Mizzou Football's Schedule Is Even Easier Than I Thought

let's talk about our quietly confident Missouri football team as well as a middle of an SEC basketball schedule this coming year that the Tigers absolutely have to crush all that and more right now I'm locked on missou you are locked on mizou your daily podcast on the Missouri Tigers part of the locked on podcast Network your Team every day hey all you true Sons and Daughters I'm John Miller your maou mafioso and a man who will be checking out the W tonight as Caitlyn Clark makes her WNBA debut got to check it out for at least a little bit because I'm very interested in her stardom for sure what makes her a star that she is what makes stardom in general I want to talk about that at the end of the program but of course we got a lead with Missouri SEC basketball schedule is out but you know what I want to lead with football of course and by my count the Tigers still have a few spots available that they could use scholarship wise on the football team and yet no visitors that were aware of as far as I can tell and yet I'd say that's a good sign for Missouri I think they're very quietly confident right now especially for an Eli drinkwitz Le team not a lot of chirping so far out of the offseason Camp from Missouri and Company again I like the quiet confidence certainly Eli drinkwitz is dripping with confidence as usual as usual just not a lot of noise not a lot of bad news coming out of Missouri have you had any any bad news whatsoever legally any of that stuff it all seems good so far knock on wood as they say now I'm sure I got the goat of a few Alabama fans yesterday and and just to be clear once again what I'm saying is I'm not sure that Alabama is Missouri's toughest game and I'm not predicting a horrible season for the tide by any means certainly with a 12 team playoff my goodness a a playoff appearance at this point in time is probably more likely for Alabama than not I'm just saying I'm assuming nothing on May 14th 2024 at this point just like to be brutally honest I'm not assuming anything with Missouri either hey this is the off season I've talked about how really high I think Missouri's upside is I think it's as high as the best team in the country when it's all said and done but again just so we're clear here I'm talking upside if you want to talk about the downside well as we've all As we've all said and noticed Missouri won three really close games on plays that could have three plays basically could have hinged one way or the other I'm of course talking about Harrison M's field goal even more so the Do or Die fourth and 17 against Florida and I would say the Kentucky fake pun as well if that Ball's not complete what happens in that game it's at least it's at least worth asking so again if Missouri could have been seven and5 last year certainly not crazy to think seven and four is on the excuse me seven and five is on the table that type of thing this year as well especially Missouri had a lot of of positive injury Fortune last year for the most part hey hopefully that obviously continues in 2024 but I would say though the more you look at it and this was my main point yesterday I can get a little deeper into it really that Missouri schedule which I called navigable when it first came out really it's looking even more navigable and downright easy relatively speaking for an SEC schedule and that's the point relatively here it's looking pretty easy because not only is Alabama I'm not going to say they're in disarray by any stretch of the imagination they're just in a lot of transition right now and what that transition looks like again there's a lot of more unknown and variables there than I think maybe a lot of Tide fans would like to admit we're talking about a team that has had tons of exits and not a not a metric ton of additions either some really key additions for Alabama but again I'm just assuming nothing and again more to the point with Missouri's schedule Texas A&M which on paper that's Missouri's second toughest game if you believe my friends over at FanDuel sports book ATM they have tons of turnover too the Aggies have a new football coach at as well so again your two toughest opponents on paper not only with a lot of turnover in the roster you're talking about the first year with a new head coach as well that's always a challenge and I think I'm not badmouthing either Mike Elco or or coach deor out in out in Alabama I think both of them are good football Minds we'll see what happens frankly Texas A&M is just a difficult job for a lot of reasons but those are your two toughest games follow followed by Oklahoma fortunately Missouri gets Oklahoma at home that's definitely an advantage and again according to the lines your fourth toughest game right now Auburn or Missouri is as much as a 10-point favorite I've seen at various spots including fanuel sports book so my opinion if that's your fourth toughest game it's been a really fortunate draw in the off season for Missouri if if just in terms of stacking up wins because I really think Al or excuse me I don't think Auburn is going to be very good this season maybe It ultimately works out for Hugh freeze but I just think this isn't going to be the year if you think there's going to be a big jump forward for Auburn this year I'm just not seeing it based on what I heard from Spring football and the people I talk to so again you look at Missouri schedule very navigable good in terms of stacking up total total wins if you want to bet the over I would definitely in terms of the total wins I would definitely lean toward the over in terms of Missouri and nine and a half wins Total for the season at the same time if this schedule ends up being at the season much weaker than we maybe even expected at the beginning that could actually play against Missouri at a certain point if you have two losses well you want those two losses in the rest of your schedule to look strong because obviously a two- loss resume is no guarantee for a playoff spot and since we're talking about this upcoming football season I thought this might be a decent moment to review some of the new rule changes coming we've heard about the two-minute warning in both halves similar to the NFL also a lot a lot of these changes really are just making the college game a little bit more like the NFL tablets are coming in terms of hey you can look at film on your tablet instead of getting print out out or just talking to your coach upstairs that type of deal now maybe the most interesting part of this the there's going to be a designated player communication system like the NFL as well so not only will the coach be able to talk to the quarterback on one side of the ball but typically the middle linebacker will have that green sticker on the back of his hat as well so it could be anybody on the offensive or defensive side of the ball but certainly I've never heard any body but the quarterback have that designation typically it's the middle linebacker who does it as well so think about what Nick Bolton does for the Kansas City Chiefs on Sundays and that's what it's going to look like for somebody one of those off ball linebackers it would seem but basically you're going to have that communication until the ball is snapped or there's 15 seconds left on the play clock whichever comes first so a lot of times with 15 seconds left that's going to be a majority of the snaps I would think for Missouri you're still going to be having it be on Brady cook at that point it's not as though Missouri is running the hyper Josh hyle type of offense of the past here so a lot of that the last 15 seconds if there's going to need to be a play change something like that it seems like it would be a lot more ideal for it to be on Brady cook as opposed to then oh now do I need to look back to the side line for another audible so be interesting to see how all of that plays out in my humble opinion and one more rule change is going to be similar not no not really so much to the NFL but more to the NBA which is there's going to be coach interviews allowed head coach interviews after the first and third quarters and I'll just say has Greg papovich taught us nothing do we need these interviews whatsoever he tried so hard to just be as Curt and rude as possible to get the NBA to get rid of the things well they won't do it and now we're bringing them to college football as well not really sure the point of any of this stuff who's asking for it I think the sideline reporters and the coaches alike would like to skip it and I'll just say as a TV viewer I'm good with skipping it as well so solidarity with Coach pop but you know what coming on the show since I brought up coach pop and basketball here let's talk some missou basketball the SEC schedule is out we don't have the dates but we do know Missouri's opponents home and away I'll break it all down for you including a change to the teams Missouri is doubling up on playing twice in addition to Arkansas got lots to break down for you here coming up on the program but you know what before we get there I got to talk about link in jobs because when you're hiring for your small business you want to find quality professionals that are right for the role that's why you have to check out LinkedIn jobs LinkedIn jobs has the tools to help find the right Professionals for your team faster and for free and Linkedin isn't just a job board LinkedIn helps you find and hire professionals you can't find anywhere else even those who aren't actively searching for a new job but might be open to the perfect role in a given month More than 70% of LinkedIn users don't visit another leading job site so if you're not looking on LinkedIn you're looking in the wrong place on LinkedIn 86% of small businesses get a qualified candidate within 24 hours hire professionals like a professional on LinkedIn so post your job for free at linkedin.com loock on colge that's linkedin.com lockon col to post your job for free terms and conditions apply I'm sure some of you out of a force of habit have Fox Sports or ESPN on in in the background in your office all day well I have a better option for you make the switch to locked on sports today a free 247 sports streaming channel pro programmed for you every day to bring you the biggest stories without all the screaming matches locked on sports today brings you can't miss analysis opinions and news streaming 247 on YouTube or the free Amazon Fire TV channels app part of the locked on podcast Network your team every day and even though the size of the SEC of course is going to expand from 14 to 16 teams this year with the addition of Oklahoma and Texas the size of the football schedule Remains the Same still eight games and you're also talking about still an 18 game schedule in the SC for basketball as well in basically the same format although a bit of a change for Missouri in the past Missouri has played Arkansas ol Miss and Texas A&M twice a home and a home and away setup for those three squads well this time Arkansas remains so the Tigers will get to see John calip Perry once again at home this season and also at Bud Walton Arena in fville but instead of Old Miss and Texas A&M the Tigers getting the Oklahoma Sooners and Vanderbilt twice this year as well now I will say on the Vanderbilt side that's got to be a bit of an advant Vantage for Missouri things have not been going well for Vanderbilt and well if you're a Vanderbilt fan who happens to be listening to this you're probably saying hey screw you at least we didn't go 0 and 19 last year including the SEC tournament of course uh touche I have no comeback for that whatsoever but the God's honest is if you're breaking down this schedule for Missouri next season if you're looking at some obvious victories well the two vanderbild games are among them no question about that and you've got to hope that Missouri can win a road game at Georgia as well and I would say a home game against LSU but beyond that there really aren't any obvious victories on this schedule for Missouri in 20242 but there are some obvious losses I would say for sure I mean just based on recent history and of course history as well and especially if you're talking history Missouri's done rather poorly against Mississippi State so going on the road to Starkville you got to go L there at this point if you're just being an honest Observer how about Auburn they were pretty dog on good last year tough to win in Auburn for Missouri or anybody else same thing with Tennessee and Texas on the road so this is going to be a tough road slate for Missouri next year without question and a whole bunch of of really again other than other than I would say Alabama and Kentucky those are probably probable losses for Missouri at this point at home a probable win with LSU just a whole lot of toss up game so to me if you take those games that I just said that were likely wins likely losses that's a that's a four and six outcome for Missouri so that basically leaves you with eight games left that are going to decide Missouri's fade and they're going to need to go probably 5 and3 or 6-2 in the following games two against Arkansas two against Oklahoma there's half your games right there that need to be won at a high rate so Missouri probably needs to take three out of four against Arkansas and Oklahoma I'm saying to make the NCA tournament here of course then you throw in at Florida which is frankly it could be thrown into the probable lost C but for this one we'll stick with it Old Miss at home South Carolina home and finally Texas A&M at home all three of those certainly winnable on paper but hey losable as well when you've been stung by an 0 and9 campaign most recently like I've been it's hard to get real cocky as a Missouri basketball fan but certainly this should look like a very different Squad in 2025 at the very least Mark Mitchell coming in Tony Perkins Jacob Cruz Marquez war and probably a big guy to be named later perhaps another name that I've forgotten off the top of my head but regardless hopefully Missouri can be a lot better because they're going to need to be against some teams that on paper should be better than them projections wise teams like Arkansas despite with new coach John caliper and in a different roster for sure Oklahoma Old Miss year with Chris beard at the helm South Carolina showed a lot of improvement last year and goodness knows Buzz Williams is always a tough out down at Texas A&M for Missouri so nothing really obvious to report here just it is to say Missouri is going to have to play to say the least way better basketball this season if it hopes to sniff the bubble or the NCA tournament and if you're like me and you dive rather deeply into the bowels of the Missouri Message Board Community you may have found that there were some quote Rumblings on Twitter this week which is one of my least favorite phrases and just overall constructs the idea that Twitter is a news source well no Twitter is a platform x.com whatever you want to call it or whether it's that or it's Facebook or Instagram Tik tock whatever it is you can't Source Twitter that doesn't make any sense because there are people on Twitter who say things but they don't say the same things in fact the obvious the obvious observation here is that oh no people argue all day on Twitter so how can you just say well according to Twitter now you can say if Gabe de Aran for instance or or myself if I say something on Twitter feel free to say hey John Miller said please don't say Twitter said that's the that's one of the dumbest things I've ever heard but it still led to a multiple some some Rumblings on Twitter said that hey the SEC is looking to expand and Kansas could be a part of it well if you did some digging there you'd find out that this Twitter was some random person with no profile picture or real name that had you know maybe 150 200 followers or something like that and again if that's how many followers you have nothing against you but if if you're not going to have a real name or face why should I believe that why did anybody spend any time again in the bowels of the message boards delving into this frankly insane idea I don't really see a world in which Kansas is added to the SEC I don't know I could be wrong but it's certainly not based on anything credible at this point let's just be very clear about that but you know what coming up on the program I want to do something a little bit different I want to talk about Caitlyn Clark and super stardom why is she moving the needle so much obviously she's a great basketball player no question about that but she's certainly not the first great female basketball player we've ever seen and yet she seems to be resonating in a way that's very different than any other female basketball player for her I'm very much interested in this topic and I want to talk a lot about it and just start them in General on the other side of this break so Caitlyn Clark does make her WNBA regular season debut tonight and I've just been fascinated by her whole rise to stardom and I've definitely gotten caught up in it and I think part of it at a certain point when you get to a certain level of Fame and popularity and notoriety there is that thing that the kids call fomo these days the fear of missing out I do think that that particular phenomenon definitely started happening with Caitlyn Clark either but that certainly doesn't explain everything you don't just get to that point overnight well I think part of the reason certainly I think it starts with Caitlyn Clark as a basketball player she's just in the same way that Stephen Curry was different and that all of a sudden hey who's this guy who's taking three pointers 10 feet behind the line and actually making them that was just a crazy thing to see and really Caitlyn Clark in a similar way obviously a few years later is this first woman to be doing it so I think that obviously she has very much the same a lot of the same appeal that Stephen Curry does on the court I also think though that she has something that Stephen Curry lost a couple years later in his career when Kevin Durant came aboard the team because he was no longer seen as an underdog for instance when LeBron James was with the KE Cleveland Cavaliers the first time around sure you could say oh Stephen Curry and them they could have been seen as The Underdogs but certainly not when Kevin Durant came bored that kind of then the Warriors became sort of the Empire if you will to steal a Star Wars reference so the fact that Caitlyn Clark was so good but again there's this South Carolina team which was so great was this big dragon that you had to slay essentially the the sort of you know that whole deal I think that was a big thing so to me it was not just that again I'll I'll say the the the L in the room here it's not just because Caitlyn Clark is a white girl that doesn't really make any sense either because there have been not there have been other great women's basketball players well there's been quite a few great white women's basketball players too you know year a few years ago Elena delodon when she came up one of the great basketball players of her time without question I'm just kind of spitballing here I'm pretty sure she was a WNBA MVP all of that good stuff and by the way in this humble broadcaster's opinion one of the great looking people of all time too so that sort of that definitely factors into your your star qualities and your it factor and all that stuff too so but yet and yet Elena delodon never moved the needle this is in a way that Caitlyn Clark did that's just an objective fact so it can't just be her race it can't just be that that doesn't make any sense but certainly Larry Bird I I'm don't even say it's not part of it so like Larry Bird resonated well I'm not saying his race had nothing to do with that because especially at that time when basketball was becoming more and more of a black dominated Sport and obviously remain so in many ways well Larry Bird was definitely different at the time and not just because he's white though by the way but because he's this 6'1 guy who's in incredible shooter an incredible passer and also he had Magic Johnson Too again having a rivalry a foil is incredibly important especially a guy like Magic Johnson with who's also different in his own way a 6 foot n point guard again the passing ability that's something that bird and magic and Caitlyn Clark all have in common is that passing ability which I think is something that people are really drawn to as well so to me magic magic Michael Jordan they obviously had the Charisma Jordan very different when he came out with his incredible athleticism and leaping ability both of those guys very handsome as well that certainly factors in and again these guys were Rivals they were fighting for the same trophy great players who were great all at the same time so why why again why does why does Tiger Woods resonate why did Kareem Abdul Jabar not resonate there is sort of a big guys versus guards things only Shaquille O'Neal has really ever been a national star so there's just a lot of factors here again one more I'll bring up here I swear I'm going to bring this home pretty soon another thing I've been thinking about is why International athletes traditionally have not really crossed over in America beyond their local markets if you think about sure Salvador Perez for the Royals or Yadier Molina for the Cardinals to take a couple recent examples here both of those guys are absolute stars in Kansas City and St Louis respectively and in the state and where people love the Cardinals and the Royals they're huge stars and beloved but does anybody care outside of Missouri not really nobody no kid in California is growing up wanting to wear Yadier Molina's shoes I'm sorry it it's just true not in the same way that they want to wear Kobe Bryant choose for example what international athletes have truly resonated Wayne Gretzky I suppose but does he even count a Canadian guy who's speaks English and is a good-look blonde guy who looks like every frat boy who went to the University of Minnesota I don't know it's interesting though because the Great American stars like the affer mentioned Kobe Bryant often do translate overseas big time when the Olympics went to China in 2008 we could see that up close in person what an enormous enormous star Kobe Bryant was in that country end of the day there I I I think the point is there is no answer for for any of these people and why exactly they have stardom it is a combination for sure it's it's not a m magical formula you know I mean even even the hot people again like Olivia Dunn for example the gymnast for LSU a lot of people would say oh well she's popular because she's attractive well again obviously that's part of it but there are plenty of attractive college athletes gymnasts why again why her well frankly part of it is because she posts all the time works this the SEO the search engine optimization the algorithm all that good stuff regardless in her case she's cultivated an online presence and Persona that is second to very few in this space again the answer is there isn't an answer there is no formula but there are certainly variables I think one of them is greatness especially different greatness being different athletically or indeed visually somebody like Jeremy Lynn for instance when he came on the scene in the NBA there's no doubt the fact that he was an Asian guy is definitely a different look for the NBA that definitely factored in to his rise to stardom there and by the way being in New York was definitely a factor too again I also think rivalries a foe a mountain to climb some kind of Journey I think is really important as well and of course just overall the it Factor Charisma looks sense of humor I mean any of of that stuff can factor in but for whatever reason I think with Caitlyn Clark to me it just comes down to she's a tremendous basketball player who basically has the Steph Curry appeal while having the Magic Johnson Larry Bird appeal of being a great passer wrapped up in she's also just seems like a very likable person she has the Girl Next Door appeal that is appealing on a lot of different levels to a number of different people and bottom line is she's the kind of young lady it seems like at this point too as parents you're going well hey I wouldn't mind if my daughter looked up to her that kind of thing so it's just a whole lot of things melding at once and frankly as a fan of basketball I hope she does incredibly well and continues to draw eyes to what is my favorite sport whether it's the basket the men side the women's side I think it's all good I would certainly love if if my two young daughters would eventually fall in love with basketball like I have and if Caitlyn Clark had a small part in that well I would certainly thank her for that and and thank you all for listening to locked on missou today and thank you for indulging that final segment that really didn't have a whole lot to do with Missouri basketball or football but it is the off season thanks once again for indulging me and thanks as always for listening to locked on missou