I'm sure some of you will read this with gritted teeth and clenched fists, especially the Barry Odom sunshine pumpers, but you can relax your blood pressure on this one.
I fully expect Barry Odom to dominate Tennessee tomorrow and Drew Lock to have a great game. This team was missing a big win, and a close win. They now have both, even if it was against Vanderbilt. The psyche of the team was frail in close games, Acy even admitted he looked for the "oh shit" flag on the last play. Now that they have shed that proverbial monkey, I don't expect two mediocre teams to stop them from going 8-4. With the talent on this team and their newly discovered confidence they should roll the next 2 games. Maybe these are high expectations, since we're "Mizzou" and according to some of you fans, we shouldn't expect much.
But I digress, this post, for those with the patience and intelligence to actually read something longer than 280 characters, is about the future of Mizzou.
First, the case that Kelly Bryant chooses Mizzou. In his own words, “Man, that’s everything I want to look for. What really intrigues me with them is that it’s coach Dooley’s first year there and Drew had to go in and learn the system and you see how he’s playing now. That’s just drawing me. If he can go and learn it in one year I know I can go in and learn it as well".
I found this to be interesting and here's why.
Most people expect Auburn to be the lead here, and a month ago I thought Louisville and Auburn would be dark horses. Obviously Louisville is a dumpster fire, but what about Auburn? There's a lot of talk of Malzahn not making it out of this year alive, and if they get blown out against Alabama I expect he will be fired. Gabe has said the AD and President are backing Malzahn, but the same was said before Chizik was fired. He was then fired after a blowout loss to Alabama. Much of the same happened to Tuberville and he was consequently canned shortly after a blowout loss to.....Alabama. This is normal behavior in the SEC, to fire winning National Championship coaches at the first sign of weakness. It happened with Tuberville, Chizik, Miles, Richt, and other high profile coaches. It is the nature of this league.
What does any of this have to do with Kelly Bryant? Other than the fact that Malzahn has a good chance to be fired (they will find the money), what has Malzahn done with Stidham? Can anyone sit here and say that he has improved this season? I'd question that he has regressed considerably. Bryant has one season to make himself look as good as possible for the NFL. If it is between Mizzou and Auburn, which I would argue Miami is the sneaky 11th hour choice, than wouldn't it make more sense to follow the actual 1st round QB than the guy who could have been a 1st rounder? The other schools are afterthoughts to me, UNC is a dumpster fire, Arkansas is years away from being competitive, Miss St could be a spot, but what has Fitzgerald done this year to give anyone confidence that it is a good place for QBs after Mullen left?
Mizzou isn't getting a lot of media attention on this because it is "Mizzou", but call me shockingly optimistic on the Tigers' chances, mostly due to his other options. Also how is WVU not courting KB?
If Barry can get Kelly Bryant to come to Mizzou, you might see a massive change in national and local viewership of the program. He's by far the #1 transfer on the market, and his commitment would give Barry respect from a lot of people inside of Missouri. With weapons around him and a more experienced Dooley leading the offense, it would be hard to not be excited about the state of the program next year. Add in the relatively soft schedule, getting Ole Miss and Arkansas from the West, WVU at home, and some rent a wins, and it is hard not to see a great season next year.
But.....what happens if Bryant does not choose Mizzou? All of a sudden Barry is recruiting for his job. I know there are many here that feel like Powell and Wilson should be given a shot, but can you afford to give guys shots that you're not 100% confident in if you're in Odom's position? Look around the league, almost every team has a "guy" behind THE "guy". Most Mizzou fans don't even know who would start between Powell or Wilson, and it doesn't appear the coaches do either as they were tagged with the dreaded or.
Gabe talked about Mizzou lifting the buy out and investing in Odom as the long term solution, but can Mizzou afford to be wrong if Odom can't find the guy to lead the offense?
I fully expect Barry Odom to dominate Tennessee tomorrow and Drew Lock to have a great game. This team was missing a big win, and a close win. They now have both, even if it was against Vanderbilt. The psyche of the team was frail in close games, Acy even admitted he looked for the "oh shit" flag on the last play. Now that they have shed that proverbial monkey, I don't expect two mediocre teams to stop them from going 8-4. With the talent on this team and their newly discovered confidence they should roll the next 2 games. Maybe these are high expectations, since we're "Mizzou" and according to some of you fans, we shouldn't expect much.
But I digress, this post, for those with the patience and intelligence to actually read something longer than 280 characters, is about the future of Mizzou.
First, the case that Kelly Bryant chooses Mizzou. In his own words, “Man, that’s everything I want to look for. What really intrigues me with them is that it’s coach Dooley’s first year there and Drew had to go in and learn the system and you see how he’s playing now. That’s just drawing me. If he can go and learn it in one year I know I can go in and learn it as well".
I found this to be interesting and here's why.
Most people expect Auburn to be the lead here, and a month ago I thought Louisville and Auburn would be dark horses. Obviously Louisville is a dumpster fire, but what about Auburn? There's a lot of talk of Malzahn not making it out of this year alive, and if they get blown out against Alabama I expect he will be fired. Gabe has said the AD and President are backing Malzahn, but the same was said before Chizik was fired. He was then fired after a blowout loss to Alabama. Much of the same happened to Tuberville and he was consequently canned shortly after a blowout loss to.....Alabama. This is normal behavior in the SEC, to fire winning National Championship coaches at the first sign of weakness. It happened with Tuberville, Chizik, Miles, Richt, and other high profile coaches. It is the nature of this league.
What does any of this have to do with Kelly Bryant? Other than the fact that Malzahn has a good chance to be fired (they will find the money), what has Malzahn done with Stidham? Can anyone sit here and say that he has improved this season? I'd question that he has regressed considerably. Bryant has one season to make himself look as good as possible for the NFL. If it is between Mizzou and Auburn, which I would argue Miami is the sneaky 11th hour choice, than wouldn't it make more sense to follow the actual 1st round QB than the guy who could have been a 1st rounder? The other schools are afterthoughts to me, UNC is a dumpster fire, Arkansas is years away from being competitive, Miss St could be a spot, but what has Fitzgerald done this year to give anyone confidence that it is a good place for QBs after Mullen left?
Mizzou isn't getting a lot of media attention on this because it is "Mizzou", but call me shockingly optimistic on the Tigers' chances, mostly due to his other options. Also how is WVU not courting KB?
If Barry can get Kelly Bryant to come to Mizzou, you might see a massive change in national and local viewership of the program. He's by far the #1 transfer on the market, and his commitment would give Barry respect from a lot of people inside of Missouri. With weapons around him and a more experienced Dooley leading the offense, it would be hard to not be excited about the state of the program next year. Add in the relatively soft schedule, getting Ole Miss and Arkansas from the West, WVU at home, and some rent a wins, and it is hard not to see a great season next year.
But.....what happens if Bryant does not choose Mizzou? All of a sudden Barry is recruiting for his job. I know there are many here that feel like Powell and Wilson should be given a shot, but can you afford to give guys shots that you're not 100% confident in if you're in Odom's position? Look around the league, almost every team has a "guy" behind THE "guy". Most Mizzou fans don't even know who would start between Powell or Wilson, and it doesn't appear the coaches do either as they were tagged with the dreaded or.
Gabe talked about Mizzou lifting the buy out and investing in Odom as the long term solution, but can Mizzou afford to be wrong if Odom can't find the guy to lead the offense?
