It is hard to find many teams who have had the three-year run Missouri has been able to pull off.
It is also difficult to find many teams who have been as underrated despite their success. Much of last year’s overlooking of Missouri was due to that awful home loss to Indiana. Much laughter ensued from the non-SEC portions of the country, but while the echoes of that laughter were continuing to reverberate through the nation, Missouri quietly — and successfully — got down to the business of fixing what went wrong against the Hoosiers.
Over the last three years, Missouri has torn through the SEC East en route to consecutive conference title games in 2013 and 2014. Sure, they have been decisively beaten by the SEC West champion in Atlanta every season, but not many other teams would have encountered different results in the Georgia Dome.
Last season, the Tigers were throttled by Alabama, which went to the first College Football Playoff. In 2013, Missouri put up a strong fight against Auburn, but fell in a shootout, 59-42. Auburn was the national runner-up that season.
Since joining the SEC from the Big 12, Missouri has missed only one SEC title game. In just three seasons in the conference, the Tigers have been to as many Atlanta showcases as Mississippi State and South Carolina combined. They are just one short of Arkansas as well.
If you exclude the SEC Championship Game losses and focus only on set schedules within the eight-game conference season and the 12-game regular season, the Tigers are 14-2 in the conference over the past two seasons. They have not lost to an unranked SEC opponent in that span and have not lost a true road conference game either.
While the 2-6 debut season in the SEC (2012) skews the overall conference numbers, there is no disputing Missouri’s reign of terror in the conference so far. It needs to be stressed that Missouri hasn’t just won the SEC East twice; the Tigers have gone 7-1 in the SEC two straight years. South Carolina won the East in 2010 with a 5-3 record, back-dooring into the title. Missouri has entered the front door, which is the kind of detail that should matter when evaluating overall performance. Riding this wave of success, the Tigers have also won their bowl game each of the last two seasons.
Even with all of this success, Missouri still is ranked fourth in its own division in the preseason behind Georgia, Tennessee, and Florida. Have voters not learned? Doubt the Tigers at your own risk. This program might not have the cachet of others, but it keeps finding ways to win relevant games in November and challenge for the championship of an extremely tough conference each December.
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Though Missouri was not viewed as a total throw-in during realignment, the prize of the deal for the SEC was certainly Texas A&M… or so everyone thought. Yet, Missouri has beaten the Aggies in back-to-back SEC seasons (home and away) and has captured five of the last six decisions against the 12th Man and Company. Observers have understandably looked at a history of disappointment with very few exceptions. (What Dan Devine did at Missouri roughly half a century ago has still not been matched by any successor, but Gary Pinkel — should he win an SEC title — would begin to be mentioned in the same breath.) Yet, decades of the past are being stripped away in the present — Pinkel is rewriting the way the program should be seen, chipping away at old assumptions that lose their sting with each new triumph.
Another reason to trust the new version of the Tigers in 2015 is the schedule, which could be much tougher than it is. While Missouri does travel to Georgia and Arkansas, the only heavy hitter on the slate from the SEC West is Mississippi State in Columbia (which does not seem like much of a heavy hitter at all). The Tigers also host contenders Tennessee and Florida — the schedule rotation works to Mizzou’s advantage.
The only question marks for Missouri are a totally inexperienced receiving corps and a young position at defensive end. However, if one thing has become clear over the past few seasons, it is that Missouri has no problem churning out quality defensive linemen.
If the Tigers are able to develop their wideouts to give quarterback Maty Mauk any help at all, don’t be shocked to see Missouri right there in the thick of things again. At least by now, we should know one thing: don’t doubt Missouri.
