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1) The two sweetest words in college football: Game Week. It's here. On Sunday afternoon, Eli Drinkwitz called this week's game "Probably the most difficult opening game that we faced since I've been here."
Sure, Mizzou doesn't have much film on Murray State. The analyst and GAs have been working overtime to find what they can. Week one is always weird. I get it. But, sorry coach, not buying that one. Missouri is a 47.5 point favorite last I looked. The Tigers are going to win the game. It is likely going to be well in hand by halftime. I appreciate Drinkwitz trying to make it into a challenge. That's what coaches do. You can never let your team think it's good enough to just walk on the field and win. This week, Missouri is good enough to just walk on the field and win. The starters could all sit. It wouldn't matter. The talent gap is just too big.
That doesn't mean it will all go perfectly, but there's only been one FCS game in which I've ever learned anything. In 2017, Missouri started the season with a 72-43 win over Missouri State. And you walked out of that game knowing this was a defense with some major deficiencies. You don't give up 43 points to Missouri State with a good defense. Mizzou would lose the next five games before a six-game winning streak against pretty weak competition before losing the Texas Bowl.
Drinkwitz has played three FCS games as Mizzou's head coach. The total margin in those games in 118-55. Missouri hasn't looked particularly good in those games. They gave up 28 to SEMO, struggled to put away Abilene Christian 34-17 and then kind of sleep walked through a 35-10 win over South Dakota a year ago. Mizzou may not win this game by the suggested spread, though if Drinkwitz convinces his team that every week this season is a chance to make a statement, it very well may. Nothing in sports is a guarantee, but I can't draw up a scenario in which Missouri loses this game. At best, it's slightly behind 2020 Alabama for the toughest opener he's faced at Mizzou.
2) I won't draw definitive conclusions after this game, but there are things I'll be watching for. First and foremost, Missouri should dominate the line of scrimmage on both sides of the football. They should wreck Murray State up front. I want to see what the running game looks like with Marcus Carroll and Nate Noel. I'd like to get a look at some of the young guys. I'd like to see Drew Pyne get a chance to run the full offense and see what it looks like in case Missouri needs him in a real spot down the road. I'd like to see Blake Craig have to make a couple of field goals. If Mizzou wins by 40, I'm not going to tell you I know it's a playoff team and if it wins 27-13 I'm not going to tell you I know it isn't. That's not how this works. Big picture, I don't expect to learn anything on Thursday night. But there are aspects of the game that can still be instructive.
3) The depth chart came out on Sunday and it really told us only one thing: The players not listed on it aren't going to see meaningful action this year. It was less a depth chart and more a list of every player who has any chance to see action early in the season. There were 31 players listed on offense and 37 on defense on the sheet we were handed. If there's a chance you're getting in the game, you're on the depth chart.
Here were the notes of interest: Toriano Pride and Nic DeLoach were listed as an "or" on the depth chart. My money is on Pride being the starter, but DeLoach getting plenty of action.
Chris McLellan is listed as a starter at defensive tackle with Kristian Williams. But Drinkwitz put Marquis Gracial in the group of three that have separated from the rest. Missouri will play four or five here, but those are the top three. I'd bet Gracial's snaps are about equal to McClellan's in game one.
Noel and Carroll are listed as an "or" at running back, but Drinkwitz said Noel is taking the first series. He'll be the starter. I think you could see them used more situationally. Noel is more of a speed back, Carroll a power back. Both will get their chances, along with Jamal Roberts, this week.
Other than that, things went pretty much according to expectation.
4) Freshmen at this point are in three categories: Those who will likely skip the redshirt, those who will be evaluated in the first four games to see and those who almost certainly won't break that four-game barrier. Here are my guesses at where each freshman falls:
Won't redshirt: Trajen Greco, Cameron Keys
Will redshirt: Courtney Crutchfield, Jaren Sensabaugh, Caleb Pyfrom, Kewan Lacy, Talan Chandler, Austyn Dendy, Elias Williams, James Madison, Justin Bodford, Jackson Hancock, Aidan Glover, Ryan Jostes
To be determined: Jaylen Brown, Williams Nwaneri, Brian Huff, Nicholas Rodriguez, Jude James, Whit Hafer
5) Most of you have been around here for a football season before and most of you probably quite a few of them. But every year we try to bolster our coverage just a little bit and make things better for you all than they were the year before. Here's an idea of what you can expect every week from us football wise (we'll continue to do offseason hoops stuff and regular recruiting coverage plus dabble a little bit Olympic sports). This week is a little bit different because the game is on Thursday, but going forward, our coverage will be pretty uniform:
Tuesday: Media Day. We'll have live coverage of everything Eli Drinkwitz and the players say and bring you any breaking news. Jarod will also have Four Down Territory every Tuesday morning.
Wednesday: A full notebook from everything said on Tuesday plus the mailbag.
Thursday: A feature on the Tigers, whether it's a human interest story on a player, a specific aspect of the game or matchup, etc. A weekly YouTube show and podcast with a member of the media who covers the opponent. This week it will be Murray State radio play by play announcer Neal Bradley (this week that will run on Tuesday, but most weeks it's Thursday).
Friday: Jarod's complete matchup breakdown and predictions along with The Chamber (not this week for the Chamber because they play Thursday and we'll have postgame coverage all Friday morning)
Saturday: Game Day coverage. We'll have live updates on location as we'll have Jarod at every game this season. For home games, I'll be there along with a photographer and a videographer. After the game we'll bring you video interviews, complete written coverage with instant reaction as soon as the game ends and complete postgame coverage. We'll also be doing a live postgame show brought to you by our friends at Yuengling. Included in that this year is a chance for you to get involved. If you go to the link below, you'll be able to leave us a voicemail on game day. We'll play some of them and react to them on the show.
Send a voice message to powermizzou
Covering the Missouri Tigers for the Rivals.com network
www.speakpipe.com
I'll share this link multiple times each game day as a reminder. It's incredibly simple to do. You just click the link, hit start recording and say what you want to say. We ask you try to keep it relatively clean so YouTube doessn't get mad at us for explicit language and also that you try to limit your takes to a couple of minutes. We're not going to play five minute voicemails on the postgame show.
Sunday: Grade Card and snap counts. Starting in mid-October, I'll also go live on Sunday night with College Football Playoff rankings reaction.
Monday: Jarod's final wrap up of everything that happened Saturday, Ten Thoughts and our weekly State of the Tigers live show bridging from one game to the next.
Obviously there will be breaking news and added coverage, but this is the outline for what you can expect from us every single week of this season. You're not getting half of it anywhere else. We know how big this season is for you guys and we will cover it accordingly.
