Am I the only one who thinks this whole thing is still a little bit surreal? I mean, you can't turn around without hearing the name Chase Daniel or Jeremy Maclin. I download the college football podcast from ESPN Radio every day. Beano Cook not only knows Missouri has a football team, but get this—he knows the names of some of the players! For the love of all that is good and holy, the BACKUP QUARTERBACK is on the cover of the next issue of ESPN, The Magazine.

I don't know, maybe the rest of you are used to this by now. But I'm not. I remember the Norman Conquest. I watched 73-0 on television. I listened to Bill Wilkerson call the fifth down. I was on the sidelines for the kicked ball. By the time Route 66 rolled along, I was sort of checked out (and by the way, doesn't it say a lot about how many games your team has lost that you have to come up with nicknames for them? I mean is it common that I say Route 66 and an entire fan base knows I'm talking about the 66-0 loss to Kansas State where the coach's wife was berating players on the sidelines? It just can't be). Anyway, I've been around for a lot of crap with this program.

And now, Missouri is among the best in the country. And I'm around it every day and I cover them and I know these coaches and these kids. Heck, I've been interviewing Chase Daniel since he was a junior in high school. And it still doesn't seem quite real to me.

But I'm telling you, it is real. Missouri really is this good. I'm getting a lot of questions this week about how worried Tiger fans should be about Oklahoma State and the running game. And the thing is, I keep saying, why are you worried? You have one of the five best teams in all of America. You have people like Bob Davie (I'm not saying the man's a genius, but he did coach at one of college football's institutions and I think he had to know a little something about the game to get that job) saying that you might have the best offense he has seen. Ever.

Now this doesn't mean they can't lose. Heck, Missouri could lose to Oklahoma State. Then they could lose again at Texas. I don't know, funny things happen. But the point is this: If the Tigers play their best game, they won't lose. Not Saturday, not in Austin, and quite possibly not this year. It's taken me a while to come around, but I finally see what everyone else is seeing: This team really is that good.

They're not perfect, they're not unbeatable, but they're really, really good. And the country is catching on. And it's still just kind of like I live in Bizarro Columbia (if you're not a Seinfeld fan, forget that last sentence). Anyway, I could go on for a while about how I just finished watching yesterday's “College Football Live” and Doug Flutie said he'd take Jeremy Maclin over Percy Harvin, or about how Mel Kiper was busy breaking down the chances of no fewer than four Tigers to be first day draft picks, but I've got another radio show to do. Seems people want to talk about this team.