Mizzou, once the doorstep of college football has come back with a chip on their shoulder, is knocking on the door of the AP Top 10
COLUMBIA, MO– A year ago Mizzou was unranked and sitting near the bottom of the SEC. Now, they’ve just topped No. 14 Tennessee in a 34-7 beatdown of the Volunteers en route to being on the cusp of a Top-10 run. Missouri’s win signifies a changing tide in Columbia, one that was unforeseen for years before the Tigers managed to finally turn things around.
Now, they’re ranked 11th in this week’s AP Top-25 poll, for the first time since 2019 when they were ranked 8th for one week. Set to go bowling, Mizzou is one year removed from possibly making it to the first 12-team college football playoff. Mizzou likely controls its own destiny to a New Year’s Six Bowl, a sentence we never thought we would utter.
It’s clear who the frontrunners in the SEC are, Georgia and Alabama have begun to run away with the conference title, especially after Georgia’s 52-17 drubbing of Ole Miss in Sanford. However, the Tigers’ blowout win still means something. It means that the team will likely punch their ticket to a big-time bowl game, leading to more resources for the program. Resources, which in turn should in theory go towards recruiting better players via facilities, heritage, etc. An improved recruiting class could spell a complete turnaround in Missouri by next year, in which case they’ll be making a deep postseason run.
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Whether that means Mizzou will end up in the Cotton Bowl, Peach Bowl, or even the Fiesta Bowl in Arizona, it shouldn’t matter. It’s a huge success for a Mizzou team that has struggled so much in years past. Missouri has shown the ability to run the ball well and play lockdown defense in a game that had so many storylines if the Tigers won.
Quarterback Brady Cook showed off why the Tigers are in good hands next year going 18/24 with 245 yards. But the run game is where Mizzou truly blew us away. Playing pure old-school football, the Tigers ran for 249 yards and Cody Schrader accounting for 209 of them.
Wherever Mizzou ends up, bowl wise, their win against Tennessee was one for the books, marking a huge turnaround from a team that struggled to get on AP’s radar for the past four years.
