I don't comment as much on SDS as I cherry-pick better stories off my news feed, but the biggest takeaway from this game was Bryant's huge, long successful throws. Simply beautiful. His end-zone interceptions (UW and SEMO) indicate forcing TD plays cross-body or off the back foot -- often when not really necessary. He should let things flow organically, he plays better that way anyway. Really, Albert O and Knox are the only trustworthy vertical pass catchers. He'll get his 2 passing TDs per game and the world will notice. It will come with better competition and consistency. He's very good.

Enjoyed the article. Top to bottom. And I empathized about college costs, Bright Futures and paying athletes. If we set the precedent that a kid who can run a 4.3 deserves to be paid, then kids who do research on medical studies will want to be paid, all students who scratch their backsides will want to be paid and the internship-apprenticeship nature of college will be gone forever -- and become cost prohibitive. Or it will become full-ride and state paid, making college no distinction whatsoever from a high school degree.

Back in the early days of cable TV, when we started paying our bills, there was one entity that represented the lion's share of costs you were paying for -- long before any re-transmission rights and fees -- regardless of whether you cared about sports or not -- that entity was ESPN. So when picking sides, consider which giant you're rooting for. As much as 50 percent of your cable bill went to ESPN alone. This was even during the Bowling Championship "the ocho" days of ESPN in the 80's. And college-wise, this was largely with no-salary athletes. The SEC is contractually in bed with ESPN, of course. No conference decision or impact is very far removed from the Disney corporate office -- sorry about those game times, Mr. Saban. ESPN/Disney owns the SEC. So bragging about the SEC's revenue haul each year is like bragging about your high tax bill and how well your Great (Worldwide) Leader (in Sports) is treating you while giving you the prison shower treatment. Thank you sir, may I have another. For that reason, if I'm paying for something, I focus on just what I want so I (semi-) know where the money is going. If I'm gonna get screwed, I want to know their name. For that reason, I stream with Sling + sports, which is at least somewhat more transparent about where the dollars are actually clustered, although the base price STILL offsets the "live" (sports) costs, to a great degree. I bought a $10 antenna for locals. Adding sports "orange" and/or "blue" is telling you a hunk of what you spend is on the sports dynasties, largely the ESPN network family. NFL Sunday Ticket shows what adding player salaries, egos and glitz will do to college football eventually. It won't be just CTE killing the game, it will be the money.

Good luck to the young man. Hope he does well.

I'm usually leery of all black unis when trying to contrast wide receivers against the same team's all-black unis on the sidelines. But hey, they look good. I like the bold gold stripe.

Also, Kelly Bryant had 3 touchdowns, not 2.

People actually watched this game? Ha, go fig.

Thank you sweet Jesus for bringing football back to us again -- and all the other stuff too.

^^^^ And therein lies the point: at those other schools he'll be merely "depth." Best of luck to him, hope he comes back home to MO.

There was no pay-out. It was a home and home spaced apart.

Considering how it went together, there's nothing odd about travelling to Wyoming. It extends back to when Mizzou moved conferences and was trying to fill the schedule. Christiansen had just moved from OC at Mizzou HC at Wyoming and he and Pinkel were doing each other a solid -- as Mizzou was struggling to put together a schedule for a couple of years there -- hence they arranged a home and home. The same opportunity was extended to former DC Dave Steckel at Missouri State when he took the HC job there, but at home only. Mizzou would not go back and do a reschedule on a solid done for us -- that's bad voodoo. Mizzou is loyal to a fault, even to past coaches/buddies -- but that ain't a bad thing. Favors "are remembered" -- like "winning in November" -- to paraphrase Pinkel.

School administrators actually considered changing Oregon's uniform to black, featuring a black bandanna under the facemask.

It's a good thing regarding Arkansas at Arrowhead. It's a holiday weekend and attendance will be better in KC than on campus.

I'm curious about the Vols, as improvement curves are harder to predict. It takes an actual game to assess improvement. The Vols could be significantly better quite quickly. A bye has not been significantly a positive factor in Mizzou's case so I don't know how much it might help teams in the final analysis, unless a player is back from a minor injury. Frankly, rust usually offsets the returner's immediate impact. The Vol's general depth allows a bye to do some switching, adjusting and evaluation, which could speed their process along. Mizzou counts upon player improvement more than depth. Either they do or they don't.

I'm not predicting here, but I think the 700 rushing is quite doable and I think gettin this touchdowns up to closer to 20+ would be a better goal for him. The first is not out of character and the second would appease the NFL scouts more than a scrambler getting 3500 yards. It's nice but the big want in the NFL right now is redzone TD scoring, which is in decline. He's an intermediate passer and he should focus on this me thinks.

You took your assignment seriously. Those are indeed bold.

Appreciate the contribution both made to the team and wish them the best going forward. I'm sure they will do well.

Reads like a Snopes fact-check article: fact, fact, fact -- illogical conclusion. Repeat.

Happy they're coming. On paper, some prognosticators say the game should be better than many people think, despite a 1st year coach at WVU. They had a pretty admirable year last year, beating Texas and Texas Tech.

Could be worse, like another Florida article.

This is delusional sunshine pumping. SDS engages in it because Florida is a huge football state and their fans are getting to Tennessee-stage-rabid due to a lack of consistent growth and success. They'll lite-out unless someone stirs the fire. It's the same reason ESPN networks pump Florida among the SEC teams, because they practically own the conference; it's for clicks and viewers and polls. I know; I've lived in Florida for years and sold or edited sports and advertising nearly my entire adult life. After a while, it's just plain annoying. Proffering that Florida's defense bested a new quarterback, young o-line and new coach of a middlin ACC Coastal team is the ultimate in "we suck less" mentality to appease the faithful. Florida is an semi-above-average team that beat a team they should have beaten handily, but did so with some difficulty. A win is indeed a win. 1-0 is indeed all that matters. But we should leave it at that. Indicators are that they will stay the same, or they will get better, nothing else. It's not profound. But the narrative is folly.

Bill, you have an obsessive compulsive problem; you can't let it go; I can't fix it. I can re-speak the truth over and over and you choose alternative truth -- which doesn't exist. I can't help your delusions.

1) "Better bet" refers to the author's choosing Mizzou, whose point I was defending. 2) Find that quote or link it, because it's not true, although I did say Lock is projected to go 1st round (as most did) I did not say it was my projection. 3) EVERYTHING you twins are saying is projection based on conjecture and last year, not facts and stats. That's no different than projecting Bryant's individual performance for purposes of a preseason power poll, especially when Ranger brought him up in the first place.

No, I did not "say the same thing about Lock last year" because it would apply. I don't predict wins/losses; therefore, I would never have written that. I write about stats, whether it (was/or is) Lock's or anyone else's -- not to pick or call an outcome from it. I never comment pre-game. I don't pick wins/losses. Bad ju-ju. You brought up Bryant, not me. And Bryant smoked Bentley -- badly. If you don't want to back up something, don't be wrong. You're talking out of the side of your fanboy mouths without statistical backup or a valid argument.

Bill and Ranger Brothers, no I didn't. Why? You're comments don't make sense. How would Bryant's stats be relevant to a Lock conversation, or WVU, much less a 2019 Power Poll. Try harder.

That's why they play the games. There is no other metric other than winning, lest we all become clairvoyant and have some secret metrics that supercede actual scoring and winning, to preclude actually playing the games. Schedule strength in the end won't matter much, except for those who tally intangibles for tourney placements -- even then, it's dubious and always a source of asterisks.

This is a power ranking for 2019. Mizzou has 8 players on the coaches preseason SEC ALL American teams. SCar, not. Kelly simply has accomplished more so far in his career than Bentley and is a better bet. Kelly also hung 274 yards passing -- 26 rushing -- on Bentley's 126 -- and 9 -- in 2017 in a head to head SCar blowout. So there's that. (He also beat Mond head to head too -- but shush).

Short wait. Mizzou plays West Virginia 2nd game, 8-4, 4th of 10 in single division Big-12. They only lost to OSU, Iowa St. Syracuse (bowl) and OKlahoma. Miami was 7-6, 4th in double-division ACC Coastal. Miami isn't in West Virginia's class. So you have a short wait. Google can be good.

What a shame. Looked forward to seeing him play.

All I saw was an egregious holding penalty that wasn't called on the Gators.