1) Is Brady Cook playing his way into the QB conversation for next year? Look, guys, I don’t know. But I’m not willing to say no for sure. I know everyone is convinced Sam Horn is great. And maybe he is. But are you willing to go into a year as big as next year with a guy you haven’t seen do it? If Cook played the way he did today all year this team is 9-3. Do you believe he can do it from the start next year with a full year under his belt? I totally understand if you don’t. But today is the first time I’ve considered that he might be the starter next year.
2) They’ve got two receivers you can build around and a couple more that are nice pieces. Dom Lovett is a star. Luther Burden is probably going to be. Mookie Cooper is a useful piece, if not a No. 1. Mekhi Miller has made plays every time you’ve given him a chance. The pieces are there. You have to keep them all together and that’s not easy in this day and age. But if all four of those guys return, Missouri’s passing game could be pretty fun next year, whoever is throwing the ball.
3) Why go for two in the third quarter? You don’t chase points with 25 minutes left to play. When Arkansas got the ball back with five minutes left, I was sure I was going to have to erase the column I wrote and write one about how Eli Drinkwitz’s reliance on a chart cost them the game. I’m glad I didn’t have to. Drink coached a very good game today. That was one I didn’t like.
4) For most of the first half I thought I was going to have to talk about the defense deserting Missouri when the offense finally showed up. But I didn’t. They were great in the second half. And truth be told, they weren’t nearly as bad as I initially thought in the first half. Arkansas converted 5 of 7 third downs and made a couple of big plays, but overall, the Razorbacks still had far fewer yards than Missouri. They’d just been better in the red zone…until they weren’t.
5) If I’m a Razorback fan, I’d like a word with my coordinators. The plan in the first half seemed to be blitz the hell out of Brady Cook. The problem was they weren’t getting there (shoutout Mizzou OL). And once they didn’t get there, all Cook had to do was break the line of scrimmage and he had 20 yards in front of him. He even said he was surprised at how much room he had to run. It was the same play over and over and Barry Odom didn’t change until the second half. Once they did, Missouri only got three more field goals. But the damage was done.
On offense, why do you get to the three-yard line and run a QB sneak with someone other than your 242-pound QB who is a hell of a tough runner? And then why do you kick a 19-yard field goal when you’re down by five points.
Coaching: Mizzou > Arkansas
6) I never thought Isaiah McGuire would be the player he is today. I thought he had a chance to be a nice piece. He’s fourth in the SEC in sacks. He’s a dominant edge rusher. He’s the best defensive player on this team and he’s going to play on Sundays. By the way, he did it with a separated shoulder today. Hats off, kid.
7) That said, we shouldn’t see him play in a Mizzou uniform again. He’s proven everything he needs to prove. I don’t think he’ll be the only one to not play in a bowl game. The next three weeks or so are going to be an absolute roller coaster. There are a lot of guys who will have options (both pro and portal) and they aren’t all guys that aren’t seeing the field. I have no idea how it’s going to play out.
8) So where will that bowl game be? I think it’s either the Liberty Bowl against Kansas or the Las Vegas Bowl against a PAC-12 team. Those are the two destinations I’m hearing the most. The draw for the Liberty Bowl is obvious. They had reps here today and they’d love to have the Border War. I’m sure there’s some appeal for the SEC too. From everything I’m hearing, Missouri would prefer Vegas. Desiree Reed-Francois knows plenty of people out there. There might be some back channeling going on. It will be interesting to see which way it goes, but I think those are the two destinations. The Las Vegas Bowl is on December 17. The Liberty Bowl is on December 28. I know Missouri would like to have the bowl game before Christmas is possible and I think they’d rather face a PAC 12 team than Kansas. I’d prefer Vegas too, but I don’t think anyone is going to ask me.
9) I’ve been pretty vocal in the past that bowl games don’t matter. This one does for this team. Now, like I said, if I’m Isaiah McGuire, I’m not playing. Probably true for a couple other guys too. But for this program, winning a bowl game over a Power Five team would be big. It would give you a winning record. It would be four Power Five wins in the last five weeks. It would be momentum. It would get your fans excited. Fair or not, 7-6 looks a lot prettier than 6-7. Missouri needs to try to win this game. That takes precedence over everything else, including giving the freshman quarterback game reps.
10) This team deserves a lot of credit. They could have quit a lot of times. I quit on them a few times. A lot of you did too. They didn’t. That’s a credit to the kids and a credit to the coaches. They’re a lot closer to 9-3 than they are to 3-9. For those of you who have insisted they were close, you appear right now to be more right than you were wrong. There are a lot of reasons to be optimistic today. Again, you’re going to have to survive a wild offseason, but today gave us a lot of looks at what the positive crowd has insisted we should have seen all along. Maybe we should have. For the record, I’ve never buried this program or this coach. I know you think I have some weird personal axe to grind. I don’t. But I’ll admit I didn’t believe a month ago they were capable of getting this thing to 6-6 with a chance at 7-6. I was wrong. I don’t have any problem saying that. Credit to them.
Enjoy the victory, the leftovers and your families. I'm going to do snap counts in the morning, then my family is doing Thanksgiving Dinner tomorrow and I've got Chiefs tickets Sunday. So you're not gonna see me after about 10 a.m. tomorrow for the rest of the weekend. Which surely means some crazy shit is going to happen and I'll be back here at 10:02 tomorrow morning.
2) They’ve got two receivers you can build around and a couple more that are nice pieces. Dom Lovett is a star. Luther Burden is probably going to be. Mookie Cooper is a useful piece, if not a No. 1. Mekhi Miller has made plays every time you’ve given him a chance. The pieces are there. You have to keep them all together and that’s not easy in this day and age. But if all four of those guys return, Missouri’s passing game could be pretty fun next year, whoever is throwing the ball.
3) Why go for two in the third quarter? You don’t chase points with 25 minutes left to play. When Arkansas got the ball back with five minutes left, I was sure I was going to have to erase the column I wrote and write one about how Eli Drinkwitz’s reliance on a chart cost them the game. I’m glad I didn’t have to. Drink coached a very good game today. That was one I didn’t like.
4) For most of the first half I thought I was going to have to talk about the defense deserting Missouri when the offense finally showed up. But I didn’t. They were great in the second half. And truth be told, they weren’t nearly as bad as I initially thought in the first half. Arkansas converted 5 of 7 third downs and made a couple of big plays, but overall, the Razorbacks still had far fewer yards than Missouri. They’d just been better in the red zone…until they weren’t.
5) If I’m a Razorback fan, I’d like a word with my coordinators. The plan in the first half seemed to be blitz the hell out of Brady Cook. The problem was they weren’t getting there (shoutout Mizzou OL). And once they didn’t get there, all Cook had to do was break the line of scrimmage and he had 20 yards in front of him. He even said he was surprised at how much room he had to run. It was the same play over and over and Barry Odom didn’t change until the second half. Once they did, Missouri only got three more field goals. But the damage was done.
On offense, why do you get to the three-yard line and run a QB sneak with someone other than your 242-pound QB who is a hell of a tough runner? And then why do you kick a 19-yard field goal when you’re down by five points.
Coaching: Mizzou > Arkansas
6) I never thought Isaiah McGuire would be the player he is today. I thought he had a chance to be a nice piece. He’s fourth in the SEC in sacks. He’s a dominant edge rusher. He’s the best defensive player on this team and he’s going to play on Sundays. By the way, he did it with a separated shoulder today. Hats off, kid.
7) That said, we shouldn’t see him play in a Mizzou uniform again. He’s proven everything he needs to prove. I don’t think he’ll be the only one to not play in a bowl game. The next three weeks or so are going to be an absolute roller coaster. There are a lot of guys who will have options (both pro and portal) and they aren’t all guys that aren’t seeing the field. I have no idea how it’s going to play out.
8) So where will that bowl game be? I think it’s either the Liberty Bowl against Kansas or the Las Vegas Bowl against a PAC-12 team. Those are the two destinations I’m hearing the most. The draw for the Liberty Bowl is obvious. They had reps here today and they’d love to have the Border War. I’m sure there’s some appeal for the SEC too. From everything I’m hearing, Missouri would prefer Vegas. Desiree Reed-Francois knows plenty of people out there. There might be some back channeling going on. It will be interesting to see which way it goes, but I think those are the two destinations. The Las Vegas Bowl is on December 17. The Liberty Bowl is on December 28. I know Missouri would like to have the bowl game before Christmas is possible and I think they’d rather face a PAC 12 team than Kansas. I’d prefer Vegas too, but I don’t think anyone is going to ask me.
9) I’ve been pretty vocal in the past that bowl games don’t matter. This one does for this team. Now, like I said, if I’m Isaiah McGuire, I’m not playing. Probably true for a couple other guys too. But for this program, winning a bowl game over a Power Five team would be big. It would give you a winning record. It would be four Power Five wins in the last five weeks. It would be momentum. It would get your fans excited. Fair or not, 7-6 looks a lot prettier than 6-7. Missouri needs to try to win this game. That takes precedence over everything else, including giving the freshman quarterback game reps.
10) This team deserves a lot of credit. They could have quit a lot of times. I quit on them a few times. A lot of you did too. They didn’t. That’s a credit to the kids and a credit to the coaches. They’re a lot closer to 9-3 than they are to 3-9. For those of you who have insisted they were close, you appear right now to be more right than you were wrong. There are a lot of reasons to be optimistic today. Again, you’re going to have to survive a wild offseason, but today gave us a lot of looks at what the positive crowd has insisted we should have seen all along. Maybe we should have. For the record, I’ve never buried this program or this coach. I know you think I have some weird personal axe to grind. I don’t. But I’ll admit I didn’t believe a month ago they were capable of getting this thing to 6-6 with a chance at 7-6. I was wrong. I don’t have any problem saying that. Credit to them.
Enjoy the victory, the leftovers and your families. I'm going to do snap counts in the morning, then my family is doing Thanksgiving Dinner tomorrow and I've got Chiefs tickets Sunday. So you're not gonna see me after about 10 a.m. tomorrow for the rest of the weekend. Which surely means some crazy shit is going to happen and I'll be back here at 10:02 tomorrow morning.
