The day after SEC Media Days wrapped up, the league released the predictions made by reporters in Hoover over the last four days.
The thumbnail: Missouri was picked fourth in the Eastern division behind Georgia, Florida and Kentucky. Trajan Jeffcoat was selected second-team all-SEC on defense and Mike Maietti third-team on the offense.
And that's it for the individual honors.
I'm sure Mizzou fans will mumble (they won't scream, but they'll probably mumble) about a little disrespect beating Kentucky. The Tigers did beat the Wildcats last year in a game that wasn't as close as the 20-10 score indicated. Of course, it was also their first win over UK since 2014 and Kentucky brings back quite a bit of experience. If you look at the Cats' schedule, they could well finish this season 10-2. And they play Missouri in Lexington.
So Kentucky over Mizzou might be debatable, but it's certainly not blatantly ridiculous (like, say, being the guy or gal that picked South Carolina to win the division is).
I'd also argue that it's not ridiculous that only two Tigers were picked to any of the three all-conference teams. I could make arguments for some. Harrison Mevis was really good last year and could have a spot. Kobie Whiteside is healthy and I'm a little surprised he's not on a team somewhere. Case Cook maybe could have joined Maietti, but I've voted for those teams and by the time you're getting around to picking offensive linemen you're looking over at your neighbor's laptop and trying to see who he voted for so you don't have to admit you couldn't name five linemen from a team you don't cover if they gave you a lifetime supply of Dave & Buster's gift cards.
The truth is Missouri lacks star power right now. Connor Bazelak is probably the most well-known player on the team. He had a very nice freshman year, earning Offensive Freshman of the Year honors. But he also threw nine touchdown passes. Saying he isn't one of the three best quarterbacks in the best conference in college football is far from an insult.
I'd actually argue that Mizzou being picked ahead of Tennessee and South Carolina is actually a compliment. The compliment is to Eli Drinkwitz.
First, to be fair, the Vols and Gamecocks only have two players on the first three teams themselves. So it's not like the league's media think they are dripping in talent. But Missouri isn't often picked in front of Tennessee in these things in the preseason (it's a bit of a tradition of late that the Vols end up not being as good in November as people think they will be in July).
The point is, the league's media doesn't think Missouri has a single player among the best one or two at his position in the league and those same people picked Mizzou to finish fourth in the East. Maybe you can view it as more of a statement what they think of Tennessee, South Carolina and Vandy than what they think of the Tigers, but regardless, it tells me they think Drinkwitz might be a coach that's able to get a little more out of his roster than the talent says he should.
There's reason to believe that. His first Missouri team certainly overachieved--as he frequently liked to remind us. The Tigers were picked sixth last year, ahead only of Vanderbilt. They beat Kentucky and South Carolina and finished third behind Florida and Georgia. That came in an SEC-only 10-game season in which the Tigers were fortunate enough (actually half of it did end up being kind of fortunate) to have Alabama and LSU added to their regular conference schedule.
This year, overachieving could come down to beating the Wildcats. Since Mizzou has joined the SEC, the winner of the game between those two teams has finished higher in the division standings than the loser all nine years. UK gets LSU at home and Mississippi State on the road out of the West this season, while Mizzou gets Texas A&M at home and Arkansas on the road. Missouri's draw is probably tougher, although it's not by a ton. Both teams are going to be picked to beat Tennessee, Vandy and South Carolina and to lose to Georgia and Florida. Thus, the game between the two could very well be the difference between 4-4 and fourth place and 5-3 and third.
Obviously there are a lot of games to be played. Health and timing and luck will all be factors as they are every single season. But if Drinkwitz and the Tigers can claw their way into the top three, that's two years in a row of overachieving. That's two years in a row in the top half of the division standings. That's a 100% success rate. And it will probably lead to loftier projections--both as a team and individually--at this same event a year from now.
Pre-season projections don't mean a thing. They're for entertainment and to give people like me things like this column to write. But people keep track of them. If they're better than we said they were going to be, they're going to let us know. Repeatedly. Drinkwitz earned the right to do that last year. Maybe some of the media was paying attention and slid the Tigers a little higher in their picks this time around because of it. Now we get to see if Drinkwitz can exceed those slightly increased expectations in his second year.
Sign up today and get all the news with a premium subscription.
Talk about this story and more in The Tigers' Lair
Make sure you're caught up on all the Tiger news and headlines
Subscribe to our YouTube Channel for video and live streaming coverage
