Missouri Football: Tigers are bowl-bound for second year under Barry Odom

Missouri has a habit of winning “ugly” and losing “pretty;” fortunately, the Tigers’ showing against Vanderbilt landed Mizzou in the “ugly” win column.

Generally speaking, there seems to be no rhyme or reason to how the Tigers win, or how they lose. On November 3, the Tigers put on an impressive performance in all phases of its victory at Florida.

A week before that, Mizzou suffered a gut-wrenching loss to Kentucky, after leading the Wildcats through all but the closing seconds of a game in which the Tigers failed to convert a single first down in the second half.

The Tigers’ wins and losses have consisted of factors which don’t seem possible to point to just one or two consistently specific areas. Head coach Barry Odom has taken his rightful share of criticism from the fan base, as has first-year offensive coordinator Derek Dooley.

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Whatever the cause, the Tigers managed their sixth win of the season, which makes Mizzou bowl eligible, with two games remaining. Ideally, Mizzou will at least win one more game, though many, myself included, would like to see the Tigers finish the season strong on a three-game win streak.

If Missouri finishes the season with an 8-4 record (4-4 SEC), then the Tigers landing a higher-profile bowl game increases. Also of note, if the Tigers finish with an 8-4 overall record, then they will match their conference record from 2017. The only difference would be the Tigers’ win over Purdue opposed to the blowout loss suffered a year ago.

An 8-4 record means Missouri could finish one game better than Odom’s second season at the helm, which, technically, is improvement, but not necessarily in the means which everyone expected to see improvement.

Each phase of the Tigers’ game has shown Missouri’s lack of discipline at the most inopportune times, but each phase has also shown that it can execute and perform well enough to maintain a close lead (Purdue), come from behind and win (Vanderbilt), and blow out the opposition.

The Tigers have also shown they can keep pace with big dogs, like Georgia – I still blame shoddy officiating in a game that realistically could have gone either way, as with South Carolina. Mizzou also hung 10 points on Alabama, something the Tide’s last two opponents (Mississippi State and LSU), were not able to do.

It will be interesting to see how Missouri finishes the last quarter of its season. If the Tigers win-out, one must wonder if Odom keeping his job hinges on a bowl game win, or if finishing the season one win better than 2017 is enough for Athletic Director Jim Sterk.