Missouri’s first SEC game is Sept. 8, inside the friendly confines of Faurot Field. They will face the No. 6 Georgia Bulldogs, the preseason Southeastern Conference East favorites.
“I think the Georgia game, it’s big,” coach Gary Pinkel told reporters at SEC Media Days. “Normally I never talk about a game other than your first game. We understand historically for the University of Missouri it’s going to be a big game, the first SEC game, the first SEC home game for our university. It’s going to be a big game for us.”
Pinkel has previously said he anticipates a “mammoth” atmosphere. However, Missouri has a game to play before Georgia: this Saturday, against FCS opponent Southeastern Louisiana, who is still expected to make the trip out of Baton Rouge Airport from its homeland, lashed this week by Hurricane Isaac. The school’s campus in Hammond, La., was closed for the week.
The main question about the visiting Lions at Monday’s media day was whether Tiger players had already begun to look past them in anticipation of week two, when the Bulldogs will be in town.
“I have the responsibly as a head football coach to look at everything, so to say that is not a concern is irresponsible on my behalf,” Pinkel said. “The really good football teams do not prepare differently because they play a team that is better or worse than another team. If you do that you are not going to be very good, you are going to be very inconsistent, and you are going to have major problems as the season goes on, so that is my job, to make sure that does not happen.”
Southeastern Louisiana coach Ron Roberts also pondered where MU’s focus would lie this weekend, tweeting, “Is Mizzou even watching film on us with Georgia next week?” at a local reporter Monday afternoon.
“We haven’t seen a lot of film on their actual guys,” junior receiver Marcus Lucas said Monday. “On paper they look like good-sized guys, so I’ll be anxious to see what they actually look like on film.”
Missouri is 11-0 all-time against FCS opponents, eight of which have come under Pinkel. None of those wins have come by less than 21 points.
The Lions finished 2011 3-9, getting throttled 52-6 by Southern Mississippi and losing 47-33 to Tulane in their two games against Division I opponents.
The Tigers enter the 2012 season with injuries up front offensively and in the defensive backfield. Seniors Travis Ruth and Jack Meiners, the projected starters at guard at the onset of camp, are each out for the season opener. Starting in their place will be former walk-on junior Max Copeland and true freshman Evan Boehm.
Boehm will become the first true freshman to start along the offensive line for Missouri in the Pinkel era.
“He’s got it, kind of beyond his years in maturity and understanding,” line coach Josh Henson said earlier in the summer. “He’s obviously a talented kid. But talent doesn’t always equal being able to play early. Many times it’s about a kid’s maturity, his ability to take thing in and keep working, when he makes mistakes to not get too frustrated. He’s doing a nice job handling those things.”
On the other side of the ball, senior cornerback Kip Edwards and redshirt sophomore free safety Braylon Webb, each a projected starter, is listed as questionable on the depth chart. If they can’t go, juniors Randy Ponder and Matt White will start in their place.
Junior tailback Henry Josey was the star of the Tigers’ last two match-ups with FCS opponents, rushing for 112 yards and three touchdowns on seven carries as a freshman against McNeese State and 263 yards and three touchdowns on 14 carries last year against Western Illinois.
With Josey sidelined for the season, a new FCS-dominating back will likely have the chance to emerge for Missouri.
Yes, the Lions don’t appear to pose a great threat, and Georgia is next week, but junior cornerback E.J. Gaines said the Tigers know what they need to do Saturday.
“If we go out there and play the right way, we all know we can go out there and take care of Southeastern Louisiana,” he said.
-Sports Editor Seth Boster contributed to this report.