What I Think I Know: It’s not Missouri Basketball Season yet

It’s only September and a ton of football is still to be played, Tigers fans.

By alecblome Sep 11, 2017, 2:01pm CDT

American Football Learnings of Missouri for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Rock M

I THINK Michael Porter Jr. will average 22 points & 11 boards a game. I KNOW Missouri is going to the NCAA tournament in 2018.

I also KNOW the signing of Torrence Watson is yet another domino falling in the new, exciting, and apparently never-ending game of Recruit the Lou. I DON’T THINK it’s the last one to fall, either.

I THINK… I think… wait... I think it’s only September 12 and a ton of football is still to be played, Tigers fans.

Listen, I too am stoked about the supposed basketball renaissance scheduled to commence November 10th at Mizzou Arena but, man, can we please not be completely dismissive of football for at least the next few weeks? It’s unbecoming of our fanbase, to be honest. As mentioned last week, you know who else acts in a similar, undignified manner?

As always, flood the comments section with what YOU think you know about the state of Missouri FOOTBALL and your predictions for the Purdue game. But before I unleash my thoughts, let’s take a look back a few WITIK’s from last week.

RECAP: What I Thought I Knew Last Week

“I THINK/WORRY this team – from defense to offense, from tackling to quarterbacking – is essentially a clone of last year’s squad. I KNOW that can’t be right. Right?”

Drops/ass-catching? Check. Mediocre, inefficient offensive showing against an SEC team? Check. Not-so-special Special Teams? Check. Corey Fatony = MVP? Check. Hearing how great a pass-blocker Ish Witter is? Check. A loss? Check. Same? Same.

“I THINK I KNOW what ‘red flags’ look like. I HOPE Barry Odom is not Kim Anderson. Or Romeo Crennel. Chiefs fans, remember that guy?”

Some clarification may be in order here. Yes, some of you did not care for the Odom/Anderson comment. No, it’s not an apples-to-apples comparison. NO I did not state that Barry will turn out to be Kim. YES, I said “I HOPE” he doesn’t because, ya know, that’s worst case scenario and who wants that!?

KA had many an issue that

a) I currently do not see in Odom and
b) are known to all of you and not worth a trip down painful memory lane.

HOWEVER, where my very basic comps/’red flags’ lineup are simple: a coach not ready/qualified to run a Power 5 athletic program. It’s as simple as that.

Coach Odom is green and it’s quite obvious to me. Perhaps a little too green. Odom, though, I believe to actually have a chance to right the ship whereas Anderson… well, he had a lot of excuses. So that’s something.

Clarification #2: I am NOT a “FIRE ODOM” guy. I firmly believe you give him at least 3 seasons to prove himself. Some of you disagree.

“What I Hope to Learn from Mizzou v South Carolina… Anything positive, really. Seriously, anything. Maybe the defense isn’t actually as bad as we think it is. Maybe the offense is actually as potent as it pretends to be against FCS talent. Maybe someone learned to f***ing tackle! Maybe McCann was just nervous last week. Maybe there is more to the playbook than WR screens. Maybe we’ll learn what exactly it is DeMontie Cross does. Maybe we’ll be undefeated! I don’t care, as long as we can take away something positive. But in all seriousness, I would love to learn Cross’ role with the team.”

Defense? Not that bad. Offense? Not that good. Tackling? Improving…? McCann? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Playbook? Meh. Cross’ role with team before he was fired? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Cross’ role after he was fired? Same. Undefeated? Nope.

“(Damarea) Crockett scores 4 touchdowns and makes SC’s defense look silly... Drew Lock throws for just a hair under 400 yards… J’mon Moore will see most of those yards… South Carolina will never have a lead… (Tucker) McCann will not miss an extra point… Terry Beckner Jr. racks up 1 sack and 2.5 tackles for loss… Marcell Frazier leads the defense with 2 sacks”

NAILED IT!