Queue up the music, folks. It’s PREGAMIN’ time!

♫ Just left Faurot Field, dressin’ up formal ♫

Another year, another missed opportunity to start with the Block M...

I like the black-on-black look for the Tigers, especially with the bold gold stripes. I think I like this look better with the gold pants (a traditional opening week fit), but I can’t complain too much. It’s a classic for the first week.

In Case You Missed It...

• Brady Cook and Sam Horn are both scheduled to play against South Dakota. Who knows, maybe Jake Garcia and Gabarri Johnson get some snaps too depending on game state?
• Senior Chad Bailey, one half of the two-headed linebacking monster in Mizzou’s defense, is recovering from a “procedure” and won’t be available for a few weeks.
• Mizzou has been working with two punters in fall camp — Riley Williams, the Australian Towson transfer, and Luke Bauer, the DeSmet product — and Drinkwitz has hesitated to name either one the starter. It might be a case where both are used until either separates himself from the other.

• Pregamin’ a South Dakota university? Right in our Q zone. South Dakota’s in-state rival, SDSU, was the subject of Rock M Nation’s very first Pregamin’ EVER

• New South Dakota offensive coordinator Josh Davis is a product of SDSU, having spent last year as a wide receivers coach and pass game coordinator and several other seasons as a graduate assistant.
• Tom Brokaw is the most famous person I can identify on Wikipedia’s list of USD alumni, and I propose that he’s a much more Mizzou-y alumnus to claim. Should Missouri win, I propose we get the rights to his lineage!
• South Dakota is one of only eight universities in the United States with the coyote as a mascot. Can you name how many universities in the U.S. have the Tiger as a mascot?
• South Dakota has a 4:1 cow-to-human ratio, the highest of any state in the union.

Rock M-ixology

This year, as in previous years, we’ll have some boozy fun and try to pair a cocktail, liquor, or equally fun beverage with the opponent. This year? I’m actually going to make these at home. Not for your benefit, mind you, but my own. I’d love it if you made them yourself and hit me up with your thoughts! I promise I’ll do my best to get some out-there stuff. But until we’ve perfected the art of deep internet dives for obscure references to the respective universities, we’ll be starting simple this week.

There are a few different cocktails with the name ‘Coyote’ incorporated, including the Coyote margarita, the Wile E Coyote and even some fun, spicy cocktails that incorporate chile liqueurs and smoked mezcal. I am but a simple home bartender, however, and need to find some more basic building blocks. So we’re going with the Roosevelt, a dark-rum-based cocktail that references the pride of South Dakota: Rushmore herself.

1.75 oz dark rum, 0.5 oz dry vermouth, 0.25 oz fresh orange juice, splash of simple syrup

Add the dark rum, dry vermouth, orange juice and simple syrup into a shaker with ice. Shake until well-chilled. Strain into chilled coupe. Garnish with an orange peel.

I went with Plantation Original Dark for the rum, because it’s about as straightforward of a dark rum as you can get (and also, my Plantation 5-year is almost gone and I wanted to save it for a special occasion).

I think in the future I might use a better dark rum, but I also think the specs of this are off. I didn’t get any orange juice or vermouth, which seemed to have the effect of just dampening the booziness of the rum. I also think it would be worth trying this with a really good white rum and lime juice instead, maybe upping the dry vermouth and juice by a quarter of an ounce.

It’s been 251 days since Mizzou Football last played a game. How did you pass the time?

Josh Matejka, Dept. of Silly Photoshops: Surviving the sweltering heat of a dying planet, which I think is pretty impressive. Watching Mizzou Hoops win an NCAA Tournament game wasn’t bad, either!

Levi Hutmacher, Digital Media Producer: Oh, not much happened between then and now except the Chiefs winning the Super Bowl and Dennis Gates reviving this Mizzou Hoops squad, leading them to the NCAA Tournament’s second round. A little of that, and just a LOT of podcasting on here. Follow us!

Karen Steger, Editor & Queen of Doing Too Much: By wasting (debatable) time penning the ‘Twas the Night Before Border War poem and losing my voice at Mizzou Hoops games. After that, it was writing approximately 1 million words about Mizzou’s gymnastics and softball teams. You see, I come ALIVE in the football offseason. This summer was spent putting together the Rock M’my project while actively trying not to bash my brain in due to J-School construction hell. Nevertheless, I persisted, and I’m excited for football, you guys.

Parker Gillam, Beat Writer: Watched college basketball until that season ended and then read CFB preview magazines until August 26th. In all seriousness, I did also start writing for transferportalcfb.com and saturdaydownsouth.com.

Dan Keegan, Football Writer: Parker is being modest. He helped MAKE a CFB preview magazine — I’m also on the team at The Transfer Portal CFB and our digital magazine rules, frankly. But yeah. You know that old Rogers Hornsby line about staring out the window and waiting until baseball season? That was me all summer waiting for college football to come back.

Sammy Stava, Staff Writer: After the college football season is over, it’s all about college hoops and college baseball for me — so it was a lot of fun watching Mizzou Basketball win their first NCAA Tournament since 2010. As for July and August? Woof. The two slowest months on the sports calendar. Thank goodness there’s no need to pay attention to this season of Cardinals baseball because Mizzou Football is BACK!

Quentin Corpuel, Staff Writer: Well, I started writing for rockmnation.com, which is a super awesome website that I think you should frequent if you want only the best, most pristine coverage of Mizzou athletics. [Editor’s Note: Best plug so far!]

Have you ever been to South Dakota? Is it worth visiting?

Josh Matejka: I haven’t! Seems like it, though! Maybe we can start a movement to make South Dakota the new Florida?

Levi Hutmacher: Never been, but have always wanted to check out the Badlands.

Karen Steger: For someone who spent much of their childhood traveling (mainly for swim meets), I’ve actually never been to the Dakotas or upper Midwest-Northwest region of the country in general. Time for a road trip!

Parker Gillam: Have never been, but I do love nature, and I’ve frequently heard that South Dakota has some of the nation’s best in that regard.

Dan Keegan: I like being on the grid.

Sammy Stava: I actually have! I visited Mount Rushmore with my grandparents as a little kid a long time ago. Don’t remember much, though.

Quentin Corpuel: One of my bucket list items is to visit all 50 US states, so I guess I’d like to visit someday.

What’s your favorite “first day of the season” tradition and/or memory?

Josh Matejka: I was at Mizzou’s first game as an SEC member, a 62-10 win over Southeastern Louisiana. The game itself? Not so memorable. But I do remember that it poured rain when I was painted up in the first row of the student section, which made for a wild first student experience that I’ll never forget.

Levi Hutmacher: This will probably be a popular response for most of you reading this, but there’s not much better than waking up on a Saturday morning, getting some coffee and then putting on College Gameday on the TV. Even if I’m not watching it intently, it puts a little bit of excitement in the air. Love it.

Karen Steger: If it’s an early morning game, which Mizzou seems to get all the time, it’s getting a spread together and enjoying a mimosa or two while perusing the previews and Mizzou social content. But really, and this is going to sound really girly, I love figuring out what I’m going to wear on Gameday. If you know me you know I’m NOT a dress-up kinda girl. It’s more of a deciding which of my Mizzou shirts I will pair with my Mizzou gold blazer or Charlie Hustle varsity jacket, and most importantly, which Nikes will complete the look.

Parker Gillam: Every morning in the fall during high school, I would wake up at 8 a.m., go on to my deck, take a deep breath of the Georgia fall air and listen to some music. Then, I would make sure that all of my helmets were appropriately matched up with who they were playing that day, and sit down to watch college football coverage from 9 a.m. to roughly midnight.

On the first day of the season, there was no better feeling than being on that deck and knowing that college football was back.

Sammy Stava: I just love the feeling of the first gameday of the season. It’s sort of like Christmas morning. Saturdays just hit differently during college football season.

Quentin Corpuel: I wake up and listen to “Let it Rock” by Kevin Rudolf at least a couple of times. It’s all-time Madden soundtrack song that really gets me in the football spirit. I’m continuously befuddled as to why not a single college program has adopted it as their hype song. It’s probably far superior to whatever Texas A&M is going to put out this season.

You can pick any Mizzou Tiger to score a touchdown against South Dakota... who are you choosing?

Josh Matejka: “Pressure on the quarterback, and THE BALL IS LOOSE! REALUS GEORGE JR. HAS IT! HE’S BARRELING TOWARD THE 10! TO THE HOUSE! TOUCHDOWN MISSOURI TIGERS!”

Levi Hutmacher: I don’t know how and I don’t know the circumstances. But I need Harrison Mevis to run to the house. Maybe we’ve got a 2nd quarter, 33-yard field goal and a fake is called. Holder flips the ball up into Harrison’s paws and he gallops into the end zone. I NEED THIS. Please, Eli and Kirby? I know you read this...

Karen Steger: A pick-six (I swear I didn’t read Dan’s answer first). By whom? Any of them. I love a defensive TD.

Parker Gillam: Shoutout to Josh for a golden response here, but I’ll go with a Cody Schrader 50+ yard touchdown run. I just want to see the guy get redemption for the Georgia scamper when he was yanked down at the one-yard line. Heartbreaking.

Sammy Stava: Luther Burden — because he’s HIM!

Dan Keegan: Daylan Carnell pick-six. Let the breakout season begin in style.

Quentin Corpuel: Harrison Mevis on a Colt David-style fake field goal. I think the roar from inside of Faurot Field would register on the Richter scale.

Is Mizzou winning this game? If so, who’s balling out?

Josh Matejka: Luther Burden about to go stupid. I’m calling three touchdowns, two receiving, one rushing.

Levi Hutmacher: Of course Mizzou is winning this! I am thinking we are going to see Carlies, Darius Robinson, Sam Horn, Luther Burden, and KAD. I honestly think we could see our first exciting look at this ridiculous defense.

Karen Steger: Of course. And rather than pinpoint one receiver, like the chip man, I’m gonna say this is going to be a huge game for the entirety of the receiving corps.

Parker Gillam: Mizzou will win this game, and I think we are all going to realize how effective Darius Robinson will be off the edge this season. He’ll record at least two tackles for loss and a sack. On the offensive side, I can see Theo Wease making a name for himself in game one as a Tiger.

Sammy Stava: I’m going to go out on a limb here and say Mizzou will win. Let’s go with Sam Horn balling out in the 2nd half of this game and the Tigers defense pitches a shutout. 33-0.

Dan Keegan: Missouri will win and Theo Wease Jr. will have a touchdown over 40 yards.

Quentin Corpuel: I guess I’ll complete the College GameDay curse and have us all pick Mizzou to win. Luther Burden is an incredibly boring and easy answer, but I can’t wait to see all of the fun ways Kirby Moore might use him.

What’s the stupidest thing that’s going to happen to Mizzou this year?

Josh Matejka: I called it in the season predictions post, but Mizzou is going to have a red zone turnover against Arkansas during a potential game-winning drive. I can feel it in my bones. It’ll probably be a bonehead interception thrown by [insert quarterback name here].

Levi Hutmacher: This year? Probably find another wacky way to lose to Kentucky with no shot at redemption in the near future. It is always that game. I don’t know what Missouri did to Kentucky to receive this sort of heart-wrenching punishment year in and year out, but another one is coming.

Karen Steger: That all the people coming for Brady Cook and Eli Drinkwitz’s heads are going to be the ones looking stupid, not the team. It’s going to be a GREAT year. I’m not bringing that negative juju into the universe, Josh. You should know better.

Parker Gillam: After the Auburn and Kentucky games of 2022, predicting what craziness might occur at the Tigers’ expense is near impossible. But, if I had to guess, it’d be that Mizzou loses to Vanderbilt but still manages to win seven games. There’s a chance that the Tigers are riding too high after a 4-0 start and get caught looking ahead to LSU. Then, in typical Drinkwitz fashion, Mizzou rallies late in the season to get to seven.

Dan Keegan: *glaring at Mark Stoops*

Sammy Stava: I’m predicting Mizzou to go 8-4 so there’s not a lot of room for error, but the stupidest thing will probably be winning the Kansas State game and losing to Memphis in St. Louis the week after. Either that or they flip-flop the Kentucky and South Carolina results. Getting their UK monkey off their back with a win in Lexington — then following it up with a loss to the Gamecocks in COMO.

Quentin Corpuel: Those pesky little Blue Raiders from Murfreesboro running all over Missouri just like they did back in 2016. I don’t foresee the comically awful defensive discipline that the Tigers displayed seven years ago popping up this season, but as Nate said in his preview back in April, MTSU is like a basketball team that’s heavily reliant on three-pointers. When they can’t create explosive plays, they’re toast, but when they do.......... sorry, I’m getting flashbacks to the Miami (FL) game last season. I’m gonna go take a walk now.