1) I understand this has been a frustrating year for Missouri fans. It hit me this morning what I think the most disappointing part is. You didn't start this season (or at least the vast majority of you) looking at ten wins or a division title. You started it looking for relevance. Win a game you're not supposed to, scare somebody you're not supposed to, play games that get people's attention. And that's not happening. There are only 12 guaranteed games in a season. These are events. For some people, these are the 12 most anticipated days of the year (you can talk about whether it should be that way, but that's a different discussion because it is that way). And we're headed into our third straight week where there's just not any real reason to be overly interested. Two Saturdays ago was the bye. Last Saturday was a game that was for 12th, 13th or 14th in the SEC and was only televised because it was contractually obligated to be televised and four teams in the league didn't play. This Saturday is a game that harkens back to the mid-80s with the role of Nebraska or Oklahoma being played by the Georgia Bulldogs. There's simply no reason to expect this game to be interesting. That doesn't mean it's impossible, but if you play this game ten times, there's probably one or two where Missouri is within a couple of touchdowns late.
Some sports fans lose interest when their team can't win a title. But most college football fans aren't that way. Most of you are there till the bitter end. And I know there are some people reading this thinking "What do you mean it's not interesting? This is my team playing and by God don't tell me it's not interesting." But for most of us, we're going on a full month of games that don't really give you any reason to pay attention other than the fact that you always pay attention.I think we'd all love for atmospheres like we saw in East Lansing last weekend to return. But I don't think anybody's asking for that quite yet. You're asking for games that you look forward to. You're asking for games that people outside of Columbia and the town of the other school might pay attention to. College football games should be events. College football seasons should create memories. Right now, this season just feels like a slog to the end to see if you can be playing for a sixth win on the day after Thanksgiving. And that's not nothing. That should be a goal for this team. But I think I can speak for everyone reading this when I say I sure can't wait until we're following games that mean more than that again.
2) There is some intrigue around Mizzou this week in one regard. We don't know right now who the starting quarterback will be in Athens. Let's say this first: Even the most vocal critics of Connor Bazelak couldn't have wanted him to leave the starting lineup this way. Nobody's rooting for an injury. We don't know right now what Bazelak's injury is or how serious it is. My guess is we won't really know until Saturday. It's possible Eli Drinkwitz tells us tomorrow that he's not going to play, but I'd be surprised by that. When Missouri releases the injury report on Thursday, my guess is that Bazelak will be listed as questionable. If Bazelak is able to play, I'm pretty confident he's going to start. Drinkwitz didn't take him out of Saturday's game until he didn't have a choice. You can disagree with the coach if you want to, but it's very obvious he believes Bazelak is the quarterback who gives him the best chance to win a game. It's my opinion Bazelak has been playing at something less than 100% for a few weeks now. I think Drinkwitz believes that Bazelak at 80% (or whatever percentage he is at) gives him a better chance to win than Brady Cook or Tyler Macon at 100%. You can disagree with that stance, but I don't think at this point you can disagree that it IS his stance.
3) The downturn in Bazelak's play--whether due to injury or not--has been impossible to ignore.
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