Like most on here, I love Mizzou football. Few moments have been more exciting than being at Faurot for SEC East clinching games, Sod Reesing game at Arrow Head, the first three quarters of the Auburn - MU SEC championship game, etc.
There is an expectation that BO (or whoever the coach is) should just be able to recruit better. And while a coach has to sell a vision and a be a great "salesman" for his program, to me there is a problem that is hard to overcome:
If it is not a big game, Faurot is an absolutely stale environment. If you are like me and sit on the alumni side, no one makes noise until 3rd down. And even at that, not that loudly. The stadium looks more empty than full. Yes, you have to win to fill seats. And there is no pro football in St Louis, and going to Faurot should be an event. There are only 6 or 7 games a year. Place should be full.
I walked-on at D1 School and played another year at a DII school. Going to the environment at the DII school from the DI felt like the difference between going to a game in Knoxville or Athens or Tuscaloosa or Baton Rouge, and then going to Faurot.
If you have a recruit standing on the sidelines for the SC-MU game, and next week going to Athens or Knoxville, 9 out of 10 are choosing the other schools. We have no game day atmosphere unless it is a game for all the marbles.
I am not blaming the fans or giving a pass to Odom. I am saying that until every game matters from the time the first quarter starts until the game ends, ( I get MO State ain't gonna feel like that), we will never get the recruits. Big time players want to be in that atmosphere week in and week out. Not once or twice a year.
BO was being nice when he said the fans did a great job. Place was like a morgue. Which come first - the fans care passionately all the time and then the players come, or the coaches get great players then the people come? I would argue that the former has to happen before the latter, but it has been that way at Faurot since I was a kid.
There is an expectation that BO (or whoever the coach is) should just be able to recruit better. And while a coach has to sell a vision and a be a great "salesman" for his program, to me there is a problem that is hard to overcome:
If it is not a big game, Faurot is an absolutely stale environment. If you are like me and sit on the alumni side, no one makes noise until 3rd down. And even at that, not that loudly. The stadium looks more empty than full. Yes, you have to win to fill seats. And there is no pro football in St Louis, and going to Faurot should be an event. There are only 6 or 7 games a year. Place should be full.
I walked-on at D1 School and played another year at a DII school. Going to the environment at the DII school from the DI felt like the difference between going to a game in Knoxville or Athens or Tuscaloosa or Baton Rouge, and then going to Faurot.
If you have a recruit standing on the sidelines for the SC-MU game, and next week going to Athens or Knoxville, 9 out of 10 are choosing the other schools. We have no game day atmosphere unless it is a game for all the marbles.
I am not blaming the fans or giving a pass to Odom. I am saying that until every game matters from the time the first quarter starts until the game ends, ( I get MO State ain't gonna feel like that), we will never get the recruits. Big time players want to be in that atmosphere week in and week out. Not once or twice a year.
BO was being nice when he said the fans did a great job. Place was like a morgue. Which come first - the fans care passionately all the time and then the players come, or the coaches get great players then the people come? I would argue that the former has to happen before the latter, but it has been that way at Faurot since I was a kid.
