Plenty of buzz about SEC football ... and the Missouri Tigers are a part of it

SEC storylines abound heading into 2024: Texas and Oklahoma and their combined 11 national championships are in. Nick Saban, perhaps the greatest coach of ‘em all, is out, now sharing his wisdom as a broadcaster.

There are no divisions for the first time since 1991. No conference has more leading Heisman contenders, led by Georgia quarterback Carson Beck.

In a College Football Playoff that has expanded to 12 teams, should the SEC get seven or eight on the bracket? Just kidding. Sort of.

For the first time perhaps since Missouri joined the conference a dozen years ago, the Tigers are a big part of the SEC buzz.

There is no flying under the radar for the program that had been treading water with break-even records for too long. Not after a Cotton Bowl conquest of Ohio State and returning enough talent to be considered a conference contender this season, which makes Mizzou a national contender.

In less than a year, Missouri has jumped from wondering when — or if — Eli Drinkwitz was going to turn the corner and keep his job to thinking anything less than a CFP appearance this year could be a disappointment.

Things look so encouraging, Drinkwitz felt the need to set a tone at SEC Media Days, reducing the temperature a bit on what’s about to happen from a national outlook.

“I understand there’s a lot of outside expectations of what our football program should be,” Drinkwitz said. “I think for us the most important thing is running our race.”

The players get it.

“It’s obvious expectations from outside our program are higher than they’ve ever been, at least as long as I’ve been there,” senior quarterback Brady Cook said. “But we can’t let the pressure creep up on us.”

With 22 players returning that have started at least career 12 games, Missouri’s bar for 2024 was set high after finishing off an 11-2 season. What’s happened since then continued the momentum.

Along came the NFL Draft and six Tigers were selected, one short of a school-best mark. That’s after Missouri sent a school-record number of participants to the NFL Combine.

Nothing delights a fan base like recruiting and Mizzou is on a hot streak. Recently it seems like every day another top prospect takes to social media to announce his pledge. The program has become a leader in the NIL world, and the results are becoming obvious.

These things fluctuate daily, but this week Missouri 2025 recruiting class checked in at No. 11 on Rivals.com, ranking just ahead of Tennessee and Michigan. That’s the company the Tigers are keeping these days. If it holds, it will be the highest recruiting ranking in school history.

On a related note, transfer porter ratings also are significant, and in rankings supplied by 247Sports the Tigers stand 13th. They shouldn’t miss a beat on the offensive line with the additions of Lee’s Summit’s Cayden Green from Oklahoma and Marcus Bryant from SMU.

How else will Missouri appear different? Gone is running back Cody Schrader, the former Division II transfer who led the nation in rushing yards per game. But the portal delivered two of the top eight rushers from the Sun Belt Conference, Marcus Carroll from Georgia Southern and Appalachian State’s Nate Noel.

This is a good spot to marvel at the potential of this offense. Will there be a better battery in the SEC (or nation) than Cook to Luther Burden? Mizzou mostly led with defense a year ago and five of those six drafted players played on that side. This year, the Tigers’ attack is poised to join the league’s best.

The SEC’s projected order of finish will be unveiled on Friday, and look for the Tigers to be close to the top, somewhere behind Georgia because of merit and Alabama and Texas because of reputation. After that, why not the Tigers?

Nationally, the Tigers likely won’t be where they started 2008 — when they started at No. 6 coming off one of the greatest seasons in school history. But Mizzou won’t be too far behind.

The schedule sets up nicely. Missouri should breeze through a non-conference lineup of Murray State, Buffalo, Boston College and Massachusetts. The first major showdown arrives Oct. 5 when the Tigers visit Texas A&M.

Missouri could be favored in at least 10 games, and if the season unfolds as projected by oddsmakers, the schedule won’t continue in a bowl game but in the 12-team CFP.

“There’s a bigger opportunity for more teams in the playoffs,” Cook said. “I think we have the team to do it.”