Chat Mizzou sports with Dave Matter at 11 a.m. Thursday
Bring your Tigers football, basketball and recruiting questions, and talk to Mizzou beat writer Dave Matter in a live chat at 11 a.m. Thursday.
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Perhaps. I know that Mizzou's radio crew - Mike Kelly and Chris Gervino - will be staying home and doing their broadcast in Columbia for all road games. I don't think I'll travel to many road games this year. I hate missing games, but so many of these games are being canceled hours before tipoff - it's just not worth the time or expense to travel to South Carolina or Florida or Georgia for a game that may not happen, especially when there's no advantage to being at the game for postgame interviews. In football, I'm the only Mizzou reporter who's been to every road game this year and it's my opinion that there's a clear advantage to being at the stadium. You can see the whole field when you're at the game - instead of the limited TV view. Basketball, though, there's not that same visual advantage necessarily.
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No idea. I'd hate to speculate on a kid's situation when he hasn't given any indication that he'll transfer. That's a real unfortunate situation. Not every kid is cut out to play at Kentucky, where the spotlight's glare can be overpowering. And I don't think Calipari handled this one very well either.
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Having given up 148 points the last 3 weeks and with Nick Bolton out, no wonder Iowa is a 14 point favorite. Will any reinforcements on the depleted defensive line be back for the bowl game? Since I haven’t heard about Rountree opting out, I assume he is playing. In what shape is the offensive line? Is Iowa a rushing team or a passing team? I hope Mizzou can win or at least keep it close, but the last 3 games make me think another blowout is coming.
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All of the defensive linemen who were considered questionable for the Mississippi State actually played in the Mississippi State game. That might have been a Drinkwitz smoke screen to some degree. I didn't publish the snap counts this week, but here's what they looked like on the D-line:Trajan Jeffcoat: 52Kobie Whiteside: 50Akial Byers: 32Isaiah McGuire: 32Darius Robinson: 19Chris Turner: 17Markell Utsey: 11As bad as the defense has looked lately, remember, the defense didn't give up 51 points in Starkville. Two of those TDs came on special teams and defense. But, to your larger point, it's been a rough stretch for the defense. Not having Tyree Gillespie seemed to hurt. Not having Jarvis Ware seems to hurt. The secondary is far from elite at full strength. It's become a weakness with all these injuries.Rountree has announced he plans to play in the game. He's 28 yards from a 1,000-yard season. That would be quite an accomplishment in a shortened season. There are only eight 1,000-yard rushers in the five power conferences heading into bowl season.The O-line will be missing its best player, right tackle Larry Borom. It's going to be a tough matchup against one of the nation's elite defenses, especially against the run.
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I was really surprised that Mizzou decided to go to Nashville and not to Tampa. I understand it's easier for parents, etc., but for branding a program, it's a much bigger deal in ratings, prestige, to play Jan 1 or 2 rather than a mid-week middle of the afternoon bowl. I don't think Mizzou should pass up any time it can show our program on a bigger stage. Don't you agree? and do you think if it's a regular year, we would have gone to Tampa. And full disclosure, i live in tampa and could have seen my school live for the 2nd time in three weeks (went home for the GA game). And one last thing Thank you for your coverage of Mizzou - it's great since i live so far away and i am a subscriber.
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I completely understand Mizzou's reasoning behind this. We need to forget what we think we know about these mid-tier bowl games: They don't mean anything this year. The players aren't going to amusement parks or the beach. They're going to see their hotels and the stadium. That's it. Here's why Mizzou preferred Nashville:1. They wanted the players get home for the holidays, Christmas and New Year's, before they have to be back on campus for January workouts. You do that by playing the earliest game and getting this season over with as soon as possible. This team is EXHAUSTED. Players are homesick especially the freshmen. I talked to a coach of another SEC team this week and his team went through the same thing this season, endless stops and starts and 20 straight weeks of practice with only 10 games in between. It's been mentally and physically draining to get through this year. I spoke with a parent of an Mizzou player the other day who said the same thing. These kids are walking zombies at this point.2. Parents of players don't want to be in airports and on airplanes during a pandemic over the holidays. Nashville is drivable for more families than Florida.3. Mizzou would much rather go to a Florida bowl when they can experience the full bowl experience. Next year or in 2022 when MU is in the mix for the SEC group of six bowls, now the league can't say, "Well, Missouri, you just played in Tampa."Here's something no one will admit but is also true: If your team is this beat up, this shorthanded, maybe a 3 pm kickoff on a Wednesday isn't the worst thing.
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Here's how I like to measure a defense. How did it do against each opponent compared to how that opponent did on average for the season.This season the results are more telling than usual because everyone played only SEC competition. My preferred stat is yards per play - because it takes into account tempo for teams that run more plays by design.Mizzou held five of its 10 opponents under their season average for yards per play: Alabama, Florida, South Carolina, Kentucky and Vanderbilt.That also means Mizzou allowed five of its 10 opponents to average more yards per play than its season average: Georgia, Arkansas, LSU, Tennessee, and Mississippi State. Three of those games were MU's last three games when the secondary was especially depleted. Not an excuse, but a valid factor.Mizzou also held five of its 10 opponents under their scoring average for the season: Alabama, Florida, South Carolina, Kentucky and Vanderbilt. And Mizzou allowed five of its 10 opponents to score more than their average points per game: Georgia, Arkansas, LSU, Tennessee and Mississippi State.It's the same five games for both stats. That tells me this was an average Mizzou defense. Good some weeks, bad some weeks. But for the year, mostly average.
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With our 3-point shooters ice ice cold, and Pickett seemingly not doing “Pickett things” I wonder in hindsight whether that might have been a time to give Watson some minutes. As has been pointed out, HCCM usually gives everyone a chance at some point, but with conference play beginning, I wonder if we’ve seen the last of Watson.
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So, going forward, if a MBB game can’t take place due to COVID, is the SEC cancelling the game, or keeping its options open to plug it in. I don’t see how that can work unless it’s convenient to fill a gap created by other COVID problems. Do you see the SEC moving other games around to fit those games in, like it did in FB?
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We'll learn more when we see what happens with the South Carolina-Kentucky game that's already been postponed. I would think the league would try to make it up if possible. The league has built-in make-up dates for March 5-7 in case games are postponed, but a make-up date for USC-UK has not been determined yet.
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Heisman Trophy finalists are revealed tonight. Voters are not allowed to publish their ballots until after the award is handed out. I'll say this much. We vote for 1st, 2nd and 3rd. I have two QBs on my ballot but not from the same conference. I don't have a QB first. This was one of the hardest years in terms of leaving off a couple candidates.
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He didn't have Mizzou in his final five from what I recall. Mizzou needs receivers - but has a greater need for bigger outside receivers. Lovett is the slot receiver of the future - and maybe as soon as 2021. Cooper is 5-10, same as Lovett. Not that Mizzou would turn him down, but if you're Drinkwitz I don't think you want to become known as the safe haven for every St. Louis recruit who doesn't work out at the blueblood school they choose out of high school. You have to be selective with these cases. But there's no harm in seeing if there's mutual interest.
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I don't know how to handicap these things. It'll come down to test results. I had heard initially that Iowa players weren't happy that the program elected to play in a bowl, but Ferentz soothed that over when he met with the team's leaders on Sunday. If they've got the numbers to field a team - and pass the Big Ten roster protocols - Iowa will play. At least that's what Iowa has told Missouri.
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Turnovers, fouls and 3-point shooting are this team's problem areas. You can win a game if two of those problems creep up and you make up for them in other areas. But you can't beat a quality team if you're turning the ball over 16 times, shooting 20 percent from 3 and fouling like crazy.
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