Missouri hasn't played a game in the SEC yet, but one of its players already has the smack talking down.
Defensive tackle Sheldon Richardson was not impressed by Georgia's 45-23 win over Buffalo and had no problem letting everyone know.
"I watched that game. I turned it off, too," Richardson told the Columbia Tribune on Saturday night. "It's like watching Big Ten football. It's old-man football."
Oh, and a Big Ten shot just for good measure.
Not surprisingly, Mizzou coach Gary Pinkel wasn't a big fan of Richardson giving Georgia bulletin board material and made him unavailable to the media on Monday.
"Well, you know we certainly want to say the right things, do the right things," Pinkel said. "I think he just got carried away a little bit, but I handled that internally.
"Without question I think anybody looks for things. We want to say the appropriate things. He felt sorry for saying it, he just got excited. He's got great respect for Georgia, as I do. We'll learn the lessons and move on."
Of course, smack talk seems to be the norm in the SEC and something that kind of comes with the territory, so it was no surprise when instead of being critical about the comment, Georgia coach Mark Richt made a joke.
"Being over 50, and I'm getting AARP stuff in the mail, I took it as a compliment," Richt said.
The Georgia players, for the most part, tried to stay away from adding any fuel to the fire.
"I don't know what that really means," quarterback Aaron Murray told the Macon Telegraph. "Whatever it takes to win games, that's all it really means, it's a W at the end of the day. We could play powder-puff football for all I care."
The Bulldogs struggled initially in its season opener against Buffalo before outscoring the Bulls 21-7 in the second half. It wasn't the most graceful performance by the Bulldogs, but they were probably trying to keep some secrets for the SEC opener against the Tigers.
While Missouri is the newcomer that everyone is discounting, Richardson believes the Tigers will more than hold their own in SEC play.
"If we execute, nobody in this league can touch us. Period," he said.
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