Leading up to Mizzou’s Dec. 28 Insight Bowl matchup against Iowa, KBIA Sports Extra will provide game-by-game looks back at the Tigers’ 10-2 2010 season.
Looking back
Mizzou’s first road test also turned out to be arguably its most complete win of the year. Playing in College Station, Texas, Mizzou dominated Texas A&M on both sides of the ball, holding the Aggies out of the end zone until late in the fourth quarter while finding the end zone four times en route to a 30-9 win.
Wes Kemp and Michael Egnew registered 10 catches apiece, with Kemp snagging two touchdowns. While dealing with a hip pointer, Blaine Gabbert played his best game of the season, completing 31 of 47 passes for 361 yards and three touchdowns.
From Texas A&M’s perspective, the loss to Mizzou kickstarted the Aggies’ offense as quarterback Jerrod Johnson was benched for Ryan Tannehill, who led A&M to six consecutive wins and a Cotton Bowl date with LSU.
Ross: The Missouri team that showed up for the most of game in College Station can compete with every team in the Big 12. But what are the odds that Missouri team shows up? Gary Pinkel has the biggest week of coaching he’s had this year sitting ahead of him. Missouri will likely be built up and promoted nationally for the first time this season heading into the Oklahoma game. It’ll be his job to make sure the Tigers are just as focused for Oklahoma as they were for Texas A&M. And, oh yeah, Missouri fans won’t let Pinkel forget he’s never beaten Oklahoma or Texas. If nothing else, it’s going to be quite an interesting bit of build-up to homecoming at The Zou.
Kip Edwards had a sack and an interception in Missouri's 26-0 win over Colorado Saturday. (Photo by JJ Stankevitz)
The KBIA Extra Weekly Podcast comes to you from College Station, Texas, where Ross and JJ are for the Mizzou volleyball match against Texas A&M.
Among the topics discussed this week:
The podcast can be downloaded directly by right-clicking here (11:33 runtime).
Junior defensive end Jacquies Smith will be part of the unit trying to stop Texas A&M quarterback Jerrod Johnson. (Photo by Ross Taylor)
Texas A&M faces Missouri this Saturday bearing the weight of a two-game losing streak, but even though the Aggies have fallen to two nationally-ranked opponents in those games, respect remains for the talent on the Texas A&M offense.
The offense funnels through senior quarterback Jerrod Johnson, the Big 12 Preseason Offensive Player of the Year, who was expected to make the leap from “great talent” to “great quarterback” in 2010 after the nation watched him pick apart the No. 2-ranked Texas Longhorns on Thanksgiving in 2009. So far this season, flashes of brilliance have been accompanied by stretches of ineptitude, as Johnson’s nine interceptions thrown are the highest total in the Big 12.
Yet, Johnson isn’t without a lack of weapons. Junior Jeff Fuller is Texas A&M’s career leader in touchdown receptions (23) and is on pace for several other career and single-season records before his time in College Station is completed. Across the field, sophomore Uzoma Nwachukwu actually led the Aggies in receiving yards a season ago.
KBIA Sports Extra will have coverage of Mizzou Football media availability on the Monday prior to every regular season game. Follow along on Monday afternoons at @KBIASportsExtra for live updates of coach Gary Pinkel’s weekly news conference. Here is today’s collection of live tweets:
#Mizzou #Pinkel says Jacquies Smith’s production has jumped up a bit lately with Aldon Smith out.
#Mizzou #Pinkel: there’s no separate gameplan for Gabbert and Franklin. Says the passing game is more controlled with Franklin, though.
#Mizzou #Pinkel: Gabbert won’t get over hip pointer soon, just has to tolerate the pain.
#Mizzou #Pinkel: “We’ve had more guys out than we’ve ever had.” (suspensions & injuries) “our fans don’t want to hear somebody got hurt.”
#Mizzou #Pinkel very impressed with Texas A&M’s offense and run defense. Says Jerrod Johnson is a great quarterback.
#Mizzou #Pinkel: Terrell Resonno had his best game of the year against Colorado.
#Mizzou #Pinkel says the rugby-style punting technique MU’s punters has significantly improved team’s punting success.
#Mizzou #Pinkel: “When I first saw [rugby punts], I said ‘what are they doing?'” didn’t think having three players to protect made sense.
#Mizzou #Pinkel: “If you get a good soccer guy–supposedly they’re the good athletes–he can roll either way [on punts].”
#Mizzou #Pinkel says football is so mental the team’s sports psychologists should help with managing the atmosphere at Kyle Field.
#Mizzou #Pinkel says for run game to be better, MU has to “coach better, block better, and run better.”
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