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A perfect night in Columbia - Tigers smash 'HuskersPosted Sunday, October 7, 2007, at 5:33 PM
We arrive in Columbia Saturday afternoon and go immediately to the hotel to check-in and drop off a few things. Just one problem. It turns out the place had some VIP guests on Friday night. Gary Pinkel and his team had arranged for a late checkout and weren't quite ready to leave. No one was getting in until 7:00 p.m. that night. Thwarted in our efforts at the hotel, we decide to head over to the stadium and begin a long afternoon of tailgating. Food is fixed, beverages are flowing, and the parking lots are packed. The place is just jumping. You immediately know this is no ordinary fall Saturday on the University of Missouri campus. Situated south of the stadium, right at the intersection between the Mizzou Arena and the Hearnes Center, we have the perfect spot to observe the fans and the festivities. T-shirts are for sale, decals are being distributed, tents and the occasional satellite dish dot the landscape. People are chowing down and catching up on the Texas-Oklahoma game. Marching Mizzou files by on their way to the stadium. We catch the Nebraska band marching in later on. Eventually, a rather warm day gives way to darkness, the temperature drops and the breeze picks up. It's an ideal night for football. We arrive in our seats 38 minutes before kick-off. I don't know if I've ever sat in my seat so long before the start of a game. But it's worth the wait. Looking across the field at the student section, it's a perfect sea of gold. The fans are loud, well lubricated and full of anticipation. "I've been going to games here for 40 years," an elderly gentleman leans in to tell me, "and I've never seen anything like this." Perhaps that's how the Nebraska defense felt. From the first drive of the game, it's obvious the Cornhuskers have no solution for stopping Chase Daniel and the high-powered Tigers offense. It's a joy to watch receiver and kick returner Jeremy Maclin every time he touches the football. It's a pleasure to watch Daniel, who racked up a career-high 401 yards passing, sit back in the pocket and play pitch-and-catch with receivers like Martin Rucker, Chase Coffman and Will Franklin. If Daniel's 48-yard touchdown pass to Danario Alexander was enjoyable to watch on television, it was a thing of beauty to watch the whole play unfold from the stands. All the chapters of this book have yet to be written, but I suspect when it's all said and done, this will go down as the greatest assemblage of skill position talent in Missouri football history. We'll be watching some of these guys play on Sunday for many years. What's impressive about this night is that it's not just the offense that has time to shine. A rejuvenated Mizzou defense, ranked 93rd in the country heading into the game, somehow held the Huskers to just two field goals. This ran counter to all the pre-game story lines. As I hear my old J-School cohort Chris Gervino say on the radio after the game, this wasn't a shootout -- it was a blowout. What a special, special night in Columbia. Comments Showing comments in chronological order [Show most recent comments first] |
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Ahhh what it must feel like to live in a town with a good football team.
what an awesome game. one question, is #1 from hayti, someone told me he was?
#1 is William Moore from Hayti. #91 Charles Gaines played some at d-tackle last night, he hails from Hayti as well.
It was a fantastic game played in an one of the best football atmosphere's in college football this year. It's great to see Mizzou enjoying a year like this. I'm looking forward to the rest of the season and hope they can keep the momentum going.
You can bet Chase Daniel is being watched by the Heisman Trophy folks. What a performance!
It has to be one of the most complete games that I have ever seen Mizzou play. In all the games that I have went to, I have never seen the student section or the stadium that packed before. The display of gold shirts was unbelievable. I was kind of disappointed though that the students didn't tear down the goalposts.
I'm actually glad they didn't. Mizzou was higher ranked, at home and a six to seven point favorite. Act like you've been there before. And to their credit, they did.
Winning the Big 12 championship is goal post worthy - but not Nebraska. That's now three straight games in Columbia.
BTW - I just read where the ESPN Gameday crew will be in Norman this weekend. OU is a 9-point favorite.
should MIZZOU beat Texas tech on the 20th, I belive the goalposts will come down.
Did you see the AP poll?MIZZOU is ranked 11th!
Missouri has collapsible goalposts, so that they won't be torn down. But, like Mike said, there was no reason to tear them down. Missouri expected to beat Nebraska, was favored to beat Nebraska and is just a better team than Nebraska. No reason to tear down the goalposts for a win you should get.
Rather, reverse the script on the Huskers and politely applaud them for their effort.
On Thursday, Coach Pinkel sent out an email to all the MU students to please stay off the field after the game. This was in response to the previous year's influx of students on the field after the game and there were some people who ended up in a fight and hurt. After this year's game the players went up to the crowd to help prevent it from happening again.
This team does have an abundance of skill position players. At the receiver positions, I'd say it could be unmatched in Tigers history. It might be a little short of a couple of other great Missouri offenses at the running back position. On the OL, it's hard to say because of the different offensive scheme, but I believe there have been better. Ranking Daniel as a QB will start a lot of arguments. For this offense, he is terrific.
In terms of overall offensive talent, 3 other teams come to mind.
The '69 offensive squad featured future Cardinals star Mel Gray, probably the fastest Tiger ever, at WR. Joe Moore (Beaumont) and James Harrison were the RBs, and Jon Staggers (Jeff City) was a pass receiving HB and flanker. All of these guys played in the NFL. Moore and Harrison were picked in the first and second round by the Bears. The explosive Moore was one of the Tigers' greatest RBs, but injuries shortened his NFL career. Terry McMillan, the QB, did not play in the NFL but could throw the deep ball, usually to Gray, accurately. The team also had an outstanding OT, Larron Jackson (Soldan), who had a nice career in the NFL.
The '75 team was also loaded. In terms of strength at every offensive position, it might have been the best. Henry Marshall (KC, Kansas) and Joe Stewart were great wide receivers who did well in the NFL. Leo Lewis (Hickman) was a dynamic punt returner who enjoyed a long NFL career. He started out at QB but was switched to wide receiver either during or after his freshman season.
Their two RBs were also future NFL players: Tony Galbreath (Fulton) was probably the most versatile back Mizzou has ever had, and Curtis Brown (St. Charles) was tough and shifty. Steve Pisarkiewicz (McCluer) is remembered by many as a controversial 1st Round pick of the Cardinals, but he was an outstanding college QB. He probably had the best arm of all Mizzou's quarterbacks, at least from the '60s on. The back-up QB, Pete Woods (University City), starred over the next two seasons and was also an NFL draft choice. Kellen Winslow (East St. Louis) was a freshman TE who saw limited action.
The '75 team also featured two future NFL players in the offensive line. Mo Towns (Vashon) was a 1st Round pick by the Oilers and J. T. Taylor played for the Saints.
This team opened the season by laying 20 points on Alabama in the first half of a surprisingly easy road victory. It would be Alabama's only loss of the season. The '75 bunch also scored 27 points in the second half against one of the greatest defensive teams in Oklahoma history as the Sooners pulled out a 1-point victory. That Oklahoma team had 3 all-Americans on defense and went on to win the national title. With many of the same offensive players back in '76, Missouri opened the season by laying 30 points on USC on the road on the way to a 46-21 victory. It was USC's only loss of the year.
The '78 team also had considerable offensive talent. Winslow, one the greatest TEs in football history, was back for his senior year as was Lewis, who starred at flanker. The RB position was very deep. James Wilder (Sikeston), was perhaps Mizzou's greatest RB, and he had help from two other future NFLers, Gerry Ellis (Hickman) and Earl Gant. Phil Bradley, who became a Major League baseball player, was a splendid dual threat QB who set the Big 8 record for career total offense. The offensive line was anchored by freshman Brad Edelman (Parkway North) who later became an all-American and Pro Bowler for the Saints.
Overall, the '69 team, with its rugged defense, was clearly the strongest. It was the Big 8 champ and lost to undefeated Penn State in the Orange Bowl by a just a touchdown despite turning the ball over a nearly unbelievable 9 times.
I agree the 69 team was probably the best. I was at the game in the Orange
Bowl. The ball was slippery from the
rain that night which led to the turnovers. I was on leave from Vietnam
and invited to go down to Miami with
some friends from Mizzou that had an
extra ticket. I remember "most" of that
week.
Mizzou is having a nice season, the real question will be will they be able to sustain it? Also, this will probably propel Pinkel into a higher paying job, maybe LSU if Miles goes to Michigan (Miles is a former Michigan grad and has a Michigan release in his contract). So what will be the future of Mizzou once Pinkel does move on? Enjoy it while it lasts, I guess..lol..
I'm pretty sure Mizzou would beat Appalachian St.
I know this is a Mizzou football post, but I just got done watching the Yankees lose. With all this talk about it being Torre's last game as a Yankee's manager, it got me wondering what it would be like to see him back in a Cardinal uniform next year. Not sure about the probability of this happening, but with Jockety out and the talk of LaRussa following I can't help but think about that possibility.
I hope the next time ESPN wants to play a MIZZOU game,they show it on time and not after the first Quarter is over.The Virgina tech and Clemson game was blowen out.No way was Clemson Coming back.ESPN could have gone to the MIZZOU game and gone back to Virginia tech for the last few seconds of the game,It was wrong of ESPN to do that.I hope FSN playes the rest of the tigers games,that way it starts on time.
off the subject,If Torre comes back to the red birds......im becoming a cubs fan
ESPN did switch over to the Mizzou game in Cape. Showed it from the opening kickoff til the game was over.
It's taken a while, mogearjammer. Having transplanted to Columbia in 1994, a team like this has been a long time coming.
I attended both the "booted" TD catch game in 1997 and Saturday night's clobbering. Far and away, this year's atmosphere topped that of 10 years ago. We walked through the gates 5 minutes after they opened to go to our SRO spots in the north end zone...if we'd arrived 5 minutes later we would have really had to jockey for a good spot. 45 minutes before kickoff and most seats were pretty full.
Collapseable goalposts notwithstanding, perhaps MU fans are maturing and becoming accustomed to beating NU in Columbia. In 2003, police closed off several downtown streets for the subsequent celebration. This year...lots of people downtown but not on the verge of mayhem.
Boomer Sooner will be tough in Norman...but MU could pull it off. If so, Dan Devine will be smiling somewhere.