2008 Missouri State Football

I am actually excited about Missouri State football this year. Two years ago, they hired Terry Allen from Iowa State to make a last ditch effort to save the football program. In the past 30 years, only the Jesse Branch clubs in '90 and '91 were able to make it to the playoffs. There was a bunch of former players who were the favorites to get the job; but, a guy I know on the hiring committee said that Terry Allen just impressed the hell out of them. He brought a copy of the Des Moines Register with the front page headline "Northern Iowa in Championship Game" (he coached UNI to a national championship game in the '90s), and told them that his goal was to have "Missouri State in Championship Game" as the headline in the St. Louis Post Dispatch and Kansas City Star. Now most people who are familiar with Missouri State and the politics in Missouri know that it is more likely to be a page three story in the sports sections of those papers if that actually happens. However, you gotta to like the ambition.

The Missouri Valley Football Conference is one tough mother. For the Bears to actually win it or even get into the playoffs are low. North Dakota State, a new member of the conference, was picked to win first this year by the media. South Dakota State, the other new member, was picked sixth, ahead of the Bears. However, Coach Allen showed more improvement last year over his first year. He is getting some top FCS prospects and it is showing. The QB, Cody Kirby, is picked preseason all conference, pretty good for the best conference in the nation.

I would be lying if I knew all the statistics and was a hardcore Bears Football fan. But, I try to check the box score and hope for the best. Even though they are in the toughest conference, I hope they end up 7-4 this year (6-5 last year) and end up at least sixth of ninth in the conference. You may be thinking just like Juno "Dream Big!" but this program has been in the hole so long, baby steps are good.

Vacation: Day 4

Today begins Day 4 of my vacation and I am still recovering from being sick yesterday. I do feel better, but other member(s) of my family who will remain nameless...and who hopefully will be making Steak'ums tonight...came down with the same thing. From this point on Chad, I would stop reading since it is about sports.

Despite that setback, I am starting to get excited for the fall with more and more football stories on my traditional news/sports websites: St. Louis Post Dispatch, Kansas City Star, Springfield News-Leader, ESPN, CNNSI and the Missouri Valley Conference, among others.

The Chiefs are rebuilding and getting better this year. How could they not with 13 draft picks this year? While their record will probably only be 4-12, I think it will be exciting to watch some young, raw talent. However, there are four major problems that are going to hold their long term goals back if Clark Hunt does nothing.

First, King Carl has still not signed the top three draft picks. He does this every year: Derrick Johnson, Tamba Hali, Dwayne Bowe. Once their contracts are up, why would anyone want to go through the hassle of negotiating with the Chiefs again.

Second, Herm Edwards doesn't know offense. I should have known when my long time friend and KC Chiefs apologist and optimist, Justin Sponaugle, told me that he was not happy that Herm was hired. I have never heard Sponaugle say a bad thing about the Chiefs. I like to give Herm the benefit of the doubt since he has taken his teams to the playoffs something like 7 out of 10 times, including KC 1 of 2 years. After watching last year though, the offense was the worst I have ever seen, including the Steve Bono years. The best sign at Arrowhead I saw last year was "Herm's Offense: R2P2 (Run, Run, Pass, Punt)."

Third, I am worried about Brodie Croyle. Even though the Chiefs have a lot of young talent, QB is key and he has yet to produce. In his defense, the schizophrenic management did not know when to play him and when not. At the first hint of trouble, they would pull him. Croyle will benefit a lot more if they would just let him take his beatings and learn to adjust.

Fourth and finally, Larry Johnson sucks. This big baby, who whines about everyone else but himself, is a TO type cancer in the locker room. While the Chiefs offense line was horrible last year, LJ couldn't produce. I wouldn't care if King Carl signed his golden child to a $49 million contact last year. Rookie Kolby Smith seemed to do better than him last year. They should have traded him when his value was high. Now, when Jamal Charles is going to be this year's rookie of the year and take over the starting job, they will be lucky if they get anything better than a 5th round draft pick. And when he can't be traded, he going to destroy any team chemistry that the team is trying to build.

Well, I was going to summarize other football teams this fall, but this turned out longer than I thought. I will continue he different posts.

Worst Movie Ever

This weekend, my friend, Matthew Lowrance, at dinner once again made a case for Event Horizon as the worst movie ever. I have not seen Event Horizon, so he may be right. But it does have a lot to live up to. In my opinion, the worst movie ever is Eye of the Beholder starring Ewan McGregor and Ashley Judd. It has no redeeming value whatsoever.

Eye of the Beholder was filmed in 96 or 97, and it was so bad, that the studio decided not to release it. Only after Ewan McGregor became a household name in Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace (what some would say is an equally awful movie), did the studio release it. They shouldn't have. The plot has no flow and makes no sense. You have no idea whether Ewan McGregor and Ashley Judd's characters are heroes or villains. You keep waiting for the plot to go somewhere and after two-and-a-half hours, it just ends. After the first, and only, time I saw the movie, the audience in the theater laughed and booed when it ended.

I don't want to give anything else away. We may just have to have a weekend (perhaps MVC 2009) where everyone brings his candidate for the worst movie of all time, watch them and declare the winner once and for all.

My First Post

I am on vacation, sick and tired of laying on the couch feeling bad. So, I thought I would start blog. All my friends are doing it. I am not quite sure what this blog is going to cover, but probably mostly things that I like (Kansas City Royals, Kansas City Chiefs, Missouri State Bears, Minnesota Golden Gophers, and my new dogs, The Office, Arrested Development, and the sort; I like my wife too but I don't think she would like it if I posted things about her on here) and dislike (Southern Illinois Salukis, Wichita State Shockers, Denver Broncos, Oakland Raiders, Clint Baer's new job, and the like). So, stay tuned.