It’s Monday of the first game week, so let’s make season-long predictions!

In case you’ve been unaware/asleep/offline, it feels that we should deliver some notable news to you... IT’S GAME WEEK!

We’re only five full days (including this one!) from waking up to a day where Mizzou will play football. It feels like there’s been more anticipation than ever for this season (for a myriad of reasons, many of which we’ve written extensively on!), so the arrival of game week is both a relief and a small pain, considering these last few days always seem to drag a little longer.

To keep up with the spirit of the countdown to the season opener, Mizzou Football posted its daily uniform number marking the calendar to September 4.

Just a few hours later, Darius Robinson disputed the account’s official selection, staking his claim as the numbersake for the game day countdown.

Honestly, it feels like they should’ve worked this stuff out in camp. Get over your petty squabbles, y’all, it’s game week.

Technically we’re now 5 days from game day, so I suppose we’re Mookie Cooper days?

Anyway given that it’s game week and we only have so much time to make bold, sweeping claims about the whole season and seem like geniuses later, there was a fair amount of meaty football stuff in the state’s two big papers.

• I could spend 30 minutes linking to every story that makes it up, but instead you should head to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch’s website and dig through their 2021 Season preview. It’s got a metric ton of digital ink, including columns on Blaze Alldredge, positional breakdowns, defined expectations and just about everything you could want out of a season preview edition.
• Blair Kerkhoff at the Kansas City Star lists five specific predictions he sees coming true for the 2021 Tigers. He also offers a game-by-game pick ‘em, including some marginally surprising picks in the first half of the season.

Yesterday at Rock M

• In which Matt Harris previews Northern Illinois, who will give Mizzou Hoops something of a breather in the non-conference schedule
• In which Sam delivers his annual State of the (Football) Program ahead of this weekend’s season opener

More Links:

• The very young Tigers volleyball team took their lumps in an 0-3 opening weekend. Coach Joshua Taylor spoke to the Columbia Tribune following the rough tournament, saying the team needs work on its mental discipline.
• Nathalie Jones at ABC 17 spoke to several Tiger softball players who hosted a skills camp in Columbia over the weekend.

The full story should be available on their website by the time this publishes.

• Thanks to our friend Mizzou Basketball Analysis on Twitter for keeping up with Mizzou Hoops’ No. 1 target in the 2022 class!

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