Merry Christmas everyone. Today is a day to be with those you love, and for most of you, that includes the Missouri Tigers.

But also, sometimes people’s loved ones can get a little annoying over long periods.

So here’s a little new Tiger content for your Christmas Day reading if you need to get away from the rest of those you love for a few minutes.

Here’s a look at a few of the gifts I think the Tigers could deliver for you in 2025.

The first one is one I feel a lot better about now than I did just a couple of weeks ago.

Even after the Tigers’ loss to Illinois, Missouri has set itself up well going into conference play, getting to 10 wins and likely earning an 11th just before New Years eve.

I guess the first wish should really be ‘An SEC win’ since it would be the first one since 2022, but I think we’ve seen that this year’s team is talented enough that a conference win or two isn’t a big enough ask for this season.

I think it’s pretty reasonable to expect around .500 play against conference opponents this season and with the way the narrative around college basketball is developing, around .500 in the SEC with 11 wins banked, (so about a 20-11 record before the conference tournament) would almost certainly be enough to get the Tigers in.

Mizzou has already started showing up in bracketology projections - which are way too early at this point - and I don’t think it’s unreasonable to have the tournament as, maybe not an expectation, but a realistic hope.

So gift No. 1 now is a trip to the tournament and hopefully at least one win there to make it worth it.

I know a lot of you don’t care about the women’s sports, but I do.

So fine - if you want to - skip ahead to the next wish.

But for those that do care, the Tiger softball team should be pretty solid again. Do I think they’ll match up with Oklahoma? No.

No one really does and having the Sooners in the SEC this year puts a bit of a damper on the expectations for the season.

But the Tigers went 48-18 last year, got to the SEC championship game, hosted a regional and a super regional before taking Duke to nine innings in a do-or-die game.

Mizzou was right there on the verge of getting to the Women’s College Worse Series for the first time since 2011.

Stud freshman pitcher Marissa McCann is back for her sophomore season after posting a 1.87 ERA in 32 appearances, she’ll likely take on a bigger role with Lauren Krings gone. Cierra Harrison is back as well in the circle after recording a 2.05 ERA in 106 innings.

Local kid Kara Daly from Jefferson City is back to lead the offense after hitting a team-high seven home runs last year and leading the squad with a .552 slugging percentage, while Kayley Lenger is back after recording a team-high .435 on base percentage.

A lot of the pieces that got so close last year are back and I for one am expecting another great season from the Tigers.

I haven’t gotten to cover college softball since it was my primary beat for the Stillwater Newspress my senior year of college covering the Oklahoma State Cowgirls. I enjoyed it then and I’m looking forward to getting to do it again, which I’m planning on to keep myself busy in spring. I won’t be at every game, but I’ll pick my spots.

The Tigers even have assistant coach Jeff Cottrill, who I got to work with some at Oklahoma State when he was an assistant there, it will be nice to chat with him again.

I wrote this one originally before Beau Pribula officially signed. So I guess we’ve got the plan pretty clearly right now, it’s Pribula until it’s not.

I wouldn’t be surprised if Eli Drinkwitz still has Sam Horn and Drew Pyne compete for the spot in the spring, but the point of this wish is I don’t want to cover a quarterback competition that runs into the season.

In spring, great, that’s fine and I’m up for it. Make Pribula win the job and if Horn or Pyne beats him, that’s only a good sign for whoever wins.

But have a defined plan by the time the season starts so we can focus on the game.

Especially because the offense is going to look a little different with Pribula at the helm if done correctly. There’s going to be some more designed QB runs involved than you’d have with either of the other two, I’d like to know what to expect early.

We’re talking about a minimum here now that Pribula should be at the helm. The Tiger offense should be fantastic if put together to utilize the strengths it has.

Pribula and Ahmad Hardy read options could be deadly, RPOs with Kevin Coleman and Josh Manning working to create space off the line, deep balls to Marquise Johnson with Jamal Roberts helping protect Pribula in the backfield.

There’s a lot of positives to the offense on paper, whether it plays out that way, we’ll have to wait and see.

Defensively, I’m not quite as confident. The linebackers are going to be legit, the defensive line should be very good again.

I’m not sure how to feel about the defensive backfield at the moment, but if you allow for development among the returners, it should be a solid group.

Alright, I’ve talked myself into some more confidence. This is the problem with my general optimism. I start a thought and by the end of it, I feel a lot better about something than I did before.

I usually take that process out of the story, but it’s Christmas, so you guys get a little glimpse further into my process.

Schedule wise, the Tigers should have a pretty easy road to being at least 4-1 going into a home matchup with Alabama. If they can beat South Carolina at home early in the season, it’s more than reasonable to expect 5-0 going into what should be the toughest matchup of the season.

And they get to play that one at home!

Plus the other toughest matchup of the season (probably Texas A&M? Or maybe South Carolina) is at home, too.

Eight home games and road matchups at Auburn, Vanderbilt, Oklahoma and Arkansas should be a setup for another successful season with the amount of talent currently set to play for the Tigers in 2025.

So I’ll say at least nine wins, a reasonable chance at 10, and a conversation around the 12th seed in next year’s playoff as my wish for next football season.

I feel like four gifts is a pretty good spot to be at, but if we’re going to ask for more: a continuation of Dawn Sullivan’s development of the volleyball team next year would be great; the wrestling team getting healthy here in the next month and making a late-season run to grab some momentum going into postseason competition; a baseball team that isn’t a slog to watch during SEC play.

Now I’m getting greedy.

Merry Christmas everybody, I hope the Tigers deliver everything you’re wishing for in 2025.

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