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Since Mizzou didn't play this week, the thoughts might branch out a little bit, but we're still going to tie them into Mizzou whenever possible. So here we go.
1) The second half of the season starts Saturday with a game that Missouri simply must win. I don't think beating Vandy is going to be some tide-shifting moment or anything, but losing to the Commodores would be a black mark on an already disappointing season. Missouri won this game 41-0 a year ago against a Vanderbilt team that was one of the worst SEC teams I've seen and clearly didn't have its heart in it that day. Most people think this team might actually have less talent than that one did. In league play, Vandy has been outscored 170-26. Overall, the margin is 283-106. Vandy has won two games. It beat Connecticut by two and Colorado State by three. UConn is the worst FBS team in the country. The CSU win actually looks okay as the Rams are 3-4, including 2-1 in Mountain West play. Vanderbilt scored 54 points in those two games. It has scored 52 total points in its other six games. It is, quite simply, a game Missouri cannot lose.
2) That said, it is a game Missouri CAN lose. I would certainly not expect Missouri to lose it. But Vandy did push South Carolina before losing 21-20. As I said, the Colorado State win looks better than it did at the time. It is not impossible that Vandy can do enough on the right day to win. I can promise you Clark Lea is selling this to his team as its best chance to win an SEC game this season. They come in with nothing to lose. Either way, one team is getting its name off a list nobody wants to be on:
3) The focus is, for many, on one of two things: Recruiting and next year. Let's talk about both of those. We'll start on the recruiting front. It was nearly a full week ago that Luther Burden committed to Missouri. I've been asked quite a few times in the days since where this ranks as far as recruiting wins for Missouri. Here are my top five (keep in mind, these are ranked by what they meant on the day they happened, not what they ended up being on the field):
*Dorial Green-Beckham: He was the No. 1 player in the country. It really doesn't get any bigger than that.
*Blaine Gabbert: Mizzou wasn't his first choice, but it was his last choice. The Tigers capitalized on Nebraska's demise and nabbed the No. 1 quarterback in the country. Quarterback is always the most important position to recruit, which is why I'd put Gabbert's commitment second on the list.
*Luther Burden: Five-star, No. 6 player in the country, beating out the nation's No. 1 team and potential national champion. That's a pretty good sales pitch. I'd put Burden No. 3 overall, but the biggest win in a decade.
*Drew Lock: Again, it's largely because of the position he plays, but programs like Oklahoma, Michigan and Tennessee were involved here.
*Evan Boehm: This one will probably surprise people as being on the list, but Boehm was a four-star lineman who actually decommitted to take a trip to Auburn. Hanging on to him was huge. I remember saying at the time, "It's a big get, but if Missouri is going to compete in this league long-term, they're going to need to land an Evan Boehm every year. It has to become the rule, not the exception." Obviously it didn't. And that's why Mizzou is where it is today.
4) With Burden, Missouri's receiving corps next season will include:
A five-star (Burden)
Two four-stars (Dominic Lovett, Mookie Cooper)
Two 5.7 three-stars that could still get a rankings bump (Mekhi Miller, Jamarion Wayne)
A 5.7 three-star (JJ Hester)
That's got the look of a legitimate SEC receiving corps. Odds are at least one of them, maybe a couple, are going to fall short of expectations. But odds are at least a couple of them aren't. And you're going to have someone that's not on this list emerge as a player, like perhaps Chance Luper, over the next couple of years. Outside of the defensive line, I'd say receiver was the position in the worst shape when Eli Drinkwitz got the job. That has been fixed in a hurry. If I'm listing off things he's done right, the rebuild at receiver is up there right near the top.
5) I know you're asking (because I've already seen you ask it) "who's going to throw the ball to those guys?" The odds on favorite to be Missouri's quarterback next year is Connor Bazelak. He's going to have two full years as a starter under his belt, Drinkwitz is comfortable with him and I can say with confidence that the staff thinks more highly of Bazelak than the fanbase seems to. That doesn't mean they think he's perfect or that he's going to be handed the job. But if anyone else is going to be the starter, someone's going to have to come in and clearly beat out Bazelak. If it's a neck-and-neck race, the chances are a coach is going with the guy that's been out there before that he knows he can trust.
After Bazelak, it wouldn't surprise me if one of the backups transferred after this season. I want to be clear that I don't have any indication either one is necessarily looking to leave. But quarterbacks know only one is going to play. Brady Cook is about to enter his third season and the room is getting more crowded, not less. At some point, if playing time is a factor, you look elsewhere. The odds also say that Tyler Macon and Sam Horn aren't both going to finish their careers here. One of them is probably going to take over as the starting QB in 2023. The other? He'll probably look elsewhere. That's just the facts of the position and it's why Missouri has to recruit another good one in the 2023 class and another good one in the 2024 class and so on. Right now, Mizzou has four fairly accomplished high school quarterbacks either on the roster or on the way. Common sense says two of them are going to transfer at some point.
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