MizzouBob77

Why do you think their immaturity will have vanished? What will stop it from happening all year? I don't have any actual proof. You're right. But I do believe that playing a ranked Nebraska team (a program that MU has targeted for decades) will get these youngsters excited. Most of them remember the game two years ago and how incredible the environment was. I believe they'll want to replicate that moment. There's no way they won't be focuse to play the Big Red.

As an FYI - Nebraska has a younger team than Missouri. Here's a breakdown of each team's rosters: Year MU NU FR 29 40 RFR 23 40 SO 25 22 RSO 7 0 JR 17 26 RJR 2 0 SR 13 14 TOTAL 116 142 56% of Nebraska's roster are Freshmen or Redshirt Freshmen, compared to 45% of Missouri's. We have only one more Senior on our roster than Missouri. So these are both pretty young teams, and yet only one of us is using our youth as an explanation for why we've played erratically this year. A point to ponder. Nice stats, Dahli Lama of the Huskerboard. Now....what is the breakdown of the starting 22 + 2? Or how about just key positions. Please research and get back to me. I got fed up with the bantering, so I went to the Rivals site of each and counted off their two-deep. After all, those are the players who are really seeing the field. For NU (in their two-deep, mind you): FR - 11 SO - 8 JR - 15 SR - 10 So, they have 19 underclassmen playing significant snaps, but 25 upperclassmen. For MU (in their two-deep): FR - 9 SO - 20 JR - 7 SR - 8 So, MU has 29 underclassmen playing significant snaps, but onl 15 upperclassmen. So, there. Mizzou is younger in key positions. That also means more of your starters will remember the ass whipping they've received the last two years. (Sorry, I couldn't help myself.) You might try each team's actual factual website, rather than Rivals. Regardless, none of this is an excuse for having to work so hard so late in the game to put away the weak teams you've played. Rivals does incredible work, so I don't debate the validity of my post. I agree that they shouldn't have struggled, but they did. I chalk it up to immaturity and not handling success well. I'm glad it happened to them in non-conference, rather than in Big XII play. Still, they're talented, and I expect they'll be jacked up to play the vaunted Huskers.

As an FYI - Nebraska has a younger team than Missouri. Here's a breakdown of each team's rosters: Year MU NU FR 29 40 RFR 23 40 SO 25 22 RSO 7 0 JR 17 26 RJR 2 0 SR 13 14 TOTAL 116 142 56% of Nebraska's roster are Freshmen or Redshirt Freshmen, compared to 45% of Missouri's. We have only one more Senior on our roster than Missouri. So these are both pretty young teams, and yet only one of us is using our youth as an explanation for why we've played erratically this year. A point to ponder. Nice stats, Dahli Lama of the Huskerboard. Now....what is the breakdown of the starting 22 + 2? Or how about just key positions. Please research and get back to me. I got fed up with the bantering, so I went to the Rivals site of each and counted off their two-deep. After all, those are the players who are really seeing the field. For NU (in their two-deep, mind you): FR - 11 SO - 8 JR - 15 SR - 10 So, they have 19 underclassmen playing significant snaps, but 25 upperclassmen. For MU (in their two-deep): FR - 9 SO - 20 JR - 7 SR - 8 So, MU has 29 underclassmen playing significant snaps, but onl 15 upperclassmen. So, there. Mizzou is younger in key positions. That also means more of your starters will remember the ass whipping they've received the last two years. (Sorry, I couldn't help myself.)

I disagree with anyone who says Blaine Gabbert is slow. That's just incorrect. He runs a timed 4.5 40. If you watched him play in the Illinois game, you would know that. No, he's not Taylor. He isn't an instinctual runner, which is why he won't make the right reads (ala in the Nevada game). But if you give him a designed run, he'll pick up big yards. Hell, Chase Daniel did the same against you guys. That being said, Gabbert's running doesn't matter when it comes to this game. It might be a nice weapon, but it's not going to ultimately decide the outcome. However, his decisions passing will. Sure, he's made a few-- NOTE: a few-- hasty throws. But for the most smart, the kid is very sharp. He reads the defense well and can pick secondaries apart. I understand many of you think we're in line for a rude awakening. Maybe so. But I also know that you're secondary is really dinged up. Specifically, I think you're down two starting safeties. If that's the case, that's not the best situation to be in... Especially when you'll be facing a receiving core with speed who's 6'4", 6'5", and 6'1". You better hope your defensive line gets immediate pressure, because I'm not sold on your young linebackers and dinged up secondary keeping up with our receivers.

I think the problem you're having is you're assuming that, aside from Daniel, Maclin, Coffman, etc, that your talent level was THAT MUCH better than ours. It wasn't. Those three guys were very good, and had a great game against Nebraska, while the Huskers very much underperformed. We know that Missouri wasn't overly loaded with talent because several other teams were able to beat you last year - just not us. The gap between Nebraska and Missouri was so slight last year by season's end that you didn't even win the North outright - you took the "title" on a tiebreaker. Do you recall which team tied you for the North title? You're looking solely at our game last year, remembering how your guys marched up and down the field on us, and how hapless we looked. You're ignoring the light turning on for our defense as it did against Texas Tech, and you're ignoring the Kansas team we pretty much shut down, a Kansas team that beat you, I'll remind you in case you've forgotten. And no, I'm not dismissing you simply because your competition sucks. I'm downgrading you because against that crappy competition, you've looked unimpressive. Down at halftime to Bowling Green. One score away from a bad Nevada team in the fourth quarter. Giving up 400 yards of offense to Furman. Nobody is going to deny that Missouri has talent. What we’re questioning is what that talent is doing on the field. Last year Nebraska had talent with Swift & Peterson & Helu & Lucky & Potter & Ganzy… where did that get us? Shellacked by Missouri and Oklahoma, because they weren’t producing on the field. Talent alone will not win you ballgames. Without execution talent is meaningless. To date, Missouri is under-executing on the field. Yes, absolutely, we are. But this is one of the youngest teams in college football, and they're 4-0, which is the best they could hope for. They got up for a rivalry game against UI. Then, they slept walked against a couple of teams for a bit in Nevada and Bowling Green, but they turned it on once they saw it wasn't going to be a cake walk. Furman doesn't count. All of our starters were out by the start of the second half. That being said, you can bet their ass that we'll be up for you guys. We always get up to play Nebraska. It will be a dog fight.

LMFAO Hey, that's a Jayhawk joke! No fair stealing! Actually it's not. They took it from us. No, smart guy. I meant that's what we say about the Gayhawks.

LMFAO Hey, that's a Jayhawk joke! No fair stealing!

Don't mistake me. I'm a huge Cubs fan. I'm just a realist. My God. You really do need some help.

That's far from a hold. His arm isn't hooked. Either way, it's comical that an Iowa State fan is flaming any fanbase, consider how hard you get your sh*t pushed in on a regular basis.

I still can't believe that kid turned down the MLB to play football for Nevada. I mean, I guess the opportunity to play baseball will still be there, but I wouldn't risk losing potentially millions of dollars to play football in college, when you know your career will be in baseball, not football. But I guess the kid's passionate about it, so Which part of "Chicago Cubs" confuses you here? At least we can agree on that! Go Cardinals!

And you know that because....? I'm not about to say Zac Lee is a throwback to our old Option QBs, but he can run, and run well when asked. In terms of a runner, I'm feel assured in saying it. I've seen Lee play; I've seen Kapernick play. It's not a slam against Lee. He's a better all around QB, but Kapernick is great with this legs.

Lee is a decent runner, and was listed as a dual-threat QB during recruiting. He ran for six TDs in 11 games in Jr. College. The kid has wheels. Maybe keeping that a secret is part of the plan? Lee might be functional with his legs... but he's no Kapernick.

I think you'll see a stingier run d against NU. We struggled a bit with Nevada because of the threat that their QB presented. Our ends had to patiently play the edge, rather than crash inside and help up the middle. Let's remember that while Nevada has had a rough beginning, they had the third best rush offense in football last year. THey'll recoop, and I think our boys will be just fine. Ultimately, this game will fall on Lee's shoulders. So what's your excuse for BG? They played like absolute garbage. They were so jacked up for that Illinois game. All they heard was how they were going to lose by 2+ TDs to the Illini. Then, they lower the boom on them. The rest of the week they hear how suprising the Tigers are. They hear how maybe they're going to be another incredible team. The media gusto was ridiculous out of both KC and STL. Remember, this MU team is incredibly young. I don't think they handled the immediate success well. Thus, they slept walked in the first half of that Bowling Green game. The second half they regrouped and took over the ballgame. It's too be expected to happen. I don't expect that to happen against NU... .as you've all said many times before, Nebraska week is big to us MO fans. We're used to normally getting our asses handed, so when we can return the favor, we do everything possible to do so.

Well I could tell you about those folks I saw in Southern Missouri in the store in just coveralls. No shirt and no shoes. Can't say as I ever recall seeing that in IA or NE. Yeah, I'm sure that's never the case in the tons of spot on the map towns that litter both of your states.

This doesn't make any sense. Missouri was porous on run defense against Nevada because Colin Kaepernick posed a threat? A threat passing or running? Because neither "threat" is as much of a threat from Kaepernick. The dude just isn't that good. Through four games, playing bad defenses, Kaepernick's stats are: Colin Kaepernick YEAR CMP ATT YDS CMP% YPA LNG TD INT SACK RAT 2009 54 89 546 60.7 6.14 32 2 4 6 110.64 Zac Lee's stats: Zac Lee YEAR CMP ATT YDS CMP% YPA LNG TD INT SACK RAT 2009 68 105 927 64.8 8.83 51 7 3 3 155.21 Maybe you're talking rushing yards, where Kaepernick leads Lee by about a hundred yards on the season, but even still, Lee can run - he just hasn't been asked to yet. If Missouri was keying on Kaepernick to shut him down and sacrificing the run to do it (which seems silly, since Nevada is a run-first team), they're going to have to rethink their philosophy against the Huskers. He's a distinct threat with his legs, which is why our defense had to play a little more conservative along the line or scrimmage. Kapernick honestly had a tad of Brad Smith in him... the kid can run. Lee is not the level of runner he is... but, he's a much better passer... much better.

I think you'll see a stingier run d against NU. We struggled a bit with Nevada because of the threat that their QB presented. Our ends had to patiently play the edge, rather than crash inside and help up the middle. Let's remember that while Nevada has had a rough beginning, they had the third best rush offense in football last year. THey'll recoop, and I think our boys will be just fine. Ultimately, this game will fall on Lee's shoulders. Good post Bob. I do believe that NU will have success in the running game. I'm not sure how stingy MU's defense is capable of being. But yes.... when it all comes down to it, this game falls squarely on Zac Lee's shoulders. NU has already shown this season that success in the running game doesn't necessarily mean a W. Hopefully Thursday night will be a different story. I do think that our defense is going to give your offense fits. This is nowhere near the weak level of opponent that you faced last year or in 2007. The kids are learning the program and are getting much more confident and instinctual in it. This year could easily be a breakout year for the defense. Let me remind you (granted the stats are against cupcakes, but most Husker teams from the past 20 years have played cupcakes to start), the huskers are only allowing 7 points a game, at 28 points through 4 games. That is the lowest total of points allowed through 4 games since 1990, when the 'skers allowed 21. That's playing better scoring defense then all three of the national championship teams. That speaks volumes towards the POTENTIAL that this team has over the rest of this year and the next couple years. No doubt... Your defense is talented. You guys have recruited well in the past. While I think he's out of control a bit, Pelini has proven to be a great defensive coach. So, I agree that it will not be nearly as easy for our Tigers. Actually, I fully expect NU to probably lead into half time. For some reason, we've started slow in each of our games. (I'm hoping that changes, but it is what it is.) Thankfully, our new OC Yost has shown a great job of resituating the gameplan coming out of the break. That's when Gabbert and the offense has exploded. That will be key for the Huskers... how they handle that mid-game adjustment.

I would think that Nebraska fans would like to forget about Chase Daniel as quickly as possible... Considering the last two contests.

I think you'll see a stingier run d against NU. We struggled a bit with Nevada because of the threat that their QB presented. Our ends had to patiently play the edge, rather than crash inside and help up the middle. Let's remember that while Nevada has had a rough beginning, they had the third best rush offense in football last year. THey'll recoop, and I think our boys will be just fine. Ultimately, this game will fall on Lee's shoulders.

The fact that anyone from Iowa is criticizing Missouri is comical.

Maybe it's because I'm born and raised in St. Louis, but I never understood the Missouri hicks comments. Sure, we have some farm folk, but I would say at least 50 to 60% of us come from MO's two major metropolitan areas (St. Louis and Kansas City) and two growing cities in Springfield and Cape Girardeau.

I suppose, but I was under the impression that the general public (gambling public included) has jumped handidly on the NU bandwagon. I thought NU would be +3 roughly. That being said, it will probably be a push 'em by game time.

I've heard constant bashing about our run attack, and no doubt it's had some struggles. However, just about every team has been loading up the line of scrimmage against us. Why? Because Gabbert is obviously young, and Derrick Washington is an All Conference performer. Even against Nevada, they were playing the line tight for much of the game. Given those circumstances, it only makes sense that MU's offense takes what it's given. An example would be the Bowling Green game. Gabbert turned it on in the second half, but as they put more defenders in coverage, we started handing off to Derrick. He a number of very good runs and marched us down the field. Look, the Tigers are far from a perfect team. They're extremely high on talent... and youth. Thus, anything can happen. I fully expect a tough, bitter game... that's fun for us all to watch.

Your overlooking something. The game had NEVADA in it. U of N is in RENO. Lines are created to generate equal betting, not predict scores. SO what fan base to you think has a easier time placing bets. Ones that bet illegally through bookies across the country. Or ones that walk across the street to their sports book?? Who cares, Missouri sucks! Nice one .... you didnt understand. I tried to educate you. I could have said, "hey look at the re-re that doesnt know what the hell he is talking about" that might have worked better. He said re-re........ I'm very much surprised by that line. I thought with certainty that the 'skers would be favored. I'm hoping that it swings back in your favor. I'd like a little extra motivation for our Tigers.