Missouri Tigers: Mizzou welcomes Iowa State for the school's 100th Homecoming celebration

October 13, 2011|Chris Replogle, KY3 News | creplogle@ky3.com

COLUMBIA, Mo. - Home sweet home.

The Missouri Tigers (2-3, 0-2) will return to Faurot Field Saturday for its Big 12 Conference home opener against the Iowa State Cyclones (3-2, 0-2). Mizzou will also celebrate the school's 100th Homecoming. The timing is some good medicine.

“Obviously we are disappointed with where we’re at right now," said Missouri Tigers Head Coach Gary Pinkel. "I think any time you go through adversity, you look at where you’re at, what you need to do to get better, and you persevere, fight and battle through it,"

Back-to-back conference losses has opened up the competition for several starting spots. Punter Trey Barrow worked this week at place kicker. Senior Grant Ressel has struggled connecting only seven of thirteen field goals this season. He only missed three attempts in his first two seasons as the starter. High profile recruit, junior Sheldon Richardson is pushing Dominic Hamilton for a starting position on the defensive line.

"Nobody knows our depth or our personnel better than I do," said Pinkel. "We handle it like we’ve always handled it. If we feel like a younger player can play, we’ll do it. If we feel like he’s not ready to play, he won’t."

Maybe some home cooking will cure some of the Tigers offensive woes coming off last week's loss at Kansas State. Missouri scored just ten points through the first three quarters. Two touchdowns in the fourth quarter were too late. Mizzou has struggled to get the ground game going early in games.

"Play calling is up to the coordinators," said wide receiver T.J. Moe. "There’s sometimes against Oklahoma were we didn’t run it all that early. We were throwing the ball downfield. I was catching 30-yard passes in the first quarter and we were moving right along."

Iowa State has dropped two consecutive Big 12 Conference games at home to Texas and on the road against Baylor. Missouri has won three straight and seven out of the last eight games in the series.

The game will not be televised. However the University of Missouri is streaming the game for $9.95 at mutigers.com. Kickoff is at 1:00 p.m.

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