Looking Back: Missouri's '06 Loss to Nebraska Fueled 2008 Victory

I'm ready to start talking about Okie State and move past Nebraska. Usually when a team wins, the coaches allow them 24 hours to enjoy the win before focusing on the next opponent. I think fans are allowed 48 hours.

But when you win against a team as hated as Nebraska is, on their home turf for the first time in 30 years, I think it's OK to extend it to 72 hours.

This is likely the last big post I make regarding the Huskers, so soak it up. I decided to take a look back at the column I wrote for The Maneater following Mizzou's loss to Nebraska in '06. It's startling how much things have changed since then.

I also think I look pretty good in hindsight in predicting that Chase Daniel would use the loss as motivation the rest of his career. 

As published in The Maneater on Nov. 8, 2006:

Tigers still a step below the elite 

There's not much to say about Saturday's game other than Missouri got beat. The team with the better players, the better coaches, and the better fans won on Saturday as the largest crowd to ever witness a game at Nebraska's Memorial Stadium watched the Huskers outplay the Tigers in every aspect of the game.

This wasn't like Missouri's losses to Texas A&M and Oklahoma, where one or two plays could be blamed for MU's downfall. And this wasn't a case of the Tigers continuously shooting themselves in the foot (although the three turnovers didn't help matters). No, this was a situation in which we found out where the Missouri Tiger football program ranks when compared to the elite teams.

The past four weeks have shown us that Missouri is making strides, but is definitely not in the same class as the OUs and Nebraskas of the college football world, even when those teams are having down years.

As quarterback Chase Daniel walked out of the locker room toward the field before the start of the game, his face had a look of focus and pure determination. He was staring out at the field, and you could see that he knew what was at stake. In short, he looked ready.

After seeing Daniel's demeanor before the game, you would not have expected him to have his worst game as a Tiger, but that's exactly what happened as he turned the ball over three times and missed his receivers all day while constantly being pressured.

At the start of the year I expected Daniel to have a couple of games like this one. The past two weeks he has looked like a talented first-year starting quarterback who is learning how to compete in the Big 12.

Make no mistake: This loss was a major blow to Missouri football's quest for national respect. But you cannot deny the fact that the program is progressing. If the Tigers can win their remaining three games, then they will have had the best season that a Tiger team has had since they finished 10-1 in 1969.

I believe that Daniel is the kind of competitor who will take a loss like this one and use it as motivation for the future, in the same way that Michael Jordan used the disappointment of the Chicago Bulls' early playoff losses to the Detroit Pistons to take his game and team to another level.

The Tigers are in the same boat that those Chicago Bulls of the late '80s. Like the Bulls, they have to learn how to win the big games.

Coach Gary Pinkel's one-game-at-a-time approach has been successful this season, but with a game with as much obvious importance as this one, maybe the Tigers shouldn't have been so quick to downplay its importance. Daniel was the only member of the team all week to even hint at the possibility of it being a Big 12 North title game.

I think it's possible to focus on one game at a time while still embracing the "big game." Once Pinkel figures out how to teach his team this, then I believe the program will have a chance to finally become one of the nation's elite.