Coming to grips with reality E-mail
Written by Matt   
Tuesday, 14 July 2009 15:01

Normally when Mizzou loses a football game I make myself wait 24 hours before trying to write about what went wrong. Usually I’m so emotionally drained and my thoughts are so scattered that I’m not able to form any sort of coherent analysis. I’d have thought that I would’ve needed at least a solid week to talk about losing to kansas (no-caps rule is still in effect).

Yet I’m writing this column just hours after the Beakers handed the Tigers their most excruciating loss that I’ve witnessed since I’ve been in college. To be completely honest, I felt a lot worse after the Texas and Oklahoma State losses.

I think the reason for that is because at this point in the season I’ve come to grips with what the Tigers are: An above average college football team. Mizzou is easily a top-20 team and maybe even a top-15 team. But all season they’ve proven time and time again that they don’t belong in the upper echelon of college football teams. The same problems that plagued the Tigers in the season opener against Illinois are still costing them games.

So what’s the difference between this season and last? After all, Mizzou returned virtually all of their starters on both sides of the ball. You’ll hear a lot of Jayhawk fans argue that last Saturday’s loss somehow negates everything that Missouri accomplished in 2007 by proving that the Tigers were pretenders all along. Don’t let them fool you. I’ve only heard one game in the history of sports referred to as “Armageddon” and that was last year’s MU-kU showdown at Arrowhead. The Tigers were a completely legitimate top-five team a year ago.

But even though essentially all of the players returned from last year’s group this is hardly the same team. The difference between this season and last is that this year’s team—to use the corniest of all overused sports clichés—has lost that eye of the tiger. Yep, this is a textbook example of season-after syndrome.

For those of you unfamiliar with this chronic disease, it often strikes teams coming off a season of prodigious success. Its victims have a tendency to get caught up in preseason accolades and often become complacent and content with their past achievements.

The Tigers are displaying all the symptoms. Last year’s squad was hungry and always played like it had something to prove. It had a chip on its shoulder and wasn’t afraid of a little adversity. This season the Tigers have repeatedly started games flat. They’ve taken their foot off the pedal many times when they had chances to bury teams. They’ve played soft.

I wanted to believe this much-ballyhooed senior class had enough drive and determination to avoid this potentially fatal ailment. But you have to remember these are college kids. It’s not easy to avoid the hype machine that the national and local media produces. It happens without teams even realizing it.

If there’s a glimmer of hope for Tiger fans it’s that they have an immediate shot for redemption in the Big 12 title game against Texas/Oklahoma. You see a lot of teams play their best football when everyone has left them for dead. The bad news is the Tigers have shown no signs of being that kind of team.

What once looked like a dream season is quickly turning into a major disappointment. But at least my mascot doesn’t wear buckles on its shoes. Here’s to still not being from kansas.


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