Mizzou says "hello" to SEC

Greetings to all. BTW, WUTiger comes from the fact that I'm a Missouri Tiger - I picked up the Tiger nickname in the Marines. My username had nothing to do with the guy who used to be married to Elin.

Anyway, Texas A&M; and Mizzou have a new home with you guys, so I'm just checking in. Some people question why Mizzou is in the SEC, but if you look at some of the golf regional maps we are classified as in the South. And during the Civil War, Missouri was the site of more small-unit skirmishes than any other state.

Another Sports post questioned how OSU would have done against LSU or 'Bama with OSU's low defensive rating. As far as OSU goes, they are ranked low on defense because they have an offense that scores quickly. And, their QB Brandon Weeden was a former pro baseball player, which some people says gives OSU an unfair advantage on offense.

OSU does not have a "lock down" defense a la SEC. As bwdial said, they create a lot of turnovers. Very good at getting ricochet interceptions when the receiver can't clamp onto the ball, or a sack and strip if the QB dances around too long. Mizzou has suffered two ricochet interceptions against OSU each of the last three games, and two were returned for touchdowns.

As for Big XII (-2 -2 +2?), lots of passing goes on, but top teams can also run the ball. Missouri's stats for the season:

Total Passing Yds. 3010 (Average 231 per game)

Total Rushing Yds. 3172 (Average 244 per game - No. 1 in Big XII)

This season was the first time since 2002 that Mizzou had more rushing than passing yardage.

After early-season doldrums, Mizzou rebounded for four straight wins and finished 8-5 including the Independence Bowl win, 41-24 over North Carolina. Mizzou rushed for 337 yards that day, and had 17 runs of 10 yards or more. (Towards the end of the season, Mizzou ran quite a few I-formation plays on short yardage. Spread-shotgun not the best way to go when you need one yard, as far as I'm concerned. Nice to have that lead fullback kicking the door open)...

Mizzou likes the Independence Bowl. Shreveport is a nice place to visit, and not as pricy as LA or the East Coast. Also, I-Bowl is in the heart of SEC territory, a chance to show our stuff to the rest of the family.

As for next year, Mizzou returns most of its starters for its first season in SEC-East. First SEC game is home against Georgia on Sept. 8. I believe MU can hold its own in the SEC. My major concern is injuries - everyone in SEC hits really hard. In my opinion, SEC's advantage over other conferences is defensive line. I hope we have brought our depth-chart players along quick enough that they can play well if the starters go down. I guess we'll see - that's why we play the games to find out who actually wins.

Those of you that travel up for a game, Columbia, MO., has good quality night life, and golf courses in the area. If you bring your clubs, send me a PM and I can recommend some courses to play. If you belong to a private club, your staff should be able to arrange a reciprocal with one of the country clubs in Columbia.

Keep in touch!

Welcome to the SEC.  Get ready to play "big boy" football on October 13th.

Welcome to the SEC. Mizzou will have an uphill battle to start and will need to recruit very well (being in the SEC should help with that). The biggest difference between the SEC and other conferences in my opinion is the Dline (as you stated) and the combo of speed and size on defense. Teams in the Pac-12 and other conferences seem to put the majority of their talent on offense and try to outscore people. The SEC simply has enough talent going around to do both.