Tigers face hostile crowd, long odds

By Mike Bushnell

Published Oct. 12, 2007

When the No. 11 Tigers step on the field at Gaylord Family-Oklahoma Memorial Stadium on Saturday in Norman, Okla., an angry sea of red running roughly 83,000 people deep will greet them.

For Missouri, it will be quite the change from last Saturday, when a record crowd of over 70,000 cheered the Tigers to a 41-6 thrashing of the Nebraska Cornhuskers on Faurot Field. But some players said they are preparing for the challenge the crowd faces, as if beating the No. 6 Oklahoma Sooners wouldn't be hard enough to do in front of nobody.

"It's gonna be weird," freshman tailback Derrick Washington said.

Tomorrow will be his first game in front of what is expected to be an extremely hostile crowd.

"Our games in high school had maybe 5,000 or 6,000 people there, tops," he said. "From that to 80,000 or more is crazy."

Coach Gary Pinkel said the key for the Tigers is to try their best to block out the sound. He acknowledged how hard that can be.

"If you're a competitor, you should be able to play without anyone out there," he said. "But obviously, the crowd intensifies things a bit."

Senior safety Pig Brown said he doesn't worry about the crowd and the players can't even hear the crowd's full force in the middle of a game.

"It's really not that big of a deal," he said. "It's all about distraction control. When we're in the middle of the game, I don't even notice it."

Junior wide receiver Tommy Saunders said it will be critical for Missouri to get the lead early to try and take the crowd out of the game.

"We have to come out attacking," he said. "If we get on the board first, that will quiet the crowd for sure, and that takes away one of their biggest advantages."

Crowd or no crowd, the Sooners have advantages in other places as well. Defensively, Oklahoma has been much better in nearly every aspect this season than the Tigers have. The Sooners force nearly four sacks and ten tackles for a loss per game, compared to MU's two sacks and six tackles for losses.

"If you look for weaknesses, they're very hard to find," Pinkel said of OU's defense. "They're a very complete team."

Pinkel also said what makes the Sooners even more dangerous is how they go nearly two-deep at every position with players who could start nearly anywhere in the country.

"They've got depth. Don't feel sorry for Bob Stoops," he said, referring to Oklahoma's coach. "They play a lot of players and they're all good."

If the Tigers want to win, they will have to pressure Oklahoma's freshman quarterback Sam Bradford. He has been sacked just four times all season, has 18 touchdowns and has only thrown four interceptions.

"Bradford's a star," Pinkel said. "He's very good at what he does, to say the least."

The winner of Saturday's game will put itself back in the hunt for the national championship game, but that dream will end for the loser. Pinkel said all the talk about MU making a Bowl Championship Series game means nothing unless they can become the first Big 12 team to win in Norman since 1999.

"Have we arrived?" he said. "No. We have a tremendous challenge ahead of us this week."