By Ben Herrold

With South Carolina’s grave sufficiently danced upon and a bye week for Missouri, let’s take a look at the SEC road trip options for Mizzou fans this year. Here’s my ridiculously subjective ranking of the trips this fall.

Nov. 9 at Georgia
Athens is a town of perplexities. There is literally something called “the tree that owns itself,” which is not Al Gore fan fiction but an actual tree that, well, owns itself. You’ll see otherwise genteel people in Vineyard Vines and boat shoes barking like dogs. You’ll hear the tune of the “Battle Hymn of the Republic,” played in victory by the Union army as they swept through Georgia, belted out as the beloved fight song of the University of Georgia. 

All that being said, Athens is a town worth visiting for a college football weekend. Sanford Stadium, affectionately known as “Between the Hedges,” is a huge and historic college football venue.

The town itself is a classic Southern college town, with the scenic campus running right up against a fun downtown area, similar to Columbia. There are lots of great restaurants and bars in downtown Athens. It’s a lively scene; the most recent time I was offered cocaine was outside of an Athens Waffle House about 2 a.m. 

Beyond what you see on the surface, Athens just feels like a college football town. It’s energy you can feel on a fall Friday before a big game. It’s fried chicken and tailgates. It’s Georgia’s longtime announcer exclaiming after a touchdown to beat Tennessee, “We just stepped on their face with a hobnail boot and broke their nose!”

And, as Tiger fans know, it was the site of Missouri’s epic road win in 2013, on the way to the SEC East title. This year’s Mizzou-Georgia game could again be a huge game, and it could again help determine the East champion. For Tiger fans looking for an SEC road trip this season, the Georgia game is the top pick.

Oct. 19 at Vanderbilt
Maybe the Georgia trip isn’t for you. If so, could I interest you in a Mizzou road trip that’s much closer and has much cheaper game tickets? Oh, and did I mention it’s in a lively city with a vibrant music scene and happens to be one of the top bachelorette party destinations in America? Then Vandy is the trip for you. 

Also, while Missouri will be an underdog at Georgia, the Tigers are likely to be a big favorite at Vanderbilt. And it’s fun to cheer huge Mizzou wins, and maybe late in the game, Commodore coach Derek Mason, taking a break from plotting how he’ll beat Tennessee yet again, could yell across the field at Barry Odom, “You sank my battleship!”

The actual gameday atmosphere here won’t be on par with some of the best the SEC has to offer, but there will be great pre- and post-game revelry potential, so this trip is still a good one.

Oct. 26 at Kentucky
Rupp Arena is a massive venue and a worthy destination for any college basketball fan, and the passion of the frenzied “Big Blue Nation” makes any game there… (Checks notes, shuffles papers) …Kroger Field is a football stadium named for a grocery store. It features a 100-yard field, two end zones and seats. There are SEC football games played there.

In all seriousness, Kentucky is not known for its football gamedays, but this is still a trip that can be fun. The rolling Bluegrass region is scenic in the fall, there are abundant bourbon distilleries to tour, and the pulled pork mac ’n cheese at the Village Idiot in downtown Lexington is spectacular. Plus, there is a shuttle that runs from points in town out to the Keeneland race track, if you’d like to get your wagering fix since the state of Missouri is moving glacially slow toward legalizing sports gambling. 

It’s not a typical SEC college football experience, but Kentucky has a unique quality, and it’s just so darn beautiful when their band plays “My Old Kentucky Home.” And my goodness Mizzou needs a win against Kentucky, so cheer loud if you go.

Nov. 29 at Arkansas
Oh, Arkansas, what are you doing? The Razorbacks announced this year, and 2021 and 2023, the “Battle Line Rivalry” game will be played at War Memorial Stadium in Little Rock instead of Donald W. Reynolds Razorback Stadium in Fayetteville. Just when it seemed like Arkansas was done with the outdated model of playing some games in Little Rock, with the Hogs only playing a single FCS game there in 2016 and 2017, the Razorbacks decided to move Mizzou games to the smaller stadium in the state’s big city. Lucky us.

Here is where I say some nice things about Arkansas. Razorback Stadium is cool, with views of the Ozarks. It’s on campus. If you’re going to spend time in Arkansas, northwest Arkansas is where it’s at, unless you’re a fugitive from the law in northeast Arkansas across the river from Memphis. Arkansas has poured money into improvements for their stadium on campus. So why on earth do they insist on playing a game in Little Rock, long after Alabama and Auburn quit playing in Birmingham, and Ole Miss and Mississippi State quit playing in Jackson, and so on? It’s like spending money on a great deck and backyard setup, then hosting a party in your garage.

I know the school has a lot of alumni and wealthy boosters in Little Rock, but it’s not like the highway from Little Rock to Fayetteville is the Oregon Trail.
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But should you find yourself in Little Rock on Black Friday, you’ll at least get to watch the Tigers probably roll against the Hogs, so maybe it is worth the drive down after all.

The University of kansas is located in a quiet and undesirable little corner of the world and recruiting top talent can be difficult. Despite this, kansas officials long ago discovered two important truths that have sustained their top sports programs for generations.

1. Cheating and under-the-table bribes can bring in big-time athletes.
2. The NCAA policing and enforcement powers are practically impotent.
   
   

Given these two truths, kansas has taken a long-term calculated risk. Cheat and cheat and cheat until you can’t cheat no more. If you get your hand slapped. Just cheat your way through it until you’re back on top.

Many eyes are focused on the most recent and possibly the most severe sanctions ever placed on the kansas athletic program, involving bribes, collusion, and lack of institutional control, and centered around controversial basketball coach Bill Self. What younger sports fans may not know is that kansas has been willfully skirting rules and laws since at least the mid-1950s, and probably longer. Prior to the 1950s, the NCAA had virtually no policing powers and as college sports became more popular, recruiting top talent involved all manner of improprieties that went virtually unchecked.

Eventually, Walter Byers, the first executive director of the NCAA was forced to take action and create an enforcement arm to the organization when the University of kansas began breaking rules in such extraordinary ways that it became impossible to ignore.

The straw that broke the camel’s back was the shady recruitment of the most extraordinary basketball talent in a generation, Wilt Chamberlain. Even the most casual glance at Chamberlain’s college decision drew skepticism. Here was a poor black student from the heart of bustling Philadelphia, who chose to play basketball in the sparsely populated, rural, white, open prairie of kansas. It was more than a head-scratcher. It was the result of calculated and brazen cheating.

Chamberlain told the LA Times about his recruitment in 1985. “The payment system was much more sophisticated than just giving an athlete cash. The boosters were delegated by a little group. They would say, ‘OK, we will allow you, A, B and C, to go out and help to recruit Wilt Chamberlain, and you become like his godfather.’ I had two or three godfathers. That way, I wasn’t sure where it was coming from. Everyone was assigned at least one godfather when I was at kansas.”

Phog Allen desperately wanted Chamberlain at kansas, but not only to win games. Allen had a bizarre ongoing personal war going with the NCAA. He felt that as the average height of players grew, the basketball rim was becoming too low. He hated dunking, and felt it shouldn’t be part of the game. He appealed to the NCAA to raise the rims to 12 feet. He lost that battle, and as a form of revenge, he wanted to get the tallest player in the country and have him stuff the ball down that 10-foot rim as often as time would allow.

The NCAA finally decided to step in after Wilt was seen driving around lawrence, kansas in his brand new 1956 Oldsmobile convertible. Even kansas fans raised eyebrows at the open display of newfound wealth.

Unfortunately Byers did not have much experience at investigating or enforcing rules, and there would be no punishment for Chamberlain's convertible as there was no way of proving who paid for it.

The investigation, however did turn up evidence that of a kU booster offering 6’8” center Kent Bryan money to entice him to kansas and Phog Allen himself gave the young player an illegal ride to lawrence to take an entrance exam. kansas denied any wrongdoing, which they quickly learned was the best strategy when battling a poorly equipped enforcement body, and in 1957 the NCAA cited kansas with its first major infraction.

The result of the judgement; a reprimand and one year probation. Rather than teach kansas a lesson, the light sentence only encouraged the university to skirt further rules. They had become a basketball powerhouse with the most exciting player in the country. The only cost had been a flimsy slap on the wrist. Cheating would now become part of the university’s athletic culture.

In 1960, Byers was dead-set on continuing his hunt for the source of Wilt’s ride and was able to track down evidence that three kansas boosters paid $1,564 for the car. Once Wilt had made his way to the NBA, he mocked the NCAA by saying that the car “was worth way more than that!” A separate investigation of the football program found illegal recruitment activities including free meals and entertainment and soon kansas was hit with its second “major infractions” violation in three years.

 ​This time the sentence would be a little harsher. Basketball would face a two-year postseason ban, and football would vacate wins accrued with the illegally recruited players and would face their own one-year postseason ban. This still left kansas enough time to illegally spoil Mizzou’s perfect 1960 football season and ruin what by all rights was a national championship season for the Tigers, but that’s a story for another day.

The severity of the 1960 punishments would tame kansas cheating for a while, or at least would make the university go to greater efforts to hide their wrongdoing. But by the early 1970s, John Wooden’s UCLA teams were becoming the darlings of college basketball. kansas was desperate to remain prominent in the sport where they had found the most success.

​The university fraudulently certified high school recruit Logan Gray as academically eligible and the NCAA caught wind of it. After a lengthy investigation, the NCAA went on to discover that kansas had also illegally certified two football players and given discount ticket passes to football and basketball players. They also found that track star Sam Goldberg had been given free shoes and illegal rides for his wife.

kansas was slapped with postseason bans in all three sports and denied the opportunity to play on television. More importantly, it revealed an athletic department-wide culture of cutting corners and skirting rules.

Another 11 years would pass before the NCAA would hand kansas with another major violations citation. Football had never really recovered from the 1972 punishments and in an attempt to revitalize the program, kansas went back to what they knew… cheating.

Again, the NCAA uncovered the improprieties which included paying recruits, stating that in one instance kansas assistant coaches asked a high school student who was planning to play elsewhere “if a certain amount of money would change your mind?”

The laundry list of violations against the football team included improper financial aid and transportation; extra benefits; improper recruiting contacts, employment, entertainment, inducements, lodging and transportation; excessive number of official visits; eligibility; unethical conduct; coaching staff limitations; certification of compliance.

The team would face another postseason ban, another year without televised games, and two years of probation. kansas football wouldn’t see another winning season until a 6-5 record in 1991.

Just five years later, the basketball program would be back under the microscope. Head coach Larry Brown purchased a $364 airline ticket for Memphis player and possible kU transfer Vincent Askew. Askew needed to return home to see his dying grandmother. Brown stated “I’d give it to anybody if they told me his grandmother was passing away. It was something I wasn’t trying to hide.”

Regardless, it was a major NCAA violation. Combined with the system-wide violations the football program had been recently punished for, the NCAA considered slapping kansas basketball with the death penalty, just as they had recently done to SMU in football. One NCAA Infractions Committee member said that Kansas was “on the bubble”.

Though it might be easy to muster sympathy for the Brown’s actions, the NCAA took a holistic view of kU’s history of playing fast and loose with the rules, as well as the dismissive nature the program showed to dealing with infractions.

“The committee also was troubled by statements by the university in its official response during the hearing before the committee that clear and admitted violations of NCAA regulations somehow should not be considered violations,” the NCAA wrote in its official response. “Such statements diminished the committee’s sense of confidence that the university was prepared to take institutional action.”

Brown left the program and new coach Roy Williams was left to deal with the serious punishments dealt to kansas as a “repeat violator”. The Jayhawks would face a one year postseason ban, the only time a reigning national champion would face such a ban. They also were placed on a three-year probation and reduced scholarships.

In 2006, kansas once again faced a situation that likely emboldened their cheating ways and led to the situation they find themselves in today. While an NCAA investigation found multiple violations in men’s basketball and football involving impermissible inducements and benefits and academic fraud, neither basketball coach Bill Self or football coach Mark Mangino would have to deal with postseason or television bans.

Instead kansas would again face three-year probation, reduced recruiting visits and scholarships. Most revealing in 2006 investigation was a rare bit of candor from a kansas athletics executive, regarding their attitude about playing by the rules. Athletic director Al Bohl was quoted in the committee’s report as saying “Compliance doesn’t sell tickets.”

This brazen attitude has often paid off for kansas. In fact, the 2007 kansas football team went 12-1 and landed its only Orange Bowl win. Many forget that if not for a toothless punishment from the NCAA, kansas would have been ineligible to even play in the postseason that year.

That leads us to today, where again kansas is reliving its Wild West, rules-be-damned, anything-to-win approach to college athletics. Accused of improper deals with shoe companies, payouts to recruits, collusion between boosters and the head coach, even to this day, it took an FBI investigation to spur the NCAA to put any real pressure on kansas.

How many championships were bought and paid for over the years? How many wins were ill-gotten? Imagine a world where the NCAA was an organization with a backbone or with an investigative and punitive system that made any sense whatsoever?
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The real question is, will the NCAA continue to coddle a program that has a 70-year history of breaking not only rules, but the law when it comes to keeping its legendary basketball program at the top of the heap.

By Ben Herrold

It may be a rivalry week for Tiger fans. I definitely didn’t expect Missouri and South Carolina to forge a rivalry when the Tigers headed to the SEC, but here we are. 

Of course, Clemson will probably always be South Carolina’s main rival, and Tiger fans still hate Kansas the most. And South Carolina is generally likable, when they’re not starting Civil Wars. Their campus was great when I went to a Mizzou game there. They employed Steve Spurrier, a witty, subtle insult-slinging college football treasure. A friend of a friend was on the South Carolina women’s equestrian team, and they called themselves the Cock Riders. They seem like a fun bunch.

But there is growing evidence that the Tigers and Gamecocks have a nice second-tier rivalry going here. This week, a South Carolina newspaper columnist wrote a piece saying the game was a must-win for the Gamecocks, saying the spread favoring the Tigers by more than a touchdown was an insult, and throwing in some digs at Missouri as well to helpfully add some spice to the game (a grab bag of calling Drew Lock overrated, saying Mizzou’s gameday atmosphere was bad, and pining for swapping out MU for UCF in the SEC). The headline even included the word “misery.” It was like hitting “insult Mizzou” bingo!

This week Missouri receiver Richaud Floyd called it a “great rivalry,” harkening back to the days of yore when Jadeveon Clowney and Marcus Murphy played for the teams. 

And to top it off, we’ve got a rivalry trophy! It’s origins are charming in their dorkiness, standing in stark contrast to the corporate-named rivalry trophy with Arkansas. Related to that, you’d think someone in a board room would’ve been like, “you know what would be a good quality in a rivalry trophy? Being able to lift it.”

But the Missouri-South Carolina thing has been, like most college football things that don’t suck, more organic. The trophy came as a result of a rich college football tradition; eccentric people with money and or political clout making things happen. When Mizzou joined the SEC, the mayor of Columbia, South Carolina, decided that since the conference newcomer was also from a town named Columbia, they should have a rivalry trophy, like when George Constanza told Jerry Seinfeld he had an “in” with Jerry Lewis because they both had the first name Jerry. 

The mayor of Columbia, Missouri, gave his support, and the Mayor’s Cup was born. I’ve spent too much time contemplating the grammar on that name, but since one mayor really did the work to make it happen, I think I’m okay with it. 

The Columbia mayor in South Carolina just went out and bought the trophy, which is why it resembles something you’d hastily buy as a participation trophy for a youth soccer team. But its simpleness works. This is a rivalry trophy that’s not trying too hard. It’s shiny, it has a nice wooden base, it can be brandished after a win. It works.

As for the opportunities to brandish it, South Carolina won in pretty straightforward fashion in 2012, Missouri’s first time on the CBS SEC game of the week. 

The 2013 game was possibly the biggest at Faurot in Mizzou’s SEC era, with South Carolina ranked and Missouri unbeaten and ranked No. 5. Missouri led 17-0, but then Gamecock quarterback Connor Shaw, who had been out with injury, entered the game and Spurrier got on a heater calling plays, like Alan in “The Hangover” staring into the distance and seeing the numbers to succeed at blackjack. The Gamecocks roared back and won in double overtime when Missouri missed a short field goal off the blankety-blanking upright.

Missouri got revenge in 2014, seeming down and out and trailing 20-7 in the fourth quarter. But Missouri clawed back, including a final drive that saw the Tigers convert two do-or-die fourth downs, the second of which was a Russell Hansbrough touchdown run that won the game. 

The 2015 meeting was Drew Lock’s first start, Missouri cruised to a 24-10 win. The future seemed bright, although Missouri’s three touchdowns in the game were half of their season total for touchdowns in SEC play that year, which still boggles my mind. 

The 2016 and 2017 games were Gamecock wins, with South Carolina’s hyped quarterback Jake Bentley beating Mizzou’s hyped quarterback Drew Lock. 

Last year was kind of a ridiculous game; bizarre weather, a long delay, and then South Carolina winning at the end after Missouri seemed to be in position to win. 
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Now, we get a big game for both teams. In addition to playing for that silver cup, this game could have big implications for how the teams’ seasons play out.

By Jackson Meyer

The Mayor's Cup. Ever since Missouri entered the SEC in 2012, South Carolina has always played Missouri tough. It doesn't seem to matter what each team looks like, when they meet, you can throw the resumes out of the window, because it’s going to be a dogfight every game until the final whistle.

Unfortunately, Missouri has been on the short end of the stick since 2015, which if you recall, Missouri knocked off the Gamecocks 24-10 at home, in Drew Lock’s first career start as a Tiger. But Missouri has not seen much success versus the Gamecocks at home in recent years. In 2013, Missouri lost an absolute heartbreaker after kicker Andrew Baggett, hit the upright to tie the game in double-overtime. Missouri went on to go 12-2 that year. In 2017, the Tigers would lose yet again, 31-13, in a beatdown.

Now Missouri has the chance to avenge themselves and to finally beat the team that has had their number in Barry Odom's three seasons at the helm. How can they do that? Here are the three keys to the game that if executed, the Tigers can finally take the cup back to the good Columbia.

1. The first thing that Missouri needs to do is establish the run game. We saw in Week One in Laramie how much of an effect it can be for the offense, if the run game is going nowhere. The offense came to a halt as a unit once the ability to run the ball stopped. We were also able to see how good the offense can be if the run game does indeed dominate. It opens things up for Kelly Bryant in terms of play-action and it takes off a lot of pressure off of him as well. If Missouri can establish themselves at the line, that’s a key piece of the puzzle for the Tigers to get Coach Odom's first win over the Gamecocks.

2. The next big thing Missouri will have to do to win this game, is to contain promising freshman quarterback Ryan Hilinski. Hiliniski started the season as the backup to Jake Bentley, until the first week of the season, after Bentley suffered a foot injury versus North Carolina. Gamecocks head coach Will Muschamp stated that Bentley will be out for an “extended period of time”. Hilinkski has gone on to show great potential and has given good reason to be kept as the starter, even if Bentley does make a return. Last week against the Alabama, Hilinski went 36/57 and 324 yards and two touchdowns as well as one interception to go with it. Those numbers are impressive as it is, but once you realize that he did that against the second ranked team in the nation, it makes it all the more impressive. Missouri will have to figure out a way to contain Hilinski and force the Gamecocks to have a one-dimensional offense.

3. The last point of emphasis for the Tigers will be winning the turnover battle. Similar to the ground game, turnovers have proven to be the difference already. Against Wyoming, the Tigers forced no turnovers and had three themselves and it proved to be the deciding factor in the game. Unlike against Wyoming, in Week Two versus West Virginia, Missouri did the exact opposite and won the turnover battle by three and cruised to a victory 38-7. If the Tigers can find a way to win the turnover battle, I don't see a reason why they will not win this game.

Missouri has a great chance to end a three-game losing skid against a tough team. They have the talent and it will all come down to if Odom can assemble a good game plan to get the team ready for their toughest test of the season yet. If Missouri is able to win, it’ll give the team a big boost of confidence going into a stretch of winnable games before eventually heading into Athens.

Missouri will play at 3:00 p.m. CST on SEC Network Alternate. Mizzou is a 9.5 point favorite.

By Benjamin Herrold

This Saturday, Missouri hosts Southeast Missouri State in the Tigers’ 500th game at Memorial Stadium.

Maybe it’s just another number, just another gameday in Columbia. Or maybe it’s a chance to celebrate a way of life. It’s a chance to add a little extra juice to tailgates, to raise a toast to the old bowl south of campus, to think about all the good, fun and emotionally scarring times you’ve had there.

The stadium was a child of the Roaring 20s, when the nation was both looking to honor soldiers from the Great War, eventually known as World War I, and also build bigger venues to support the nation’s rapidly growing college football obsession. The stadium’s first game was Oct. 2, 1926. Like my brother's and my first Madden video game matchup, when we didn’t know the controls, this first Memorial Stadium game ended in a 0-0 tie, played on incredibly muddy surface that was more bark and sawdust than actual grass.

Missouri fans have been enjoying fall Saturdays there ever since.

Few things in everyday life link us to 1926 like Memorial Stadium. It was another time. Annie Oakley and Wyatt Earp were still alive, as were veterans of the Civil War, including Quantrill’s Raiders. Alcohol sales were illegal, as Prohibition dragged on.

When dawn broke on that long-ago October Saturday, the St. Louis Cardinals had never played in a World Series game. But they played their first on that same day, Oct. 2, a World Series won by the Cardinals that ended with, as God is my witness, Babe Ruth attempting to steal second base.

But Saturdays at Memorial Stadium link us to those seemingly ancient times. Through generations, fans have gathered there, celebrated there, had their hearts broken there.

It was here that Tiger fans saw the Don Faurot years, and the Dan Devine years. This was the site of the Fifth Down game, the kicked ball loss to Nebraska in 1997, the redemption comeback win against Nebraska in 2003, the 2010 win over Oklahoma that opened with Gahn McGaffie’s kickoff return for a touchdown that maybe set the stadium’s sound record.

Memorial Stadium is the gasps and then silence in 2013 when Missouri’s field goal hit the upright in double overtime against South Carolina, losing the game. Memorial Stadium is nearly being moved to tears when Henry Josey, playing on the field where he wrecked his knee two years before, burst through the line for the winning touchdown in 2013 to lift the Tigers to the SEC Championship Game. Memorial Stadium is a gorgeous sunset setting the sky ablaze as the 2014 Tigers, ever resilient, got up off the mat and came back against a strong Arkansas defense, each drive like a long, white-knuckle covered wagon ride over a mountain pass, clawing their way back to another SEC title game.
It’s all that and more, like the trees that peek over the south stands and frame the stadium with autumn color each season, and the Rock M, which has been there since the second season.

Perhaps you remember your first game at Memorial Stadium. For your sake, I hope it was better than mine, a 38-0 beatdown at the hands of K-State and Bill Snyder. But if our first days at Memorial Stadium are a mixed bag, our best days there are always worth remembering, moments that fill the photo albums of our memory.
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Mizzou football is something to share with friends and family for generations, and for Memorial Stadium to have racked up 500 games worth, well, that’s a lot of good times to celebrate. 

By Benjamin Herrold

I have to wonder if that was a dream.

Let’s take stock. Did I really ride all those miles with friends across the beautiful nothingness of I-80 to watch a football game? Did I actually discover a fantastic college town in Wyoming, and climb up on a bar to get a picture with a mounted moose, and start an “M-I-Z” cheer from up there? And did Mizzou somehow lose to the Cowboys as a huge favorite, their biggest upset loss of this century?
To answer those questions… yes, hell yes, and (sighs heavily) yes.

As far as Mizzou football road trips go, this one was fairly unique. Instead of the old days of traveling across the plains to a Big 12 campus or the current opportunity to travel around the South supporting the Tigers, this was a trip to Laramie, Wyoming, with a football stadium that proudly lets you know it is located at 7,220 feet above sea level, the highest in Division I college football.

Why Wyoming? This was a game presumably scheduled when former Tiger assistant Dave Christensen was the head coach at Wyoming, but he’s no longer there. Apparently, unleashing an f-bomb laced tirade at the Air Force coach, who is also an Air Force veteran, punctuated by derisively calling him a “fly boy,” all spectacularly on Military Appreciation Night, is frowned upon. And in college football, losing seasons are even more frowned upon.

But the Cowboys have Craig Bohl now, a good coach, and Missouri fans still had their chance to experience a Mountain West gameday and weekend.

Tiger fans were all over downtown Laramie Friday night, and there were a lot of black-and-gold good times going on. Bars recommended by Laramie locals included the Buckhorn, which still has bullet holes in the mirror behind the bar and might make you think the Wild West days just ended, and the Speedgoat, which seems to think adding a lime wedge to cup of tequila makes it a margarita. Western people are tough.

Gameday brought more revelry. Pretty much every Wyoming fan I talked with said they expected Missouri to win, even going so far as to predict the exact score and request I buy them a drink if they got it right.

Then came the actual game at War Memorial Stadium, a gem of a college football venue. You know what happened. Wyoming ran out behind a very fired up horse. Missouri dominated early. Then a preposterous 34-3 Wyoming run. A parade of devastating turnovers. Sean Chambers and friends doing largely whatever they wanted. Missouri at last attempting a comeback, like someone finally setting their beer down and getting out of their chair after a spouse’s repeated calls for them to attend to a screaming child and/or small fire.

All of this played out framed by the eye-catching beauty of Wyoming, where nature is always part of the proceedings, from intermittent rain and rainbows to colorful sunsets and golden hour light on the mountains that frame the old stadium on either horizon. At the end, it was a growing wind, prompting me to literally hold onto my hat on Missouri’s final drive. (The hat was a cowboy hat, because I grew up on a farm and, you know, when in Wyoming.)

Of course, Missouri lost, and the epic 1978 3-0 win against Notre Dame and Joe Montana remains Missouri’s last win in a season-opening true road game.
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Needless to say, the crushing loss took away a lot of this season’s excitement. And it made the long drive home feel even longer. But there was already another Saturday on the horizon, with the West Virginia Mountaineers coming to town. The loss at Wyoming will sting for a while, but in my experience, a tailgate and another college football game can improve my mood quite a bit