Missouri - an inconvenient truth

[np_husker]

Lee Barfknecht: Tigers poised to surpass NU

BY LEE BARFKNECHT

WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER

 

LINCOLN - This is the week that a number of Nebraska fans will have to deal with an inconvenient truth.

 

Missouri, which plays at Memorial Stadium this Saturday, has progressed enough during the past six years to come out of the depths and claim an edge over the Huskers in general football success.

 

No way, you say.

 

Missouri? The school that hasn't won in Lincoln in 30 years? The Tigers, who under five coaches, who were so toothless they had 18 losing records in the 21 seasons between 1984 and 2004?

 

A generation of Nebraska fans has been raised thinking that Missouri was nothing more than an occasional pest with a slippery artificial surface. But times have changed, especially since the start of the 2002 season.

 

Why pick that date?

 

Because the end of 2001, with Nebraska's crushing 62-36 loss to Colorado and the subsequent 37-14 whipping from Miami in the Rose Bowl, has proven to be a line of demarcation for Husker football.

 

The stunning run of 33 consecutive seasons with at least nine wins - a feat that former Texas Hall of Fame coach Darrell Royal told The World-Herald in 2002 was the greatest athletic achievement in his lifetime - is gone, and not really relevant now.

 

What interests the nation is how quickly Nebraska recovers from the drop-off that every other major power has undergone after a long period of winning.

 

This isn't criticism. This is the new reality.

 

Bo Pelini, a strong hire, will need an industrial-strength back brace and a minimum of three years to carry a bedraggled NU program into Top 15 range.

 

Along the way, the Huskers first need to reclaim the Big 12 North. And that means keeping in stride with rapidly improving Missouri.

 

The Tigers have hardly KO'd Nebraska. But they have punched and jabbed enough to crawl off the mat and stand up to NU, technically earning an edge since the start of the 2002 season in these areas:

 

• Winning percentage: Missouri .620 (49-30), Nebraska .595 (47-32).

 

• First-team All-Big 12 coaches picks: Missouri 12, Nebraska 10.

 

• Heisman Trophy finalists: Missouri 1, Nebraska 0. Quarterback Chase Daniel was fourth last year, and he is the early leader this season in many mock polls. One big challenger is teammate Jeremy Maclin, an All-America receiver and returner.

 

• Final Associated Press Top 15 rankings: Missouri 1, Nebraska 0. The Tigers, who finished No. 4 last season, are No. 6 now.

 

• NFL draftees: Missouri 10, Nebraska 23. Winning more games than NU with less than half the pro prospects counts as a plus for the Tigers, who with five assistants blanketing the state of Texas are steadily upgrading their talent.

 

• Coaches: Missouri 1, Nebraska 3. Gary Pinkel, who changed his ways after a cluster of miscues that peaked in the 2004 season, has been at MU for eight years. In a show of Nebraska-like unity, so have nine of his assistants.

 

The schools are deadlocked in the head-to-head series (3-3), bowl records (2-2) and number of division titles (one each) the past six seasons.

 

Clearly, these aren't monstrous advantages for Missouri. But for the Tigers to even be close in those categories, much less leading after two decades of futility, indicates worrisome trend lines for Nebraska.

 

When Tom Osborne coached at Nebraska, every year during Missouri week he would talk about the MU program as a sleeping giant.

 

Old reporters can recite the speech by memory - a population of 6 million, only one big state school for football, little direct interference from pro sports and two in-state metropolitan areas from which to recruit.

 

Osborne made the job sound so attractive that we often wondered if he might take it himself and turn the place into a powerhouse.

 

Those of you on the under side of age 40 might not realize that Missouri is a football school first.

 

In the 1960s, under coach Dan Devine, the Tigers were the only major-college program to finish every season with fewer than four losses. Also in that decade, they played in the Orange, Sugar and Gator Bowls, won two Big Eight titles and reached No. 1 in the AP poll.

 

Devine eventually left for the Green Bay Packers. Al Onofrio took over and won big games, but lost too many little ones. Then the coaching carousel spun out of control until Pinkel arrived for the 2001 season.

 

After a wobbly start of his own, Pinkel seems to have hit his stride. So has Missouri overall. The question is if and when Nebraska will catch up, keep up and then move back ahead.

[SkullandBones]

Everyone talked so much about 'we'll see where were at after VT', I sure as hell hope this isn't as far as we've come! Last night's bud-light soaked rants about ACC officiating are over (fun, but over), all of the kool-aid is gone, and I can't seem to find my scarlet tinted sunglasses anywhere. Bottom line is we have a long way to go, but, I think we have the right staff and I certainly think they won't quit, or let their players quit on themselves.

[TrumanBD]

Everyone talked so much about 'we'll see where were at after VT', I sure as hell hope this isn't as far as we've come! Last night's bud-light soaked rants about ACC officiating are over (fun, but over), all of the kool-aid is gone, and I can't seem to find my scarlet tinted sunglasses anywhere. Bottom line is we have a long way to go, but, I think we have the right staff and I certainly think they won't quit, or let their players quit on themselves.

 

 

I think and hope MU will win next weekend, but I think this will be a different game than last year. First, it is in Lincoln. Enough said. Second, in the game I watched last night, NU never gave up which is different than the team I saw last year.

[jayhawk]

Mizzou is good. I just hope after Chase leaves, he can't be fully replaced.

[HuskerJosh82]

Those stats have nothing to do with anything right now. Right now, Mizzou is a damn good team and Nebraska is average at best. The only way I can see Nebraska winning that game is if they can pull an Oregon St on their a$$!

[robsker]

Everyone talked so much about 'we'll see where were at after VT', I sure as hell hope this isn't as far as we've come! Last night's bud-light soaked rants about ACC officiating are over (fun, but over), all of the kool-aid is gone, and I can't seem to find my scarlet tinted sunglasses anywhere. Bottom line is we have a long way to go, but, I think we have the right staff and I certainly think they won't quit, or let their players quit on themselves.

 

 

Well said! We do have the right staff and last night was to be expected. They (VT) have muich better players than NU. Yet, NU hung close on grit and effort alone. Not bad. We'll be back --- not anytime soon --- but we'll be back.

[HSKRNOKC]

Everyone talked so much about 'we'll see where were at after VT', I sure as hell hope this isn't as far as we've come! Last night's bud-light soaked rants about ACC officiating are over (fun, but over), all of the kool-aid is gone, and I can't seem to find my scarlet tinted sunglasses anywhere. Bottom line is we have a long way to go, but, I think we have the right staff and I certainly think they won't quit, or let their players quit on themselves.

 

 

Well said! We do have the right staff and last night was to be expected. They (VT) have muich better players than NU. Yet, NU hung close on grit and effort alone. Not bad. We'll be back --- not anytime soon --- but we'll be back.

I think that very fact gives us hope and at least now we can see what it will take, realize we have the right coach, and watch this team progress under Bo.

 

Not what we had hoped for , but a silver lining none the less.

[HSKRNOKC]

Mizzou is a much better team at this point. We need to keep the game respectable.

[Tiger In SC]

Mizzou is a much better team at this point. We need to keep the game respectable.

 

After all of the upsets this week, Missouri had better be on alert. Nebraska played hard and as another post pointed out "did not quit". MU had better play its "A" Game. Nebraska will play much better than it did against Virginia Tech.

 

Game will be a tough one for Missouri

"

[clone]

GO BO!!

BEAT MIZZOU!!

[Igetbored216]

I would be really happy if this game wasn't over in the first half. My liver took a beating last Saturday, and I have a feeling it hasn't seen anything yet when Mizzou comes into town this Saturday.

 

If we can keep it within ten or 14, that would make me happy. But with no secondary against a passing spread offense, well.....you do the math. It's great we have players that don't quit now...but a secondary is kind of important. If Nebraska made Tyrod Taylor look like a good QB, what's going to happen when a good QB actually does come into town?

 

Ouch...