COLUMBIA, Mo. --- When Dresser Winn's third-down pass went incomplete on UT-Martin's first possession of this year's opener, the Skyhawks were forced to punt.

And Missouri's football season was off to a much better start than last year. Much, much better. Because last year, Missouri State had already scored about 40 points at that point.

This season, no such problems, as there shouldn't have been against UT-Martin.

Tigers 51, Skyhawks 14.

(What's a skyhawk, anyway? A hawk that flies in the sky? Are there actually ground hawks who walk around to get their prey?)

"Going into the unknowns of Week One," MU coach Barry Odom said Tuesday, "(it was good to see) how we responded through some of those things. Then, the progress we made through Week One and Week Two, a lot of improvement."

In Game 2, this much better start continued. Because in 2017, South Carolina came to Missouri's version of Columbia and --- as a four-point underdog --- outscored the Tigers 31-3 to end the game to win going away.

That kick-started a staggering collapse by Mizzou, which would lose five straight games and tumble to 1-5. Calls for Odom's job became more frequent than the ones for Donald Trump's.

That's a lot of calls.

But for the love of Gary Pinkel, the Tigers are 8-1 in their last nine regular-season games. Odom would actually get a contract extension at the end of last season, when the Tigers closed with six straight wins.

To be frank, the Tigers beat six bad teams. Some of the teams, like Florida and Tennessee, come from proud programs, but they had quit caring and quit trying. No less than three of those six head coaches were fired either right after, or shortly before, they played the Tigers.

But now this --- Saturday's 40-13 walloping of Wyoming, which is neither good nor bad team, but one of those lumped in the massive group that will hover around .500 all season and hope to get a bid to a bowl only a mother could love.

"I'm excited for our football team to be 2-0, I'm excited for the progress we've made," Odom said. "But we also understand that we have a long way to go in a lot of areas.

"But we've got a lot of things to build on, which is good, and we have a lot of players with game experience."

The Tigers have piled up a 91-27 scoring edge in two games, meaning they've been solid on both offense and good defense. And they're doing it with two new coordinators --- Derek Dooley on offense, Ryan Walters on defense.

That normally doesn't happen.

Dooley, of course, has one of the best toys in the country to play with in senior quarterback Drew Lock, who's been nominated for every preseason honor except an Academy Award and Nobel Prize.

Granted, its been against two lesser opponents, but Lock has been simply scintillating --- 52-of-70 (74.3 percent) for 687 yards, no interceptions, eight touchdowns and a video-game-like passer rating of 194.4.

"It's just a confident me," Lock said. "I know my checks, I know what I need to do, that all stems from coach Dooley. He's doing a great job as OC right now, calling a lot of great plays in certain situations where I'm like, 'Hey, I'm liking that.'"

In turn, Lock's favorite toy has been senior wide receiver Emmanuel Hall, who's caught 14 passes, three for touchdowns, and has already amassed 342 receiving yards.

That total is good enough for fourth in the nation --- and two of the guys ahead of him have already played three games.

"I'm proud of him, because he has grown up," Odom said of Hall. "He understands that he has the ability, at times, to take over a game."

Lock knows as much.

"His stigma is that he runs fast and he runs straight," Lock said. "He's excited to go through this season and show everybody he can do other things than just run straight."

The Tigers have improved the most on defense, simply because they've made significant strides in a fairly important area --- tackling. They're making tackles instead of missing them, with junior linebacker Cale Garrett leading the way with 12.

"Anytime you're playing winning football, that causes and creates momentum," Odom said. "After the first two weeks, the focus now is to go 1-0 this week. I know that's boring and coach-talk and all the other things, but I want our team to embrace the chance to prepare and go try to get this win, this week."

Of course it's coach-talk, it's what coaches do.

But Odom did hint at one big thing --- the Tigers really, really need to win at Purdue (0-2, 0-1 Big Ten) on Saturday at 6:30 p.m. (Big Ten TV Network). Not necessarily for the thrill of starting 3-0, but because with a loss, Mizzou could very well be 2-4 in a few weeks.

They'd rather not even consider a repeat of last year's collapse.

Even the hardiest of Tigers fans expect Mizzou to lose at least two of its next three, at home to No. 3 Georgia on Sept. 22 and at No. 1 Alabama on Oct. 13. In between, it's at South Carolina on Oct. 6.

"If we start looking too far ahead or too far behind," Odom said, "that's not good to allow our guys to do that. We need to worry about the here and the now."

That would be Purdue, a team that dominated Missouri last year in Columbia --- the Boilermakers outgained the Tigers 477-203 in the 35-3 shellacking.

"We've already addressed that one so many times," Odom said, "that we don't really need to go back there. They know what happened that Saturday afternoon and they know what's out there now."

Yes, Purdue is 0-2, losing home games to Northwestern and Eastern Michigan. Yes, Eastern Michigan, a team that had two guys named Tyler Wiegers and Mike Glass combine for 347 yards passing.

That has to make Drew Lock, Emmanuel Hal, et al., salivate --- but you still have to play the game.

The Royals, after all, did beat the Red Sox once this summer.

Must win? It appears Tigers
desperately need to beat Purdue

Loeffler's Link

A happy bunch of Missouri Tigers celebrate their 40-13 win over Wyoming on Saturday night at Faurot Field.