Critiquing Mizzou's Season Preview

Predicting how a college football season will play out is an incredibly difficult endeavor to undertake. One critical injury, and a team that had previously been favored to win most of their games might only maintain their edge in a few contests. Because of this, it's usually a good idea to be lenient with the myriad of season previews being published during the Summer months. The authors of these pieces are doing the best they can with what limited information available to them. Very rarely is a season preview so horrendously inaccurate that it begs a response. Unfortunately, this is exactly the situation we find ourselves in today.

The Culprit:

Yes, our good friends at Athlon really whiffed on this one. Seriously, Terry Hill played for the Tigers more than 30 years ago, what is he doing on the cover of the magazine? Maybe it's just a slip-up, surely the information inside will be up-to-date.

NOPE. Hey guys, didn't you hear about our conference switch? It was kind of a big deal a few years back, people are still grumbling about it. C'mon, the Big Eight dissolved in 1996, get it together. At this point, we probably shouldn't expect much from the Missouri season preview.

Wow, that's a lot of talent leaving. Phil Bradley won't be easily replaced, and his backup  hasn– wait, no, that's not right. We're replacing James Franklin. F R A N K L I N. Why is this so difficult, James didn't even play baseball. They may have spelled Evan Boehm's name completely wrong, but at least they're rightly predicting big things from Mizzou's center this year.

It's obvious now that this preview is just recycling old information. Also, Bradley had 4.5 speed? The gauntlet has been thrown down, y'all. Think you can keep up, Maty Mauk?

We're all well aware of what a spectacular player James Wilder was, but completely ignoring the departure of Henry Josey is a capitol offense. No love for Marcus Murphy or Russell Hansbrough either. At least they mention Quarterbacks and Associate Head Coach Andy Hill, who they predict will do a good job of nurturing Mauk by being a "diminutive walk-on... who earned a scholarship for contributions as a valuable reserve."

Okay, we may finally be getting to some relevant discussion. We DO have to replace both defense-ends! Too bad that's where the similarities end. Markus Golden and Shane Ray are both primed to have big seasons, but they are just as absent from this article as every other major contributor. Smh.

PAAAWWWWWLLLL, Penn State's scared uh them Tigers up North! Seriously though, no mention of the new College Football Playoff? How can you in good conscience print a season preview that doesn't address one of the biggest changes the sport has seen? I guess this magazine did have "1981 ANNUAL" written on it. I don't know what I expected.

#DISRESPECT

Again, it's spelled E-V-A-N-[space]-B-O-E-H-M. At least last year's production on defense didn't go unnoticed. How about some 'CRUITIN updates, got any of those?

Admit it, Warren Powers, you were a bit too effusive in your praise. It's okay, this is a safe place. We're all friends here. Anyway, let's see what else do these jokers have to say about the University of Missouri.

Oh well that was nice! Might catch some flack for that phrasing, though.