One thing you can almost certainly count on following an incredible dud of a loss: a players-only meeting. They aren’t guaranteed to spark any sort of turnaround, but I would say that having one is better than not having one.

Missouri had one on Monday. And if you’re looking for long-term plusses to draw from such a thing, having a true freshman establishing himself as a vocal leader probably qualifies.

Several players said one teammate had the strongest message during the meeting: freshman linebacker Aubrey Miller, a special teams player. [Jason] Reese: “He doesn’t have a very big role on defense, but his special teams role is very large and he does a great job of playing with enthusiasm. I would like to say I’m a leader on this team but I haven’t been doing my job well enough. He’s one of the guys I’m looking up to now even though I’m a senior. I’m going to model my game more like him.”

Miller called out just about everybody.

He didn’t bring up any of his prior accolades, [Terez] Hall said. Miller spoke about the lack of energy on the sidelines. He criticized players for defeated body language after giving up a score. He talked about his expectations for Missouri’s senior leaders. [...] Missouri’s seniors welcomed the input. “It’s great,” Reese said. “That means we have guys who are eager to win. If we have a whole bunch of people on this team who are stagnant in their mindset, it’s not good.”

Now we wait to see the results.

Energy, then success. Or is it vice versa? “I look at it kinda different, man. You either want to play or you don’t want to play,” linebacker Terez Hall said. “So it’s all about putting the players who wanna be out there on the field out there. They gotta want to come out there and play. The energy part comes when you’re out there making plays.” Hall acknowledged more life on the practice field Tuesday, the first opportunity to turn Monday’s monologues into a tangible improved product.

I wrote earlier this week about winning culture (and how Missouri’s has disappeared). A big part of winning culture is having players hold each other to a high standard and call each other out when that standard appears to be dropping. It’s only one step toward winning — there are others like, you know, good game plans, good talent, etc. — but it’s really hard to win many games without it. Hopefully Missouri’s players delivered to themselves a decent kick in the butt.

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