(Before we get started, we invite our readers to check on our series about Amendment 2, the sports wagering proposal on the November ballot, in which we address why the amendment is a bad idea for our teachers, our veterans, and even the host cities of our casinos. We are not telling you how to vote, but we hope you’ll get a more honest understanding of what you will be voting on when you read those three (so far) entries.)
(MIZ)—It might have been a legendary game but it was just a ho-hum event for the people who compile college football rankings.
Brady Cook’s dramatic return to the field after missing most of the first three quarters with an injury and engineering a 21-17 win against Auburn capped with a clock-beating 95-yard drive for the winning touchdown undoubtedly will show up on “greatest games” lists in the future.
But both major polls took Missouri down, perhaps noting that the Tigers again barely beat an opponent it was expected to beat.
The Tigers lost a spot in the coaches’ poll, falling to 17th. The Associated Press took them down two spots, to 21st.
Auburn led 17-3 at the half, seven of those coming on a muffed punt reception that was recovered by Auburn in the Missouri end zone. The Tiger Defense was stout all day while the offense was mediocre after Cook left early in the first quarter. His return put life back into the offense and that last methodical 95-yard drive was electric for the crowd.
The loss was a historic one for Auburn, which had been 150-1 in games in which they led by 14 in the second half.
ESPN’s Gamecast tells a crushing story for the other Tigers. ESPN at one time said Auburn had a 94.3% chance to win the game. And with 1:44 left, they were still at 88%. But it all turned to ashes when Jamal Roberts scored a touchdown with 46 seconds left and no time outs remaining for Auburn. Auburn drops to 2-5 with their third one-score loss of the year.
Missouri is 6-1 and is bowl eligible. The significance of the bowl they’ll play in will be determined by the way they finish the seasons, beginning next week against Alabama. The Crimson Tide dropped eight slots in the ratings after losing to Tennessee 24-17. The Tide will go into Saturday’s game ranked 15th.
(CHIEFS)—The Kansas City Chiefs are the NFL’s only undefeated team after beating the San Francisco 49ers 28-18 in the Golden Gate City Sunday. That’s a season high in points for the Chiefs. Patrick Mahomes had one of his lowest-rated games of his career with his second-lowest passing yardage totals. But his personal-best 33-yard scramble kept a drive going that generated points. The backfield otherwise ground out time-consuming yardage and the defense didn’t let 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy have much breathing room.
The defense kept San Francisco out of the end zone until the third quarter, stopping for 49ers by forcing four punts, intercepting a pass, and surrendering only two field goals before a touchdown.
The Chiefs added JuJu Smith-Schuster to its list of walking (or limping) wounded. He went down with a hamstring injury he had been nursing all week in practice.
With Mahomes struggling in the passing department, the offensive line created opportunities for running backs. The Chiefs gained 186 yards on 37 rushes that led to four touchdowns.
The Chiefs take on the Raiders next weekend.
(SEC BASKETBALL)—The Southeastern Conference has held its pre-season basketball media days last week. Both the men’s team and the women’s team from Missouri haven’t gotten much love from media pollsters, with both teams forecast to be in the bottom half of the conference.
Missouri was winless in conference play last year. The Tigers lost five rotational players for 111 combined games last year, leaving men’s coach Dennis Gates “your hands are tied behind your back.”
Men’s coach Dennis Gates hopes his top ten portal class will and his high school recruit class that is rated number three nationally will produce a blend of “unbelievable talent.”
“I’m excited about our guys, meaning the first-year guys that’s in our program. I see how they’ve been able to adapt to our institution, to our community, and our entire community has accepted those guys with open arms, and these guys are comfortable…The portal guys that we did sign, we made sure that they’ve come from some great respectable coaches, and that’s where I wanted to kind of identify earlier to make sure that that took place also,” he told the media.
The spotlight recruit is Annor Boateng, a two-time Arkansas player of the year, “a 4.0 student, oung man who played in the band, plays the saxophone. His talents off the court is tremendous….As a basketball player, he’s a tremendous young man, multitalented, straight line driver, strong, physical…I look for him to make an impact.”
But there are several returnees Gates thinks deserve attention—Caleb Grill, who missed most of last year with a wrist injury, Trent Pierce, Ant Robinson, Aiden Shaw, and Tamar Bates. “They don’t shy away from confrontation [who] receive information like a sponge,” Gates said.
Missouri was an NCAA tournament team in his first year, a loser of every SEC game last year.
“Life happens in seasons,” aid Gates. “In real life you can’t start back at zero. That’s the unique part about basketball or college sports. We’re 0-0, just like everyone else.
Also hoping for a big turnaround in women’s coach Robin Pingeton who will be coaching her 15th year at Mizzou. Some observers are thinking her career at Missouri is on the line in the season ahead. Her team won two more games in the SEC last year than the men’s team. But the Lady Tigers haven’t been to an NCAA tournament since 2018.
But Pingeton thinks bad times can lay the groundwork for better times. She told the media, “We all want the end result, which is a championship; we all want a deep run in the NCAA Tournament. That scoreboard is really, really important. But I also don’t want to shy away from the fact that sometimes when you go through hard times, those are where you really grow the most.”
The team has more height than it has last year with Tionna Herron, who is 6-4, joining Angelique Ngalakulondi, a 6-2 forward who was sidelined after eight games with an injury.
Pingeton is looking for an offensive boost with the addition of Nyah Wilson, who averaged 15.5 points a game for New Mexico last year along with 4.5 rebounds, two assists and 1.3 seals a game.
(BASEBALL)—The end of the World Series will end the baseball news blackout on coaching and managerial changes and player deals.
The Post-Dispatch has reported one of the first items to come from the St. Louis Cardinals will be the return of center fielder John Jay, who has been a coach with the Florida Marlins this year after a 12-year career that got him a Cardinals World Series ring in 2011. (the Marlins were managed this year by former Redbird Skip Schumaker, who has left the team because of “philosophical differences.”
Assistant coach Willie McGee is moving on to become a “special advisor.”
Speeding along—
(NASCAR)—-A week earlier, Joey Logano thought he had missed the NASCAR Championship semi-final round of races. Sunday, he became the first driver guaranteed to run for the NASCAR Cup.
Logano stretched his fuel while leading the last 72 laps of the first race in the semi-final playoff round, and got the win that makes him one of the four drivers who will compete in the last race of the year for the Cup.
He ran just fast enough to beat pole-sitter Christopher Bell to the finish line by two-thirds of a second.
Logano is in the running only because Alex Bowman’s car was found to violate car weight rules a week earlier at Charlotte, forcing Bowman out of the playoffs and elevating Logano into the championship picture.
Some of the championship contenders had a rugged day in the desert. Tyler Reddick rolled his car when he got together with Chase Elliott and Ryan Blaney on lap 90. Reddick drove his bent car to the pits but it was too badly damaged to continue.
(FORMULA 1)—Formula 1 returned to the United States to run t the Circuit of the Americas, near Austin, Texas. Charles Leclerc in a Ferrari led teammate Carlos Sainz across the finish line to give Ferrari its first 1-2 finish in the United States in eighteen years. Lando Norris fought off series points leader Max Verstappen to finish third.
Formula 1 has one more race in this country—on the street circuit in downtown Las Vegas on November 23.
(photo credits: Cook, Missouri Athletics; Gates, Power Mizzou; Pingeton, Fulton Sun; Jay, MLB; Logano, Bob Priddy)