The Morning Commute for Friday, January 10th, 2024
Welcome to the Morning Commute
Boooooo college football… In the matchup of Notre Dame versus Penn State, I honestly had a lot of trouble trying to pick someone to root for. On one hand you have Notre Dame, perhaps the most sanctimonious of college football teams, and the preferred squad of American catholics everywhere. They brand themselves as this blue collar type football team but come from one of the nations elite universities, the golden domers… ugh. Not to mention the whole church scandal of covering up the sexual abuse of countless children. I’m not pinning that on Notre Dame, but also I’m not NOT pinning that on them. I will say on the positive side, Marcus Freeman seems like a good dude.
But if you’re anti-child sexual abuse (and I certainly hope we all are) then you’re certainly not rooting for Penn State, right? Not to mention James Franklin mishandling rape allegations at Penn State and Vanderbilt before. Penn State is not exactly screaming great culture. I don’t know, Mizzou has Beau Pribula on their roster know and he’s a Penn State guy so they can’t be all bad I guess.
But somebody had to win between these two and at least the game was pretty entertaining. Notre Dame won on a 41 yard field goal with 7 seconds left. It sets up one half of the National Championship game.
The other half will be played tonight when it’s Ohio State versus Texas. I mean, yuck. Notre Dame was the only thing holding us back from a potential All Big 10 matchup of teams who didn’t even win their conference? Either that or Texas? I’m throwing massive side eye here.
I’m sure Ohio State and Texas fans are excited but yikes. So Ohio State has a chance to win the Cotton Bowl after getting so badly beaten by an SEC team last year? God am I going to root for Texas? No, just gonna root for the snow storm.
Yesterday at Rock M and Rock M+
A pretty quiet day overall…
- It hasn’t been a fun season for Mizzou WBB, they dropped their game last night after Georgia came back from 14 down in the 4th quarter and won it at the buzzer:
Late in the fourth quarter, however, the Bulldogs barked back, cutting Mizzou’s lead all the way to one with under two minutes remaining. A pair of layups by Angelique Ngalakulondi and a pair of free throws from Grace Slaughter put the Tigers up by four with 17 seconds left.
Up 14 to start the 4th quarter, up 4 with 17 seconds left. Loss. Just a brutal season.
- Josh handled the recruiting reset for Washington State transfer Stephen Hall:
He’ll be stationed on the outside of the secondary, where he’ll compete with Pride, Norwood and Deloach for regular snaps. It should be noted that Hall had a coverage grade of 72.1 according to Pro Football Focus last season. That would’ve ranked first amongst Mizzou’s cornerbacks, though it’s easy to understand how going up against SEC passing offenses and Pac-2 and non-Power Four offenses are two different worlds.
The new remade secondary is going to be interesting to keep an eye on.
- Over at Rock M+, we’re talking about DataMizzou’s PAR:
Speaking of Tony, there’s two sides to this. First of all, yes, Perkins hasn’t been the total player we had hoped for. His efficiency marks have lagged. On the other side of the coin, his injury sapped early season minutes (and value) and his reintroduction into the rotation has not always been smooth. He often appears to be the third wheel, so to speak. We saw him show out in the Braggin’ Rights game. The talent is still there. Recapturing some of that value will be big.
Be on the lookout for a recruiting piece from Matt Harris today. Some good stuff on a prime Mizzou target from my alma mater.
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