Missouri Tigers Rightfully Make Sports Illustrated’s Too Early Top 25
By Derek Franks
Way too early? There’s no such thing as too early for college football fans. We’re already hyped up for 2015. And so is Sports Illustrated. Well, if you hold any credibility to the predictors and analyzers, Mizzou will be right back in the conversation next season.
The Missouri Tigers come in ranked at No. 22 in the magazine’s ranking, behind the usual suspects and ahead of almost everyone in the SEC East.
Expect Kentrell Brothers to be the Missouri Tigers’ breakout player in 2015. Mandatory Credit: Dale Zanine-USA TODAY Sports
Once again, the Southeastern Conference was represented well. Georgia (No. 15) was the only SEC East team to finish ahead of the Missouri Tigers. Ole Miss (No. 10), Texas A&M (No. 24), LSU (No. 17) and Alabama (No. 5) all were included in SI’s Way Too Early ranking.
Along with Auburn (No. 3), Ohio State (1), TCU (2) and Baylor (4) rounded out the Top 4.
Citing a “mix of mind control and good old fashioned ‘can do attitude'” as reasoning behind the ranking, SI contends that the Missouri Tigers have just enough returning fire power, with younger players from the past season improving and the already right mindset that the team can win.
With quarterback Maty Mauk returning– and with a full season and some change under his belt– the Missouri Tigers look poised to contend for their third straight SEC East title.
That shouldn’t come as a surprise anymore. Two years in a row now, the experts and the pundits have underestimated and doubted this Mizzou football program. Perhaps 2014’s success was enough to give the team the respect it deserves.
Mizzou saw two really tough losses at home in 2014. But aside from them, it pretty much ran the table with the rest of its opponents and played mighty Alabama close for over three quarters. An 11 win-team for one season might be some sort of crazy pseudo-anomoly. But when a program does it twice, it’s hard to argue that it’s just a fluke.
MU has been able to accomplish such a feat not just by adding super star players to its roster each season. The program is armed with the true commitment to quality development of its players, finding buried treasure in the recruitment pool, instilling confidence its leaders and the uncanny ability to overcome adversity.
Missouri Tigers head coach Gary Pinkel has a lot of work ahead of him in 2015. But if last year was any indication, Mizzou will be contenders. Mandatory Credit: David Manning-USA TODAY Sports
Trailing in big games, injuries, penalties committed by a plethora of younger players, and off-the-field issues all plagued Mizzou just as much if not more than any other program in the country. Yet the team found ways to win. The reason? When it comes down to it, they are just a down right good football team.
Good enough for its second consecutive SEC East division title, a New Years’ Day bowl win and a Top 15 ranking in 2014.
The Missouri Tigers should be rewarded for their efforts in ways like this. Making a prestigious publication’s “Way Too Early Top 25” should only be the start. One should easily expect to see this Mizzou team ranked by SI again in the preseason of 2015. And it’s hard to fathom why the Associated Press and Coaches’ Poll would leave them out either.
Credit must be given where it is deserved.
A program that has turned 3-star recruits like Marcus Murphy, Bud Sasser, Shane Ray, Markus Golden and Braylon Webb into huge impact players on an SEC Championship contending team must be given a hat tip and the nod of confidence that it can do it again.
This time, other 3-star recruits like Russell Hansbrough– who’s already torn it up as the Tiger running back– receivers J’Mon Moore, Westly Leftwhich and defensive players Aarion Penton and John Gibson must now prove that the Mizzou way is a winning way.
It won’t be easy. The Tigers lose some serious star power. All of those aforementioned impact players, Murphy, Sasser, Ray and Golden are out. This is surely where the experts will find fault in the 2015 Missouri Tigers when making their predictions and rankings. And who can blame them?
Live Feed
South Bound & Down
It’s true, the toughest challenge for Gary Pinkel’s squad will be filling the voids on defense left by Ray and Golden. These two monsters were, no doubt, the most vital keys to success last season. Some will argue that this is too much of a loss and that it will put the Tigers in a position of playing from behind too often.
That’s an easy argument to make. After all, we’re talking about the team tackle leaders, the two fastest defenders on the team, All-Americans and the SEC Defensive player of the year, here.
The bolder argument would be that Mizzou has found ways to fill the shoes of its best players in the past, that the Tigers have a history of churning out one star player after the other and there is no reason to believe that they can’t do it again. Expect one of those players to be linebacker Kentrell Brothers, who has been a force, and an overlooked one at that. He may very well be the 2015 defensive MVP for Missouri.
Or perhaps someone else will emerge from the pile. There’s no shortage of talent on this team. It will be up to the coaches to continue their successful ways and the players to play to their potential. Guys like Mauk and Hansbrough must continue to build upon their accomplishments.
We have a long off season to anxiously await and see if this truly is a team that can contend. But for now, Mizzou Nation can rest assured that the Tigers will be a ranked team to start 2015.
More from Truman's Tales
- Believe it or not, Missouri football has never played these FBS teams
- Missouri Tigers all-time round-by-round NCAA tournament record
- March Madness schedule: When do the Missouri Tigers play next? (Updated Round of 64)
- The Missouri Tigers Kansas Jayhawks Border War Renews
- Marching Mizzou Marches into the Big Apple