Missouri's fix

By John Shinn
The Norman Transcript

July 22, 2008 12:34 am

— KANSAS CITY, Mo. — There usually isn’t a certain moment when a football team’s status changes. It might occur after a big win or a big season. But once it happens, the intensity level each Saturday changes.
The crowd noise gets louder at home and away. The spotlight gets brighter. Opponents become more focused. Missouri quarterback Chase Daniel knows what it means for the Tigers.
“We used to be the hunters and now we’re the hunted,” he said Monday afternoon at Big 12 Football Media Days.
It’s a fact of life for the Tigers this season. Everything they do over the remaining months of 2008 will be compared to last season.
The Tigers, who went 12-2 last season, are the overwhelming pick to win the Big 12 North for the second straight year, and a fashionable pick to win the conference and compete for a national championship.
Those expectations aren’t laid upon middle-of-the-pack programs. It’s the leaders who get them.
Missouri made its move in 2007. It went from a team typically on the fringe of the polls that typically receives a middle-tier bowl bid to national championship contention and the Big 12 title game.
“We certainly haven’t arrived,” Missouri coach Gary Pinkel said. “We won the Big 12 North last year, but Missouri still hasn’t won a Big 12 championship yet.”
Most teams in BCS conferences have had that one season when they were among college football’s elite. Doing it on a consistent is a harder feat. Those that can brag about years, decades and generations of sustained success belong to a very exclusive fraternity.
In the Big 12, only Oklahoma, Texas and Nebraska have that kind of tradition.
Everyone is still striving to get there. The Tigers believe they have what it takes to take that next step.
For one, they were in a similar position last season.
Missouri was the Big 12 North’s favorite when and a ranked team when the season began. It did nothing but climb throughout the season. Only a regular-season loss to OU and another at the Sooners’ hands in the conference title game kept the Tigers out of the BCS championship game.
“You look at everything that’s happened the past year and all the craziness around us, we’ve handled it really well,” Daniel said. “It isn’t a cockiness, but it’s a walk, a swagger with this team that says we’ve handled this before.”
But matching last year’s success won’t be enough. Anything short of a Big 12 title will bring a sense of disappointment. Anything less means the Tigers failed to move forward.
Elite programs face those expectations every season. The Sooners, who are favored by most to be the Tigers’ foe in the Big 12 title game Dec. 6 at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City, Mo., live with it every day.
The Tigers say they want and are ready to handle that kind of pressure.
“The difference comes in attitude,” said receiver Jeremy Maclin, who might be the best athlete in the conference. “We don’t feel like we’ve made it to the top. We feel like we could have done more last year. We have the attitude we want to actually win it this time.”
If Missouri does, it won’t be a big surprise.
Those days are over.
John Shinn
366-3536
jshinn@normantranscript.com