What Just Happened?

Two years ago, I drank the Drew Lock Kool-Aid. Actually, I probably stirred up some Drew Lock Kool-Aid. More accurately, I was an anthropomorphic pitcher of Drew Lock Kool-Aid crashing through a wall and shouting “Oh, yeah!”

I recall saying, out loud, after Lock’s first scrimmage that I had never seen a Missouri true freshman quarterback look so good. I remember writing, after Maty Mauk was suspended a third of the way through that 2015 season, that this turn of events was a blessing in disguise, as it would give coach Gary Pinkel the chance to start his best quarterback.

Although Lock’s solid first start against South Carolina caused a mild outbreak of “Locktober” excitement, for the rest of his freshman season he was not the miracle worker a broken offense required. Last year, he posted good numbers — 3,399 passing yards, 23 touchdowns and 10 interceptions — but on a 4-8 team, statistics ring hollow.

Lock hasn’t yet won enough games to establish himself as a game-changing quarterback, but you can’t wipe the painted-on smile off my pitcher of sugary refreshment so easily. To me he looks like a quarterback on the verge of a breakthrough, someone who will for the first time have the combination of supporting cast and system knowledge that allows him to unleash his talent.

Outside the state, people think little of Missouri football when they think about the team at all. The Tigers were picked to finish last in the SEC East in the preseason media poll. Bovada has placed the over-under for wins at a nondescript 6½. I expect better than that, and the biggest reason is a talented QB in a quarterback-friendly scheme.

If Mauk had stayed on track and the Tigers had followed their original plan of succession, Lock would be preparing for his first start. Instead, he has experienced so much. It doesn’t get much harder for a freshman quarterback than being thrust into a leadership position on a frustrated, inept offense. Nobody blamed Lock — it would have taken a Cam Newton clone to overcome the comprehensive incompetence of that offense — but it was already an unpleasant autumn before a threatened boycott and coaching change added to the chaos. If that year didn’t leave him curled up in the fetal position in a corner of the locker room, it made him stronger.

Last year, new offensive coordinator Josh Heupel brought in a different system — most frequently compared to Art Briles’ version of the spread — and I was pleasantly surprised with the results. Missouri overwhelmed bad defenses, held its own against average defenses and went nowhere fast against good defenses. It was inconsistent, but it was progress.

With ten offensive starters back from that group, this offense should give the Tigers a chance to win some shootouts. Physically, Lock has the arm to make the sideline and deep throws in a scheme that stretches the field in both directions, and with a full year of knowledge of the system, he should be able to improve his completion percentage by making better decisions.

Lock said Heupel has put more responsibility on him this year, asking him more often to read the full field rather than half of it and giving him the freedom to audible. Lock said he now has the confidence that comes with a better grasp of the offense.

“It’s way different than what it was last year,” Lock said. “I think a lot of last year was me being a little nervous going out there on the field, having confidence but not the total confidence you need to be successful in this league.”

In the preseason, everyone espouses confidence, but I tend to believe a breakthrough is near. Halfway through his college career, I still look at the glass of Drew Lock Kool-Aid as half-full.

On Monday, Frank Broyles, the former Arkansas football coach and athletic director, died at age 92. He had a brief but significant stint as Missouri’s football coach between two legends — Don Faurot and Dan Devine. His significance has little to do with the 5-4-1 record he posted in 1957 and everything to do with him integrating the team before that season.

Broyles’ death led me to look back at the history of integration in Missouri and college football.

The University of Missouri admitted its first black students in 1950 and added its first black athlete when basketball coach Sparky Stalcup signed Al Abram in 1956. Faurot did not sign any black football players before stepping down as coach after the 1956 season. By that time, the other Big Seven Conference schools had integrated their football teams — or reintegrated in some cases, as Nebraska and Iowa State had used black players before 1928.

Nebraska’s first black player, George Flippin, competed way back in 1891. But according to Charles H. Martin in his article “The Color Line in Midwestern College Sports, 1890-1960,” when the Big Six Conference was formed in 1928, Missouri and Oklahoma objected to the use of black players and all the league schools agreed to an unwritten rule that nobody would use black athletes in any sport.

It was common before World War II for northern schools with black players to agree to bench them if their southern opponents demanded it, so even racially progressive coaches and administrators weren’t exactly dogmatic about their beliefs.

According to Martin’s research, in 1946 the Big Six amended its old unwritten rule and put in writing that the league didn’t ban black athletes but “the personnel of visiting squads shall be so selected as to conform with any restrictions imposed upon a host institution.”

Kansas State coach Ralph Graham was the first to act, accepting Harold Robinson as a walk-on in 1948 and giving him a scholarship the next year. Iowa State, Nebraska, Colorado, Kansas and Oklahoma signed black football players in the next seven years, leaving Missouri as the last holdout among Big Seven schools before Broyles signed Mel West and Norris Stevenson. Oklahoma A&M — later renamed Oklahoma State — joined the league in June 1957 to make it the Big Eight and also integrated its football team that year.

Broyles left Missouri for Arkansas after the ’57 season in what could be described as a good trade for both schools. Broyles went on to compile a 144-58-5 record for the Razorbacks and then served for 34 years as the school’s athletic director, notably hiring Nolan Richardson, the Southeastern Conference’s first black men’s basketball coach, in 1985. At Missouri, Faurot replaced Broyles with Devine, who went 92-38-7 and had two short stints — separated by 22 years — as athletic director at MU. Broyles’ and Devine’s winning percentages at Arkansas and Missouri are separated by less than one point.

Back to the topic of integration, it took a dozen more years after Broyles left Missouri before he signed his first black player at Arkansas. One black player, Darrell Brown, walked on to the Razorbacks team in 1965 but never played in a game. It wasn’t until 1969 that Broyles signed an African-American, Jon Richardson. While this didn’t make Broyles an outlier among coaches in the Southwest Conference, he wasn’t ahead of the curve either. In 1966, Baylor’s John Hill Westbrook and SMU’s Jerry LeVias became the first African-Americans in the SWC to play in games after joining their teams the year before.

Meanwhile, in the SEC, where Arkansas and Missouri now reside, Kentucky was the first to sign a black player, Nate Northington, in 1965. He became the first African-American to play in an SEC football game in 1967. The last holdouts were LSU and Mississippi, which signed their first black players in 1971.

As a brief aside, I can’t even imagine the arguments that must have gone on over the national rankings in those days while comparing integrated northern teams to all-white southern teams, which played most or all of their games against other all-white teams. To complicate the problem, before 1968 The Associated Press released its final poll before bowl games. Many teams of that era that are remembered to be among the best in the nation received their final ranking without even the possibility of facing an opposing black player.

That puts into perspective our recent squawking about the way the BCS and the College Football Playoff committee has picked the teams who compete for the championship.

On Wednesday, PowerMizzou.com provided an update on MU football and men’s basketball season tickets sales. Missouri had sold 27,775 football season tickets, which was down 1,435 from the same date in 2016. That decrease would have been greater if not for the number of student season tickets, which jumped from 2,260 to 4,856. The student increase is likely attributable to MU now making student basketball and football season tickets a package deal, so score another one for the economic engine known as Michael Porter Jr.

Single-game football ticket sales are up about 1,500 per game over last year, so the projected number of butts in the seats should be about the same as 2016.

Men’s basketball season tickets are at 9,961, up significantly from the final total of 7,742 last year. And there are still a few months to sell before the season.

What I extrapolate from those numbers is that the lagging football ticket sales are overwhelmingly tied to lukewarm expectations for the team rather than the other suspected factor. In 2016, Missouri’s average football attendance dropped 13,000 from the previous year. It was speculated that at least part of the reason for that decrease was that fans were upset at the university’s handling of the 2015 racial protest and were voting with their wallets.

Maybe some were, particularly in the immediate aftermath of the 2015 season, when donations to the athletic department also plummeted. But in the last fiscal year, the MU athletic department reported a record $50.4 million in donations. That doesn’t fit the narrative of an angry fan base holding a grudge.

The increase in basketball ticket sales after Porter’s arrival is another sign that fans are basing their ticket decisions on entertainment value rather than politics, which is a good thing for the football program’s hopes of some day filling Memorial Stadium again. It’s way easier to win more games than to change anyone’s mind about politics.