Just showed up on my phone. Sitting in NN, corner end zone but at least it is in the lower bowl. Who else is going?

Here are videos of Johnny Walker Jr., Marcus Bryant and Luther Burden speaking Tuesday ahead of the matchup with Alabama.

I'll have a said and unsaid once we finish up here. But for now, here are my quick notes from Drinkwitz speaking at Week 9 media day.


"Really proud of our team and how they stuck together"

Shouted out defensive linemen for their play Saturday

"Coach Batoon and the defensive staff deserve a lot of credit"

"Really proud of Mookie Cooper the play he made in the third quarter, Luther Burden and how he responded to the muffed punt"

"Talk about competitive greatness, need to be at your best when it's needed"

"Opportunity to play a top-15 opponent that's only lost at home once in the last 10 years or so"

Offensive line is really big, physical

Quarterback is a dynamic athlete

The biggest thing offensively they've done is designed quarterback runs in the red area

"Really difficult challenge there on the offensive side of the ball"

"Them and Texas A&M is the best defensive lines we've seen so far and probably will see"

"We accept the challenge. This is going to be a challenge for our team not to focus on the reasons we can't, but focus on the reason we can"

"Everyone wants a health update on our guys, I don't have one"

When asked if Brady will be at practice "Define at practice" when asked if he'll participate "I don't know. But he'll be at practice"

"I'm not letting the media at practice so they can't speculate on what Brady is or isn't doing at practice"
(No open practice today)

If it's not a home game, Brady wouldn't have been able to come back. "It's one of the times I'm happy games last 3 and a half hours" Says they wouldn't have been able to get to a hospital to do the MRI immediately.

Very grateful for MU Health Care

Can't create vertical rush lanes while rushing the passer this week

"He's the definition of a dual-threat quarterback"

"We're gonna need blankets" when asked about pass coverage

"We cannot let the deep ball beat us. That's been an issue for us, we've given up way too many deep balls"

"I think we have a lot of confidence in our player's grit and toughness"

"The first thing is we can't play over-analyzing every situation. We can't have too many checks on both sides of the ball."

"We've got to focus on what we can do"

"The thing I've emphasized is, play with zero hesitation, go out and play as fast as you can. If a play is there, go take it."

"We run a lot of the same pass concepts, there's a big difference in the run schemes."

"We've got to do a better job in our A gap identification on pressures. They've got an elite D-line, they always have and I assume they always will with how they recruit."

"I think this may be the best set of linebackers we play this year."

"We're going to try Dan Lanning's approach and play 12, see if we can add extra pressure" avoiding an answer about the game plan for attacking Bama's offensive line

Ryan Williams "Special player, special talent." "I don't know that age is as big of a factor when you have his set of gifts"

"The criticisms, are you going to drop in the polls? None of that matters. It's about winning the game that Saturday. What anyone says to criticize our team, none of that matters"

"I think the one quality this team has that always shows up is a refusal to give in"

"Kalen DeBoar is an elite football coach, arguably the best coach in college football between him and coach Smart"

Here's my look at some of the key quotes Drinkwitz gave during media day this week.

Subject line says it all.
Text 6363994321

Brady Cook was named as one of 20 finalists for the eighth annual Jason Witten Collegiate Man of the Year Award.

Along with Cook, the list of finalists is:

Justin Barron (Syracuse)
Dylan Black (Oregon State)
Dontay Corleone (Cincinnati)
Ajani Cornelius (Oregon)
Luke Deal (Auburn)
Jacob Gardner (Colorado State)
Ahmed Hassanein (Boise State)
Seth Henigan (Memphis)
Isaiah Jacobs (UAB)
Jake Majors (Texas)
Bru McCoy (Tennessee)
Devin Neal (Kansas)
Kaimon Rucker (North Carolina)
Cody Simon (Ohio State)
Logan Taylor (Hawaii)
Dante Trader Jr. (Maryland)
Jalon Walker (Georgia)
J.J. Weaver (Kentucky)
Jackson Woodard (UNLV)

Three finalists will be named on December 16 and the winner will be announced at a ceremony on February 12.

Zachary Washington took his first unofficial visit to Missouri on Saturday. The Class of 2026 three-star discussed how the Tigers met his expectations within the wide receiver group and how he admired the resilience of the team in a win against Auburn.

Was listening to a POD this morning and they did a great job discussing the QB situation.... IMHO, we may be facing a situation much like we did at aTm... is Milroe the guy? Do they need to change his style back to more running? Or do they bring in the other guy and go to DeBoer's system at this point? What does the Mizzou D prepare for? And what happens if it's "not the same"?

I am cautiously optimistic... but I am going to find this an interesting aspect of the coming game...

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I have 6 tickets for Saturday's game available. Section U4 NN, Row 14, Text me at 573-465-4833. Can be sold in pairs, or all together as a group.

I know this has been discussed on various threads but still cannot believe this happened. The rest of the SEC is learning real fast why Mizzou fans and most of the B12 hate Texas. It sets such a terrible precedent.

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Would prefer to be in Mizzou section but open to whatever. Text 314-330-6529 if anything is out there. Thank you.

Evan Goodwin recapped his first unofficial visit to Missouri and how much he enjoyed Eli Drinkwitz’s postgame speech to the players. He also talked about how one staffer has helped advance his play with film breakdowns.

And now we've got the defensive last look from a performance I was very impressed with outside of one play. But don't worry, we look right at that play.

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As @Greg Smith anticipated, Andrew Babalola committed to Michigan. The four-star offensive tackle took an official visit to Missouri on May 31.

Defensive play calling was better today. But all season long, the offensive play calling has been below par. Today again, the coaches were just happy to sit back and pass, regardless of who the QB was. Didn’t rely much on the run. Very little misdirection, screens etc. Felt like A&M game until some lady Brady magic.

Here's my final look back at how the offense played against Auburn before we get ready to start previewing Alabama later today.

Pump it through my veins

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Looking 2 tickets in the Mizzou lower section. Text 573-821-3959 if any available.

I was traveling yesterday and didn’t get to watch the game, so I just went back and rewatched this afternoon. The storyline is Brady Cook leading a comeback, as it should be, so I’m going to disregard that and give some other analysis.

-The Defense were the unsung heroes. Other than a blown safety coverage on a flood route, there were really no mistakes. They got a ton of pressure inside and limited a very dynamic rushing attack. Thorne is not a good thrower, but they also only let up a couple downfield passes the whole game.

-Young and Carnell are absolute studs. They were all over the place the whole game. Seemed like Carnell made every big tackle. Young lived in the backfield all afternoon. What a great portal pickup.

-On a concerning note, I’ll call out three players/positions. 1) the injuries at LB really hurt, frankly Hicks is not big enough for SEC play and just gets run over. Same can be said for Rodriguez, although he’s a true freshman who probably never expected to get meaningful minutes. 2) Walker has been a disappointment basically all season. I thought he was gonna be a dude this year. Even on the final drive where he got a sack, Young was also helping get pressure. 3) I respect Toriano Pride, high pedigree hometown guy, but I was hoping to see more from him this year. He hasn’t been terrible but he seems to get exposed every so often.

-On the offense, ton of respect for Cook and the absolutely gutsy performance. I really don’t have much positive to say about them otherwise - but with your starting QB in the hospital they did enough to keep us in the game and avoided costly mistakes (outside of the handoff fumble).

-Pyne is the backup as he should be based on what we all saw. However, I actually don’t think he played that bad. He was clearly rattled after the fumble and only had about three truly bad throws. Otherwise, he was under siege seemingly the entire time he played, threw a lot of dump offs and his receivers weren’t doing much to help. He’s just not as mobile as Cook and not as comfortable in the offense (he’s a first year backup), and Auburn was pinning their ears back every time he dropped back to pass.

-I question a lot of the play calling by Moore after Cook went out, he should’ve been calling more runs and getting the ball to Burden (even out of the backfield) with your backup QB playing. I do think this rushing attack is much better with Noel in the game and he was out, but really no excuses there. I know you probably aren’t as dynamic on play calling with Pyne in the game, but you can only call so many 5 yard outs before the defense catches on.

-Offensive line was very disappointing in pass blocking. Seemed like Pyne was under pressure about 75% of the time. Brady bailed them out a few times at the end but he was under pressure a lot too. In particular the left side seems weak and Auburn attacked it. Cayden Green has been underwhelming, he just looks lost sometimes.

-I won’t beat a dead horse but special teams is a huge problem. Kicking is obviously inconsistent, but beyond that I’m not sure what goes through LB3’s head sometimes on punt returns. I really just think he shouldn’t go back there at all, he will make some plays but I don’t think the risk/reward checks out. He almost cost us the game, without that finishing drive by Cook where LB3 made some nice catches I think a lot of scrutiny would be on the special teams unit (in particular LB3 and Craig). On a final positive note, Joshua Manning looked awesome on kick returns and had a great catch on third down of the first drive of the game. But in general, special teams was a clear weakness and has been for much of the season.

Polls
The Coaches poll is starting to look something closer to reality; there are only a couple of issues this week. Tennessee and Clemson should likely be in front of LSU, as losing to Georgia is by far better than a loss to UCLA. The ND bias continues as you can argue a ranking as low as 23 with the by far worst loss of a one-loss ranked team (NIU at home). A 5-2 Ole Miss team losing to UK dropped behind Mizzou and should really be behind SMU at the 22 slot as well. Boise, with the only loss being a 3 point drop to Oregon in Eugene, should likely be ahead of teams like Mizzou and K-State for now, but the strength of schedule is not there to support a ranking above other Power 4 one loss teams at the end of the year. Below Mizzou, the top 25 begins to look like a legitimate list although teams like Army and Navy are in as the top 25 requires 25 teams. Again, that will fix itself in the next week with many marquee matchups on the docket. For Mizzou specifically, some of the teams above it sort out this week with Alabama, LSU/A&M and ND/Navy all matching up. Teams like Texas (playing @Vandy), Indiana (hosting UW), Ole Miss (hosting OU) and BYU (hosting UCF) can all play themselves out of a playoff spot versus Mizzou if the Tigers win in Tuscaloosa and any of these teams lose. We’ll look at the AP spin later today once published.

Playoff Picture

In barring more than two losses and complete collapse:

• Oregon (auto-bid), your newly anointed #1 team. Still plays Illinois and takes a road trip to Ann Arbor, and can lose at least one of those to easily make the playoff. All but in at this point with wins over Boise and Ohio State.
• Penn State (at-large). Penn State plays Ohio State and has a road trip to Minneapolis. The Nittany Lions can drop any one game and feel good about the playoff.
• Georgia (auto-bid). Another massive road win for Kirby Smart, this time in Austin. The Dawgs still host Tennessee and take a road trip to Oxford, however with already beating Clemson and now Texas, the Dawgs are all but in.
• Tennessee (at-large). Gigantic win at home against Alabama. Tennessee still plays at Georgia and at Vandy, but can now afford a loss to the Dawgs and still get in. Tennessee moves up a line with the win on the Third Saturday in October.

That’s two of the seven at-larges with two auto-bids: for the other five at-larges, the breakdown:

Can afford “the right” loss and realistically get in (ten teams for five spots not including ACC and BigXII champions) without any additional help, including their respective CCG if losing that game:

SEC
o Alabama – @LSU OR Mizzou
o LSU – Alabama OR @Texas A&M
o Mizzou – @Alabama
o Texas A&M – LSU OR Texas
o Texas – @Texas A&M

A lot changed this week in the SEC, and now with LSU at A&M and Mizzou at Alabama, these teams will narrow the field from five to three as part of a Separation Saturday. For the teams that “Just Win Baby!” the path is open to the playoff. Mizzou can put a stranglehold on an at large with a win in Tuscaloosa as the schedule is relatively easy after this matchup, whereas A&M can make the annual date with Texas very interesting with a win at home against LSU. Wins by Alabama and LSU make the date in Baton Rouge later this year big in locking up an at-large. Alabama, which would be the "best" 3-loss team in the country, would be on life support with an loss against LSU or Mizzou, and out with any other third loss, and is dependent on (gasp) Vandy to keep winning, which also helps Mizzou.

Texas still plays @Vandy, @Arkansas, and @Texas A&M. With Texas’s weakening schedule (best win is 4-3 OU or 4-3 Michigan, both trending toward 5-7 to 7-5?), losing a game before A&M is effectively elimination. Even then, the A&M/Texas game looms large as it could easily become a play-in game for the playoff or a separation game between a trip to Atlanta, which neither team may want as it offers an opportunity for a late season loss and another reason to miss the playoff.

Ole Miss was dismissed last week and will not be back without a win against Georgia at home; playoff teams don’t lose at home to UK (trending to 5-7/6-6). Vandy gets on this list with a win against Texas this weekend, even with the terrible loss at Ga State. Shocking how one bad half can move a team from completely out versus the likely top 15 team it would be had it taken care of business against a Fun Belt school.

BIG
o Ohio State – @Penn State

It’s not that Ohio State is in trouble after a last minute drive failed to beat the Ducks, it’s that all the other teams competing for spots keep winning. Ohio State is yet to beat a ranked team at the time they played the team, let alone a currently ranked team. Michigan is quickly fading, which leaves @Penn State and a surging Indiana team in Columbus as the only teams left which will likely be ranked when matching up against the Bucks. A loss to Indiana at home, even with the performance the Hoosiers have shown so far this year, is likely too much to overcome given the weak schedule. Giving Penn State their first loss of the year in Happy Valley would cure a loss to Michigan or Indiana, but not both. For Ohio State, it’s all about continuing to win to get in.

BigXII
o BYU – undefeated ISU in CCG
o Iowa State – undefeated BYU in CCG

With Utah’s third loss, this time in ugly fashion to TCU in Rice-Eccles, we’ve now established that the BigXII is a one bid league unless BYU and Iowa State meet for in the CCG both undefeated. KSU running the table would give the Wildcats a rematch against undefeated BYU in the CCG (which BYU beat in Provo badly, 38-9, in week 4), and the loser would likely miss the playoff due to the weak schedules. Iowa State only has a ranked KState team in the way of anything helping their strength of schedule, while BYU has played and beat a ranked KSU team and does not play a currently-ranked team the rest of the way. What looked like a decent conference two weeks ago suddenly looks very weak and top-heavy with these three teams. KSU likely needs to win the auto-bid to make the playoff.

Other
o Miami – One-loss @Syracuse OR ACC CCG against 12-0/11-1 Pitt, 11-1 Clemson OR 11-1 SMU
o Notre Dame – One-loss Army OR One-loss Navy

Miami continues its run with a strong showing late in Louisville, and as a reward has a cakewalk schedule to the last week of the ACC slate against Syracuse. Miami needs Syracuse to win out to this game, so that if the 'Canes were to lose they can still get in with a loss in the ACC title game. Miami can meet many 11-1 teams and may already have a bid wrapped up going into the CCG with a 12-0 record, The remaining ranked ACC teams have backloaded schedules, which means losses and a potentially weakening SOS for the 'Canes.

ND continues living off its brand name but looked strong against Ga Tech; playoff teams should not lose at home to MAC teams. Ever. ND does have a strengthening schedule with the service academies upcoming, and with the coaches generously ranking ND at 11 the Irish still have many paths available to the playoff. Those paths start this week with Navy, and a win against the top 25 'Middes puts everything back on the table with Army quickly following suit. USC looks easier after a terrible weekend loss at Maryland.


Dreamers on life support - Other teams in second-tier consideration which can lose one more game and get in with additional help:

11-2 Clemson – ACC CCG against Miami
11-2 Pitt – ACC CCG against Miami
11-2 SMU - ACC CCG against Miami

For the ACC teams it’s simple, win all the way to the ACC CCG and if you lose a close game to Miami, you might get in. Probably not but might. These teams start playing harder schedules starting this week as the conference schedules are backloaded. That starts this Saturday with Pitt hosting one-loss Syracuse and SMU traveling to 6-1 Duke.

11-1 Indiana - @Ohio State AND not going to the BIG CCG (would need to win CCG with a loss to Ohio State)
10-2 Illinois - @Oregon OR @Ohio State, AND not going to the BIG CCG (would need to win CCG with a loss to Oregon or Ohio State)

For Indiana, it’s simple; run the table. Indiana has a Charmain-soft schedule with a trip to Columbus as the only obstacle to what looks like an otherwise undefeated season. Any loss takes the Hoosiers out of contention otherwise. For Illinois, 10-2 with a close loss to Oregon or Ohio State may be enough depending on the field.

10-2 KState - @Iowa State AND not going to the BigXII CCG (would need to win CCG with a loss to Iowa State)

KState remains on life support and almost has to win the CCG to make the field. Another loss to any team likely ends the playoff dream, even if that is in the CCG as they would rematch against BYU or ISU.

Group of 5

12-1 Boise State or UNLV winner with MWC CCG win, 11/12-1 Army, 11/12-1 Navy


Thanks for stopping by the booth (two losses and no realistic path to win out)

Nebraska taking a generational spanking by Indiana (worst loss to a non-blue blood since 2007 ku) was very satisfying. But hey, they need football in their lives, so there’s always next year. With the upcoming schedule, NU could easily miss a bowl game for the 8th straight year. Not bad for a former blue-blood turned into a dumpster fire.

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Former Missouri commit Juju Marks decommitted from Kansas on Sunday and pledged to Nebraska. The four-star offensive tackle was committed to the Tigers for 24 days in 2023 as the program’s first commit and first decommit in the Class of 2025.

As the game ended yesterday a group of Auburn Fans were walking by me and I commented to them "You played a tough game today", one of the Auburn Fans looked at me and said, "Brady Cook was tougher".
Brady earned the respect of the Auburn Fans, let's start supporting Brady more, he is our QB!

Might be the best ever. The oU and texas tears!

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Guess the home field advantage and fighting for their playoff life is driving the spread

Here’s story 2 in Fresh Faces to get to know the new guys on the basketball team.

Say hello to Josh Gray.