Ten Thoughts for Monday Morning presented by Will Ga...
1) Welcome to the worst week of the college sports year. Have you ever gone to cook something for dinner and realized you forgot to turn the oven on? So now you've got everything ready to go but your food is supposed to cook at 425 and you haven't turned the oven on so now you can't actually start making dinner for another 15 minutes because the stupid oven has to preheat. This week is the preheat cycle of the college sports year.
Missouri's players will check back in this weekend. We'll have a media day with Eli Drinkwitz, assistants and players on Sunday. Shortly after that (maybe the next day, maybe Tuesday) fall camp will begin. The first game is only 38 days away. Between August 29 and the first week of April, we'll have major college football or basketball every week (and nearly every day) of the year. From the end of the Final Four until SEC Media Days, you know you're going three months without football or basketball (for those who are baseball and softball fans, yes, I know those sports are still going during that time, but it's not quite the same). Like you're prepared going in. You understand you won't have your meal for three months. But last week, we got SEC Media Days and everybody started talking football and it seemed so close. And then you realized at the end of it that we hadn't preheated the oven yet. So it's warming up. We're getting there. But all we can do for the next six days is sit around and wait.
2) Speaking of SEC Media Days, Missouri's appearance was quite boring. I don't mean that as an insult. In general, it's probably actually a good thing. But Eli Drinkwitz has developed a reputation. He says wild things and he pokes some people and he generally makes headlines. He gets behind a microphone and he can't help himself. But last week, he said nothing controversial and, honestly, nothing really of note. That's probably a welcome thing for some Mizzou fans. I like brash and cocky Drinkwitz. He's fun to cover. He's genuinely funny. But I understand why he's toned it down. He's made national headlines a few times in his tenure here, sometimes deserved, sometimes not. Now he's letting his team do the talking.
I came up with a theory on our podcast last week. I'm not sure it's accurate. It might be giving Drinkwitz a little too much credit for foresight. But I wondered if the first two or three years here he was talking a lot to put the focus on himself. His teams weren't great. He likely knew that. The more the coach made the headlines, the less the focus was on a team that was mediocre on the field. Then they went out and won 11 games and they bring a lot back and they're going to start this season probably inside the top 15 and he's perfectly happy with people just talking about the product on the field. He doesn't have to serve as a distraction. He doesn't have to say wild things that will take the focus off his quarterback or his defense or multiple 20-point losses. Again, maybe not. Maybe sometimes he just starts talking and can't stop before he's said something inflammatory. But maybe there was a method to the madness.
Either way, I hope we haven't turned him into a coach speak robot. That's less fun for everybody.
3) The league's "media" made its predictions last week. I put that word in quotes for a reason. It's not because Missouri was picked sixth. I don't actually have much of an issue with that. But of all the preseason polls, the one that matters the least is the one they do at SEC Media Days.
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