six hundred

I see no way we are held to 17 points, and I also see no way you only score 27. This game gonna be in the 30s-40s for both teams. Unless it is a torrential downpour on Saturday (and rain is in the forecast, sadly.)

Leaving for Columbia, Missouri in an hour. No matter what team each program fields, what each team is ranked (or more often, isn't) or any other factor, there is only ever one acceptable score prediction for a Tennessee/Mizzou football game. Missouri 50, Tennessee 17. Go Tigers.

If you watched Connor Bazelak play on Saturday and moved him DOWN three spots...well, you didn't watch Connor Bazelak play, did you, so it's not really relevant. He had a great game. You're dropping him because our defense couldn't stop the run to save its life, which overall doesn't make a ton of sense.

How does this relate to the post you were responding to? Just curious if you could explain.

I fully support it, but why the heck is kansas playing Coastal Carolina every single year? It's absolutely hilarious that they randomly happened to be good and just take them to the woodshed every time, though. And that a lot of people kind of regarded a 27 point loss to a sun belt team as a surprisingly solid result.

Why exactly are you assuming that for the purposes of a Saturday Down South comment, I put any more thought into Georgia/UAB than "make one score relatively big, and the other one relatively little"?

1. Do a better job stopping the run. 2. Do a better job stopping the run. 3. Do a better job stopping the run. If we don't do that, they won't NEED their passing attack. If we can shut them down in the run game (or slow them down) I like the chances of guys like Aykaleb Evans and Blaze Alldredge being able to make their life tough in the pass game. But if they rush for 300 yards, it ain't gonna matter.

*smarter. LOL

I obviously have fairly low confidence in this pick, given I'm picking a 17 point dog to win, LOL. I just don't understand the line at all. I think A&M is a very good team, but there is no reason to think that Colorado isn't at least decent, they're (basically) playing at home, it's liable to be a fairly raucous crowd. I hate to say it, but this game feels A LOT closer to toss-up territory to me than a 17 point spread. Maybe I have a bad read on it, and Colorado is much worse than I'm expecting. Pretending to be smarting than Vegas is usually a bad look. But I simply fail to understand this line at all. It should be well within single digits, IMO.

Really hope your team feels the same way

Picks(FBS only, since none of the teams playing FCS opponents this week seem at risk of pulling a Vandy) MSU 30, NCSU 28 Texas 35, Arkansas 24 Colorado 34, A&M 31 (Colorado is good, it's at altitude, and this point spread is insane. Aggies are better but they can't sleepwalk through this one and expect to survive, and I think that happens) South Carolina 27 East Carolina 23 Pitt 28 Tennessee 27 Colorado State 38, Vanderbilt 14 Kentucky 38 Missouri 21-hate this pick, but hate having this difficult road game this early even more Florida 52 South Florida 6 UGA 35 UAB 14

Mizzou needs to be better at stopping the run against Kentucky than they were against Central Michigan. If they don't do that, UK will not even need good QB play or creative playcalling. If we can tighten that up, and tackle a bit better, it should be a competitive game on Saturday.

He was incredible in the backfield. 3.5 sacks for a linebacker is very impressive. Not to be nitpicky after an excellent performance, but he needs to pick better angles on running plays as that did cost us a few times. But I'm very, very glad we picked him up. We'd be in a world of hurt at LB without him.

Can you send an entire article to @FreezingColdTakes?

I mean, when your Plan B for your starter going down in Week 1 is to start one of the interns, it just doesn't inspire confidence.

I think the Missouri game will be closer than that, TBH. 34-23ish sounds about right.

This is not a gimme. I certainly would not predict a loss, but if this game is still tight into the second half it won't be a shock to me. It would be lovely to have a dominant performance to build confidence and possibly even get some young guys in, but that should be far in the back of our minds for now. Just don't do anything to ruin this season before it properly starts. Bazelak needs to take care of the football, we need to get Tyler Badie going, and the uber-talented, rebuilt secondary...needs to look uber-talented on the field. Not having Mookie Cooper in all likelihood is certainly a blow, but if this is a good team, it should be one we can survive against CMU. Should, being the key word.

Sorry to disappoint, but I see no scenario where any result against Central Michigan is going to cause Mizzou to think we can just sleepwalk into Lexington and come out with a win.

I've said this an awful lot of times now, but you simply must improve your moderation algorithm. I just typed out a post literally outlining Mizzou's schedule and which games I thought we'd win or lose, and it's "awaiting moderation". There is literally no language or content not directly related to the topic. It must be addressed or you will lose users.

I don't think the game is do-or-die in the sense that if we lose the season is over. I do think that a win makes accomplishing our goals-whatever those are-much easier, and a loss makes it much harder. Losing an early one puts a ton of pressure on the Boston College and Tennessee games, and couple of relative tossups. If you beat Kentucky, you can afford to lose one of those games and still be well positioned for a good season. Lose, and those aren't exactly must wins, but they're very, very important. No one wants another situation where we're sitting there at 4-4 and trying to get bowl eligible against a very tough schedule, and winning those early swing games is the easiest way to forestall that.

Like, honestly, I'm MUCH more concerned about the Central Michigan game. I would have given you less side-eye if you'd picked an L there, because they are actually a decent team. Whereas Vandy is not.

I mean okie dokie. Picking us to beat Florida and lose to Vandy is totally reasonable and logical and that sure does make sense. Yes, it could happen, but good lord that is an odd thing to predict. If you think we are going to lose to Vandy you should have picked us to go 4-8

Also, if they lose to Central Michigan (not likely, but with a very young team that will likely be missing Mookie Cooper, possible), that opens up a whole new scenario. It could of course be a fluke where they still go on to have a decent season, but I think most any scenario that ends with a full-on 4-8 type disaster starts with something stupid happening next Saturday afternoon. Without that, given the schedule I don't see how they could manage worse than 5-7 if they tried.

Absolute best case scenario (within reason) for me: Win all of the relative tossups, to me meaning games with between a ~35%-65% chance of winning. This would include Kentucky, Boston College, Tennessee, Arkansas, and maybe SC (that trends more towards "should win". Don't drop any stupid games, like in the opener or against Vandy. And then beat one of the "Big 3" on the schedule, meaning A&M, UGA, and Florida. That gets you to 10-2, and 2nd in the East, and a big time bowl. It's JUST within reach if the team overachieves, but will take a lot of luck and the team absolutely playing to its ceiling. It's certainly not my prediction, so no, don't @ me saying I predicted a 10 win season. Worst case involves losing both of those early toss-ups against SC and Kentucky. Then they lose a close one at home against what in that situation is a must-have against Tennessee. Then you're sitting their at 2-3. The upcoming schedule (North Texas, Texas A&M, Vanderbilt) still leads to the team getting back to .500 at 4-4. But with Georgia, South Carolina, Florida, and Arkansas remaining, do you like the odds of a 4-4 team winning two of those? It's certainly possible, but I'd bet against it. Most likely scenario: they win one or two of the UK/BC/UT stretch, beat SC, Vandy, and the G-5 teams, and that's pretty much a 7ish win season. Maybe 8.

Boston College is pretty good, though. I'm not saying it's anywhere near a certain loss, but it strikes me as a toss-up more than anything. It's not the same as losing to Vanderbilt or Wyoming, or even that Indiana loss in 2014. I get that BC has very little cred on the FB field in the modern era, but they've been a solid program lately on a similar footing to us, and it's on the road. I expect BC to be a slight home favorite in fact.

Oh good lord. Yes, Mizzou might be a 1-2 point dog in those last three, but those are toss up games. Whoever wins will not have pulled an upset. Georgia, Florida, and A&M are valid entries, but the rest is nonsense. It might be technically accurate to say these are upsets, but it's completely against the spirit of that term.