Columnist: Missouri has a chance to defeat Oklahoma, but it is a slim one
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35
By Bryan Burwell - St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Published: December 2, 2008
OK, let's just put it out there on the table because I know we're all thinking it.
Missouri is going to get crushed.
Perhaps it's a bit impolite to say it like that, so unvarnished and raw, without a ton of emotional qualifiers to soften the blow. But you know it, I know it and the Tigers do, too: That is what's on everyone's mind as we look toward this Saturday night's Big 12 championship showdown between the 19th-ranked North Division champion Tigers and the fourth-ranked South Division bad boys from Oklahoma. We're all thinking that there are only three logical outcomes to this championship game at Arrowhead Stadium.
Option 1: The Sooners will gangster slap the Tigers.
Option 2: The Sooners will prison slap the Tigers.
Option 3: The Sooners will gangster slap, then prison slap the Tigers.
This is the reality as the 9-3 Tigers prepare for the difficult (did someone say "impossible"?) task of
upsetting highly favored 11-1 Oklahoma. With good reason, no one gives Mizzou a chance, and between now and Saturday night the Tigers are going to hear this, read this and watch this a million times.
Now we get to sit back and watch how they handle the role of the overwhelming underdog. What happens to the Tigers as they prepare to face a team that absolutely no one thinks they can beat? Will they let these insults eat at their competitive psyches or will they instead feed off them, turning the slights into the emotional fuel for an improbable upset?
On two national telephone conference calls Monday, Mizzou quarterback Chase Daniel fielded questions about those odds against his football team as they face an OU squad that dominated them twice last year and has been destroying everyone in their path for the past month.
Most of the questions were phrased politely, if awkwardly, with the essence being, "So Chase, how are you guys not going to get your skulls bashed in this time?"
Almost without emotion, Daniel provided variations on a seemingly well-rehearsed theme:
"I don't think many people are giving us any shot. "
"It's a tough task, but we think we can play with them. "
"If you think you can (win), you can, particularly when no one gives us a chance in hell of doing this."
Why? Over the past two seasons, Mizzou has faced big, fast, physical and athletic teams such as Oklahoma and Texas three times and lost by an average of nearly 19 points. Last year, OU beat them by 10 in the regular season (41-31); in the 2007 Big 12 championship game, the Sooners blasted Mizzou 38-17. This year, when the Tigers traveled to Austin to face Texas, the Longhorns dominated the Tigers 56-31.
And as impressive as the Sooners were offensively last year, they're probably even better this year. "I wouldn't have said that at the beginning of the year," said Bob Stoops, OU's coach. "But we just scored 60 points in our last four straight games and in one of those we had 55 at half against K-State."
So how can the Tigers pull off the improbable upset?
History. The Sooners are an imposing force when they get to the Big 12 championship game, having won two in a row and five of the last seven conference title games. But the last time the Sooners arrived in Kansas City as heavy favorites for the Big 12 title game in Arrowhead Stadium, they were upset 35-7 by Kansas State.
When someone brought up the K-State upset, Daniel tried to give it little credence. "That was five years ago," he said. "Half a decade. That's quite awhile ago, and a totally different team."
But Daniel and the Tigers should remember K-State. They should remember Boise State (OU was a 43-42 loser in the 2007 Fiesta Bowl). They need to remember West Virginia (OU lost 48-28 in the 2008 Fiesta Bowl). They need to remember how the Sooners were blown out 55-19 by Southern California in the 2005 Orange Bowl.
As the late Jim Valvano once said before pulling off one of the greatest upsets in college basketball history, "We must have a chance because we're the only other team here." On Saturday night, this is the same mission for Missouri. Believe it is an improbable, but not an impossible mission. Strange things can always happen in a stadium that is clearly not going to be a neutral field.
Saturday night is shaping up to be a defining moment for Missouri football. Now I'm eager to discover if these highly motivated Tigers will let these bad expectations eat them alive or feed their competitive hearts and souls.
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2. Stoops doesn’t have poor bowl prep habits. It’s the players that play and the coaches that coach. You can line up a defense anywhere but if their heart and head aren’t in it they can be beat.
3. Mizzou can win because they’re playing and no game ends in a tie any longer in college ball. Pretty much the Jimmy V. theory.
4. Thomas of Lawton is a yo-yo. Yeah the National Title was a while back but we prepare just as we did in 2000 for a game in 2008. I may lie in the floor feeling sick when we are beaten by the margin of 55-19 but the TV plays. If you graduated from OU you need a course in “How not to think like an Aggie”.
5. “Pimp punch” Chase and the Tigers. You put a roll of quarters in your hand make a fist and bring up into their jaw. Chase has a pretty and big mouth. Maybe he even squeals like a pig? Easy target!!!!
Sooner were favored by 8-13 pts. and more in some circles. What happened, Bingo, they lost.
Stoops has poor bowl preparation habits, and this is a Bowl to Mizzou
“You want to talk about their guys?” asked Daniel, the Missouri quarterback, a flicker of fire showing in his eyes. “How about our guys?”
Then, not waiting for a response to his rhetorical challenge, Daniel started reading from a piece of paper he had brought with him to the podium at Monday’s pre-Big 12 championship game news conference.
“Chase Coffman has the most catches in NCAA Division I-A history,” Daniel said. “In the history of tight ends, he has the most catches.
“Derrick Washington, ranked third in Big 12 rushing, eighth in the NCAA in scoring.
“Jeremy Maclin leads the NCAA in all-purpose yards. I don’t think really anyone’s really close to him. He’s third in the Big 12 in receiving yards.
“You look at their weapons? Well I want to look at ours, and what we have to bring to the table. I feel good about our guys.”
Let's go Sooners bring your A game please don't overlook Mizzou