By the numbers, Missouri’s performance Saturday was one for the ages. The Tigers scored 69 points and allowed 0. They amassed 744 yards and surrendered 44. Sophomore tailback Henry Josey ran for 263 yards and three touchdowns in the first half alone.
All broke or challenged program records. All were essentially meaningless.
That’s because it was a game between the Missouri Tigers and the Western Illinois Leathernecks. The ear test is all one needs to understand the potential of this matchup.
Football games between BCS teams and FBS programs have become so relatively useless, the NCAA stopped counting them years ago for bowl eligibility, conference record tiebreakers and Strength of Schedule. They essentially serve as bye weeks to coast into tough matchups. (Coincidentally, the Tigers play No. 1 Oklahoma next weekend.)
The environment at the Zou was so dull Saturday that the excitement level compared more favorably to a seminar on clickers than it did any imitation of a college football contest. The reaction to many of the scoring plays, such as Wes Kemp’s “I can see for miles” catch-and-step to kickstart the onslaught, were more of laughter than any sort of prideful cheer.
Missouri’s 69-0 stomping of Western Illinois on Saturday wasn’t impressive, exciting or meaningful. It was just stupid and unnecessary. And sadly, it keeps happening.
[As I referenced in an earlier column]( https://www.themaneater.com/stories/2011/9/9/column-tonight-tempe-bravery-will-be-born/), Missouri under coach Gary Pinkel has made it an annual tradition to rack up meaningless statistics on FBS programs such as Western Illinois. The Leathernecks are one of eight subdivision programs the Tigers have played in non-conference games under the current regime. In the same time frame, the Tigers have played just three BCS programs.
The problem with playing subdivision schools is not that it’s easy, but that’s it’s absolutely pointless. Every program schedules a mid-major fodder early in the year as a test of progress and as a comfortable avenue by which to break in new starters. Games against North Texas, for example, are perfectly acceptable.
Scheduling subdivision schools doesn’t do that. Instead, it takes cupcake scheduling and easy tests to an uncomfortable extreme. Athletes play for Division 1-AA programs because they didn’t receive Division 1-A looks. You can count on one hand the players on a given subdivision team that would get the chance to walk onto a roster like Missouri’s. The talent disparity renders the matchups of less challenge than intrasquad scrimmages.
The greatest challenge for a BCS program in a game against a subdivision school is to not score too much, to not risk injury and to not appear as if it doesn’t respect the opponent. Many schools, like Missouri on Saturday, fail to stop themselves.
Missouri played its backups from early in the third quarter straight through the end of the game. Non-scholarship running backs took the bulk of snaps after running the play clock all the way down. Missouri still accidentally outscored Western Illinois 20-0.
Nobody seemed to really enjoy what took place Saturday, so why bother?
The value to take from a matchup such as this is basically nonexistent. A 69-0 victory doesn’t impress anybody. A semi-competitive game shines as an embarrassment on the program.
The Tigers entered Saturday with plenty of questions to answer along the offensive line and in the secondary. We still have no idea of any progress made in either area, because rather than face a team that could pose any type of challenge in any game scenario, the Tigers engaged in a scrimmage with a team less talented than their own practice squad.
Winning arm wrestling matches against four-year-olds is an accomplishment for the faint of self. Missouri, as well as any self-respecting BCS program, should be above such a collective waste of time.