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Posted 11/26/2009 at 04:14 AM
Free college football plays are 8-5 for the season, and I’ll try and notch another winner Saturday with the Missouri-Kansas rivalry battle.
I’m really not convinced that Missouri is any better than Kansas. Both teams have some clear deficiencies. Mizzou has been erratic offensively and they’ve also had some bad games on defense. But the Tigers have displayed a solid rushing defense, and that bodes well for them against a Kansas squad that can’t run the football. As for the Jayhawks, they were never as good as their 5-0 start may have indicated to some. Nor are they as awful as they’ve appeared in losing every game since the misleading start. In fact, in matching up the personnel on these two teams, this game is very close and Kansas may actually have the better overall talent.
The key to this game is in the extenuating circumstances. Everyone who follows college football is undoubtedly aware of how ugly it’s gotten in Lawrence. First, there were problem between some football and basketball players that drew unwanted publicity. But those incidents got pushed out of the center stage as the very public scrutiny of allegations against head coach Mark Mangino turned the KU football program into a circus. It’s fascinating to me that almost no one involved with the Jayhawks has rushed to Magino’s defense. Would any of this happened in the Jayhawks were Big 12 contenders heading for a big bowl vacation? Probably not. But with the team reeling, it’s been the ultimate pig pile as media, fans and the university itself have been unloading on Mangino.
I suppose it’s possible that the Jayhawks will rally for a massive effort in what sure looks like it could be the finale for Mangino. But off what I saw last week, I think that’s an unlikely scenario. The Jayhawks look like a team that’s not having any fun, and might be just as happy to be home for the holidays. That will be precisely the situation if they lose here.
Missouri figures to be the more focused entry, and they’ve got a nice revenge motive to boot as Kansas upset them last season in a wild 40-37 game. I suspect this will be a very popular public play, but as was the case last Sunday when I recommended the Chargers to down Denver, I see the public backing the right horse in this race as well. Missouri minus the points is the choice.
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