Mizzou is eager to leave last year's SEC play in the past

COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) Missouri guard Max Copeland looked toward the
ground, sucking on a toothpick and thinking about whether the Tigers
have revenge on their minds as they start conference play.

"I'd
be lying if I said that feeling wasn't there, because it is," he said.
"But at the same time, we can't let vengeance be a distraction. This is
about the 2013 season. This ain't about the 2012 season."

The
Tigers had a forgettable first year in the Southeastern Conference.
Limited by injuries, Missouri finished 2-6 in conference and 5-7
overall, failing to extend its school-record bowl streak to eight
seasons.

Now healthy, the Tigers (4-0) appear to have righted the
ship. They rank in the top three in the SEC in scoring (45.5 points per
game), rushing yards (262.2 ypg) and passing yards (286.8 ypg),
reminiscent of the high-octane Missouri teams that compiled 48 wins from
2007-2011 in the Big 12. Defensively, they've limited opponents to 21
points per game and have forced 10 interceptions.

Still, questions persist.

Missouri
is the only SEC school yet to have played a conference game, but that
will change once it travels to Vanderbilt (3-2, 0-2 SEC) on Saturday.
Center Evan Boehm remembers how his teammates felt after playing their
last SEC game, a 59-29 drubbing at Texas A&M last Nov. 24 that ended
their season.

"We were all upset," he said. "We were all hungry. Last year left a bad taste in your mouth and you want to get rid of that."

To
accomplish that, coach Gary Pinkel said the team must concentrate on
football and not on the distraction of trying to earn respect.

Quarterback
James Franklin is averaging a career-best 282.2 passing yards in
addition to nine touchdowns and three interceptions. He's also rushed
for 53.8 yards per game, 82.3 percent of which have come in second
halves to help salt games away.

"I think we've really just been
working on finishing and not slacking off toward the end," he said.
"Because sometimes, if we had just even a little bit of a lead going
into the end of the game (last year), we kind of let up a little bit."

Franklin
is one of four Missouri players to have at least 215 rushing yards this
year, the only team in the country to feature such balance. Overall,
Missouri has 1,049 yards on the ground and averages 6.2 per attempt.
That's more than 63 percent of its 1,662 rushing yards in 2012, when it
gained only 3.7 per attempt.

Running the ball helps the Tigers
utilize their play-action passing, which they have turned to more often
with new offensive coordinator Josh Henson. There's more time for
receivers to get downfield, as Dorial Green-Beckham did for a 68-yard
touchdown reception in last week's 41-19 win against Arkansas State.

"If
you get a quick gain and (the quarterback) drops back the whole time,
the pressure on the offensive line to perform all the time is
significant," Pinkel said. "When you do play-action, that slows down the
rush. When you move the quarterback around, as far as sprinting out or
bootlegs and things like that, that slows it down."

Pinkel and Henson will now see if their reinvigorated team can sustain its performance in the SEC.

"We
love being the underdog," running back Henry Josey said. "We love
people still wondering about us, if we're really the team that we're
showing up to be. So we're ready to just get out there and prove it."