Coach Mason takes his team into Columbia, Missouri for a 2:30 PM CT/3:30 PM ET kickoff against the Missouri Tigers. The game will be televised by the SEC Network. VU comes into the game at 4-5 overall, and 1-4 in the SEC. Missouri is 2-7 overall and 0-5 in the SEC, but came off a solid effort at South Carolina in a 31-21 loss. They’ve got talent and are dangerous. We are coming off a heroic effort at Auburn, losing 23-16, in a game which included a highly questionable overturn of a fumble call on the field with us leading 13-10. With that fumble caused by Zach in the third quarter and recovered by us, we would have really had the momentum. But the replay official didn’t see it that way, unfortunately. We still had a shot of winning at the end, after Zach made an amazing leap over the snapper and blocked Daniel Carlson’s field goal attempt. It was an epic moment in college football this season. Kyle and the offense moved us down the field, but we had an unfortunate interception at the end. Still super effort by Zach, Kyle, the offensive line, the wide receivers, the whole team. As Bill Belichick said after a Monday Night Patriots loss a couple of years ago, it’s “Onto Missouri.” The Patriots won the Super Bowl two years ago when Bill said that. 

And this is a colossal game for us. Coach Mason said in his press conference our goals are in front of us and they start with beating Missouri tomorrow. Continued good play by the offensive line, Kyle excelling in the passing game, great work by Ralph and Khari and maybe Josh, and superb work by Zach and the defense gets us over the top in Columbia.

Us 28, them 24

VU Basketball

The Bryce Drew era opens tonight in Annapolis, Maryland in the Veteran’s Classic as our basketball team opens its season up against the Marquette Golden Eagles at 5:30 CT/6:30 ET on CBS Sports Network.  

Talked to Bryce last Thursday and he’s pumped. We have only 10 scholarship players on our roster, so we need to stay healthy, but Coach Drew’s goal this season is to win every game and make a deep run in March. He’s going to be a special coach for us. We have Luke Kornet, our 7’1″, 250 pound senior center. leading the way along with Matthew Fisher-Davis, Riley LaChance, Jeff Roberson, Nolan Cressler, Joe Toye, Camron Justice, redshirt freshman Djerry Baptiste, 6’10”, 240, and freshman Payton Willis, a 6’4″ point guard, and 6’8″, 220 freshman power forward Clevon Brown. Will be an exciting team. Marquette finished 20-13 last year and have a good team returning. It’s a tough matchup for our guys, and will be a test right out of the gates.

Coach Drew signed three, 4-star players in the early signing period; 6’9″, 230 pound power forward-center Ejike Obinna from Ashburn, VA., 6’2″, 180 shooting guard Maxwell Evans from Houston Texas, and 6’1″, 175 pound point guard Saben Lee from Tempe, Arizona. Super recruiting by Coach Drew and the staff securing these talented players from the east coast and southwest. They all look like superb players.

But I’m excited for 2016-17, too. We’ve got good players and we can do some stellar work this season and continue that into March. It starts tonight.

VU 75, Marquette 72

Luke List

Luke shot 66 yesterday at the OHL Classic at Mayakoba in Playa del Carmen, Mexico. He is at -5, five shots back of leader Gary Woodland, who is -10 today through 11 in his second round. Luke tees off at 10:40 AM CT today. Luke’s been playing super golf the past three weeks and is on the verge of breaking through. Will keep you posted over the weekend.

Jay, Andre, JMatt and Casey in action this Sunday. Will have a report on all four on Monday.

Huge game tonight and gigantic game tomorrow. Need to Anchor Down and get it done in Annapolis and Columbia tonight and tomorrow respectively. 

Have a super Veteran’s Day. Today is a day to honor our service men and women. Thank you very much Veterans for protecting our country. All Americans owe a great debt to you guys.