Friday Misery - one-thirds Odoms, plus Donny, Monica Lewinsky, and cans of paint

I keep reminding myself, “Hey, we won last week man. Chin up!” Yet somehow I just want to curl up into a ball and wallow in my own pool of self pity.

<deep sigh>

So let’s pass this handle of corn liquor around the circle until we all feel like we haven’t been kicked in the balls for six days straight.

Know thine Enemy, much much betterer this time.

By God we are going to do a MUCH more thorough job of researching this week's opponent than the half-assed stuff my staff trotted out there last week for you to digest. Folks from southeast Louisiana been making me eat every word of that mess all week!

So, onto the actual real life facts!

• 

  According to Google, this is neither Dave nor Barry.

  Missouri’s coach is not Gary Robin Pinkel any longer. It’s Barry Odom.
• Coach Odom is NOT the former basketball coach at South Carolina and Wake Forrest.
• Also, Wake Forest actually has one “r” and not two. (See?!? I’m on point this week!)
• The Tigers are quarterbacked by Drew Lock. And just as Barry ain’t Dave’s son, Drew ain’t Andrew Luck’s younger brother. I know this because Luck is spelled with a “u” and not an “o”.
• (Damn, we’re on a roll now!)
• Missouri has played in front of a combined 111,317 people this season, which also happens to be the aggregate attendance of #93KDay’s concession lines.
• The Tigers’ most complete drive of their first two games was a 10 play 80 yard romp late in the game against the West Virginia Mountaineers when their fate had all but been decided.
• Put their offensive stats up against the timeline and backdrop of current events, and it’s clear that Missouri’s offensive coordinator Josh Heupel gave Hillary her pneumonias. Their offense is still getting it’s feet under itsownself.
• Their fans drink from paint cans.

Annoyingly cute.

A puppy just before it shits on the rug. Soccer games. A newlywed couple standing on a beach, making pouty-lipped faces in the direction of their selfie-stick. Charlie, until he bites Harry’s finger. Kittens. Every kitten.

All appropriate similes for Missouri fans.

CLICK BARF

These jokers can’t completely understand Fall Saturdays, bless their hearts. Follow that link in the last bullet point up there. We’ve seen first hand. I mean, their fans go through all the right motions, but they lack intensity, commitment, drive, as well as an ability to fathom college football the way it’s meant to be fathomed.

Exhibit A. Found this excerpt from a site that is now defunct, but it best exemplifies how Missouri fans go through the motions with a haphazard lackadaisicalness that is really cute...until it’s annoying as hell.

"Like a Tiger at the Zou, shake your tail at the gate. Tailgating is one of the oldest traditions in college football. It's simple. Get a tent, some Missouri apparel, maybe a grill, and you're set for a good time."

Uh, I’m gonna zip right past that part about the tiger and his tail and the gate and head straight to this - “maybe a grill”...??

Again, cute until they’re just pissing you off with the nervous smile that is more than a bit overly forced and how they’re all wearing hoodies even though the temperature is easily in the 80s. And we’re just waiting for a cameraman to jump out from behind a tree and everyone says “PUNK’d!! Hahahaha!” Then everyone is actually normal.

But there’s no tree with a cameraman hiding behind it. The weird just gets more weird over yonder.

Remember that scene in The Big Lebowski where Steve Buscemi’s character Donny continually tries to add to the conversation until at long last Walter yells “YOU’RE OUT OF YOUR ELEMENT DONNY!!”

That’s Missouri fans in the SEC y'all. Hopelessly and completely out of their element until some suit with an SEC pin on the lapel takes his head out of his ass and gives Missouri back to the midwest.

Don’t take it too personal Pinkels...ya just ain’t our style of people.

Know thine ownself too and also...

This is us coming down the tracks last Saturday…

And this is us filing out…

By Monday it struck me that college football season is an ever teetering balance between the weight of the questions and the weight of the answers. LOT more questions this week than answers. It’s like that time you were expecting the usual 25 multiple choice test in Government and ol’ Coach Watson doubled it and added an essay.

I strutted on in there like a Jeopardy champion, all “Yo Trebek, gimme System of checks and balances for five benjis!” But I crawled out like a low rent lobbyist that’s been outbid.

You beat North Carolina and you feel like Harry Gotdamn Truman. “Howya like the taste of that nuclear Chubb Fedora? Boo-yah!” Then ya eke out a win over little ol’ itty bitty Nicholls and suddenly your name is Monica and your blue dress needs Martinizing.

Karma is a fickle bitch. When she slaps you back down to Earth you gotta smile back and say, “That all you got lady?”

"Truman ain't never seen these nuclear
codes Baby!"

Look, Eason is fine. We gotta trust him more. You know this because the opposing defenses don’t trust him not to throw over their safeties’ helmets. A night game on the road makes you nervous for the true freshman and an offensive line trying to find its collective identity, but if Rodrigo brings that cannon as a Delta carry-on, and the defense plays aggressive and knocks those receivers off their routes, then I think we’ll be okay.

After all, beating a really over-matched FCS team by two points proves you have some issues - namely a young coaching staff coaching a lot of young players. But if you lose to Missouri, you’ve besmirched all that is sacred about Life in the (real) South.

You win this one for Sweet Tea. You beat that block in the name of Grits. You catch that pass because Lewis and Larry are waiting out an Eternity to light their cigars. You pancake a dude because it’d make your momma proud son!

Let’s win this game because we were prepared to do so. Let’s be the bigger dog in the yard, the one that eats all the bowls of food because no other mutt will stand up and ask us not to. Let’s fight for every yard and claw for every loose ball as if the winner gets the honor of getting grandma’s macaroni pie recipe handed down to them by the Grace of God!

Now, please bow your heads...Dear Lord Almighty, please help us repair the broken button on the Human Joystick. And make sure Chaney brings the Payne!

Light on the sauce this week...

...but plenty of Dawg talk to go around as Bob, Corbin, and I discuss closing thoughts on Nicholls and look ahead to Saturday night in Missouri.

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Sunday Thoughts on double entendre'd pancakes

Yesterday 'tween the hedges is what happens when the following perfect storm hits:

• inflated early season ranking inflates players' egos
• inexperienced and non-cohesive offensive line plays in front of a freshman quarterback
• receivers that can't consistently get separation
• and playing against a team with absolutely nothing to lose

Absolutely nothing.

And that's where I want to start. Because you have to tip your cap to the Nicholls Colonels. As much as I hate seeing my team struggle, I always really enjoy seeing an underdog rise to the occasion. It's what makes college football great. Those guys were tremendously undersized. Tremendously! They barely had enough scholarship players to fill one bus. Just one! And they gave a bunch of four and five stars all they could handle.

Now, take a step back from the ledge and bear with me now. Read the last sentence of that last paragraph again. Because that's a good thing. I mean, right? There's no question the guys in Red read those press clippings last week and grinned a little too big last week. There's no question they came out the tunnel at Kirby's first home game having already lost whatever pregame direction the coaches' had given.

And there's no question they struggled to regain their composure the next 60 minutes of the game clock.

That's what young teams do y'all. Think about all the young players we're putting out there. All over the field. Even at quarterback, the most important position on the team. Plus, you even have experienced guys like McKenzie making crucial mistakes and even Chubb fumbling the ball...just a weird day. Real, real weird.

So here's how the coaches fix this:

• Keep Eason in. No one is going to respect Lambert deep and running backs need some room. Keeping 10 in there keeps the safeties deeper and helps the offensive line grow up.
• Unleash Rocker and Pittman this week. If I were Kirby I'd tell them to chew ass from dawn til dusk. SEC play starts Saturday night and SEC wins come from the trenches. Those guys need to eat space and eat pancakes.
• Get McKenzie and Godwin more touches. Those guys can neutralize some other mistakes with their speed.

And hey, the kickers played well yesterday. Otherwise we're the headline on ESPN for 24 hours as having lost to an FCS team. Anyone remember Appy State? No, not that one. This one. I really, really like that we trotted Ham out there for the 53 yarder and he nearly delivered. Even though he missed it, it still shows necessary confidence. Necessary.

Granted, a little surprised Blankenship prefers non-fake turf. But then again, so do I. Especially when it's Sanford's.

Two more things y'all. First, hearing a lot of uncomfortable comparisons to Saban's first loss to UL Monroe. Or whatever. Last time I checked we do our goddamn business in Athens GA. Who are y'all, Travelocity.com?

Look, we just need to chill. Stop bitching and moaning and comparing and trying to make this game fit so nicely into your cerebral cortex. Yesterday wasn't as fun as we'd hoped. We should've known better. The coaches should've known better. The players definitely should've known better. But I'm always reminded of how new seasons go when there's a new coach, new philosophy, new procedures, new everything:

Before the season starts, I just ask that y’all support your team. It’s a new era. Many of y’all ain’t experienced this yet. (1/3)

— Bernie (@BernieDawg) September 3, 2016

Not always easy. But we’ll get there together, thru the ups and downs. Go Dawgs! (2/3)

— Bernie (@BernieDawg) September 3, 2016

That said, we’re gonna run unc out of Atlanta like he’s a 21st century Tecumseh Sherman. Go Dawgs! #DawgsOnTop (3/3)

— Bernie (@BernieDawg) September 3, 2016

Okay, speaking of pancakes. Shout out to Smokewagon for borrowing ol' Russ Tanner's variable speed rotary griddle thing, which happens to be the most amazing invention I've ever ever ever experienced. It fed a legion of hungry Dawg fans pancakes, bacon, sausage, and eggs. If only it would pour my beer faster...

Pancakes for a hungry hoard of Dawgs!

A video posted by Bernie (@berniedawg) on Sep 10, 2016 at 6:20am PDT