Grading Mizzou vs SELA

A new era began for Mizzou football last night, and you couldn't ask for a much better start. The Tigers got rolling faster than Maty Mauk's scooter against the Southeastern Louisiana Lions, but they were left with an appropriate list of items to work through in practice leading to the first SEC conference game vs. the Georgia Bulldogs next week. Grades:

TV picture, D+: Blame it on Fox Sports, ESPN3, or my wifi, the picture fluctuated between near-HD quality and Tecmo Bowl.

Play-by-play, C-: Dave Armstrong's call on a 1-yard Franklin handoff to Lawrence for TD: 'Franklin with the keeper....no, it was Lawrence who took the snap and scored'. Nope and nope.

Quarterback, B-: Franklin came out with a nice effort in his first game since shoulder surgery. Rain and the offensive line were a factor, but Franklin was not particularly sharp with his passes.  Corbin Berkstresser came into the game in a mop up role and played Mr. Perfect with 5/5 passing for 60 yards (1 TD), 5 rushes for 25 yards and a TD.

RB/WR, B+: So many weapons, need more footballs.

Offensive Line, C+: With Travis Ruth and Taylor Chappel out for the year, the line is thin. With Jack Meiners out a minimum of two weeks as of Aug 27, it's Nicole Richie. Boehm and Copeland are stepping up, but this unit will need an A effort against the Bulldogs. The shotgun snapping, which was all over the place last year has to get more consistent. We get it, James Franklin is athletic and doesn't need a perfect snap, but when he has to jump for it timing is lost.

Defense, A-: As intense as Dave Steckel's naked biceps in the rain

Special Teams, C???: I'm not good at math but that's the average of an A+ record-setting return game and turrrrble kicking. Missed PAT, shallow kickoffs, not pretty.

Sheldon Richardson's Mouth, D: Big Sheldon can expect a fruit basket from Mark Richt after spitting some bulletin board material on Georgia's "old man football"

Update Monday 3pm: Ebner and Meiners listed as questionable for Saturday vs Georgia

DGB prepares to break loose on the Lions

How to Watch SELA vs Mizzou on Saturday

Updated Sept 1, 10am: On Saturday, Sept 1 at 6pm CDT, Mizzou opens its inaugural SEC football season against the Southeastern Louisiana Lions. Ticket 4-packs for the game are still available for $100 (1-800-CAT-PAWS). If you can't make it out to Columbia for the game, you’d probably like to watch it on TV, but where is it showing? Can you watch it at home or do you need to pack up and head to the local watering hole?  I’ll start with the most convenient method—but this one will cost you.  Here is a list of the PPV outlets for Saturday’s game.

Maybe you don’t want to pay $40 to watch a blowout—that’s understandable. Your remaining options aren't as handy, but considerably less expensive. If you check the ESPN listing for the game, it’s scheduled to be available on ESPN3. So if you have ESPN3 like 73 million other Americans, case closed, right?  Yes, if you live outside of Missouri*.

Let’s suppose the game is not available on ESPN3. It should be available on WatchESPN. To get WatchESPN, you need to be subscribed to one of the following: Time Warner Cable, Bright House Networks, Verizon FiOS TV and Comcast Xfinity TV. If you have one of these Cable providers and like sports, you should check out the WatchESPN app. As a Time Warner customer, I’ve had good experiences with WatchESPN from Android phone and iPad.

So you’d prefer to watch on your big LCD rather than your laptop screen? You are really high maintenance and probably put fruit in your beer.  If you have an iPad, I’d suggest hitting the Apple store and picking up an iPad to HDMI adapter. It works with iPhone, iPod as well. There is a similar adapter (see how I avoided saying ‘dongle’?) for Android phones to provide HDMI-out capability. Now scavenge an HDMI cable from your Xbox and connect from the adapter to any available HDMI port on your TV.

*It has been confirmed ESPN3 will be blacked out in Missouri for this game, so you'll need to identify a workaround. Some will utilize a VPN on their PC or iDevice, which many in China use to bypass the censorship of their oppressive regime, but I'll stop short of recommending that.

One more great option--Alumni Association watch parties. Here's a list of locations. Go rub elbows with some fellow Tiger fans.

Good luck with your game day viewing. Please comment here if you learn more about programming for the game or other tech tips and I’ll share the information.

KC turns out for SEC block party

The Brooksider was packed July 26 as the Mizzou Tiger Club and Mizzou Alumni Association teamed up to throw an SEC block party. Local alumni chapters of other SEC schools turned out as well for the festivities.  Looks like KC is a Mizzou and SEC town after all. 

Mizzou fans got some good news during the party, as 2013 LB Eric Beisel committed to the University of Missouri over Arkansas, Nebraska, and Illinois.

July 1: Happy SEC Day

With much anticipation, Tiger fans watched the clock tick down toward our official entry into the Southeastern Conference. Our new conference will bring opportunities and challenges, but Mizzou is ready.

Our student athletes displayed their fighting spirit this week in the hot sun building homes for the Governor's Joplin Challenge. Here are some great photos from the week's activities. Don't forget to sport your Mizzou gear as you serve in the community.

3 Days Until SEC!

Check out this beautiful flag duo spotted in Gladstone MO today.  KC Northland is representing Mizzou.  Send us your interesting flag pics and location and we'll post to the site.

Let That Mizzou Flag Fly

We moved three years ago and I never got around to putting up a new flag bracket.  That oversight was corrected this morning.  Now we're ready for game day--but why raise the flag only on game day?  Why not leave it up every day, as a way to claim your street for Mizzou?  It's a corny notion, but I'd love to see a Mizzou flag on every street in Missouri.  Are you seeing a rash of Illini or Razorback gear in St. Louis and southern MO?  It's time to make our mark.

I've heard several people in the media say that Kansas City is a Big 12 city.  If they are speaking of Kansas City Missouri, I beg to differ.  While old habits die hard, we are now in SEC country.  I was glad to see KC will continue to host the Big 12 tournament.  KCMO is a great town to host an event with an arena, entertainment district and infrastructure that isn't available on the other side of the state line (try catching a flight to New York out of Kansas).  These schools are our former rivals and welcome guests, but at the end of the day Missouri is with Mizzou. That said, whether you are in St. Louis or KC, Dallas or Chicago, fly your Mizzou flag proudly year round as a small way to Represent Mizzou.

Why Represent Mizzou?

It was a beautiful, unseasonably warm March day in Kansas City and we were on a mission.  My son and I had ventured to Kansas earlier to procure a pair of Big 12 tournament tickets from a disgruntled Jayhawk fan.  Now we're downtown, headed to the final game matchup with Baylor.  We walked past a hotel where the Bears were loading their team bus.  The anticipation was electric as we reached the Sprint Center.  Once inside concessions could not be ignored--we'd forgotten to eat lunch in our haste to get downtown.  We grabbed our seats and spied a friendly crowd, a handful in green and some haters in blue.  Those few who came to witness a Tiger loss got more quiet as the game progressed, and began to filter out of the arena in the last few minutes.  That was definitely not a tear in my eye as time expired, must have been smoke in the arena.  It was the last basketball game we'd play as members of the Big 12, and we were taking the championship trophy with us.  The poet Jay-Z posed the question "who's gonna run this town tonight?"  The answer: We are.

Flash forward to May 2012.  Kansas City is a college athletics battleground, as two conferences and three universities vie for the hearts and minds of its residents.  Mizzou fans need to show the undecided residents and the media that we are and will continue to be the best fans in the metro, and we're not going anywhere as we join the SEC.

But this isn't just about Kansas City.  We should represent Mizzou with pride wherever we live and wherever we go.  You've probably got some good ideas of your own.  Let's get creative.  How do you plan to represent Mizzou?  You know that community service project you were joining?  Don't forget your Mizzou T-shirt.  Is it Red Friday at work?  How about Black and Gold Friday instead?  Share your ideas with us on Twitter @representmizzou and we'll share with those who follow.