Ten Thoughts for Monday Morning
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1) Let’s get a couple of “excuses” out of the way early. I was happy nobody asked about the altitude after the game. The altitude wasn’t a factor. Missouri wasn’t tired. Kelly Bryant outran a Wyoming DB to chase him down after 87 yards. Every starting offensive lineman played at least 85 snaps. Johnathan Nance broke free for a 53-yard touchdown in the fourth quarter. Conditioning was fine. Second, I’ve seen a lot of “why did Missouri even play a game like this?” And, yeah, I get it. Traveling to a Mountain West school? Not genius. There’s no upside, as we saw. But if you can’t win at Wyoming, it’s not like you’re going to win the rest of them and losing to Wyoming is what kept you out of the national title game. So I don’t really care that they played the game. The problem wasn’t playing it. The problem was losing it.
2) So let me address the firing thing. First of all, I don’t really know when we got to the point that every loss has to mean someone’s job. It’s not unique to Missouri. I’m not chiding you guys. But if you read Rivals sites across the country in the last 48 hours, there’s probably 30 coaches that deserve to be fired for a week one loss. It’s, honestly, kinda crazy. You can say there are definitely problems without thinking someone has to be fired. The firings happen in the offseason. Firing a guy after one game or four or eight doesn’t really accomplish much. They’re having these same conversations this week on message boards at Tennessee and South Carolina. The fact is Barry Odom got a raise and an extension last year. It didn’t significantly change the amount of money Missouri would owe him if it does eventually choose to fire him, but Missouri really doesn’t have the money to pay him to walk away…and then pay a new coach. Could they find it? Yeah, I’m sure they probably could, although I don’t think there are donors falling all over themselves to give them hundreds of thousands of dollars right now. We’ll get to the end of this year and assess whether he’s coaching for his job next year. Because the truth is at major schools, you’re always one bad year away from being on the hot seat.
3) I’m not a fan of an AD going to a head coach and saying “You have to fire this assistant or that assistant or I’m firing you.” You hire the coach to make the hires. This, obviously, relates to Ryan Walters. I’m fine with Walters’ job being on the line this season. I think it should be.