No standout running back Todd Gurley, no offense for Georgia.
Not so much.
Missouri head coach Gary Pinkel was quite adamant in his defense of, well, his defense after Saturday's 34-0 blanking at the hands of the Gurley-less Bulldogs at Faurot Field.
"That had absolutely nothing to do with it," he said. "Nothing."
I guess that means the Tigers just weren't good enough to stop the Bulldogs, no matter who was running the football. Which, if you actually saw the game, was pretty evident.
But the less said about Saturday's drubbing, the better.
Gurley was placed on indefinite suspension last week after it was revealed he was paid for signing items for an autograph dealer. Through five games this season, Gurley was considered to be among the favorites for the Heisman Trophy. He had rushed for 773 yards and scored eight touchdowns.
My first thought after I heard about the reason for Gurley's suspension was ... what does Johnny Manziel think about all of this?
No it wasn't.
My first thought was what a dumb thing for Gurley to do. Sure, Manziel only sat out one half of one game last year for signing a bunch of stuff for money at Texas A&M. But to its credit, the Georgia administration has proven it thinks punishments should be a little stiffer. Just a few years ago, the school suspended standout wide receiver A.J. Green for four games for doing something similar.
According to Sports Illustrated, Gurley received $400 after he signed 80 items for an autograph broker. And NCAA rules state a school must suspend a player immediately if it discovers a violation has occurred. So Gurley sits and waits.
That's not a lot of money. You know what is? Before he was suspended, Georgia was selling jerseys with Gurley's number for $134.95 on its website. Yikes!
But rules are rules, even if they are NCAA rules. Gurley is lawyered-up, hiring the same attorney who worked with Manziel and former Auburn quarterback Cam Newton and got their suspensions whittled down in their spats with the NCAA.
And Georgia is footing the bill. With money from Gurley's jersey sales, no doubt.
It should be decided soon, likely with Gurley returning to the field. In short, Gurley surely knew better, the NCAA will take some heat and some other knucklehead will do something similar in the future.
The only winners? The attorneys.