With a bit of time open for us coming up, I figured I would take a look back and rank the biggest wins of Eliah Drinkwitz’s time as head coach of the Missouri Tigers.
We’re going to start at No. 10 and work our way down over the next few weeks all the way to No. 1.
No. 10: Beating Arkansas 50-48 in Columbia in 2020
There were obviously a lot of weird things about the 2020 season. The Tigers played only 10 regular-season games, the season didn’t start until late September, there was a three-week break between games for Missouri.
And it was the first season of the Eliah Drinkwitz era.
Kicking off the season with losses to Alabama and Tennessee, the Tigers bounced back with a ranked win against LSU and a win against Kentucky.
Then after a loss to Florida, Mizzou went on a three-game winning streak, beating South Carolina, Vanderbilt and Arkansas to get to 5-3 and essentially lock up bowl eligibility for the first time in a string of now five-consecutive years.
And good thing they beat Arkansas, because the Tigers then got blown out by Georgia and lost to Mississippi State to drop to .500 for the first of three consecutive seasons of ending the regular season at .500.
But that Arkansas game wasn’t an easy one.
The Tigers went up 10-0 with a 51-yard Harrison Mevis field goal and a Larry Rountree touchdown. But the teams then tied at 13 and 20 before Arkansas took a 27-23 lead into halftime.
Arkansas then jumped ahead 40-26 with 13:15 left. The first couple of years of Drinkwitz’s tenure in Columbia weren’t defined by the same resiliency Tiger fans have seen the past two years, but they did get a glimpse of it against the Razorbacks that game as the Tigers put together four scoring drives to end the game in front.
The first drive was just two plays as Connor Bazelak completed a 29-yard pass to Damon Hazelton, then Tyler Badie broke free for a 46-yard rushing touchdown to cut the Razorback lead to 40-33 with 12:41 left to play.
Missouri forced a quick punt, then drove 82 yards in nine plays, highlighted by a 32-yard Bazelak pass to Hazelton, a 25-yard Bazelak heave to Keke Chism and a 9-yard Rountree touchdown run with 7:46 left to play, tying the game at 40.
Missouri forced another quick punt and once again put together an 80-yard drive, needing just four plays to do it as Rountree broke off a 46-yard run to open the drive, Bazelak hit Chism for 10 yards and Badie ran in a 25-yard run, giving the Tigers a 47-40 lead with 4:47 left. It was the first time the Tigers were in front since the 3:40 mark of the first half.
But then Arkansas’ offense got working again, driving down and scoring with 43 seconds left to take a 48-47 lead.
But like Brady Cook would multiple times in a couple of years, Bazelak was able to lead the game-winning drive. He hit Hazelton for 14 yards and Barrett Bannister for 18 more, then went back to Hazelton for 12 yards to get to the Arkansas 26. He went to Bannister once more for 10 more yards and the Tigers set up a 32-yard Mevis field goal for the win.
Not a lot went right for the Tigers or the sport of college football in general in 2020, but they showed that resilience they would become known for in a couple of years, continued the run of never losing to Arkansas in Columbia and earned a bid to the Music City Bowl, though they didn’t end up playing that one and had to wait until 2025 for the rematch with Iowa.
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