What If Missouri Hadn't Started 4-0?

What if Missouri had not blown out Illinois and won at Nevada in the midst of a non-conference start to the season that even the most expectant of Missouri football fans figured might wind up 3-1, or even 2-2?

What if it hadn't rained all night in Missouri's Big 12-opening loss to Nebraska?

What if Bo Pelini had decided that Cody Green had warmed up enough and replaced quarterback Zac Lee before Lee led a 27-point fourth-quarter blitz?

Well, chances are Missouri would be 5-4 overall, just like it is right now, and likely 3-2 in the Big 12, having lost anyway to Oklahoma State and Texas anyway, but likely not to Baylor.

Mainly because few Missouri players, already having suffered four losses, would have viewed victory over Baylor as a sure thing.

Fewer Missouri "fans" would be running around like a collective Chicken Little, twittering insults to members of the football team.

And the Missouri football coaching staff wouldn't have fallen into a bunker mentality. And the media - including me - wouldn't have been pressing for a explanation of exactly how Coach Gary Pinkel plans to fix what he insists it is his job to fix.

But Saturday's game at Kansas State would still be a huge game and a tough one to call, because Bill Snyder would have made sure his team had risen above all the ups and downs of expectations and shortcomings.

If there is anything to be learned from all the what ifs and might have beens at Mizzou, it is this:

Sometimes it isn't where you've gone but how you got there. And only when you have made peace with that notion can you hope to move forward.