Missouri’s basketball struggles are self inflicted with poor coaching hires…
They have NOTHING to do with conference affiliation. Hiring Kim Anderson would’ve been a disaster in the Big 12 or ANY major conference. By any measure, Mizzou basketball is a huge disappointment and should be WAY better than it is.
Football is a different animal.
Mizzou is in the same position as pretty much ALL programs who aren’t a “blue blood.” You are going to have to have everything line up in order to to win a natty.
If it’s ever going to happen, Mizzou’s in the right conference.
To act like Missouri has been some sort of embarrassment in football is unfair, and just plain untrue. They’ve been to a couple SEC championship games and won some major bowl games.
The fiasco that were the nonsensical 2015 protests on campus set the football program back years.
Barry Odom wasn’t the hire anyone wanted after Gary Pinkel, but it was the best they could do at the time. He promptly came on campus and alienated quite a few folks by calling the job a “turnaround,” as if Mizzou’s program had been in the dumpster for years.
He was a total meathead that was gifted multiple NFL players and most importantly, Drew Lock, an NFL quarterback. He did next to nothing.
Once Lock graduated, Odom was on borrowed time.
Kim Anderson
Current head football coach Eliah Drinkwitz is now showing how to recruit at Mizzou, taking it to a level even Pinkel never approached.
And that’s where the battle starts in the SEC, recruiting.
If Drinkwitz can keep his momentum going on the recruiting trail (all signs point that he can) then Mizzou football will be right back contending for the SEC East. Mizzou is pouring tens of millions of dollars into their football facilities.
The move to the SEC has been great for Mizzou athletics, and any thought to the contrary is just old guard Big 12 losers pining for the old days – or red-assed KU and Tater fans missing their old rivals – and just plain jealousy as their conference circles the toilet bowl like a impacted fecal movement.
What you local guys have to realize is that just because KU isn’t good at something (football) doesn’t mean there isn’t any interest in it locally.
(The Guy Who Says What Others Think is a longtime KCC comments section veteran – one who actually breathes actual thought into most of is efforts. I took the liberty of promoting his latest effort to a column, as it seemed worthy of closer scrutiny.)
We interupt this comments section on Mizzou’s “storied” migration to the SEC to remind The Guy Who Says Things Others think, that MU’s SEC championship games were VERY early on when they were very much still coasting on their Big 12 recruiting and successes.
As for those “major” bowl games, losing to Oklahoma State, Texas and Army in inconsequential bowl games – its three most recent – is hardly a badge of success.
But it’s also not a total failure, like the Kansas football program is. Have they been world beaters? No, but they’re struggle was more about outside influences (2015 protests), bad timing, and poor recruiting. And in the SEC, (the best football conference in the nation and it’s not even a debate) yoiu cannot have poor recruiting. You’re dead from the jump. Pinkel recruited well enough to win in the SEC early on, but suffered a dip in recruiting by making the mistake of pulling coaches out of Texas recruiting and focusing on Florida and Georgia. In hindsight, the best idea would’ve been to continue to mine Texas for talent, using the relationships he’d already built. Instead, he tore the band-aid off way to early and recruiting suffered. Then 2015 hits at the same time. I guess my overall point is that the enthuisiasm for Mizzou football is there. Drinkwitz is killing it on the recruiting trail, and it should translate to better records on the field. Has Mizzou lost some bowl games recently? Yes, but they also have those Cotton Bowl and Citrus Bowl trophies in the case since joining the SEC. It was an excellent move for Mizzou to go to the SEC. And now, two of the teams who screamed the loudest when Mizzou left are following their lead.
Hey, everybody sees things through their own rose colored glasses…
Speaking of teams that screamed loudest and are now leaving, Texas was the team that seemed to spark everyone else’s exits and now you SEC escapees will have to deal with them further.
MU’s early wins may be in the trophy case, but instead of having a legacy basketball team year-in and year-out, they can
‘t even hold off UMKC at home and have yet to matter, period. And that may not translate into the kind of big bucks football brings, but it leaves about six months of the year a boring wasteland.
Gone also are rivalries that were historic in some cases and if you are a Kansas City guy, there’s a huge interest void that is a significant loss – if not for die-hard Mizzou fans, such as yourself, but locals across the board who in many cases loved to “hate” them. Now it’s like they almost don’t exist…no Big 12 tourney action, no giving shit to your KU-loving loser friends – frankly, not much of anything.
Except those dusty trophies you refer to and the comforting thoughts that your coaches are getting far more handsomely paid to dream of being able to compete with the like of Kentucky in football, etc.
No, Missouri’s great escape can certainly be explained away in terms of more money going to the school, but do you seriously think that’s the major reason fans packed Kemper and Arrowhead and celebrated beating the heck out of the Jayhawks, K-State, Iowa State and other teams they forged long rivalries with?
I wonder…
I think Missouri’s leaving proved costly to pretty much everybody in the Kansas City area and I think if KU manages to bail and wimper its way into the Big 10, that too will be a loss.
Ah, but life goes on, right?
The difference between dealing with Texas NOW and dealing with them as part of the SEC is totally different. Texas has been neutered. They WILL toe the line in the SEC and row in the same direction as all the rest of the schools do. See the difference is, the SEC doesn’t need Texas to make it a great conference. Nor OU. What’s changed is now OU and Texas NEED the SEC to stay relevant on a national scale. What you’re failing to grasp Hearne, is that the game changed and it’s all one big symbient circle that money is driving. The breakup of the Big 12 is just the beginning. Mizzou, CU, A&M, and Nebraska got out ahead of it and avoided getting stuck in some moribund conference with poor leadership and terrible revenue distribution. The writing was on the wall. To your point about packed crowds at Kemper and Camarohead…those places were packed because the teams were good. Nothing more. Again, I go back to my original point. Mizzou’s struggles are self inflicted. They’ve had NOTHING to do with moving to the SEC. Hire better athletic directors and by extension, coaches then those venues will be filled again. Mizzou made the best move for MIZZOU. And the further we get away from the days of being in the Big 12, the less relevant those days become. Kids being recruited today, don’t care about the glory days of a conference that occurred before they were born. They were about 6 or 7 years old the last time the Big 12 was still a relevant conferenfce prior to realignment.
That’s telling me!
Ah, but wait…they did in fact, most seem to believe, leave because of Texas in no small part.
And MU, Nebraska and Colorado – make whatever excuses you wish – have largely floundered since.
Chances are Nebraska at the very least would have stayed a powerhouse – regardless of whatever other excuses you may want to point to, including losing their coach.
Mizzou and Kansas just a couple years prior were ranked No. 1 and No. 1 nationally.
Those days are long gone and your new coach is a half a lifetime of way of recruiting them into anywhere near that position anytime soon.
Having more conferences to compete make the sports far more engaging.
Maybe not to you, but being an also ran in a dominant organization and the school taking in far more money is only so satisfying.
Kids today don’t care that much about any number of values, but that’s no excuse or reason to abandon them. If things were different, of course they’d care. That’s the nature of life and changing times.
Hey, chances are they won’t give a fig about dudes winning women sports championships either, but that doesn’t diminish the argument.
I live in Columbia during the week, don’t care if they never win anything again. Now I do care about the Chiefs and Royals of course.
KC Confidential is great, just found you by accident.
And I’m stealing your name Camarohead, it’s mine now. Thx
Prego