Ag Football Preview: Mizzou

Ahhh, a familiar face. 

Mizzou jumped the sinking ship of the Big 12 with us to the great land of the SEC.  They haven't been as fortunate as we have in terms of our success in our inaugural season.  They are 5-6 on the season and just 2-5 in SEC play, with wins against Kentucky and a 4-OT win against Tennessee.

Behind LSU and Arkansas, they're the SEC opponent that we've played the most games against.  We hold the series record 7-5 but the Tigers have won the last 3....and due to some weird scheduling during/after conference realignment, they're coming to Kyle Field for the third year in a row.

Everytime I think about Missouri I think of one of the intro clips from one of the NCAA Football video games from the mid-2000s where one of their players looks at the camera and says, "Yeah Mizzoou."

That's my personal story of Mizzou.  They are a team that draws zero emotion out of me - not before the move to the SEC and not after.  What I am psyched about is a night game at Kyle Field with the Heisman Trophy on the line.

Mizzou QB James Franklin is a game time decision.  This is going to be a huge factor in how this game plays out.  Franklin is a good spread QB - he's silky smooth when he tucks the ball and runs, which allows him to keep plays alive and for receivers to get open.  He will give us fits.  If Franklin doesn't play, we will see Corbin Berstresser.  He has 23 rushing yards on the season - a bit different.

They have a 1,000 yard running back in Kendial Murphy - well, he's just shy at 938 with 11 TDs.  He only has 17 catches out of the backfield.

Franklin/Berstresser spread the ball out with 5 players over 20 receptions.  Lucas leads the team with 48 receptions and monster recruit, Dorial Green-Beckham, lead with 4 TDs,

Everything indicates that we should roll Mizzou but that's not enough - with the media's completely unwarranted push for Mante T'Or's Heisman bid Johnny needs to put up big numbers to keep his name where it should be on the top of voter's minds.

Lastly, this is the first year we're not playing the longhorns tonight.  Frankly, and this surprises me, I'm not even missing the game.

A month ago I was drooling at a chance to match up against them in the Cotton Bowl.  For the first time I felt like we could just clean their clocks and stick it to them.  No question in my mind. 

Then the Alabama win changed everything. 

We don't need to beat them to show everyone that we can be successful.  In fact, the table has completely turned - they need to play us a lot more than we need to play them.  The pendulum is swinging and we're racing past them and they want to trip us up to say, "See we are still relevant". 

A game against them doesn't do anything for us - if we beat them all we do is prove what we already know - if we somehow lose it undoes a good portion of the traction we've picked up during this incredible season.

They need to play us to have a chance to keep up with us now.  Honestly, they might need to allure of a match-up against us to even get an invite to the Cotton Bowl.

I've already given them too much ink.....so back to the game at hand....

BEAT THE HELL OUTTA MIZZOU!  WHOOP!