Mizzou

[Feathers and Fins]

I do not care what number a recruit is or how highly touted they are! It does not mean anything on Saturday if you get one that decides to violate team rules, go out and get caught partying or some other school, ncaa or criminal infractions or just simply cant measure up on game day and we have seen this time and time again. Coaches as well as fans get caught up in the Ranking BS of a player. They need to look at what a players heart is and mentality.

Schedules next year will be brutal if down right cannibalistic in all conferences because of the new playoff schedule, and without players with heart on the team and steady reliability this years top tear teams might find themselves scratching their heads at how many conferences losses they have next year.

[Al Agnew]

I'll say it again...it doesn't matter that Mizzou is the only major university in Missouri. If you're a kid that is being sought after by all the big name schools, it all comes down to the fact that Mizzou isn't as big a name. When you look at the virtual desert that Mizzou was for many years in football, and the huge mistakes made and bridges burned by former Mizzou coaches in the St. Louis area, "sealing the borders" is a pipe dream. And as was said above, it wouldn't matter if you did seal the borders, the fact is that Missouri high school football simply doesn't churn out the numbers of top notch athletes that places like Texas and Florida do.

It was the same in the Big 12. Oklahoma and Nebraska were the marque names and Mizzou was a doormat for many years. Didn't matter that there were fewer good high school football players in Oklahoma and Nebraska, they could get the good players from Missouri and everywhere else because of their name and success. Couple that with the fact that two or three Mizzou coaches ticked off the most influential HS coaches in the St. Louis area and they had long memories. Mizzou's facilities were second rate for a long time and they had a lot less fan support, too, and that didn't help when it came to recruiting.

Credit Pinkel with opening up the Texas pipeline, and for mending relations with some of those St. Louis schools. That was what turned Mizzou football around. He may not always get the one or two top prospects in Missouri, but he's gotten a lot of good players that would have gone elsewhere in the pre-Pinkel days.

And sometimes there are more important things than winning at all costs. From all indications, Pinkel and company sell the program the right way, by convincing parents that the kids will get a good education, and convincing both parents and kids that it's a four year commitment. Saban at Alabama is constantly over-recruiting, and if he gets more kids recruited than he's got room for the next year, he boots the underachievers off scholarship to make room for the new blue-bloods. It's apparently a common practice in the SEC, and it's technically legal because a scholarship is a one year, renewable contract. But it's pretty unsavory and heartless.

[Wayne SW/MO]

Can't argue with that Al. We're on the same page that past coaches missed a chance to develop a dynasty in Missouri through poor recruiting practices. I suspect the regents aren't free from guilt either when it came to supporting facilities. I attended games in Norman and Columbia around 1980 and it was like comparing a major university stadium to a state college. That when all the Big 8 schools shared income, so it had to be a shortage in the allotment of funds and/or alumni support.

F&F I think in the long run it will stop some of the criticism about the fact that some teams play nothing but NCAA II teams in preseason while some tend to play the weaker teams. I don't think a lot of teams will notice much difference while others will have to step up. In the long run I think it will help. Now if they could get about 5 or 6 well written computer programs to rank strictly on strength of schedule to do the ranking and get rid of the prejudiced sports writers and the inexperienced coaches things could really level out.

[Chief Grey Bear]

Saying they're getting the good 2nd and 3rd levels that are playing on Sunday doesn't mean anything on Saturday. there are a lot of 4th and 5th level players from Little U doing that.

It does to the kids that want to eventually play on Sunday.

[ozark trout fisher]

Okay, a few things.....

The concept that Missouri underachieves is a bit silly in my opinion, as exactly the opposite is true. I don't know why it's a surprise that Nebraska and Oklahoma get better recruits as they have been traditional powerhouses LONG before Gary Pinkel came on the job. All they really need is the name brand and they have four and five star guys lining up a the door. I also think that recruiting rankings skew how people think about Pinkel as a recruiter. A good recruit is not a highly rated one, necessarily. A 2 or 3 star recruit that wins you games is better than the 4 star that disappoints. Fitting in the system matters a whole lot more than anything else, especially in a spread offense like Missouri's. If you get someone like DGB then you take him of course, but Danario Alexander and Sean Weatherspoon were pretty darned good both on Saturdays and Sundays and they were guys "dragging down" our recruiting rankings. And Chase Daniel wasn't real highly rated either.

I have no problem with taking on all the 3* recruits in the world and ranking last in the SEC recruiting rankings every year if Pinkel wins and keeps us in the mix in the SEC east. Right now, I am seeing a lot of signs that point to him being able to do just that.

[Feathers and Fins]

Wayne with 128 D-1 school in football there is not one rating system that will ever be even remotely accurate or fair. Human error will never be good and computers will never take in to account for heart of players and team effort. A loss sometimes is a win and a computer will never know or understand that.

With 10 conferences plus the independents getting an accurate ranking is possible however to do that it would take more brains then the NCAA has ever shown. Simple is taking all 128 teams and place them in 8 conferences 16 teams to a conference. Have two conferences play each other (that’s 32 teams for you NFL Junkies} just like the NFL Play them exactly like a NFL year but instead of preseason the games count. Each year rotate what conference plays what conference so its constantly mixing it up.

So you have 17 weeks of regular season 4 weeks of playoff and then the Conference championship game, then 1 more week of champion play to finally the National Championship. Total of 23 games or from start to finish 25 weeks. Septembers first weekend to second weekend in February. Sound familiar to anyone?

At the end of the year you will have 4 champions match them up based on their W/L through the year if there is ties them it’s a Lottery for who picks for who. That’s 2 play-off games and the Winners face each other for the National Championship.

Long season certainly but gives us a true champion.

[Justin Spencer]

Targeting, tons of commercials, and long halftimes are killing D1 football. I used to love it, but can hardly sit for an entire game. And did I mention that targeting is the dumbest thing ever. Probably 75% of the ones I have seen have been overturned, but the penalty remains, brilliant. NFL has overtaken college I am sad to say.

[Feathers and Fins]

With you 100% Justin, this Targeting crap needs to go the penalty stands even if the ejection is overturned which should mean no penalty and I have seen several games it has taken 3rd and long and turned it to 1st and then the team goes on to score which if it had not stood would have been a turnover on downs/punt. Worse rule ever and has screwed up several games.

[Wayne SW/MO]

OTF I don't think anyone is saying Missouri is underachieving or necessarily laying it all on Pinkel. Pinkel did get a good boost at the end of the decade, but right now I'm not seeing the fruit you would expect from recruiting. I'll admit it's hard to know sometimes, but the stars that went to the NFL don't appear to have been replaced. I don't mean a few, but most. Like I said Devine always worried about just keeping his job, IMO. And again OK and NU combined don't have the population of Missouri. I simply think Missouri should have always been a threat, but they rarely were over the decades.

Wayne with 128 D-1 school in football there is not one rating system that will ever be even remotely accurate or fair. Human error will never be good and computers will never take in to account for heart of players and team effort. A loss sometimes is a win and a computer will never know or understand that.

What in the world does heart of players and team effort have to do with ranking? Why don't we just quit keeping score and call the ones who seemed to try the hardest the winners? Computers can make realistic comparisons, I don't like it necessarily, but prejudiced sports writers and busy coaches doing it is a joke.

Chief I have no idea what your point is to the reference. Missing the 1 and 2 level Missouri high school players and snaring the 3rd and 4th levels doesn't help the players, not many of them will ever be NFL bound, but it doesn't help MU like the top recruits would. Look at Dorial Green-Beckham, top of the national class and helps as a freshman, but it was a big surprise that he stayed home.

[stlfisher]

I agree the years of terrible MU teams really hurt the program and in some ways defines it...it does take a lot of winning to "forget". It took two world series for the red sox to move on and the cubs seem eternally cursed. MU still has a ways t o go, but in some ways the turn around has been remarkable. Pinkel is the reason for it..just not sure if he can take it to the next level.

Just saw the lane kiffin news...he couldn't win with all that talent at USC. Wonder if he gets another shot anytime soon.