At the time, I thought this Kevin Rutland interception was the turning point in the game. (Photo by Christian Petersen, Getty Images)

That game sucked.  To put it more accurately, it was frustrating.  The beginning was frustrating; the end of the half was frustrating, yet it still looked like Mizzou would pull out the win.  When Kevin Rutland picked off Ricky Stanzi along the sideline, I thought Mizzou was on its way to a comfortable victory.

Blaine Gabbert miraculously found Tom Brady’s pocket presence, the defense was making enough plays and receivers were running all over the field like it was 2007.  Mizzou gained a 24-20 advantage with 54 seconds to play in the third quarter, yet the way the offense was moving the ball, that lead felt more like 14 points than just four.  Midway through the fourth quarter a Mizzou victory seemed all but locked up.

We take a look back at the 10 biggest stories of the 2010 football season.  Today we count down numbers 5-1.

TJ Moe's game winning TD against San Diego State set the stage for bigger things to come in 2010. (Photo courtesy of the Columbia Missourian)

5.  Mid-Moe Miracle

At the time, it seemed like nothing more than a great play to avoid an embarrassing upset to a no-name opponent.  However, as the season progressed, TJ Moe’s incredible catch and run against San Diego State proved to be more and more important.  Without that play Missouri doesn’t improve to 3-0.  The hype surrounding the MU/OU homecoming game later in the season would have been diminished.  I doubt GameDay would have come to Columbia had MU not been unbeaten and ranked 11^th in the BCS.  Losing to San Diego State would have set this season on a completely different course.  Moe’s miracle play kept that from happening.

4.  Derrick Washington and Mizzou's off-field issues

Mizzou made headlines all too often this off-season.  Between July 2^nd and August 28^th there were eight incidents of players being dismissed or a team member getting in legal trouble.  None dominated headlines more than Derrick Washington’s arrest for sexual assault.

After watching D-Wash in summer scrimmages and fall camp, I can’t explain how good I expected him to be this year.  He was a threat to score every time he touched the ball.  He was set to have a huge year.  Just days after I wrote this article guaranteeing D-Wash would accumulate at least 1,500 yards of total offense this season, he was arrested for sexual assault.  His legal troubles dominated headlines and talk around Mizzou.  People questioned whether the Missouri offense would be the same.  Henry Josey and Marcus Murphy were forced to burn redshirts.  The off-season troubles were a huge story line from the 2010 season.

3.  Improved Defense

Most people expected Mizzou’s defense to be better this season.  But this?  No one expected this.  Missouri went from one of the nation’s worst defenses to one of the best.  The strength of this year’s team is the defense.  Who thought we’d be saying that?  Missouri’s defense ranks sixth in the nation in points allowed.  The D shutout two opponents in one year for the first time since 1973.  Missouri recorded 38 sacks, sixth best in the country.  They picked off 16 passes.  Bottom line, the D was dominant.  The D kept Mizzou in games and won others.  It was incredible and easily one of the biggest stories of the year.


What a weekend. 

2.  College GameDay

It was arguably the greatest weekend in the University’s history.  All weekend was a national showcase of Mizzou football and the entire university.  Missouri set ESPN College GameDay’s attendance record and looked fantastic on TV.  A sellout crowd at Faurot was louder than I’ve ever heard it.  Gahn McGaffie’s opening kickoff return for a touchdown will live forever in Tiger history.  Mizzou knocked off the nation’s number one team.  Gary Pinkel got the OU monkey off his back.  Fans stormed the field.  Goalposts were torn down.  It was homecoming.  Mizzou couldn’t have looked better on national TV.  Additionally, beating Oklahoma that weekend set the stage for a great 2010 season.  I will be surprised if there is ever a better game day environment in Columbia than there was on October 23^rd, 2010.


Sweet logo... 

1.  Conference Expansion

The college GameDay experience is hard to top.  It was the buzz of Columbia for the entire semester.  However, conference expansion trumps it simply for the impact it had on all of college sports.  College sports fans from coast to coast were consumed with expansion talks all summer long as rumors and “reports,” seemed to grow more rampant by the day.  Missouri fans thought our Tigers were Big Ten bound.  Then it looked as if the Big 12 would disinigrate altogether.  Then there rumors of the Mountain West Conference or even the SEC.  In the end, the Big 12 lost two teams.  Missouri lost two historic opponents.  The conference will never be the same.

We take a look back at the 10 biggest stories of the 2010 football season.  Today we count down numbers 10-6.

Hosting ESPN's College GameDay and knocking off the number one team in the country?  Uh, yeah, that'll make our list.

With finals week and a lot work out of the way, Mizzourah is officially back up and running.  Rather than rehash the last few weeks in Mizzou football we’ll jump right into recapping the 2010 season.

This season had more than its fair share of dramatic moments.  A rocky off-season.  The emergence of new star players.  Arguably the biggest home game in school history.  Where do these events land in our rankings?

Finally we have a conclusion to the wild goose chase that was Sheldon Richardson's recruitment.

10.  The Sheldon Richardson Saga

Whether you follow recruiting or not, you couldn’t help but take at least a passing interest in the Sheldon Richardson drama.  Richardson, a 6-4, 300 pound, freak athlete from the St. Louis area began popping up on recruiting radars as early as 2006, the summer prior to his sophomore year of high school.  After receiving scholarship offers from nearly every school in the nation, the country’s number four overall recruit ended the drama on signing day of 2009 when he famously selected a Mizzou cap from a table in his high school gym.  Except, that was really just the beginning.  In June of 2009, word leaked that Richardson wouldn’t qualify for Mizzou academically.  One junior college and a commitment turned decommitment from USC later, Richardson is officially a Tiger.  Mizzou’s defense already looked good for 2011.  Richardson’s commitment only makes the future brighter.

9.  Another Bowl Game

Simply making a bowl game no longer registers as news for Mizzou fans.  This year’s bowl game will be Mizzou’s sixth straight bowl appearance and seventh in the past eight seasons.  Those are both school records.  This is just another reminder of how Gary Pinkel and co. have raised the bar in Columbia.  The fact that Mizzou was only slightly screwed (by the Cotton Bowl) and not royally, completely F’d over altogether like usual in the bowl process was a pleasant surprise for fans this year.  Additionally, this is a fun match-up between two border-states who often battle for recruits.  A win in the Insight Bowl and an 11-win season would be a great end to the 2011 season.

8.  The nubs Loss

On October 29^th Missouri was ranked 6^th in the BCS rankings, undefeated, atop the Big 12 and had a very legitimate shot at controlling its own destiny for a berth in the National Championship Game.  A loss to the Cornhuskers on October 30^th ended all that.  As much as their fans don’t want to admit it, this had developed into a competitive and heated rivalry over the course of the past decade.  This year’s game had a ton of hype and a ton of implications in the conference and BCS standings.  It would have been nice to give them one final blow on their way out.  Instead, the nubs will take their talents to the Big Ten’s, “Legends,” division… Sweet name Big Ten.

The nutcases known as the Pelini brothers derailed Mizzou's undefeated season.

7.  The Tech Loss

Mizzou won 10 games this year, which was great.  However, if there were one game this team would like a “do-over,” for it’s the Texas Tech game.  Beat a mediocre Red Raider team and Mizzou would have been Big 12 North champions.  It would have played for a Big 12 title.  Who knows what could have happened?  This game makes the list because of how frustrating it was to watch and for how much it came back to haunt the Tigers.  Mizzou could have overcome the loss to the nubs.  The Tech loss officially ended Missouri’s hopes at a historically great year.

6.  The Emergence of TJ Moe and Michael Egnew

This season TJ Moe and Michael Egnew combined for 160 catches, 1,595 yards, and 10 touchdowns.  In their combined three years of experience prior to 2010, the duo combined for nine catches and 55 yards.  While neither has the big-play explosiveness of a Jeremy Maclin or Danario Alexander, these two emerged as reliable playmakers that helped fill the void left by Alexander.  They were Blaine Gabbert’s go-to guys and they seemed to always come up big when needed.   The best news?  They’ll both be back next year.

Check back tomorrow as we unveil the top five story lines of the 2010 season. 

This Mizzou version of Wiz Khalifa's hit song, Black and Yellow was sent to us by MizzouRah reader Bobby.  I thought it was pretty creative and worth passing along.  You'll see some cool shots of campus and the MU/OU game in there.

This photo sums up Missouri's night. (AP photo)

Georgetown played out of their minds.  The Hoyas traveled 1,000 miles to a hostile environment and still managed to play a great game.  Georgetown shot 15-32 from downtown.  They out-rebounded Missouri by 11.  They played up to Missouri's pace and never wavered.  Despite all this, this game was Missouri's game to lose.

Although it'd be nice, don't expect Missouri to be celebrating a Cotton Bowl victory any time soon. (Photo from the Columbia Missourian).

Mizzou did it.  Ever since dropping a winnable game against Texas Tech, the Tigers avoided another slip-up and finished the regular season 10-2.  Missouri’s man-handling of  an embarrassingly bad kU team capped Mizzou’s third double-digit win season under Gary Pinkel and only the fourth in school history. Considering the question marks heading into the season and all the off-field issues to start the year, it’s an incredible feat.  Only six BCS conference school have more wins than Mizzou this season.

But forget celebrating the past.  Today Tiger fans everywhere are asking the question, “Now what?”  The talk of bowl bids has filled message boards, Twitter, and Facebook.

Mizzou lost its chance of winning a third Big 12 North title in four years as Nebraska beat Colorado today.  While this is a disappointment, it comes as no surprise considering how bad Colorado is--Pac 10 bottom feeders they shall be for the next 12-squared years.  But, back to the topic on hand, Mizzou fans should not be too upset on this fine Friday night because of how easily they will all be sleeping tonight knowing KU is on the schedule tomorrow.  

 I am not alone in declaring that MU has absolutely zero, zero, zero chance of losing the game tomorrow against Kansas.  This isn't groundbreaking.  Turner Gill has been an utter disappointment in his first year.  Kansas has less talent than the South Central Louisiana State University Mud Dogs.  Todd Reesing no longer plays football (For as much as most MU fans disliked him, he was still a pretty good player.  Maybe.)  And there's no Kerry Meier (aka the best "make something out of nothing QB turned WR with a towel dangling down my pants" player I have seen in the last few years) or Dezmon Briscoe to throw too.  

 So, what's going to happen? Mizzou is going to win.  Gabbert will play great, but not great enough to convince himself to make the leap to the NFL.    Jerrell Jackson will have a touchdown catch.  TJ Moe will have two.  The Smith's will combine for four sacks.  Henry Josey will have a play for over 50+ yards.  And Grant Ressel will be perfect on PAT's.  Mizzou wins 42-14. Don't believe me?  You better start parlaying those bets now, because you are listening to the guy that in the preseason picked bowl-ineligible Texas and Ohio State to be playing for the National Championship.   

Wins by Mizzou, losses by our rivals, and some drama in nubland combined for a great weekend for Tiger fans.  We can only hope this coming weekend goes as well.

Mizzou beating Iowa State wasn't the only good news for Tiger fans last weekend. (Photo by Joshua Bickel, Columbia Tribune. See his entire slide show here.)

11:00am Saturday – kU loses… again

I woke up Saturday, flipped on the TV surprised to see kU up 14-10 on Oklahoma State at the end of the first quarter.  I was almost starting to worry kU could be improving until OSU rattled off 38 straight points to give the jayhawks their usual beating.  This one ended 48-10.  Less than 40,000 were in attendance for kU’s final home beating of the season, many of whom were Pokes fans anyway.  kU finishes the season 3-4 at home.  In those four home losses kU’s average margin of defeat was 31 points.  Keep in mind that includes its loss to North Dakota State where the beakers only lost by three.

As hard as it may be, Mizzou must take these guys seriously.

For the Missouri football team, playing Iowa State is like playing your younger brother in a game of one-on-one in the driveway.  You (Mizzou) are a varsity point guard.  You’ve got more experience in big games, you’re bigger and more talented.  Your little brother has had his struggles but now he’s improved to become a solid contributor to the JV team.  He’s not as talented, he’s doesn’t quite match up physically, but he’s always motivated to beat the big brother.  You know that if you screw around and don’t take the match-up seriously, your little brother, motivated to beat you for the first time in four tries will take advantage.  A couple lucky breaks here and there and all of a sudden you could find yourself on the short side of an embarrassing loss to someone you consider less talented.

That’s about as well as I can break down Iowa State.  The bottom line is, they just aren’t as good as the Missouri Tigers.  The ‘Clones are no longer a laughing stock of college football, but they aren’t a team that’s on par with Mizzou.