Mo’s Monday Musings: TCB Counts for Something

Oct 14, 2024 | Uncategorized

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COLLEGE FOOTBALL: OCT 12 Missouri at UMass
Photo by M. Anthony Nesmith/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

UMass isn’t exactly the ‘72 Dolphins, but how the Tigers responded after a blowout loss to A&M was important

Some quick observations from week number seven of the college football season, served up in four quarter style. Legal Disclaimer: these views are my own and may be really dumb.


1st Quarter: Mizzou – Taking care of business counts for something

I fully admit that I regrettably let Mizzou’s beatdown by Texas A&M affect my excitement for the rest of the season. The way the Tigers got punked so convincingly really soured me on this team having a chance to be special. It soured me so much so that I considered not watching the game at UMass because I knew the Tigers could go fart around for 60 minutes in Amherst and still win by four touchdowns. And what in the world would that possibly tell us about this team?

Well thankfully the mature half of my psyche won out, and forced my butt to sit down like a grown up and watch the game. I’m glad I did, and I’m glad I saw how the Tigers handled themselves on Saturday.

We all know that UMass is barely an FBS worthy program. We all know that if you took the worst SEC team of the last 25 years – whoever that was – that SEC team would beat this UMass team 100 times out of 100. So what did this win prove about the Tigers?

It proved that on the field, Mizzou is vastly superior to UMass, and the Tigers played the bully role well on Saturday against an overmatched opponent. In essence it told us very little, because Mizzou won’t be able to line up and do whatever it wants against any of its remaining opponents this season like it did on Saturday.

But the effort wasn’t for naught. The one thing that encouraged me most had to do with the fact of how Mizzou got out of the gate on both sides of the ball. Before you could blink, Mizzou was up 14-0 and on the way to smooth sailing. The Tigers needed to handle their business like pros a week after such a devastating failure, and they did just that.

You know full well that the players knew they could literally roll the helmets out and walk out with a win in this game. You know the Tiger coaches were all over their guys all week long to not take UMass lightly. Whether they truly listened or not, the results showed that the players grew up a little bit and handled their business early on and consistently all day long.

There was a little bit of angst late in the first half when Mizzou gave up a long drive while leading, 21-3. But just when it looked like UMass was going to score and make the game interesting, Corey Flagg, Jr. flipped the field with a long interception return that set up a Blake Craig field goal at the halftime gun to make it 24-3. It was all Tigers the rest of the way.

Like Coach Drink said post-game, this one could have gone a lot of different ways. You could have seen Mizzou come out sleepy, sloppy and slow. But instead they were sharp, stout and speedy.

In the end, I choose to believe that this team learned something from the humiliation they were dealt in College Station and that they took a step forward with how they handled business. The proof will be in the pudding the rest of the season as to how good this team will end up being. But on Saturday in Amherst, they looked like they needed to look. They took care of business.

To me, that counts for something.


2nd Quarter: SEC – Oh no, Vanderbilt, what is you doin’ baby?

Since Mizzou survived an upset bid by Vanderbilt, us Tiger fans can sit back and enjoy the chaos that the Commodores are bringing to the SEC this season. It’d be a different feel had Vandy walked off of Faurot Field with a win of course. But because of Mizzou’s nail-biting win, we can all appreciate what’s going on in Nashville.

After dropping that heartbreaker in double overtime to the Tigers, Vanderbilt has asserted itself into the discussion of most surprising teams in the entire nation with a 40-35 win over previously undefeated and #1 Alabama, and then followed with an impressive 20-13 road win at Kentucky this week.

Big Blue Nation fans were none too pleased with the product they saw their Wildcats display in Lexington on Saturday. The boo birds were out in full force late in the first half, and reports had a large portion of the crowd filing out with nine minutes left in the game when the Commodores took a 20-7 lead on a long field goal.

Sitting at 4-2 overall and 2-1 in SEC play so far, Vanderbilt is definitely the feel-good story of the league this year. Will they be able to keep it up? I wouldn’t predict that they’ll be running the table, but then again who thought they’d be the ones to knock off Alabama this season?

Vandy finishes their non-conference schedule up this Saturday by hosting the State of Ball. They’re near four-touchdown favorites in that one so they should improve to 5-2. Then, the schedule gets tougher as they play host to #1 Texas before finishing the season with games at Auburn, at home against South Carolina, at LSU and at home against Tennessee. A 2-3 finish might be a little deflating in the end, but would still produce a 7-5 record, a mark that hardly anyone saw coming.


3rd Quarter: National – Service (academies) with a smile

Don’t look now, but Army is 6-0 and Navy is 5-0. Both teams cracked the Associated Press Top-25 poll this Sunday for the first time together since October of 1960. Army came in at number 23 after a 44-10 trouncing of UAB, while Navy entered the polls at 25 despite being idle Saturday.

Neither team has what could be considered a marquee win this season, but both squads have been impressively dominant. Army’s average margin of victory has been 29.8 points per game, while Navy’s average win spread is close behind, at 23.4.

They both play Notre Dame later this season, which will give us all a true indication of just how our service academies will stack up against high-level Division I talent. But even if neither can knock off the Irish, they’re on a collision course for one of the most potentially monumental Army-Navy games ever played on Dec. 14th.

It’s hardly fathomable to think we could actually see either Army or Navy in the College Football Playoff 12-team field, but if they keep rolling, it could happen. And what a sight that would be.


4th Quarter: Dealer’s Choice – Just win, baby

Closing up the thoughts this week by going back to Mizzou and how I’m going to approach the rest of the season.

Like I said above, I was really disheartened by the debacle at Texas A&M. I entered the season thinking 10-2 was attainable and that the Tigers would be in the mix for a CFP berth.

It’s still possible, and in order to do so what they have to do is win. They don’t have to win out, but with six games, five wins would put them at that 10-2 mark. Would that be good enough to get in? There would likely be good arguments on either side of the equation, but obviously there’s so many unknowns at this point that it’s impossible to know, and really a waste of time to spend much thought on it.

So, all I’m looking for the Tigers to do is win. Just win, baby. I don’t care if it’s the ugliest win in Faurot Field history this Saturday, just win. Then let it all hang out at Alabama and see what happens. After all, the Tide will be coming off their bitter rivalry game with Tennessee this week, who knows what kind of mood they’ll be in when the Tigers come visiting?

After that, it’s games against Oklahoma, South Carolina, Mississippi State and Arkansas that will determine the fate of the 2024 season.


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