A Fan’s Notes: A Hard Reset in Tuscaloosa

Earlier in the spring, I wrote a column on these electronic pages about how even a successful 2024 season would not be as purely fun as the 2023 season, thanks to the heightened expectations that come with success. I was imagining a campaign as similarly successful as last year; I didn’t have it in me to imagine the stress that would come with multiple injuries to Brady Cook and a pair of national spotlight shellackings.

And here Missouri sits, at 6-2, clinging to a top 25 ranking, heading into the bye with a 10-2 reprise still possible, yet with the online chicken littles ready to fold the program and sell Faurot off for scrap.

Things were dire for the Tigers in Tuscaloosa. Five years of bad…