It comes as quite a shock that at this point in the college football season, the Missouri team is being mentioned in discussions of the national championship and their quarterback, Chase Daniel, is being considered for the Heisman Trophy.
It all comes as a bit of a surprise because Missouri football is not exactly a traditional powerhouse, and the past several years have been mired in mediocrity. Back when I started grad school, an unknown by the name of Kirk Farmer was the quarterback. It became a semi-big deal when Darius Outlaw became the quarterback with Justin Gage as wide receiver. I even recall lame promotional items hyping the "Outlaw with a 12 Gage".
But fast-forward about 6 or 7 years now, right past the moderately successful Brad Smith era, and we now have a more complete team largely due to the excellent play of quarterback Chase Daniel.
Also of importance are tight ends Chase Coffman and Martin Rucker. And keep an eye on freshman WR Jeremy Maclin. He's arguably one of the best players on the team already and he's only getting better The offense ranks among the top in the nation, largely due to Daniel's 26 TD passes and approximately 3300 yards so far. Some might say Daniel must be putting something on the ball.
Today's matchup against the Kansas State Wildcats really should NOT be much of a problem, but I've learned not to take anything for granted. Missouri enters the game at the 5th ranked team in the country, while Kansas State is on a bit of a downward spiral after some recent big losses, none worse than the 73-31 whooping handed to them by Nebraska last week.
Missouri is in a position now to control their own destiny. I would be surprised if Missouri did make it to the national championship but just the fact that its a possibility at this point is a bit exciting. As the #1 ranked team, LSU is nearly a lock to make it to the championship. But with #2 Oregon losing a couple of days ago (and the loss of Heisman candidate Dennis Dixon for the year), it sets up the likely scenario of a Big 12 team in the championship game. Oklahoma, as the current #3 team, is probably the most likely, but it should come down to whoever wins the Big 12 championship. To get to that point, Missouri needs to win today and then set their sites on #4 Kansas team at Arrowhead Stadium next weekend. Kansas is an even more surprising 10-0 so far this season (must be nice to not have to play Oklahoma or Texas) and any true Missouri fan has to despise anything Kansas. Like many others, I'm just waiting for the Kansas team to choke, perhaps on one of their coach's cupcakes? Anyway, I seem to be overlooking today's matchup against K-State but I sure hope that the Missouri team doesn't do the same. Gametime is in just a few minutes, so I'm going to have to wrap up this posting.
Go Mizzou!
3 comments:
Nice second half last night. I've got to admit that I'm a little bit more excited about the Mizzou v Kansas game on Saturday than I am about Georgia v Georgia Tech. I still can't believe that either of these teams will be playing LSU in January, but it's looking more likely. I guess since we're gone now maybe the choking era is over?
I am really excited about the Mizzou vs. Kansas game. I think if Mizzou beats KU and OU, they will be in the championship game. In all honesty, I'll just be happy if they beat KU.
I read that at the end of the MU vs. K-state game, the K-state fans went to the Mizzou end of the field and started shouting "Beat KU" over and over again while the Mizzou players were heading to their locker room. Gotta love it.
Hey Meyers,
Happy Thanksgiving from across the pond! Look forward to your post about the MU-KU game!
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