Any game on the road in the SEC could be a loss so Vandy and Kentucky, who has had our number, are no sure things. However Kentucky lost a ton and SoCar is at home so 8 and 0 is not an insane projection. Would love to hit that mark instead of the usual garbage to start the year followed by winning October and November.

The pass defense has got to improve. And I'm not sure losing Hilton is that big of a loss - most of his interceptions were due to him being out of position and a QB leaving too much air under a pass to a wide open WR with Hilton recovering due to his athleticism. I'm very excited to see what Jalani Williams will bring. Losing Hall and Lee at the LB spot is going to very tough to overcome. LB is an area we need to recruit better at. With the returning line depth I feel confident about the defense improving as a whole. Plus, good point in the article about the offense helping the defense more this year with more of a ground and pound, clock eating offense based around the run. Is it football season yet???

Ha! I like the idea of the NCAA showing up to apologize. What's more likely is they impose additional sanctions and more post-season bans. I'm still worried about our back 7. Hopefully our young safeties can come in and elevate that group right away. And we lost 2 of our 3 starting LB's. The defense has trended upward (it helps starting from the bottom) and I really would like to avoid regression. Good question on the backfield. Rountree is a stud but Badie is pretty small so not sure what else we have behind Larry. Most importantly hoping that everyone stays healthy this year!! I'm bullish on the Gers for 2019 and think we contend for the East. As usual we'll be overlooked with everyone, rightfully, picking Georgia followed by Florida and UT.

Thanks mudragon! It's nice to see other fans from the SEC back Mizzou on this one. It seems like the NCAA are the ones who are completely in the wrong given the backlash from not only Mizzou fans, not only SEC fans, but college football fans in general. The 3rd point in particular is interesting since it's less reliant on historical precedent but more forward looking. Mizzou is really putting it to the committee as they're calling them out, which is a nice touch. If they don't lessen the sanctions then the NCAA looks bad in condoning lying/stonewalling. Well played Sterk!

I'd like to see all the senior stays along with some sort of resolution of our appeal to the ridiculous sanctions. Outside of that I'm with zoucat - I want to see our defense take it ups a notch, especially in the turnover area. A number of our interceptions were on the quarterback as opposed to our secondary making plays. Hilton's picks in particular were due to late throws and Hilton scrambling to get in to position. A timely thrown ball would have equaled touchdowns. Garrett is a lot better than I thought he was going to be. It would be nice to see some of our OLB's make plays behind the line while the d-line and Garrett occupy blockers. Our strength will be the run game behind a massive o-line. Open up the play action for the young stud WR's and hit a long one periodically. And try and keep the D off the field as much as possible.

Springfield??? Gtfo here with that noise! Columbia is very much centered around multiple schools as stated below.

That o-line is legit. With Rountree and Kelly at QB, I think this offense should be very solid despite losing Lock. Hopefully the d continues to get better although our secondary is still a huge concern.

While I agree with Hall I think Terry Beckner has the most to gain from the combine for Mizzou players (I would have said Crockett but he did not receive an invite). Beckner was a 5-star recruit and showed some incredible flashes. The two ACL injuries bring everything in to question so if he can show some skills at the combine, it might elevate him to the 3rd round territory. It's such a deep draft for d-lineman though. I think he's projected as a 4th rounder currently? Not 100% on that.

Agreed. And certainly better than Denver where QB's go to die.

This is the biggest plus side to Mizzou joining the SEC. The Big Texas would never allow any kind of equality in terms of revenue sharing. The high profile nature of the SEC is just icing on the cake. Traveling to Ole Miss, Vandy, Knoxville, Tuscaloosa and just about every other away game is way better than going to Iowa State, Kansas State and just about any other Big 12 school (outside Austin, Austin is great).

Thanks from the Tiger faithful (Mizzou Tigers that is)!!! Most, or pretty much everyone, has been supportive regardless of the school they back. Anyone with any kind of non-biased stance can see how ridiculous this ruling is. Hopefully this appeal process lifts the bowl ban at the least and reduces the recruiting limitations. However given how stiff this penalty is, I'm not holding my breath.

Couldn't agree more LSUSMC - we need to go in guns blazing on this one. The NCAA's horribly inconsistent ruling here needs to be reduced. If not, this bowl ban, along with the recruiting limitations, will seriously hamper any gains we've made the last two years.

Let's not forget Notre Dame, who had a staffer from the football team help 2 athletes with their exams and assisted others in schoolwork. The guy worked for the football team, unlike the Mizzou tutor. What did Notre Dame get? Essentially nothing. This is such a joke.

This cheating? Did you read the NCAA report that states the university had nothing to do with it and that the tutor acted alone? Oh, you didn't? Shocker there. And every fan base has a subset of fans that are a bit, embarrassing. Miss State has them too. And I'm sure the SEC takes in to account what fans are posting on a message board. Good post though, guy!

As a friend of mine said, the moral of this story is to lie and never admit and nothing happens (UNC), while cooperating results in severe punishment (Mizzou). I am a Mizzou grad to I am biased but this seems incredibly heavy handed by the NCAA. The NCAA gave the tutor the same show cause penalty they gave Baylor hoops coach Dave Bliss, who tried to frame a player for murder. At the very least hopefully this postseason ban gets delayed a year so Bryant doesn't transfer. I am hopeful the appeal process gets a fair shake but nothing with the NCAA ever seems to be fair. The last thing Mizzou football can take is a bowl ban and scholarship reductions. We have a hard enough time recruiting as it is!

Hard to fault them for putting Trevor Lawrence on the list over Tua - splitting hairs basically. Love that Albert O came back and nice to see some recognition. Now if he can stay healthy all year he should live up to it.

Agreed!! I was very worried he was gone! The offense is much more dynamic with Albert O out there. I'm looking forward to next season!

I want what you're smoking TD if you think Badie is better than Crockett. Crockett is a beast, when healthy, which he wasn't a portion of the year, which is why Rountree got more run. I'd prefer a backfield of Crockett and Rountree over Rountree and Badie. Badie is too undersized to be anything but a situational player. And a buddy of mine says Albert O is leaving as well. Hopefully he is wrong.

Very true. That throw included in the article against Florida is just a thing of beauty!! In terms of just arm talent, he is up there all time. Decision making, sure, not always the greatest but that arm though. Shame there isn't a game against Georgia included in this article. All in all, he will be missed!!

I find an 8-4 record far from embarrassing. What was embarrassing, and your coach confirmed it in his post-game press conference, was the way that Mizzou's lines pushed Georgia's lines around. If Mizzou was able to do that, I'm pretty sure Bama isn't going to have an issue doing the same. If Albert O was ruled down, after being pushed backwards 2 yards, before fumbling for a defensive td, that game is a lot different. Apparently most Georgia fans cannot be subjective, which is a shame. Most of the fans I've met at games have been nice - apparently I didn't run in to UGA93 or GaDawg85. Hopefully the dogs can at least give them a game - they seem to be trending upward.

Those games at Arrowhead were awesome - would be great to renew that like you both said. And you're spot on UGARMYRet - we have to wait for KU to stop pouting - ha!!!!

Obviously you've been paying attention to Mizzou there eh AUforever? You realize we play Vandy and Arkansas at home and at Tennessee in between? I like our chances to win out and see what happens in a bowl game.

Mizzou's is good - how did we lose those games???? DOH...dammit indeed!

No way Mizzou wins Saturday, not after this past loss to Kentucky.

Unbelievable that Kentucky fans can begin to defend that call. The UK receiver initiated contact with a two handed shove to our DB's helmet, then pushed off his head to try and make the catch. In between that, there was some hand fighting between the two but the Mizzou DB was staring the ball down to try and make a play. You just can't make that call at the end of the game. Horrible. Regardless we let Kentucky hang around and had the worst coaching in the history of man by throwing the ball repeatedly late - especially on 3rd and 2?? Ugh.

This right there Tiger was the problem. We played scared, didn't want to trust Lock by throwing on 1st or 2nd down so we were perpetually in 3rd and long. And then you throw when you only need 2 yards? Fire Odom now, get the search started sooner than later and hope you can get a guy who can recruit better than 40th in the nation (and typically last or 2nd to last in the SEC).

That should be an F. 200 yards of offense in the first half and then you go in to prevent offense. How many attempts did Lock have in the second half? They played scared and then when you need 2 yards and to burn clock/make them use their last time out you throw a pass?? Are you kidding me???? Horrible, horrible coaching. And that PI call at the end of the game is horrendous. I'm not blaming the refs - Odom put them in a position to fail - but you can't throw that flag there.

Well Tigurr, you were right and I was wrong. Odom is horrible - he should have been fired immediately when Kentucky scored. I don't care about who we get but it needs to be somebody besides Barry. Indefensible. As for the game, we had 200 yards of offense in the first half and Lock was fine. Then we went in to a shell, the offensive equivalent of a prevent - preventing us from winning. No creativity and then when you just needed to run the ball, you throw a pass????!!!!!!!!!!!!!! If I didn't graduate from Mizzou I'd give up and follow a new team.

Unless there was a correction he's got us putting up less vs. UF and UT but more against Arky. UF is on the road and I'd say Florida's defense is better, at least lately. I'd like to think we put more up on UT so that's a bid strange. I'm not sure we put that many up on Kentucky this weekend either.

When did you start following the Tigers Tigurr? They were absolutely unwatchable in the 80's, 90's and early 00's, minus 2 years under Larry Smith, prior to Pinkel's arrival. So yeah, Pinkel got a lot of praise and rightfully so. He brought the Tigers up from the dregs of the Big 12 to being #1 in the nation in 2007 (granted it was for a week but whatever). That KU/Mizzou game at Arrowhead was easily the best sporting event I've ever attended. So making bowl games for Mizzou was a big deal since we were used to getting beat by Nebraska, Oklahoma and Texas by 50 to 70 points on a regular basis. I guess I'm delusional then. Was it all Pinkel? No, Kugalowski (spelling?) was a big part of that but Pinkel deserved the praise he got. As for Odom, I only gave him credit for going for it, which he didn't do the week prior against Bama. He is a 3rd year coach who never was a HC prior to this. Do I love the guy? No. Am I going to root for him and hope we win? Of course. What's your alternative? No one wanted the job after the whole hunger strike fiasco so we took what we could get. I went to an event after Odom was hired and he came across very well - sharp guy and obviously passionate about my Gers so I'm going to pull for him.