Football looks to get back on track
Missouri will travel to Kansas State this weekend.
Published Nov. 13, 2009
In the past couple years, success has come relatively easily for coach Gary Pinkel and the Tigers. But this season, after getting off to another fast start, Missouri has faltered. The team started 4-0 but has dropped four of its past five and now faces uncertainty the rest of the way.
"We've kind of got our back up against the wall again," junior center Tim Barnes said. "We felt like that a couple weeks ago and now we're kind of pressed to find out who we are. It's getting later in the season, so we feel like we really have to pull together and come out and really find ourselves as a team."
Of the four losses the Tigers have suffered in the Big 12, Saturday's game stands out as possibly the toughest to swallow. After marching up the field at will in the first half, Missouri's offense disappeared in the second half — as did its lead.
"Any time you lose a game you're supposed to win, whatever that means, we don't do that a lot around here," Pinkel said. "It happens. (Sunday) was a tough day around here. You can play well and lose a game just because (the other team) made a few more plays than you did. I hate losing, but I can live with that. But when you don't feel like you played your A game, your best football game, that's inexcusable."
The players know more is expected of them the rest of the season.
"We're still going to keep preparing, and we're still going to go out there and go hard in practice," senior linebacker Sean Weatherspoon said. "I'm still going to be hard on guys who aren't doing the right thing. And I'm pretty sure the coaches are going to be even tougher. Right now the depth chart has a lot of 'evens' on it. Not a lot of changes but a lot of evens. So we're going to get the right guys on the field."
Missouri's next opponent will be Kansas State on Saturday. Somewhat of an afterthought in the preseason, the Wildcats are battling for supremacy in the Big 12 North. That title belonged to the Tigers in 2007 and 2008, so it will be a reversal of roles for the teams. Missouri will now play the role of spoiler, as K-State tries to close in on the division title.
In his first season back in Manhattan, Kan., following a three-year hiatus, coach Bill Snyder has led the Wildcats to a 6-4 record overall and a 4-2 mark in conference. After early season losses to Louisiana-Lafayette and UCLA, Kansas State regained its footing and now sits atop the Big 12 North.
"I'm a big Bill Snyder fan, always have been," Pinkel said. "I have great respect for him as a coach and all that he's done."
Snyder has had Missouri's number when he's been at the helm for the Wildcats. The Tigers have not beaten a Snyder-led Kansas State team since 1992.
"(Kansas State) has a good coach," Weatherspoon said. "Coach Snyder, he did some great things when he was there. In my freshman year, we hadn't beaten them in the last 13 years, so that obviously speaks volumes right there. So I'm not really surprised they're back.