It was an all too familiar feeling for Mizzou fans as 57,000 of them traipsed back to their vehicles, many of them muttering things about playcalling and inexcusable turnovers.
It would be Georgia’s freshman phenom Jacob Eason who would win this quarterback duel as he thew a dart to the endzone to Isiah McKenzie on 4th and 10 to give the Bulldogs the lead 28-27 lead.
“Proud of my guys, I’m upset that I didn’t do enough to put them in a position to win one like that.” Head coach Barry Odom said after the tough loss. “We fought extremely hard, they prepared the right way this week and we’ll make corrections.”
Missouri fans have been desperate for anything positive to work in their favor for well over a year now and beating Georgia would have provided that much-needed elation. The leadership and accountability that is starting to show from Odom and this new coaching staff will likely pay dividends down the road as they continue to rebuild this team, and in some ways, a fan base that has not had much to cheer about in some time.
At this point, Missouri needs to find a way to get to six wins and become bowl eligible. It’s a task that may seem menial in the college football universe, but with tough road games coming up against LSU and Florida, it will be paramount that the Tigers knock off some of their lesser competition (Kentucky, Vanderbilt and South Carolina) to try to get to that six win plateau.
Merely getting to a noname.com bowl will not be the benchmark of this program under Barry Odom especially with a potential future NFL quarterback in Lock and a stable of young talent. The 2016 team is already light years ahead of the 2015 team and in just over a minute of game action had scored more points (7) than the Tigers scored in an entire game against Georgia last year in Athens (6).
