Missouri vs. SE Missouri State football preview

Judging by comments from Missouri players and coaches, you would never know that the Tigers were facing Southeast Missouri State on Saturday.

“They’re going to be ready to play us, and we’ve just got to go out there and be focused and prepare just like it’s the Big 12 Championship,” outside linebacker Sean Weatherspoon said at a press conference Sept. 1.

This weekend’s match-up with SEMO will be slightly less difficult than a Big 12 title game against the conference’s South Division champion. The Redhawks are 1-0 on the year, but needed a frantic comeback and an overtime period to defeat Division II Southwest Baptist 35-28 last Saturday.

In short, SEMO isn’t a very good football team. In fact, the school’s football program has enjoyed just two winning seasons since making the jump to Division I in 1991.

With the game likely to be over in the first half, the Tigers can focus on correcting some of their most pressing issues. The biggest area of concern is the secondary, a unit Illinois’ quarterback Juice Williams torched for more than 400 yards last Saturday.

“We had some coverage breakdowns, some assignments missed. We had some fundamental breakdowns. They also threw 5-6 balls absolutely on the money, with great catches. So I think you need to give them some credit,” head coach Gary Pinkel said at the press conference.

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Offensively, Missouri ran all over the Illini on the ground, racking up 226 yards rushing. In the air, Chase Daniel threw three touchdown passes and made just one critical mistake on an interception which Illinois returned for a touchdown. Still, even with the impressive offensive performance, Pinkel sees room for improvement.

“We need to become a better offensive football team. In the 4th quarter, we had the ball four times, and we punted three times and missed a 4th-and-1,” Pinkel said. “So, everybody talks about our offense. We scored 38 points on offense, not 52.”

The Tigers’ opponent won’t be strong on Saturday and the game should be out of reach by halftime. Still, Missouri seems to understand that this weekend’s game is and opportunity to improve as a football team.

“We just have to go out there and prepare just as if SEMO was Illinois, just take it one week at a time and try to become that national championship team that we can be,” Weatherspoon said.

By David Speers
Big 12 Fans Missouri Correspondent

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