Ten Thoughts for Monday Morning
1) The second half of the season starts Saturday with a game that Missouri simply must win. I don't think beating Vandy is going to be some tide-shifting moment or anything, but losing to the Commodores would be a black mark on an already disappointing season. Missouri won this game 41-0 a year ago against a Vanderbilt team that was one of the worst SEC teams I've seen and clearly didn't have its heart in it that day. Most people think this team might actually have less talent than that one did. In league play, Vandy has been outscored 170-26. Overall, the margin is 283-106. Vandy has won two games. It beat Connecticut by two and Colorado State by three. UConn is the worst FBS team in the country. The CSU win actually looks okay as the Rams are 3-4, including 2-1 in Mountain West play. Vanderbilt scored 54 points in those two games. It has scored 52 total points in its other six games. It is, quite simply, a game Missouri cannot lose.
2) That said, it is a game Missouri CAN lose. I would certainly not expect Missouri to lose it. But Vandy did push South Carolina before losing 21-20. As I said, the Colorado State win looks better than it did at the time. It is not impossible that Vandy can do enough on the right day to win. I can promise you Clark Lea is selling this to his team as its best chance to win an SEC game this season. They come in with nothing to lose. Either way, one team is getting its name off a list nobody wants to be on:
3) The focus is, for many, on one of two things: Recruiting and next year. Let's talk about both of those. We'll start on the recruiting front.
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