Missouri's Boring 2025 SEC Football Schedule

SEC commissioner Greg sanki wants to shake up March Madness but for some reason he's Mr Conservative when it comes to the 2025 SEC schedule let's talk about the boring sequel coming up in a couple seasons and more right now I'm locked on missou you are locked on missou your daily podcast on the Missouri Tigers part of the locked on podcast Network your team every day [Music] hey all you true Sons and Daughters I'm John Miller your mazou mafioso and a guy who majored in newsed journalism and somehow that decision did not derail my entire professional career but you know what coming up on today's program I think the ESPN ranking its top 10 quarterbacks for the coming football season Brady cook just outside of that top 10 I really think their whole process shows just how bad collectively we are at evaluating quarterbacks plus speaking of things that are broken the basketball replay system is completely broken the Finish to Samford and Kansas last night another great example of that before I get started started though I do want to remind you today's episode is brought to you by Nissan are you the kind of driver that likes to push things a little further ever wonder what Adventure could be around the next Corner take the Nissan Rogue Nissan Pathfinder or Nissan Armada and go find your next big adventure check them all out today at nissanusa.com and I got to say the SEC with its 2025 football scheduling to me went with the most boring sequel you could possibly imagine now I'm a big as a kid one of my favorite movies and to this day still one of my favorite movies is Beetle Juice well Beetle Juice Beetle Juice coming here in a few months and basically the SEC went with just a shot for shot remake of beetle juu one is what Beetlejuice 2 is going to be in terms of the 2025 football schedule all of Missouri's SEC opponents for this season in case you missed it well they're just going to flip Home and Away going to be the same eight SE yeah eight opponents next season so Alabama Oklahoma Texas A&M Auburn Vanderbilt South Carolina Mississippi State and Arkansas going to be that same group for two straight Seasons also to Me Maybe the most disappointing part of this is for two years the Tigers will not be playing the Texas Longhorns and while a return trip to Norman Oklahoma hey I'm all good with that for sure the rest of those games you know going to Alabama obviously an exciting Road Trip the tide will be returning to Colombia next season that's all well and good personally I would have liked to see the Longhorns at some point in the first couple years here and also it does feel a little weird that Missouri again for the second straight year not playing Florida Georgia or Kentucky some teams that the Tigers have faced every single year in football since joining the conference so since we are throwing out most most rivalries other than the very very upper echelon rivalries tradition all kinds of stuff and college football well at least give me some newness too at least give me some different road trips some different Adventures that kind of stuff I don't know to me this schedule's a little bit disappointing if in if I do understand to some extent because again interestingly it does obviously seem like for another year ESPN and and SEC pushing off what seems like is inevitably going to grow to a nine game SEC schedule one day if not heck even 10 games at some point in the next decade or so who knows but obviously the talk right now is the move to the nine game schedule well obviously that's going to be put off until at least 2026 now I do have to say for 2025 we're going to talk about exciting well at least fresh if not new matchups the Border war is back I will remind you in 2025 in Colombia September 6th really early early version of that ball game and the tigers by the way also in their non-conference going to host that return game with UMass after traveling to UMass this coming season also hosting Louisiana with a road game against Miami of Ohio currently scheduled so that's one of those games hey a road game at Miami of Ohio seems primed for one of those games that Desiree Reed franois would have loved to have buy out or at least move to St Louis something like that will that actually happen is that going to be a priority under the new athletic department if you will under the new leadership of whoever the next athletic director is going to be at the University of Missouri and by the way speaking of the athletic director still no movement on the ad front at least as far as I or anybody on the Missouri beat can tell at this point which in and of itself wouldn't be that big of a concern or at least wouldn't necessarily be a cause for concern except here's the problem as I've pointed out many times I think many Missouri fans right now are getting understandably nervous with no information here about the ad search because again to be brutally honest this board of curators this leadership have not really done a whole lot to earn the benefit of the doubt and their silence on all of these topics and their lack of accountability publicly is quite deafening I mean really when you have a vacuum of information and and people speaking at least give you know Desiree Reed Francois she you know and Mike Alden for example sure they would say there's a lot of a lot of lingo a lot of you know corporate speak that kind of thing so they would say a lot at times without saying much but at least she would say something at least her face is very much out there at least you felt like you could come up to her at a basketball game and ask her a question maybe even you know put a put a put in your two cents on a certain part of The Fan Experience that you would like to have changed but who is accountable in the board of curators who are these people when was the last time any of them actually spoke to a member of the media so at this point I don't know if if if I should be nervous exactly specifically about the time the amount of time that this search is taking but again if you're nervous I don't blame you because these people have not earned the benefit of the doubt and speaking of saying a lot of words without revealing too much well Eli drinkwitz talked with the media recapping Spring ball recently and again a lot of words not a ton of insight but maybe the biggest thing I took away from Eli dritz posts spring comments were about Nate Noel for formerly of App State the running back of course no connection there between Noel and appstate and Eli dritz no crossover there but on Noel here's what dran quit said he said man that guy really really had a good spring so just lots of praise for Noel seems like he's a very explosive player that should fit into that outside Zone scheme of Brandon Jones and Kirby Moore quite nicely but it seems like he's maybe had some injury problems during his time at App State if he can just stay on the field it's possible you never know he could be the guy I think a lot of people assumed Marcus Carroll was the leader in the club house cuz he was the first guy that Missouri got at running back through the portal but it sure seems like Nate Noel is turning a lot of heads to the point where he could either be the main guy or very much a part of a committee again a committee approach would be something new for Eli drinkwitz but you know what until last season drinkwitz had been always been the play caller as well so he shown the willingness to change up some of his old things the old dog can learn some new tricks so I I wouldn't put it past him I think drinkwitz has shown especially with all the different changing responsibilities he's had as head coach over the last few years drinkwitz has shown an ability to modify his approach and it's that's something I really admire and coming up this season it obviously feels great to have real real confidence in a settled quarterback position and ESPN recently despite our confidence Brady cook ranked the top 10 quarterbacks in the country cook just outside of it at number 11 and really my quibble with ESPN doesn't have much to do with Cook's actual ranking it's more the guys who are ranked ahead of him but you know what all of this all of my observations here bottom line I think this is all positive for Missouri here going forward into 2024 I want to explain what I mean coming up here about Brady and we'll talk about Luther Burton's rankings as well first though let's talk about Nissan because this week's March Madness bracket highlight is brought to you by our friends at Nissan each week we're picking one team that stands out a team that's pushed it further than the rest just like any of the allnew 2024 Nissan SUVs these guys were able to take it to the next level and you got to go with the Oakland Golden Grizzlies they're obviously this week's Nissan Rogue the team absolutely surprised all of us with a powerful performance in the first round upset against the Kentucky Wildcats giving 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locked on sports today a free 247 sports streaming Channel programmed for fans just like you every day with the biggest stories frankly without all the screaming matches locked on sports today brings you can't miss analysis and opinions and news streaming 247 on YouTube or the free Amazon Fire TV channels app part the locked on podcast work your team every day and before we get into the Brady cook and quarterback discussion one just quickly one thing on Eli drinkwitz a lot of fans have been wondering why does Missouri start spring so early well one of the reasons has been injury recovery and on Brian Huff by the way a true freshman linebacker who enrolled early basically he was the only injury that really came out of spring he drink wood says quote we came out of spring fairly healthy the only surgery that is on our books right now which we actually knew going into the spring was Brian Huff he will repair an injury from high school he'll actually have surgery tomorrow or today or yesterday whenever this was written but he'll be back as a full participant by June so that works out pretty good so obviously I think a lot of fans including myself if you were attending the black and gold game you probably would have liked some live tackling that's certainly a little bit more interesting and representative of actual football but you can see the logic here obviously Missouri wants to be healthy for fall camp and while there's definitely a balance to be had there you still need to live tackle at some point does the live tackling you're doing six months before the season starts how much value is there in that genuinely I'm I'm asking I I I think that's just something that every good program every coach has to be asking themselves right now and obviously part of the reason Missouri starting spring early and keeping it early these days hey with the portal opening this just gives you maybe a jump start on the competition in terms of evaluating your roster and figuring out exactly what you need in the portal and by the way now that when the Portal's open you can focus on that instead of maybe your current springing practi is as much so there is all of that but you know what speaking of missou football this coming season Missouri should have one of the absolute Dynamite offenses in the entire country and well obviously a big reason for that Luther Burton voted the best wide receiver in the country coming into 2024 this according to ESPN college football experts as they call themselves and well one of our guys a missou guy Bill Conley he said about Luther bird and quote he dropped only only two passes all season and finished in the top five in the nation and yards after catch forced Miss tackles and yards after first Contact he caught a desperate fourth and 17 pass to set up a game-winning field goal against Florida and the game clenching touchdown pass in the Tigers cotton bow win over Ohio State so there you go I'd say as he says here now Burton enters his Junior season as May the most proven receiver in the country and there you go I I think that tells you all you need to know about Luther burden but for some reason it seemed like Brady cook did not quite get the same bump that Burton got for his returning production and coming off a really good team by the way now cook wasn't completely insulted or anything and the others receiving votes category he was the first one so basically ESPN says he's the 11th quarterback in the country inning 2024 what I thought was interesting is who is number one among others well that's George's Carson Beck and here's the thing I just don't think there's that big of between Brady cook and Carson Beck and I haven't watched Beck play enough to definitively have a take on him as a player or anything like that again it's also more just hey who else is further down the list look at who's number four well it's Jaylen milro of Alabama and to have him at number four over Colorado's shador Sanders who's number eight I gotta be honest I don't even know how to properly respond to that it just seems like you're just you're putting so much on the quarterback win statistic there I I just I don't know how you really can can watch Jaylen milro play and think that he's a better player than shador Sanders now jayen milro has better receivers he's got better teammates and a better offensive line and better coaches last year no question about all of that I I just think when you actually look at the circumstances of those two players you look at hey milro improved as the year went on I agree with that but you still saw his limitations against Michigan especially again Brady cook has his limitations as well just like everybody really of all these players does in my opinion I don't see any Patrick Mahomes in there at the moment but my point is whether Brady cook whether you think he should be in the top 10 maybe he should be in the top five or maybe you think 11 is about right to me either way the difference between him and say Carson Beck or Jaylen Milow I just don't think there's really that much of a difference there if you want to say Carson Beck is better fine and dandy I'm just saying it's not the Grand Canyon is not between those two I can promise you that so really Missi I think has everything it needs offensively and then some for 2024 and frankly just this whole thing this focus on quarterback win stats it just shows how bad we collectively are at evaluating quarterbacks and why we're still hitting probably less than 50% in terms of NFL first rounders whoever figures out the formula there is going to make themselves a heck of a lot of money in the coming years and coming up let's talk some missou hoops including a little bit on Javon Porter who honestly I'm surprised we haven't heard we haven't seen any movement on the Javon Porter front yet so let's talk about him and if newest tiger Jacob Cruz fits a positional need or not coming up here in just a little bit but first I want to tell you about Fire TV channels and Fire TV isn't just about getting access to Incredible movies and frankly the best user interface there is out there Fire TV is your destination for sports from live games to Highlights to indepth analysis we're not talking of course about just smart TVs also the Fire TV stick that you can plug in to your existing TV that provides access to all types of movies TV and sports and Fire TV recently created Fire TV channels to deliver a constant supply of the latest videos from your favorite sports brands we're talking March Madness MLB NBA lots more not to mention news entertainment gaming travel and cooking videos as well check out Fire TV channels on Fire TV and Alexa devices if you haven't checked out a fire TV channels you should trust me on this learn more at amazon.com lockon to Fire TV it seems the conventional wisdom around missou basketball in the portal right now is the Tigers need to get a point guard and a big guy who can defend and rebound those are your two biggest priorities well I can't really disagree with any of that but I will disagree with people who seem to think that Jacob Cruz is not really a a a fit in terms of a position need well I I completely completely and utterly disagree with this notion for a few reasons because number one you go 0 and 19 in the SEC you've got needs basically everywhere and it's not as though while Missouri was porous defensively last year without a doubt they weren't good enough offensively either and shooter hey that's a position too shooting scoring that's a position of need as well combo forward by the way clearly Dennis Gates like to have likes to have some taller guys who can who have some skill somebody like kobby brown or Noah Carter well who is that person who's on the roster right now who was currently on the Tigers last season well I guess it would be Trent Pierce in theory but obviously with his lack of production last season he a lot of reasons for that ear infections rough start blah blah blah the point is you just can't count on that next season so to me Jacob Cruz absolutely fits if not a position of need certainly a skill set of need that's just my humble opinion now when it comes to other taller players who can put the ball on the floor shoot it multi-positional type deal well you think about the porters sometimes while Javon Porter formerly of Pepperdine entered the portal a week or so ago quite honestly I'm I'm a little surprised we haven't heard anything about Porter yet I would have almost bet if you'd have told me a week ago I'd have thought by this time maybe Porter would have already announced that he's a tiger so what does this mean does this mean Missouri is maybe weighing its options a little bit is maybe Javon Porter himself weighing his options a little bit again I would have thought that this would have come together by now but for now we wait and darn it when it comes to my my knockout pool I picked the wrong hatable Blue Blood team that wears blue no I should have taken I should have taken Oakland over Kentucky of course in retrospect but I had Samford beating Kansas and obviously that almost happened too so I'm actually not upset with that process whatsoever because here's something you all need to keep in mind it would be one thing if I were entering a contest with 10 people then that would picking Kansas or Oakland or anybody that high would have probably been an unnecessarily aggressive approach but with 257 entries in this knockout pool that I'm in you got to get risky you got to take a chance and getting that 13 or 14 points there for the tiebreaker in the future would have been a huge Edge to have so again 257 to1 that's basically the Royals odds of winning the World Series this year right it ain't going to happen so how do you get an edge again be aggressive pick a big upset in the first couple of days because once you get past Friday your odds aren't very good at that happening but obviously a rough day for the SEC 0 and3 and mostly I'd say a rough day just for officiating as well it's just been it's not about M calls because of course everybody including Missouri fans is focused right now on what was clearly a missed call on a block a clean block by a Samford player on a jhawk at the end of the game of course it was Samford was trailing by one with about 15 seconds there the ball was in play off of the backboard if that's if there's no whistle there so you're talking a five on four break there for Samford good chance they score and take the lead there obviously no guarantees but to me the part that bothers me there is not that there's a missed call there you can see why if you're at a bad angle as a referee the way the Kansas guy fell down there I could see how you'd miss that call it's a really horrific missed call and one that probably did cost cost Samford big time but what what gets my goat about this whole thing is during this game and many others that come down the stretch you're constantly stopping the game for replays every time the ball goes out of bounds oh stop everything we we got to go to the play monitor so again if that ball is hit out of bounds instead of being blocked off the backboard and Inplay well then I guess we could what we could have then we could have then replayed that and see well did it go off of his fingertip and all this stuff but for some reason you can't replay and review what was a crucial call here a missed call on that block attempt if we're going to have replay that's why it should be there but my whole thing is to me there's no way to fix this replay is absolutely broken in basketball and frankly it was never it was never put together properly in the first place it was never on a sound Foundation there's never been a proper way to do instant replay in basketball it works fairly well in football I'll give you that it works okay for the most part in baseball it works great in tennis but it's ABS it's actually a net negative in b basetball because again if you can only review certain types of fouls you can't you can only review the ball that goes out of bounds even though when you're reviewing it a guy is clearly smacked on the forearm or something like that are we getting the calls right or are we getting the calls different because it seems to me all we're doing is just getting the calls different not necessarily right and at the expense of what well mostly all of our entertainment because what should be the best part of the game crunch time just grinds to a halt over and over and over again and to me that is such a much bigger problem Than Just One Missed Call On a Block listen I can live with that I really can I can live with a referee missing a block call every once in a while what I can't live with is you guys stealing away my life by making me stare at a replay monitor endlessly I have no interest in that let the Miss calls even out over the long term because we're actually not improving anything with replay we're making the product actively worse so if you agree with me hit me up at lockon maazou or maybe you disagree with me again at lockon maazou X Instagram Facebook Tik Tok as long as it's still legal in the United States and email me lockon mou gmail.com so until next time I am John Miller and thanks as always for listening to locked on missou do