Kwiecinski: Why the most significant two-week stretch for Missouri football starts in St. Louis
Here we are, a week after Missouri football upset Kansas State.
A week after Missouri proved it could win the big game. A week after earning the SEC's best non-conference win this season. A week after Harrison Mevis rebranded the initials MU to Mevis University.
The excitement is palpable as the Tigers take their 3-0 record to St. Louis this weekend.
But, what's next? Sure, LSU and Georgia still remain on the schedule. However, the most significant challenge for Missouri football comes in the next two games. Only then can the team focus on what comes after.
The biggest challenge for Missouri football was getting over the Kansas State hump, to be sure. But what's step two? That would be making sure the next hump to clear, a date with LSU at Faurot Field, could mean even higher ground for MU.
The task in the meantime is to take care of business. This includes wins over Memphis and Vanderbilt, two winnable games for MU.
Every year the term "trap game" is tossed around in college football. It's a term used to describe a game, either before a colossal matchup or after a signature win, against a lesser team. Another way to describe is as looking past the current opponent.
It's not often a team has two trap games in a season, but Missouri has that in its next two games:
Vs. Memphis on Sept. 23 in St. Louis, a week after upsetting Kansas State.
At Vanderbilt on Sept. 30 in Nashville, a week before hosting LSU
Naturally, Eli Drinkwitz moved on from Kansas State on Tuesday during his weekly presser, but Cody Schrader had the best line on the matter.
"We give ourselves 24 hours to enjoy it. Everybody did Saturday night, you know, we got to celebrate with our team and families,” Schrader said Tuesday. “It's time to move on. I think the biggest thing for this team right now is not living in that moment.”
He's right, because no matter how superstitious, even just a little -stitious, you are, trap games exist.
I look back to the 2014 Missouri football season. The 3-0 and No. 18-ranked Tigers were at home, hosting Indiana a week before traveling to Columbia to take on No. 13 South Carolina.
I don't have to explain. The 1-1 Hoosiers upset Missouri 31-27 and the Tigers fell out of the top 25. Missouri did rebound with a 21-20 win over the Gamecocks the next weekend, but that hardly heals the sting coming from a loss to a team that eventually finished 4-8.
Those kinds of games exist in college football too often, and it's good that Drinkwitz is aware of that possibility. Step one to avoiding disaster is by actively looking for it.
Still, the next step after Memphis is a date with Vanderbilt in Nashville before LSU comes to Columbia. The Commodores haven't been a competitive test in the SEC since James Franklin ran the show, but it's hard to deny that Clark Lea has Vanderbilt moving in the right direction.
That will still be a game the Tigers should be favored in, but so were the 2019 Tigers when they took on Vanderbilt in Nashville. No. 22 MU lost in what was the beginning of the end of the Barry Odom era.
It's easy to remember those kinds of losses. Stumbling against a team plenty expect you to beat brings out some specific misery, but we're still just one-quarter of the way through the 2023 season. It's imperative to remember that early-season games aren't indicative of how a season will finish.
Missouri may have lost to a dismal Indiana team in 2014, but the Tigers still won the SEC East that season.
Even good teams stumble. Then again, the 2023 Tigers probably want to be better than just good. Not falling into the next two trap games sets up a chance for Missouri to prove it's more than good against LSU.
This article originally appeared on Columbia Daily Tribune: Why the most significant two-week stretch for Missouri football starts in St. Louis
