Column: With Each Big Win, Mizzou Turns Its History on Its Ear
COLUMBIA, Mo. — Good teams find ways to win. That was the lesson, both learned and on display at Memorial Stadium on Saturday night, something that Missouri football fans are still trying to get used to from their Tigers.
Three times, Florida took the lead on Mizzou in the second half, and three times the home team came back. The last was the most noteworthy, as the Tigers drove 62 yards in one minute and thirty-one seconds, and then celebrated Senior Night in grand fashion following the 30-yard game-winning field goal by senior Harris Mevis.
"I like to win," he said with a grin after the dramatic 33-31 win, capped with the tradition of seniors grabbing a rock from the white "M" beyond the north end zone and being carried off Faurot Field by their position groups.
"That was a super special night," junior quarterback Brady Cook noted. "I don't think we win this game last season."
That sentiment actually extends way beyond the Eliah Drinkwitz era, as for years many of the words used to describe the program have included jinx, curse and suffer, and that's by the most loyal of black-and-gold fans. Among the older ones, rooting for the Tigers has been at times like living in the part of Alaska that will go through entire days without seeing the sun — and on the fringes one gets a taste of it for a few minutes during the day, only to again be enveloped by darkness. They tell stories about how hard it is to embrace the rays of hope, when crushing disappointment seems to always lay around the corner.
The younger fans are usually less poetic, saying they can relate to the line from the Lord of the Rings, "Do not trust the hope. It has forsaken these lands."
You know the history. Legendary coaches. No national titles claimed by the school. No conference championships since 1969. The signature plays have often been on par with snatching defeat out of the jaws of victory: The Fifth Down, the Fleakicker, and, more recently, the doink against South Carolina in 2013.
So Mevis wasn't just smiling. He was beaming, and with good reason, along with everyone else.
"What a way to send the senior class out," Drinkwitz said. "This game is like the story of their career. Having to face so much adversity, come from behind, stick together, believe in each other, fight for each other. I don't know how much more to say than that."
The coach was correct, but so was Cook. This was the kind of game that in the past would have bitten Mizzou right in the rear. The Tigers were coming off a big win against Tennessee, had secured their highest standing to date in the College Football Playoff rankings, and there was concern about the team trying to endure the November grind.
Feel-good seasons don't happen that often in college football, especially in the Southeastern Conference. Look around the league, how many teams are having one this season? There's Mizzou (9-2 overall, 5-2 SEC) and maybe Alabama, depending on what the Crimson Tide does against Georgia in the SEC Championship Game. That's makes its status a big "if."
Of course, the Bulldogs will top that list should they win their third straight national title, yet one can feel the growing angst stemming from Athens, as the pressure continues to mount. On the flip side. Texas A&M fired its head coach last week even though the Aggies were above .500 in league play. Mississippi State jettisoned its temporary replacement for the late Mike Leach, which everyone knew would eventually happen after hiring Zach Arnett before naming a new athletic director last year.
Granted, Mizzou has had good teams before, plenty of them. But this one's different.
"Yeah, we're tough," running back Cody Schrader said after grinding out another 148 rushing yards. "And we refuse to lose."
Which brings us back to the Gators, who were resilient as well, and took leads of 14-13, 21-20 and 31-30, the last of which with just 1:36 remaining.
But Mizzou always had an answer.
Specifically, when Florida came out in the second half and scored on its first two possessions, the first on two big plays by running back Trevor Etienne, the latter on 30-plus-yard gains by tight end Hayden Hansen and wide receiver Ricky Pearsall, it threatened to take control of the game.
Eight plays, 75 yards, with Cook scoring from 1-yard out was the first answer. The second was after sophomore wide receiver Luther Burden III took a brutal hit while making a downfield reception, and left the defender on the ground in his wake. A penalty nullified a touchdown pass in the red zone, but a 24-yard field goal still had the Tigers out front again, 23-21.
That's when the kind of break that might have doomed Missouri in the past happened in its favor, although it initially didn't appear that way. On third-and-5 at the Florida 30, Gators quarterback Graham Mertz ran a keeper up the middle, with two Mizzou defenders combining on an initial hard hit, and two others finally bringing him down after 11 yards, and none of the four players in black looking physically ok.
Yet it was Mertz who bared the brunt of it, and after celebrating the first down ended up leaving the game. Florida (5-6, 3-5 SEC) got all the way to the Mizzou 15, where a botched handoff was pounced on by defensive lineman Kristian Williams. With a subsequent flare pass to Theo Wease Jr., the senior wide receiver turned on the jets and went all 77 yards for the score.
One final time the Gators drove, only to see it stall in the red zone, resulting in a 35-yard field.
It left that ray of hope, though. The kind that would have probably led to heartbreak in years past. On fourth-and-17, Cook to Burden not only provided the crucial first down, but within range for Mevis. From that point the outcome no longer seemed in doubt.
That's the real difference. This group, this team, this senior class especially, already believed. Now everyone else is beginning to as well, as the perception of Mizzou football has changed (like a metamorphosis).
"Tremendously," senior defensive end Darius Robinson said about his five-year arc in Columbia. "I don't know where to start. It's been very special."
However the man who had "Mizzou" on his jersey nameplate for his final home game summed it up with this: "In five years, we went from the bottom [to this]. But knock on wood, we're not done yet."
Christopher Walsh is the publisher of MizzouCentral.
