Missouri head coach Eli Drinkwitz walks on the field to see opposing players and coaches after the end of a game against Texas A&M on Saturday, Oct. 5, 2024, at Kyle Field in College Station, Texas. (CAL TOBIAS/ROCK M NATION) What Eli Drinkwitz & Co. had to...
The last non-conference matchup is a SWAC team! Only this one should be decent.
Missouri announced their entire schedule on Tuesday August 20th. And if you’ve read this blog in the past, you know SEC previews are coming, but first we wanted to spend a little time looking at the non-conference slate. So here is the announced non-con schedule:
In the past I’ve gone a bit deeper on these previews than I will here. Think of this series more of a quick-cap than a full-on preview. As the season nears, we’ll have deeper previews, and it’s also easier to preview a team when some games have been played.
With Memphis, Howard, Eastern Washington, Mississippi Valley State, Pacific, Arkansas Pine Bluff, Lindenwood, California, kansas, LIU, Jacksonville State and the Fighting Illini all done we’re at the end. The last team in the non-conference slate, the Alabama State Hornets.
In the past, Missouri teams have used this game as a forgettable getaway game. Last year it was Central Arkansas, a few years back it was Chicago State, I remember Kim Anderson’s last team beating Arkansas Pine Bluff 78-25 on December 29th. I don’t think Alabama State will be that bad, but they won’t be that good either.
Welcome to another episode of Life in the SWAC! As the day turns, Alabama State has scheduled UNLV, LSU, Cincinnati, SMU and Missouri for this upcoming schedule. Their full schedule isn’t updated on their homepage as I’m writing this (which is well before it’s being published), but last year they faced Ole Miss, Iowa, Memphis, LSU, USC, Auburn and South Florida. So I guess there’s room for a few more high majors!
As I’ve said before, you have to give some credit to these teams who schedule this way because it does help them fund their program. Taking checks from high majors and only super rarely pulling off a win. In the history of KenPom, Alabama State has exactly two top 100 wins. In 2005 they beat South Alabama (85th), and in 2015 they beat Virginia Tech (63rd). So roughly once every 10 years. Each of those wins were early in the season, so the 2015-16 season, meaning ASU is due… next year. Take it easy, guys.
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A well-travelled coach isn’t necessarily a bad thing! Tony Madlock is an experienced bench coach with a long history of being an assistant in the SEC. Madlock was a multi-year starter for Memphis (then Memphis State) in the late 80s and early 90s. His senior year he started in the backcourt with Penny Hardaway as those Tigers finished 23-11 and captured a #6 seed in the NCAA Tournament, taking down Arkansas on their way to an Elite 8.
He quickly stepped into coaching, going back to his high school alma mater in 1995, before making the jump to Arkansas State to coach with… did you guess it? Dickey Nutt! That’s right the current Missouri assistant was the head coach at Arkansas State in 1997 when he hired Madlock as an assistant, giving Tony his break into D1 coaching.
In 2006 he left ASU for UTEP under Tony Barbee, who took Madlock with him when Barbee got the job at Auburn. When Barbee was fired at Auburn, Madlock hooked on at Ole Miss under Andy Kennedy (#AKHive) and then went back to Memphis to work with Penny the first few years before taking the head coaching job at South Carolina State and then Alabama State.
Things aren’t easy at Alabama State, but Madlock is in a familiar area, the SEC recruiting footprint, and he’s largely done a solid job of keeping his team competitive within the conference.
The online roster isn’t up to date, so here’s the investigation.
Last year the leading scorer was Madlock’s son T.J. Madlock, who averaged 15.8 ppg as a junior. It looks like he’ll be back, which has to be a big upset for basically every team on Mizzou’s schedule, retaining their leading scorer is rare!
Second leading scorer, C.J. Hines was also a junior last year, and he is ALSO still enrolled! At least from what I can tell. Two for two! They even have Amarr Knox coming back as a junior. So three of their top four scorers are coming back.
It does look like ASU saw six players enter the transfer portal according to EvanMiya.com, but only one of them found a home on his site with Sean Smith going to Western Illinois. Micah Octave is missing from any rosters that I can find. Tadarius Jacobs ended up at Arkansas-Monticello. D’Ante Bass transferred in from Georgetown, played in two games, averaged 16 ppg and then seems to have disappeared off the planet. You see how hard this is to track some of these rosters?
Fortunately, when it comes to additions, ASU issued a press release touting 8 new additions:
That’s 4 from JUCO, two prep schoolers, and two transfers. The ever-present BartTorvik.com projects both Madlock and Hines as double figure scorers, along with Knox at 10.6 ppg. Then Fulcher, the Buffalo transfer, just under double digits. Fulcher averaged 8.4 ppg for the Bulls last year. If all those things happen it’s easy to see how ASU could crack into the top of the SWAC this year.
Missouri is still favored by 18.6 points before the season. Remember, the Hornets once in a decade upset of a top 100 KenPom team has to wait until next season.
Petre Thomas-Imagn Images The last non-conference matchup is a SWAC team! Only this one should be decent. Missouri announced their entire schedule on Tuesday August 20th. And if you’ve read this blog in the past, you know SEC previews are coming, but first we wanted...
That game was butt.
What can you learn about a game that went into garbage time after the first play of the second half? I’d argue: not much.
In this pieces I show you success rates by quarter, where you can see how successful Mizzou’s offense and their opponent’s offense by quarter. The purpose is to show you at what part of the game the offense executed the best but it also helps show you the disparity between how opposing units operated as the game went on.
I’m going to show you two boxes of Success Rates by Quarter. There aren’t any team identifiers associated with these, but they all did happen this year.
Here’s the first:
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And here’s the second:
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Now, the next clue I’ll give you is that both of these boxes involved Mizzou.
Want to take a guess?
Here’s your answer.
Exhibit A is Missouri (on the top) vs. Murray State (on the bottom).
Exhibit B is Missouri (on the top) vs. Texas A&M (on the bottom).
The point? In terms of success rates, A&M beat Missouri about as bad as Missouri beat its FCS opponent this year.
Moving on.
Again, there’s really nothing you can learn from this game but, for tradition’s sake, I’m going to post everything that I normally do. Mostly because I did the work and I need someone to see it to make all of this worth it.
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Mizzou ran three more plays on the same amount of possessions as A&M but was doubled up (at a minimum) in total yards, yards per play, yards per possession, yards per carry, yards per attempt, average yards gained on 1st-down, and points per opportunity.
This was a total ass whipping. As a top ten team. Shameful.
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Entering this game Mizzou’s overall offensive success rate was 49.0%. Rushing success rate was 49.6%. Passing success rate: 48.5%.
For the game, Mizzou’s overall offensive success rate was 25%. Rushing: 28%. Passing: 25.8%.
It was just as bad as it looked.
Not only did Mizzou not hit the goal of 45% success rate running the ball, they only called designed runs on 21 plays. Out of 60 plays total. Against the 53rd-best rushing defense in the country.
Winner: Texas A&M
I set the goal at 37% passing downs success rate and…you know what, Missouri wasn’t able to keep this game close enough to have this even remotely matter. So, no, I’m not doing the math on this one.
Winner: Probably Texas A&M but who cares everything sucked anyway
Six scoring opportunities. Ten points.
Winner: Texas A&M
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Seven different players ran the ball and ten different receivers caught a pass. Even the Swedish guy caught a ball! %&@# dude this was bad.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. Dammit.
Winner: Texas A&M
Lol no.
Winner: Texas A&M
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Hey y’all the penalty problem got fixed.
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[fart sounds]
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Not only did Mizzou only convert 5 of their 3rd downs, they only gained 10 1st-downs the entire game, four of which came when Brady Cook threw to Luther Burden. Bad.
All of Mizzou’s goals are still in front of them, just harder to achieve now.
Go undefeated and you end up at 11-1 and Mizzou’s in the Playoff.
Go lose one game and the record sits at 10-2 and the Tigers are sweating the selection process… but could be in (depending on, ya know, what every other team ends up record-wise).
Lose two more games and the record is 9-3 and you’re probably out of the Playoff.
Go kick UMass’ ass and dominate Auburn and bring back some positivity to this season.
That game was butt. What can you learn about a game that went into garbage time after the first play of the second half? I’d argue: not much. In this pieces I show you success rates by quarter, where you can see how successful Mizzou’s offense and their opponent’s...
System resetting…
I want you all to know that I don’t take the opportunity to write for Rock M for granted.
I’ve been at the site for almost 10 years now, and the chance to write this specific column has been something of a creative lifeline. I really love watching and writing about Mizzou Football, but I’m not nearly the most football-fluent person on the staff. So getting to fuse my culture vulture tendencies with the inherent silliness of the sport has been a blessing. Thanks to all of you who read.
I’d also like to offer a warning, as if the overly sincere introduction to this column wasn’t already a clue: This week’s Revue is one joke. And it’s one joke only. I’ve always thought of this column as a labor of love. But it’s labor nonetheless, labor I don’t get paid a lot for. So when Mizzou doesn’t take the time to show up for their side of the deal… well, you get what you’re about to read.
If you make it through this whole thing, send me a message on Rock M+ or an email and I’ll send you a personalized thank you message.
I have to be transparent here… the clip I want to show is “The Cup Test” from Jackass Forever, but I’m not sure it’s site-appropriate, so I’m just going to link it and let you decide whether or not you want to jump in. Just know that was really what the experience of watching Mizzou vs. Texas A&M felt like from a cinematic perspective.
But this is a nice backup option to have. While a bit lighter-hearted in tone, please enjoy the soothing sounds of Peter Gabriel’s “Solsbury Hill,” playing over a compilation of folks getting absolutely pulverized, sometimes in slow motion.
☆☆☆☆☆ for the whatever it was in College Station , ★★★★★ for both “The Cup Test” and this compilation, which were refreshing palette cleansers after that atrocity of a game.
Look, here’s the thing, you don’t need me to tell you that Mizzou’s performance against the Aggies was nigh unwatchable. It sucked. Even worse than the near-loss against Vanderbilt, even worse than the 9-6 win over UConn years ago, even worse than getting shut out against a good team when Mizzou was floundering… getting your nose broken on national television as a Top 10 team was the worst kind of pain you can experience as a college football fan.
So why not engage with something eminently more watchable, like Yannic Bertrand getting merked by a gate in a world cup slalom skiing race while the color commentator laughs?
This video gets 5 out of 5 slalom gates for being objectively funny. Alternately, Mizzou vs. Texas A&M gets 5 out of 5 slalom gates for being objectively painful.
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You think I’m going to stop the bit on the part of this column that takes the most effort and time? Fat chance, buddy.
Instead, enjoy “Man Getting Hit By Football,” one of Hans Moleman Production’s finest hours.
This play was 100 percent disrespectful to Hans Moleman, and also Missouri’s game was 100 percent disrespectful to me, personally.
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Do think the guys behind early internet viral sensation “Kicked in the Nuts” would be willing to revive the series for a guest appearance with Luke Bauer? He deserves it, after all.
Not sure how lucrative that would be for our guy, but can you imagine watching Bauer drop kick a kU fan in the middle of a pick up basketball fan?
OK, this is the one part of the column that I can’t abandon.
Meh, “can’t”, “won’t” same difference.
Anyway, the comical nature of Mizzou’s failing to show up has fully set in after 48 hours of rumination, and it reminds of a I Think You Should Leave sketch in which the premise of a high quality performance is immediately abandoned for something far more sad and somewhat sinister.
“I CAN’T DO THIS, WE DID WAY TOO MUCH.”
“What’s that do for the greater good?”
“I don’t even wanna be around anymore.”
All things I was saying out loud during the entirety of this game!
System resetting... I want you all to know that I don’t take the opportunity to write for Rock M for granted. I’ve been at the site for almost 10 years now, and the chance to write this specific column has been something of a creative lifeline. I really love watching...
The Morning Commute for Tuesday, October 8
Today we’re talking about Homecoming Game Time.
It’s a new week for Mizzou Football.
Opportunity number six up next.#MIZ | #STP pic.twitter.com/I2Wb2uL232
— Mizzou Football (@MizzouFootball) October 7, 2024
This needs to be their “get right” game. While a game at UMass won’t tell us a whole lot, the Tigers desperately need to get that bad taste out of their mouth after what happened at Texas A&M.
We’ll know a lot more about this team the following Saturday. Mizzou’s Homecoming game against Auburn will kick-off at 11:00 a.m. or 11:45 a.m. CST. It will either be on ESPN or the SEC Network.
Game time announcement
vs. Auburn
⏰ 11:00 or 11:45 am CT
ESPN or SEC Network #MIZ pic.twitter.com/3vCne5lIo0— Mizzou Football (@MizzouFootball) October 7, 2024
Here the rest of the SEC TV schedule on October 19th.
#SECFB on TV: Oct. 19
Updates: https://t.co/Uo3Op9W0Jh pic.twitter.com/je2OXtZxkK
— Southeastern Conference (@SEC) October 7, 2024
And with Mizzou Football on the road again this week, there are still plenty of non-revenue sports on the calendar in COMO this week. The Olympic Sports team will have coverage of all of them, and a yet-to-be-announced Gymnastics practice/intrasquad.
Plenty of chances to see your Tigers in action this week #MIZ pic.twitter.com/3ciSpZKIfu
— Mizzou Athletics (@MizzouAthletics) October 7, 2024
“As we learned in college football this weekend, nothing is guaranteed. A lot is still up for grabs. It’ll be Mizzou’s job to sort it out from here.”
Silver lining: There’s still a lot of football left to be played.
“And despite Mizzou logging its first loss of the 2024 season — and not playing particularly well! — our staff really showed out for the reasons they found to celebrate the trip to College Station.”
It’s an interesting latest edition of the MV3, to say the least.
“There are a lot of things that need to happen for this team to have a successful season, a realistic goal that is still on the table, even if their biggest dreams now seem impossible. Many of them are tangible, football related challenges. But for the intangibles, it’s time now for Drinkwitz and his veteran leaders to exhibit again the ability to rally a wounded team.”
One loss doesn’t have to define a season, now Mizzou needs to respond in a big way.
BOOOOOOOOOM, BABYYYYYYY.
BREAKING NEWS: @MizzouGym announces HUUUUUUUge roster additionhttps://t.co/dTwynIgnte
via @RockMNation
— Karen S (@karensteger) October 7, 2024
“Adding another insanely good gymnast like Helen Hu to the mix just makes this team that much deeper. It propels them higher into potential SEC rankings. It increases their chances at getting back to the National Championships in Fort Worth, which is their ultimate goal this season.”
Helen Hu returning next season is obviously huge news for Shannon Welker’s squad. Watch out for Mizzou Gymnastics as championship contenders this year. Karen and Gym colleague Nate Salsman (The Maneater) were so excited they recorded a special episode of Majority Rules to break it down.
“Hopefully it doesn’t leave a lasting mark on this team, but we’ll see what kind of culture is inside the locker room going forward.”
It will be interesting to see how the Tigers will respond from this loss.
Player Preview | #Mizzou freshman Peyton Marshall has dramatically reshaped his physique and worked on his passing reads, but his strength on defensive and the glass might earn steady minutes.
: https://t.co/8lRJYTYsCr pic.twitter.com/BuBFBTWH1i
— Matt Harris (@MattJHarris85) October 7, 2024
“His minutes will go a long way in shaping the best-case scenario for the future of Mizzou’s program.”
Read up on Peyton Marshall in our latest player preview, who is a key foundational piece to Mizzou Hoops’ 2024 Class.
“This weekend, I traveled “Deep in the Heart of Texas” to photograph Missouri’s game at Texas A&M. I didn’t expect the final result to happen, and frankly, neither did any of the Aggie fans I spoke to. Nevertheless, I had a great time in the Lone Star State, and I enjoyed making all of these pictures.”
While Saturday’s game obviously wasn’t good, Cal’s photos certainly were.
The 2024 Mizzou Football season is one that has been met with as much anticipation as any in recent memory. With Eli Drinkwitz’s program taking a huge step forward in the 2023 season, going 11-2 and securing a Cotton Bowl victory over the Ohio State Buckeyes, there’s a renewed focus on what Missouri can do to put itself in the conversation for a berth in the College Football Playoff.
The digital magazine we present today is 115 pages chalk full of Mizzou Football previewing, scouting, interviewing, and more…
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The Morning Commute for Tuesday, October 8 Welcome to the Morning Commute Today we’re talking about Homecoming Game Time. It’s a new week for Mizzou Football. Opportunity number six up next.#MIZ | #STP pic.twitter.com/I2Wb2uL232 — Mizzou Football (@MizzouFootball)...