Missouri Tigers become bowl eligible with Battle Line victory over Arkansas Razorbacks

Missouri’s most complete game came when it needed it most.

The defense struggled at times in the first half but held Arkansas without a second-half touchdown, and the offense looked more polished and in sync than it had in any SEC game this season. Whether that was due to Arkansas’ No. 118 ranked pass defense, the significance of the game or some other reason, it doesn’t matter to anyone right now.

The Tigers are going bowling and the Battle Line Trophy is returning to Columbia after the trophy’s one year stay in Fayetteville, Arkansas, following a 29-27 win over the Razorbacks.

“Nobody wanted to say it, but we just wanted it so bad,” Missouri coach Eli Drinkwitz said. “We tried not to make it any bigger than it was. But at the end of the day, we were playing for one more.”

Entering Friday’s matchup, Missouri was 1-4 in one-score games during conference play. Drinkwitz said the team felt like they were always “digging themselves out of a hole” against Auburn, Georgia, Florida and Kentucky. The team’s only close win came against Vanderbilt and, even then, the Tigers nearly coughed up a 17-0 halftime lead.

So when the Tigers handed the ball back to Arkansas twice when leading by two points, it felt all too familiar.

But both times, the defense held. And after Arkansas punted the ball back to quarterback Brady Cook with 2:56 to play, he all but sealed it on a third-down pass to Mekhi Miller with less than two minutes to play. Miller, filling in for the injured Arkansas native Barrett Banister, had practiced the route throughout the week.

“He had a couple of stumbles (during) Tuesday’s practice with it and I kind of questioned him,” Drinkwitz said. “(The coaches) said, ‘No, he’s gonna be the guy.’ He had to make a heck of a catch.”

It was a tale of two halves for Missouri. In the first half, Brady Cook totaled a career-high 115 yards rushing with one score, as well as 153 more yards through the air. He finished with 138 yards on the ground, more than any player (quarterback or running back) for the Tigers all season.

Running back Cody Schrader answered Arkansas’ first TD of the game with a 3-yard run to give Missouri a 10-7 lead. A Cook 9-yard rush extended the lead to 10, but Arkansas scored back-to-back second quarter touchdown drives and took a 21-20 lead into the locker room.

“We just had to buckle down,” defensive lineman Isaiah McGuire said. “We just had to settle down as a defense. We knew that wasn’t us.”

McGuire finished with two sacks one week after separating an AC joint in his shoulder. As a team, the Tigers had seven, the most by Missouri since the season opener in 2021.

In the first half, Cook shared the ball with a variety of his young wideouts, including Mookie Cooper, who had 45 receiving yards after going four games without a reception.

Missouri’s offensive game plan was more aggressive than it had been all year. The Tigers scored on their first three drives of the game, but it was even more indicative when the Tigers came out of halftime and threw three consecutive deep passes.

“Everybody said keep your foot on their necks,” wide receiver Dominic Lovett, who finished with a game-high 130 receiving yards, said. “We’re not going to come out and play conservative.”

On Missouri’s final third-down conversion to Miller, Drinkwitz continued to be aggressive. He said he wasn’t sure if they would have been confident enough to run that play earlier in the season, but today, they were.

That drive was capped off by a 23-yard Luther Burden touchdown reception, his eighth of the season. Missouri failed on the two-point conversion and Drinkwitz said he didn’t regret the decision. Harrison Mevis later added a 29-yard field goal to make it 29-21.

On Arkansas’ next two drives, coach Sam Pittman opted to kick two field goals on 4th-and-short. That included a 4th-and-2 early in the fourth quarter. Cam Little’s 20-yard field goal made it 29-27, but Arkansas never got within field-goal range again to take the lead.

Missouri’s 29 points were the most it has scored in any game this season against a Power Five opponent.

“I’ve re-created the process every week,” Cook said. “No matter what happens, I know my process, what I need to do, what the offense needs to do. It’s just starting to click for us right now.”

Throughout the week, Drinkwitz had tried to quiet talks of bowl eligibility and wanted Missouri to focus on its opponent. But during the team meeting Thursday night, Drinkwitz told his team that he bought 150 “rivalry cigars” to smoke if they were to win.

A representative from the Liberty Bowl was in attendance Friday, but Missouri will have to await its bowl fate until Dec. 4.

Drinkwitz doesn’t have a preference where they’re headed.

“A good one,” Drinkwitz said. “Honestly, I don’t give a crap where we play. It’s a bowl game, it’s a celebration.”