FAYETTEVILLE — Missouri is in hot pursuit of a New Year’s Six bowl appearance and what would be the first major postseason action for the Tigers since winning the Cotton Bowl and Citrus Bowl in back-to-back seasons under Gary Pinkel in 2013-14.
Standing in their way is a wounded rival, Arkansas, which will host the hot Tigers on Friday in the annual Battle Line Rivalry game at Reynolds Razorback Stadium at 3 p.m.
Fourth-year Coach Eli Drinkwitz, the Alma native and Arkansas Tech graduate, has the Tigers at 9-2 and ninth in the College Football Playoff rankings heading into Fayetteville.
“We’re playing our rival and a really, really good, really good football team in Missouri,” Arkansas Coach Sam Pittman said. “Eli’s done a really good job there.”
Missouri is in second place in the SEC East with a 5-2 record behind two-time national champion Georgia and in a fight with the Bulldogs, Alabama, Ole Miss and LSU for the best bowls the conference can offer.
“We have a whole lot riding on this game,” Drinkwitz said. “And it starts with the Battle Line trophy.”
Missouri can clinch the program’s seventh 10-win season and its first since 2014 with a win over the Razorbacks, who are 2-3 on campus this season.
Missouri is not only on a heater for the season, they’re also emotionally high after having to rally for a last-second field goal to beat Florida 33-31 last week at Columbia, Mo.
Quarterback Brady Cook drove the Tigers 62 yards in 1:31 to set up Harrison Mevis’ 30-yard field goal with 5 seconds remaining for the winning points.
The clutch drive featured a third-and-8 conversion on Cook’s 13-yard pass to Mekhi Miller early in the sequence. Then the Tigers pulled off their play of the year, a 27-yard pass down the middle from Cook to Luther Burden on a fourth-and-17 snap from the Missouri 33.
The Tigers were technically in Mevis field-goal range after that play, which reached the Florida 40. However, Cook also hit Miller again for 11 yards and found Mookie Cooper for 16 yards in the tense final seconds to make Mevis’ kick considerably shorter.
The late rally folded neatly into a critical area of improvement for Drinkwitz heading into the 2023 season. Drinkwitz recognized the Tigers had to perform better in tight games after going 2-4 in one-score games in 2022, including a 26-22 home loss to Georgia in which Missouri held a lead 22-12 lead past the 10-minute mark of the fourth quarter.
Missouri is 4-0 in games decided by a touchdown or less this season with early wins in succession over Middle Tennessee State (23-19), Kansas State (30-27) and Memphis (34-27), then the thriller over Florida.
The Tigers have actually won their past five games in a row decided by seven points or less, as they achieved bowl eligibility and capped the 2022 regular season with a 29-27 home win over Arkansas.
Counting that two-point road loss, the Razorbacks are 2-6 in one-score games over the past calendar year.
The Tigers have taken a step to another level in Drinkwitz’s fourth season with the help of a large roster of 27 seniors and a powerful, diverse offense, led by Cook, a 6-2, 205-pound junior.
“What they do is exactly what he does well,” Pittman said. “He can throw it out of the pocket. They move him a lot, play-action. Their entire team is just playing with a tremendous amount of confidence as they should. They are 9-2 and ranked in the top 10 in the country. You can just see him just grow each and every week.”
Cook surpassed the 3,000-yard passing mark last week as Burden was moving past the 1,000-yard receiving plateau. That allowed the Tigers to join LSU and Oregon as the only FBS teams with a 3,000-yard passer, 1,000-yard rusher and 1,000-yard receiver.
One game that was not close for the Tigers came against Tennessee. Missouri walloped the Volunteers 36-7 at Memorial Stadium two weeks ago, punishing a team that had outscored the Tigers 128-48 over the previous two seasons and had won four games in a row in the series.
Tailback Cody Schrader rushed for 205 yards and had 116 receiving yards for a massive 321 yards from scrimmage in the rout of Tennessee. He became the first SEC player to rush for 200-plus yards and have 100-plus receiving yards in the same game.
Schrader leads the SEC with 1,272 rushing yards and is a semifinalist for both the Doak Walker Award given to the nation’s top running back, and the Burlsworth Trophy, which is given to the top player in college football who began his career as a walk on.
Pittman was asked what he thought of the scrappy 5-9, 210-pounder and former walk-on from Truman State.
“One is his determination and his drive,” Pittman said. “Obviously he’s very talented. Fast, reads holes unbelievably well, and can run over you, run away from you.”
The win over Tennessee allowed Missouri to essentially supplant the Vols for the second spot behind powerhouse Georgia in the SEC East. The Tigers solidified the position with the dramatic, come-from-behind win over Florida.
Even though the Tigers have gone through major emotions the past three weeks, which started with a 30-21 loss at Georgia on Nov. 4, Drinkwitz said he believes his team will be focused and ready to face the Razorbacks.
“I’m not worried about these guys being motivated to play at all,” Drinkwitz said. “At all. I don’t worry about the emotions of the previous three games.”
The Tigers are fourth in the SEC in total offense (449.5 yards per game), sixth in scoring (32.8 points per game), fifth in passing (288.2 ypg) and seventh in rushing (161.4 ypg).
On the other side of the ball, Missouri is ninth in total defense (358.3 ypg), sixth in scoring (23.1 ppg), sixth against the rush (124.8 ypg) and eighth against the pass (233.5 ypg).
Missouri has only nine turnovers, third in the SEC behind Ole Miss and LSU, and a plus-0.36 turnover margin that is tied for fourth in the SEC with Arkansas, Alabama, Auburn and Tennessee.
The Tigers’ defensive line is guided by two coaches with strong Arkansas ties in former Razorback Al Davis, a four-year letterman and 2012 team captain, and Kevin Peoples, who served three years (2010-12) with the Hogs as director of high school relations and then defensive line coach.