Updating our Missouri Tigers bold predictions at midway point of 2023 football season
Welcome to the midway point of the 2023 season, where Missouri football sits at 5-1 and has surprised plenty of pundits.
Except for me, that is. I would like to point out I was spot on with my game predictions so far.
Let’s revisit some of our picks from the preseason, including several bold predictions we logged back in August...
Missouri football will start 5-1
Correctness gauge: Correct
In my game-by-game predictions, I said Missouri would enjoy a 5-0 start to the season heading into the LSU game with a big win over Kansas State.
No, please don’t ask me about any lottery numbers.
I did, however, predict a loss to LSU. I also predicted Missouri to go 3-3 the rest of the way to finish 8-4 on the season. Knowing how good Missouri’s offense has been in the first six weeks, that could easily be 4-2 if the defense can straighten out.
Sam Horn will win the starting quarterback job
Correctness gauge: Incorrect
Not only did Sam Horn not win the starting job, but Brady Cook has looked incredible. The only reason Cook hasn’t won an SEC Offensive Player of the Week honor is because Ray Davis ran for 200 yards in Week 5 and Jayden Daniels routed Mississippi State in Week 3.
Horn was in the MU quarterback competition going into the regular season. He didn’t play himself out of the race. Cook just won it unequivocally.
Horn did play the second half against South Dakota, where he threw a touchdown, but also threw an interception. Even if the interception wasn’t completely Horn’s fault, Cook looked better with the same players and against the same defense.
The only bummer stemming from this is all of the unused copy I had pre-written about Horn ... for example, all of the headline opportunities we could’ve sampled from acclaimed rapper Drake on the track “Rich Flex.”
Imagine in bold font, “21 can you do something for me” after Horn, who wears No. 21, threw for three touchdowns? A headline writer can only dream.
Luther Burden will be a Biletnikoff Award finalist
Correctness gauge: Not-yet correct
Yeah, the list of finalists won’t come out until much, much later in the season. Still. how can you argue that Burden isn’t one of the best receivers in the nation this season?
Burden leads the country in yards and receptions. Basically, everything thrown his way is going to get caught. Against LSU, Burden made a back-shoulder reception in the middle of the field where he went up. I mean, he went way up.
Burden has 54 receptions for 793 yards. If he continues on his current pace, which is simply 132 yards per game, he will be the first Missouri receiver since J’Mon Moore in 2017 to go over 1,000 yards by Week 8.
Considering how good Burden has been in his sophomore season, he’s going to be a finalist. If he’s not, then there needs to be some discussions with the award selection process.
The Mizzou Team MVP will be in the trenches
Correctness gauge: Incorrect
Before the season, I said Armand Membou would be Missouri’s most important player this season. I said Membou would anchor the offensive line opposite Javon Foster and give the Tigers a group that’s much improved in 2023, but also beyond.
Membou hasn’t been bad this season. Not by a long shot. Pro Football Focus has given Membou a season grade of 76.1 through six weeks. That’s behind Foster but ahead of all the other offensive linemen.
Cook and Burden are way ahead of Membou in terms of PFF grades. Again, not to say Membou has had a bad season but Cook has been a revelation for Missouri at the game’s most important position.
Membou will be an important player in the second half of the season when MU goes up against some of the best pass rushers in the SEC, namely against Georgia, Tennessee and Florida. But, Cook’s emergence as a gunslinger has been hard to beat out in the case for MU’s overall MVP.