Whitlock-MU is a Fraud

[KC_Connection]

http://www.kansascity.com/sports/col...ry/957217.html

SAN ANTONIO | When it was over, when the 12-point-favorite, former-national-title-contending Missouri Tigers finally subdued Northwestern in overtime, the Tigers danced across the Alamodome as if they’d beaten Kansas or won the Big 12 title.

When he was handed the microphone at the Alamo Bowl trophy ceremony, Gary Pinkel shrieked: “How ’bout dem Tigers?!?”

I wondered what game I’d just watched.

The one I watched was an embarrassment for the Tigers. An inferior opponent had outplayed them for most of the night, settled for a moral victory in the fourth quarter and gave up in overtime.

Congrats, Mizzou. Beating Northwestern 30-23 in overtime inside a half-empty stadium at the conclusion of a season that started with national-title hopes is now the signature moment at the end of the Chase Daniel-Dave Christensen-Spread Offense era.

I’m sorry to rain on the parade scheduled for Columbia today to celebrate the 10-4 Tigers. But I expected more. Coming off losses to Kansas and Oklahoma, I expected Daniel and Christensen to exit Missouri and the Alamodome amid fireworks they sparked.

Instead, while the Tigers were wildly celebrating their “big” victory, the Northwestern Wildcats were at the losers’ postgame news conference claiming a moral victory. Coach Pat Fitzgerald talked about how no one expected the Wildcats to be competitive in this game and how much they proved by taking Missouri into the fourth quarter.

Northwestern proved Missouri is a fraud. The Tigers’ over-the-top celebration let us know that they know they’ve been overrated and overhyped, benefactors of Bill Snyder, cupcake scheduling.

Yeah, they cooed about averaging 10 victories during the Daniel-Christensen era. Uh, 10 victories is like 1,000 yards in the NFL. It used to mean something when the NFL season was 12 and 14 games. Ten victories used to mean a lot before teams started scheduling four nonconference victories.

The Tigers have mastered the art of beating weak teams and sneaking past decent ones. We’ll call the Wildcats decent.

What should we call the Missouri Tigers?

I’m not sure. It’s all pretty much under review now — the Daniel-Christensen-Spread era.

Daniel seems more like a system quarterback now than a Heisman Trophy contender. He played miserably against Northwestern, tossing three interceptions and becoming progressively more inaccurate as the night wore on.

Christensen’s Spread seems flawed by forced diversity. On a night when the Tigers should’ve simply thrown the ball to Chase Coffman 20 times, Mizzou’s big tight end caught seven passes for 67 yards.

We might one day remember Coffman as the Michael Jordan of college football and Christensen as Dean Smith. Christensen might be the only man capable of holding Coffman to fewer than 10 receptions a game.

I spent all night begging Daniel to throw to Coffman. He caught everything in his area code and a couple of over-the-border balls. On a night when the Tigers just needed to move the chains, Christensen repeatedly got cute with reverses, fake reverses, the Wildcat formation and deep balls to receivers not named Jeremy Maclin.

It was very frustrating.

Pinkel and Christensen both need to write thank-you notes to Pat Fitzgerald.

Northwestern simply refused to score points in the fourth quarter. Fitzgerald stood on his sideline, dropped to his knees and prayed that the clock would expire during the final quarter. Rather than throw deep against Missouri’s vulnerable corners and safeties, Fitzgerald had his QB throw slants, screens and occasional dumps over the middle of the field.

With a chance to drive for the game-winning field goal at the end of regulation, Fitzgerald ran the ball once, threw sideways twice and punted. Herm Edwards must be his coaching role model.

Whatever, the Wildcats are always irrelevant when it comes to big-time football. Northwestern traveled to San Antonio to reveal things about the Tigers.

The questions that were raised about the Tigers in the losses to Kansas and Oklahoma were all answered on Monday.

The answers were unpleasant and unflattering. They put Missouri’s last two seasons in proper perspective. Gary Pinkel still has a lot of work to do. The Tigers have not arrived. They’re the kings of a pathetic Big 12 North.

Let’s save the ticker-tape parades and unseemly celebrations and shrieking until Pinkel puts a bit more on his resume.

And this is why I was laughing yesterday, Frazod.

[ArrowheadHawk]

Ouch!

[Bowser]

OH NOES! Jason is trying to sell papers!

I'll take winning a bowl game ugly over losing in spectacular fashion every single time.

[teedubya]

did someone say Cupcakes? Mmmmm

[Pitt Gorilla]

10 win season, again.

Oh, and a response by Star blogger Bradford Doolittle:

Alamo Bowl Coda: It's OK to be excited

The Tigers celebrate their Alamo Bowl victory.There was a lot going on as I watched and blogged Mizzou's overtime Alamo Bowl win over Northwestern last night, so maybe I missed something.

The reaction I am seeing is not in line with what I would have expected. What I saw was an exciting game, with play on both sides a little ragged but with plenty of effort from a couple of good, not great, teams that aren't that far apart on the talent scale.

The idea that MU fans, players or coaches should feel embarrassed about winning a bowl game is, frankly, absurd to the point of offensiveness. Just what the hell do people expect?

Northwestern was no pushover. They went 9-3 in a BCS conference. Using Jeff Sagarins ratings as a proxy, here is how the schedules broke down this year:

Both teams beat the teams they should beat and lost to the teams they should have lost to for the most part. Northwestern was upset by Indiana. Missouri was upset by Kansas. Missouri's schedule was tougher, but what difference does that really make when you're not competitive against elite teams?

Northwestern has a solid defense, a premier running back in Tyrell Sutton, who missed several games this season, and a decent passing attack.

The Tigers were fortunate to win the game. The fact that they were happy to have done so, rather than hanging their heads in shame, is only a natural reaction to winning a tough competition. That they were able to win while playing at less than their optimum level is a credit to their preserverance and proof positive that they wanted to win just as bad as Northwestern.

The problem here is expectation. This is a trap I fell into myself this season. I wanted Mizzou to be a national title contender so badly that it clouded my judgement. Simply put, the team was overrated. This was not a national championship-caliber team. They aren't physical enough on the line of scrimmage on either side of the football and their secondary simply cannot cover against even an average passing attack.

That's not to say that things couldn't have broken the Tigers' way. If Chase Daniel hadn't thrown that last interception against Oklahoma State, if they hadn't played so poorly in the first half against Texas, if they had gotten a stop against Todd Reesing and Kansas and if someone besides Oklahoma had squeezed into the Big 12 title game, who knows? Maybe Mizzou is prepping right now to get peppered by Florida.

To me, it's a great leap for the program that any kind of a scenario that results in a BCS title shot can be concocted. But let's not fool ourselves. Talent for talent, Missouri is not on the level of Texas, Oklahoma, Florida, USC and some others. They may get there, but they aren't there now. Our problem is that we were expecting them to compete on the biggest stage when we should have been hoping they could get there.

In any given season, there are about five to eight teams that have legitimate No. 1-type ability. Sometimes one or two of those teams rise above the rest. More often than not, they don't. After those elite teams, there is a second tier of, I'd say, 20-25 teams that are very similar in terms of talent. How well they fare in the season depends upon schedule, health and just plain luck. If everything breaks right, maybe they get the chance to challenge one of the elites. This is the tier on which both Missouri and Northwestern reside, at least for this season. Next season, Northwestern may go right back to being a doormat. For that matter, so may Mizzou. (Though I seriously doubt it.)

At this point in time, these were two second-tier teams from power conferences with similar records. It was an evenly matched game, an exciting contest and Missouri should be proud to have won and to have given their fans the first back-to-back 10-win seasons in school history. Kudos to Coach Pinkel, Chase Coffman, Chase Daniel, Jeremy Maclin and the whole squad. You've done the Mizzou fan base proud. This will be your legacy: Success, excitement and the first whiff of big-time football we've had in Columbia in almost a half-century.

Submitted by Bradford Doolittle on December 30, 2008 - 4:33pm.
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[KChiefs1]

My thoughts:

Northwestern played great....Mizzou not so much.

A win is a win. How many programs have back to back 10 win seasons?

Chase Daniel went downhill after the Okie State game. Not the same player.

Disappointing season to be sure but I'll take a Top 20 ranking again.

Teams don't celebrate their bowl wins anymore? Really?

Jason is trying to sell papers.

Big 12 hasn't looked good so far this bowl season.

[Bowser]

Originally Posted by KC_Connection

And this is why I was laughing yesterday, Frazod.

You were amused that we won a bowl game?

[KcMizzou]

Meh. I'm not ashamed, not even close.

Yeah, we had higher hopes, but 10 wins and a bowl victory would have seemed unrealistic a couple seasons ago.

As ugly as it was, I'm glad this senior class went out with a win. Hell, they won more games than any class in Mizzou's history. Don't let unmet (and arguably, unrealistic) expectations spoil it.

I was thrilled to see Maclin take one to the house... Coffman be a freak (like always)... Weatherspoon as a monster (seemed like the guy made half of our tackles)...

And Chase Daniel, in a terrible game... took a bobbled bad snap, and threw a dart for a TD in OT.

Yeah, we (as fans) wanted more. So did the team.

Mizzou's just not quite on that level yet. But they've improved in a big way in a short time... I expect they'll be around for a while.

[Pitt Gorilla]

How many consecutive weeks has MU been ranked (going back to last year)?

[KC_Connection]

Originally Posted by Bowser

You were amused that we won a bowl game?

No, I was laughing at Chase Daniel and the team struggling throughout the game agaisnt an inferior team.

[Sure-Oz]

Originally Posted by KcMizzou

Meh. I'm not ashamed, not even close.

Yeah, we had higher hopes, but 10 wins and a bowl victory would have seemed unrealistic a couple seasons ago.

As ugly as it was, I'm glad this senior class went out with a win. Hell, they won more games than any class in Mizzou's history. Don't let unmet (and arguably, unrealistic) expectations spoil it.

I was thrilled to see Maclin take one to the house... Coffman be a freak (like always)... Weatherspoon as a monster (seemed like the guy made half of our tackles)...

And Chase Daniel, in a terrible game... took a bobbled bad snap, and threw a dart for a TD in OT.

Yeah, we (as fans) wanted more. So did the team.

Mizzou's just not quite on that level yet. But they've improved in a big way in a short time... I expect they'll be around for a while.

This!

[KC_Connection]

Originally Posted by Pitt Gorilla

How many consecutive weeks has MU been ranked (going back to last year)?

No idea.

I just love how all that fraud talk about KU totally backfired on Frazod.

[Frazod]

Originally Posted by KC_Connection

No idea.

I just love how all that fraud talk about KU totally backfired on Frazod.

Nothing backfired on me, you pathetic douche. Absolutely nothing.

All this goes back to last season, leading up to the biggest game ever played between KU and MU, which MU won. I said then that you'd have lost to the all the South powers that you dodged last year, and GUESS WHAT - you did. Missouri rolling over has nothing to do with that.

As in all things, you lose. You are without a doubt the biggest loser ever to post here. You embarrass Chief and KU fans alike. Take a bow, dipshit.

And every time you post my name, flail away trying to make your stupid little failed point, it just screams out how I have totally violated your frail little bitch psyche. Too bad you can't call a cop for that.

Squeal some more, little piggie! And remember, I'm laughing at you, not with you.

[Valiant]

Originally Posted by KC_Connection

No idea.

I just love how all that fraud talk about KU totally backfired on Frazod.

KU was horrible.. They just happened to expose MU's horrid defense and Chase's choking..

[KC_Connection]

Originally Posted by frazod

Nothing backfired on me, you pathetic douche. Absolutely nothing.

Of course it did. You spent months going on about how big a fraud KU was, and as it turns out, MU (the national title contender) is the real joke.

All this goes back to last season, leading up to the biggest game ever played between KU and MU, which MU won. I said then that you'd have lost to the all the South powers that you dodged last year, and GUESS WHAT - you did. Missouri rolling over has nothing to do with that.

Different year, different players, different teams. The 2007 and 2008 seasons are different entities. It's about time you got that through your head.

As in all things, you lose. You are without a doubt the biggest loser ever to post here. You embarrass Chief and KU fans alike. Take a bow, dipshit.

I would say the same about you, ****face.

And every time you post my name, flail away trying to make your stupid little failed point, it just screams out how I have totally violated your frail little bitch psyche. Too bad you can't call a cop for that.

Yeah, you've gotten right in my head, haha.