Tigers become Gator bait in the swamp

Not to be outdone following a forgettable and utterly embarrassing performance two weeks ago at LSU, the Missouri Tigers did their best to surpass that level of ineptitude inside a wet and sloppy Ben Hill Griffin Stadium Saturday afternoon.

Quarterback Drew Lock was picked off twice for touchdowns and struggled to find any rhythm in the passing game all afternoon long while the Tiger defense did its best to keep the game close before tiring late as Florida closed out a 40-14 victory. The win now moves Florida into first place in the SEC East, while Missouri remains the only team in the division without a conference win.

With yet another football season potentially heading off the rails, Mizzou fans are searching for anything positive to hold them over while the athletic department attempts to right a ship that has been sinking for over a year now. With a new head coaching staff in place, many were hoping that the positive results would come sooner rather than later. Now, it seems like a pipe dream that this team would be able to beat Middle Tennessee, Kentucky (a team that already has two conference wins), Vanderbilt (a nasty defensive team that just beat Georgia) and South Carolina in route to six wins and bowl eligibility.

Coach Barry Odom and his staff will face an uphill climb as the losses continue to mount and recruiting momentum halted. Mizzou already boasts perhaps the worst overall athletic facilities in the SEC (although the new stadium south end zone proposal could help matters) and the 53rd ranked recruiting class for 2017, it’s getting more difficult by the minute to see any light at the end of the tunnel.

With the schedule loosening up a bit in the coming weeks, we will find out exactly where this team is in the SEC East pecking order. Falling behind the likes of Kentucky, Vanderbilt and South Carolina could be crippling for the program moving forward as new A.D. Jim Sterk tries to keep Missouri athletics in general from continued irrelevance.