Missouri looks to rebound against Oklahoma State

Oklahoma State is ranked in the Top 20.

By Evan Glantz

Published Oct. 16, 2009

Last Thursday night's heartbreaker against rival Nebraska was a tough one to swallow for the Tigers. But the team had little time to lament the loss as they began preparing for Saturday's game against No. 16 Oklahoma State.

"It doesn't do any good to carry on," coach Gary Pinkel said. "It was a tough loss because we've been doing a good job around here the past several years of winning games in the fourth quarter and keeping leads."

Losing to the Cornhuskers stung a confident Missouri team. Costly mistakes were made on both sides of the ball.

Pinkel said the team will use the loss as an opportunity to improve.

"But there are lessons to learn there," he said. "Bad things are going to happen sometimes, that's the way it is. We'd like to say 'no turnovers or no penalties,' but it doesn't work that way. But how are you going to respond as a football team when this adversity hits?"

The Tigers have acknowledged those mistakes and are preparing for a better showing Saturday.

"We need to eliminate the mental errors," sophomore quarterback Blaine Gabbert said. "We had a few too many penalties that stalled a lot of drives and eliminated points for us because we were in the red zone more than once and didn't come away with any points. You can't be in second-and-25, third-and-8 or first-and-20. Those are hard to convert on."

On Saturday, the Tigers will have a chance to get back to their winning ways, as well as the opportunity to extract some revenge on the Cowboys. A year ago, the Tigers were ranked No. 3 in the country when Oklahoma State came to Faurot Field and upset Missouri, effectively ending their national title hopes.

This year, the roles are somewhat reversed. Missouri will travel to Stillwater, Okla., unranked in the Associated Press Top 25 Poll, and No. 24 in the Coaches' Poll. Meanwhile, Oklahoma State sits at No. 16 and No. 14 respectively and has BCS dreams of its own.

The Cowboys have two big question marks heading into the game. First is the status of junior running back Kendall Hunter who has not played since injuring his ankle and foot Sept. 12 against Houston. Hunter led the Big 12 in 2008 with 1,555 yards rushing and is listed as questionable for this week.

Looming even larger is the fate of junior wide receiver Dez Bryant. Coming into the season, Bryant's name highlighted numerous lists, including preseason First-Team All Big 12, preseason First Team All-America, preseason Biletnikoff Award favorite and preseason Heisman Trophy candidate.

Bryant's season could be over after he was ruled ineligible after lying to the NCAA about a meeting with former NFL player Deion Sanders. Oklahoma State is attempting to get Bryant reinstated.

"We're going to prepare as if those guys are going to play because we don't control if they're going to be on the field or not," senior linebacker Sean Weatherspoon said. "I heard Kendall was day-to-day and Dez is meeting with the NCAA sometime this week so he might be reinstated. We just don't know what's going to happen. We have to prepare for the worst, like they're going to have their best players."