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Mizzou Football: Questions Linger for Season Opener

By Tyler Wornell

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College football is back, and Mizzou looks to win their third straight SEC East title in 2015.

The Gary Pinkel led squad will return several starters on offense, including quarterback Maty Mauk and running back Russell Hansbrough.

Mauk led the charge last year, throwing for 2,648 yards with 25 touchdowns and 13 interception. Mauk completed just 53.4% of his passes last year, a statistic we’d all like to see improve this year. While Mauk is firmly planted as the starter, true freshman Drew Lock from Lee’s Summit High School made a splash during the fall camp, earning him the number two spot.

Some questions still linger for this Missouri Tigers team, both on the offensive and defensive line. Connor McGovern and Evan Boehm are the only returning starters on the offensive line, as Mitch Hall, Alec Abeln and Nate Crawford earned the other three starting jobs following preseason camp.

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    • On the defensive side, the Tigers will be without Shane Ray and Markus Golden, who were drafted by NFL teams back in May. Despite those two departures, the defensive line looks pretty good, as Charles Harris, Ricky Hatley, Josh Augusta and Marcell Frazier will start for the Tigers. The weakness for the defense could be the cornerback position, where Kenya Dennis is the only standout player we’ve seen so far in camp.

    The Tigers week one opponent is Southeast Missouri State, who they last faced in 2008, when Mizzou was still a member of the Big 12 conference. The Tigers dominated the Redhawks, beating them 52-3 at Faurot Field. The quarterback during that 2008 season was Blaine Gabbert, who currently plays for the San Francisco 49ers as a backup to Colin Kaepernick.

    SEMO finished with a 5-7 record last year, and a 3-5 record in the Ohio Valley Conference. They are coached by Tom Matukewicz, who is entering his second season with the Redhawks. The team last won a conference championship in 2010, when they finished with a 9-3 (7-1) record, and were coached by Tony Samuel.

    The game on Saturday is a 3 p.m. kickoff on a holiday weekend, so I wouldn’t be surprised if not many fans filled the stadium. The projected high temperature is 93 degrees on Saturday, making the spectating conditions not so comfortable.

    Mizzou usually takes care of business in these non-conference games, as they took down South Dakota State in week one last year very easily. If the Tigers run up the score, we can expect to see some action from the second or even third string players, such as Drew Lock.

    The Tigers have an all-time 14-0 record against FCS opponents, and I don’t expect them to lose this one. In 11 games under Gary Pinkel, the Tigers have outscored FCS opponents 543-93, which is an average margin of 49.4-8.5. While SEMO does have some good talent on the offensive side of the ball, they aren’t quite capable of knocking off the back-to-back SEC East champions.

    Next: Should Chase Daniel Be Traded?

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