Earlier in the spring, I wrote a column on these electronic pages about how even a successful 2024 season would not be as purely fun as the 2023 season, thanks to the heightened expectations that come with success. I was imagining a campaign as similarly successful as last year; I didn’t have it in me to imagine the stress that would come with multiple injuries to Brady Cook and a pair of national spotlight shellackings.
And here Missouri sits, at 6-2, clinging to a top 25 ranking, heading into the bye with a 10-2 reprise still possible, yet with the online chicken littles ready to fold the program and sell Faurot off for scrap.