2020 Macadoodle's Mailbag: 15th Edition

GD: There are two ways that it makes sense to schedule to me: You either schedule games you're almost certain you're going to win to inflate the record or you schedule games that are going to appeal to the fans. Missouri has done more of the first than the second over time (and this is going way back to the Pinkel days). Even when they scheduled Power Five games, they weren't usually very good Power Five games. Outside of the Illinois series (which excited some people, but not really me), I can't really remember the last Mizzou non-conference game that I thought, "Oh, wow, that should be good." I mean, do Purdue and Indiana and UCF and games like that get your blood boiling? If they do, great, but not for me. EDIT: I do remember one game that I was interested in. The West Virginia series was solid. Give me more of those.

To its credit, Mizzou does have some better series coming up. They're playing Boston College and Kansas State and then Illinois and then Colorado. They're not exactly marquee national games, but they're at least decent series that hold some appeal.

As far as the road games at some of the places they're playing them, I don't really know the rationale. I could probably get someone to explain it to me. I'm sure it's got to do with finances and guarantees on both sides and all that. There's no real upside to playing a game in a place like Laramie, but Missouri is far from the only Power Five school that does it. So I guess I don't completely hate it. The problem occurs when you lose those games. There's zero upside to scheduling them. If you win, you're supposed to. If you lose, people don't forget it. That's why I'd like to see games against teams like Nebraska, Iowa, Wisconsin or Notre Dame. If you lose them, so be it. Nobody's going to destroy you for it. And the fans would get excited for it. I completely understand why Missouri (and most other schools) don't schedule like this, but I wish they would just from the standpoint of my enjoyment watching games.

GD: The why is simple: Because I think they're the best ones. I can really only go with guys I've seen. I mean, I'm not super capable of telling you a lot about Joe Delaney or James Wilder. So I'll restrict it to guys in my lifetime:

Mizzou: Devin West, Henry Josey, Ernest Blackwell, Zack Abron, Derrick Washington. Larry Rountree III definitely could be on this list and guys like Brock Olivo, Marcus Murphy and Damarea Crockett and Kendial Lawrence are all right there in the discussion. Mizzou has had a lot of pretty good backs in my lifetime.

Chiefs: Priest Holmes, Jamal Charles, Marcus Allen, Christian Okoye, Kareem Hunt. Career Marcus Allen is No. 1 on this list (or maybe No. 2 because I loved Priest Holmes), but Chiefs Marcus Allen is probably a step down from that. The only other guy who could crack the list right now is Larry Johnson.

This year's teams? I don't know. Put any of them on there. They're all good.

GD: Oh, hey, GEG is bored during quarantine playing 20 questions in my mailbag thread

1) MOST UNDER RATED: James Franklin

2) MOST CONSISTENT CLUTCH PERFORMER: Marcus Denmonn

3) BEST SINGLE GAME PERFORMANCE: Chase Daniel vs Kansas 2007

4) FLASH-IN-THE-PAN: Second half of senior year Ryan Rosburg

5) BEST CINDERELLA STORY: Charles Harris

6) QUOTE MACHINE: Lorenzo Williams

7) NEVER LIVED UP TO THE HYPE: There are plenty, but I don't have any desire to single anyone out

8) RAGS TO RICHES STORY: Jeremy Maclin

9) MOST POLARIZING: Phil Pressey

10) BEST ONE-TRICK-PONY: Not sure how to answer this

11) MOST BELOVED: Henry Josey

12) BEST PURE TALENT: Danario Alexander

13) BEST "FEEL-GOOD" STORY: Way too many

14) MOST MIS-UNDERSTOOD: J'Mon Moore

15) HARD LUCK, "WHAT-COULD-HAVE-BEEN" STORY: MPJ

16) TIMEX AWARD, "TAKES A LICKIN' & KEEPS ON TICKING": James Franklin

17) BIGGEST PERSONALITY: Sean Weatherspoon

18) GUY (or GAL) YOU'D MOST LIKE TO DRINK A BEER WITH: Whoever is buying

19) BEST ATHLETIC CAREER: Chase Daniel

20) BEST NATIONAL STORY: Michael Sam

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