The media have been responsible for losing football games at Ol' Mizzou for quite some time now. The Tigers have had only two winning records in the past 17 seasons, and it took some real courage for Smith to speak out and tell the truth rather than to fall back on the usual list of weak excuses. The trivial things like bad recruiting, consistently hideous special-teams play and glaringly incompetent fundamentals. When Mizzou fans griped about some of those areas earlier this season, Coach Smith blasted them. The Tigers, after all, have been to two bowl games since Ronald Reagan's first term.
Ungrateful fans get greedy.
See, the danged media get the fans all revved up, believing that Mizzou should be able to turn things around like, say, Kansas State. K-State was a chronic loser until the sportswriting got a lot better in Manhattan, Kan. No. 1 in the polls. OK, so Castiglione hired a fantastic new coach, Bob Stoops. Locally, the situation is bleak.