Mizzou football has had some unlucky games against Kentucky the past two years. It’d be nice to turn that luck around, especially at this time of the year.
Mizzou football just went through one of the worst losses in the Barry Odom era last weekend. The Tigers can’t dwell on that, because much of the disappointing times they have experienced under Odom have come at the hands of the team Mizzou is up against this Saturday.
The Tigers will do their best to get over the Vanderbilt loss, and they can. Odom and Co. have been able to right this ship before, with no better example than last year’s win over No. 13 Florida. That happened to be a week after Mizzou lost to No. 12 Kentucky in one of the most controversial calls in the SEC last season.
DeMarkus Acy was called for a pass interference in the end zone when actually it appeared he was the one who was interfered with on the play. A simple no-call would have been just fine for all of us, and the Tigers would have walked off the field with a win. The refs said ‘”nope”, and the Tigers lost on an untimed play at the goal line 15-14:
This is not pass interference. pic.twitter.com/l56ONPnrvl
— Sam McKewon (@swmckewonOWH) October 27, 2018
But that wasn’t the first time Mizzou football lost a heartbreaker to Kentucky. It also happened the year before.
Drew Lock was marching the offense down field when the referees decided to play keep-away from the Tigers while the clock was running down. Actually, Kentucky’s Josh Allen knocked the ball out of J’Mon Moore’s hands as he hurried to the line of scrimmage, but then the refs didn’t handle the ball properly.
Instead of Mizzou having an extra play or two with about 10 seconds left, the referees finally lined the ball up and let the game continue with just seconds remaining. The Tigers lost 40-34:
Hey @SEC, could you at least make it less obvious? UK defender intentionally knocks ball out. Official moves at snail's pace. No whistles. pic.twitter.com/ExDOndwoEH
— Ben DuBose (@BenDuBose) October 8, 2017
It hasn’t been a great time in the Mizzou-Kentucky matchups lately. Mizzou hasn’t beaten Kentucky since 2014, but it seems the past two years Mizzou should have gotten the win, at least once. But instead, Odom is dealt an 0-3 record against the Wildcats so far in his career.
Hopefully he can turn things around this weekend, and flip the script on the Wildcats, just as he did against the Gators after losing to that same Lexington team last year.
There’s no better time to do it. It won’t make up for the loss against Vanderbilt, but it’s a start.