Sunday, September 2, 2012

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

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