Brendan Maloney-Imagn Images
Crimson red and burnt orange aren’t too similar in a literal sense, but in the context of Mizzou football, they’re a lot closer together.
“History doesn’t repeat Itself, but it often rhymes.” — Samuel Langhorne Clemens, better known as Mark Twain
The popular saying from Twain, a Missouri native, is certainly applicable to Mizzou football as it prepares to take on No. 15 Alabama in Tuscaloosa.
With over half of the 2024 campaign in the rearview mirror, MU’s season trajectory feels awfully similar to what it was 16 years ago. In 2008, the Tigers entered the season ranked No. 6 in the AP poll fresh off of a historic 2007 season where they went 12-2 with a Cotton Bowl victory. They started 5-0, moving up to No. 3 in the nation before a battle with No. 17 Oklahoma State.
This would be Mizzou’s first true test of the season against a solid opponent. MU had knocked off then-No. 20 Illinois to take Braggin’ Rights in Week 1, but the Illini had sunk in prominence since then. Prior to the Tigers and Cowboys clashing, Illinois dropped to 3-3 with a loss to unranked Minnesota.
It was also the first major matchup for Oklahoma State, who was looking to make a big-time leap into the national spotlight in year three under Mike Gundy after two middling seasons.
“You get one shot to do this,” Gundy told his team before the game. “What’s most important out of this game is, when we watch that tape on Monday, that you can look to the guy next to you and say ‘you know what, I laid it on the line for him. I did everything I could. You’re not gonna catch me loafin’.”
“If I don’t have the ball and I’m one of the other 10 guys on offense, I’m gonna play my butt off. If I’m on defense, I’m gonna swarm the football.”
And boy, did the Cowboys play their tails off. OSU walked out of Faurot Field with a 28-23 win, resetting expectations for Mizzou in a negative fashion and doing the same for itself in the other direction.
“A lot of people thought that this would be really the first test for Oklahoma State, are they for real?” ESPN color commentator Bob Davie said as the Cowboys were set to kneel the clock out in the fourth quarter. “They proved tonight they are for real.”
After dropping to No. 11 in the AP poll, Mizzou traveled south to Austin for a date with No. 1 Texas, where the Tigers promptly got swallowed up by a sea of burnt orange.
The Longhorns bullied their way to a 56-31 win; they led 35-0 towards the end of the first half before a late MU drive nixed the shutout. Texas scored on all five of its offensive drives over the first two quarters; Colt McCoy threw a grand total of two incompletions.
“That was probably as good a first half that I’ve been involved with as a football coach,” UT head coach Mack Brown said after the game.
Their 591 total yards of offense are the most they’d gained against a power conference opponent since the Longhorns dropped over 600 in consecutive weeks against Oklahoma State, Baylor and Kansas in 2005. The Longhorns were trying to carry an empire they’d been building since Brown’s first season in 1998; they’d won at least nine games in every season since and were just three years removed from a national championship. After claiming the No. 1 spot following over a win over previously top-ranked Oklahoma the week prior, Texas established itself as the unquestioned top dog or, in this case, top cattle.
Flash forward to 2024. The Tigers entered the season ranked No. 11 in the AP poll fresh off of a historic 2023 season where they went 11-2 with a Cotton Bowl. They started 4-0, moving up to No. 9 in the nation before a battle with No. 25 Texas A&M.
This would be Mizzou’s first true test of the season against a solid opponent. MU had knocked off then-No. 24 Boston College in Week 3, but the Eagles had sunk in prominence since then. Prior to the Tigers and Aggies clashing, Boston College dropped to 3-2 with a loss to unranked Virginia.
It was the second major test for Texas A&M; it’d dropped its first against Notre Dame in Week 1. But after four straight wins, the Aggies could make a big-time leap into the national spotlight after two middling seasons.
And boy, did the Aggies play their tails off, so much so that they ripped the tails off of the Tigers, too. Texas A&M walloped Mizzou 41-10, resetting expectations for MU in a negative fashion while doing the opposite for itself.
Now, MU will travel south for a date with the Crimson Tide, who were attempting to carry on an empire in a new era under head coach Kalen DeBoer. However, their demise comparatively to what they had been for almost 20 years under Nick Saban make comparing 2008 and 2024 like rhyming freeze and degree; almost the same, but not quite.
Alabama has two losses before October for the first time since 2007, which was Nick Saban’s first season that included an infamous loss to Louisiana-Monroe. Its electric 41-34 win over now-No. 2 Georgia looks like an aberration; in the weeks following, the Tide fell to now-No. 25 Vanderbilt, almost lost to unranked South Carolina and were defeated by No. 7 Tennessee in Knoxville.
The once-evil empire doesn’t look so evil anymore. This is uncharted territory for a program that’s experienced success with the frequency of the sun’s daily rise and fall. They’ve seldom handled even minor failures well. In 2012, for example, Louisville fans were chanting “Charlie! Charlie!” at head coach Charlie Strong after the Cardinals beat No. 4 Florida in the Sugar Bowl to complete one of the best seasons in school history. At the 2023 SEC Basketball Tournament in Nashville, an Alabama beat writer told me that the fanbase was completely miserable after 2022, a season that saw the Crimson Tide finish 11-2 with a 25-point domination of Kansas State in the same game.
The city and its phone lines nearly burned after Vanderbilt, the seemingly perennial doormat of the SEC, conquered the mighty Tide in Nashville. The three head coaches that followed Bear Bryant — Ray Perkins, Gene Stallings and Bill Curry — were out of Tuscaloosa after 10-win seasons. Every head coach since Wallace Wade, who took the job in 1923, has won 10-plus games in a season at least once. Now, DeBoer is in jeopardy of breaking the mold — and not in a good way.
“There’s times when we’ve got to be able to separate ourselves and have that killer instinct,” DeBoer said. “And right now, you know, we don’t do that. It’s not like they’re not trying. It’s just the execution needs to be better.”
Right now, Alabama doesn’t have that killer instinct. Mizzou might not have a killer instinct, but rather, a don’t-get-killed instinct. It showed in a big way once again on Saturday, when MU rallied from a 14-point second half deficit to defeat Auburn.
“I think this is one of those moments for our team that we hadn’t had yet,” quarterback Brady Cook, who returned from injury following a hospital visit to lead the Tigers to victory, said after the game. “We really haven’t had one of these moments yet where we we came together, we fight and we go win an SEC football game.”
The win improved Mizzou’s record to 7-0 in one-score games since last season, a stat that head coach Eli Drinkwitz joked about in his weekly press conference on Tuesday.
“We need to be in those because we’re not good when we get blown out,” Drinkwitz said.
One of those games was three weeks ago in College Station. Just like in Austin almost two decades ago, Mizzou succumbed to a maroon-and-white clad crowd, falling behind big early and proving unable to dig itself out of the massive deficit. However, even amidst major defeat, the game proved to be a lesson that the Tigers hope to carry with them into another atmosphere that’s filled to the brim with pressure.
“Just stay calm. Keep fighting,” offensive tackle Marcus Bryant said. “No matter what the circumstances is, good or bad, just stay mellow.”
However, they might have to do it without not just Cook, but other key players as well. Cook, Nate Noel and Mookie Cooper were listed as doubtful on Wednesday’s SEC-mandated injury report. Sidney Williams, Tre’Vez Johnson, Daylan Carnell, Joseph Charleston, Cayden Green and Brett Norfleet are also listed as questionable.
But there’s precedent of the Black & Gold pulling an upset undermanned. The Tigers rolled into South Bend in 1972 without several of their best players and beat No. 8 Notre Dame 30-26. Mizzou will face a similar task on Saturday, although the point spread is 20 points less than it was in ‘72.
While Alabama isn’t as vaunted as usual, the Tide are still dangerous. Jalen Milroe is one of the most dangerous dual-threat quarterbacks in the sport. Ryan Williams, who was in middle school during Drinkwitz’s first season at Mizzou, is already one of the top receivers in the sport.
Per usual, Drinkwitz & Co. seem focused on just themselves.
“This is going to be a challenge for our team to not focus on all the reasons why we can’t,” Drinkwitz said. “We got to focus on the reasons why we can.”
Mizzou folded against Texas in 2008, but the Tigers have built an identity on not folding since the beginning of last season. Fighting attrition as the underdogs, this isn’t an unfamiliar place for MU. In a clash of teams whose College Football Playoff hopes are hanging in the balance, Mizzou’s foundation of never relenting will be tested greatly once again in Bryant-Denny Stadium.
“I do think the one quality that I think this team really has that shows up is a refusal to give in,” head coach Eli Drinkwitz said. “I think in college football, that’s not always the norm. I don’t think that’s always the norm. I think people get into that ‘here we go again’ mode or they don’t focus on this play. They focus on the final scoreboard. Our team just doesn’t seem to do that right now.”
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