I mentioned the other day the impressive job Barry Odom has done holding his roster together in the face of tough NCAA sanctions that gave a free pass to transfer to every Missouri senior.
Even though the Tigers can’t play for the SEC championship, they still have a regular season to play and have some potential as a dark horse candidate to upset the expected order in the East.
For me, how far they go comes down to a couple of issues. One is psychological. Do they band together and ride that us against the world mentality to, say, a 7-1 conference record, something that would put them squarely in the mix for the division lead? Or do they face some early adversity and, with little to play for, crumble?
One hint about the answer to those questions comes with the second issue. Mizzou has got some schedule ($$).
In SEC play, the Tigers’ front-loaded schedule could mean they won’t face a ranked team until November. After facing South Carolina, Ole Miss, Kentucky and Vanderbilt as an appetizer, the main course arrives in the season’s final month with a trip to Georgia before hosting Florida. The good news is the Tigers precede the Georgia-Florida back-to-back with an off week to reload and get a little healthier. They’ll finish with Tennessee and against Arkansas in Little Rock.
It’s a favorable but unusual schedule that, after the opener in Laramie, features five consecutive home games before three consecutive SEC road games. In the East, any year a team dodges Alabama is a good year. But drawing annual rival Arkansas and Ole Miss as crossover West opponents makes for a fantastic year on the schedule rotation.
The early softness of their schedule reminds me a little of 2013, when Missouri was able to cruse into Athens behind a 5-0 start against unranked teams and build on the momentum with back-to-back wins over Georgia and Florida. I’m not saying history is about to repeat itself (I hope we never see another Georgia injury run like the one we saw that season), but take a look at the schedule and predict the number of losses Mizzou is likely to have when it returns to Georgia in November.
Probably don’t want to sleep on those guys.
Get The Picture 
I have them 2nd in the East – period. Then South Carolina – then UF.
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All of this is predicated on Kelly Bryant as the answer at QB. He isn’t going to have the same supporting cast around him he had as a starter for his junior year at Clemson. I’m not sold on Missouri other than the schedule. If Odom gets them to 2nd in the East, he should be COTY in the league.
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Agree. I was amazed with the offensive job SOD did last year. But that was with a returning Lock, or a lot of it could be attributed to Lock. Now SOD will have to do it again, and with a QB that has a much different skill set. I’ll be surprised if mizzou wins 7.
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I think they’ll have two losses when they get to Georgia. There are four games they could lose, in theory (WVU, South carolina, @Vandy, @Kentucky). Let’s go with South Carolina and Kentucky for the two losses.
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Okay. Throw in Ole Miss as a game they could lose.
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I think Mizzou loses to Georgia and that’s it.
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You could make some big bucks if that comes true.
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3 when they get to Athens
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I’ve been saying all along that Mizzou is the biggest threat to Georgia long term.
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Long term? Not as long as the SEC is a Jimmies and Joes league. UF has a much stronger recruiting base to work from.
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Is it their stacking of 43rd ranked recruiting classes or their 11-21 conference record the last four years that led to that conclusion?
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I laughed
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No way.
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Mizzou will be 3 or 4 in the East this year. They lost more than you think, and no matter how good Bryant is at QB, the production there will not be what it was last year.
Further, end of October/November is going to kill them. Starting with Ole Miss, that ain’t an easy stretch.
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Ole Miss is in worse shape due to NCAA sanctions than Missouri.
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