Tuesday Tiger Notebook

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Four weeks ago, talk of a bowl game seemed crazy. But now that Missouri has run off four straight wins—by a combined score of 215-66—the crazy has become the expected.

But Missouri hasn’t talked about a bowl game for the last four weeks…and don’t expect the approach to change now.

"Even though we started off rough, we just tried to focus on one game at a time," redshirt junior linebacker Tavon Ross said. "Things happen. We just went back to the building room, one game at a time. Don't worry about what happened. Focus on this week, focus on this week. We finally got it in our heads."

"There's not any more or any less (pressure)," head coach Barry Odom said. "If I start wandering and thinking about what was or what is, I'm not very good. Need to have a really good game planning session here and go have a really good Tuesday practice."

Should the Tigers beat Vanderbilt on Saturday night—Missouri opened as a 7 1/2 point favorite and is now up to 8 1/2 or 9 in most places—they’ll be able to talk about it plenty as they’ll be bowl bound for the first time since playing the in Citrus Bowl after the 2014 season.

The seniors on this team were freshmen on that team.

"Knowing that my senior class can end at a bowl game would be great," senior tailback Ish Witter said. "It would be a great feeling."

"You start with one and then finish with one," Ross said. "That would be a great cap to year four here."

"They've been through a lot," Odom said of his seniors. "That was one of their goals that they've talked about is getting the chance to play after the regular season was over. Everybody knows if you get to 1-and-0 this week, it opens up a whole other world of opportunities for us."

Should the Tigers earn bowl eligibility, the TaxSlayer Bowl (Dec. 30th Jacksonville) and the Liberty Bowl (Dec. 30th, Memphis) appear to be the most likely destinations. Three SEC teams are likely headed to the College Football Playoff bowls (not necessarily the playoff itself). Those are likely Auburn, Georgia and Alabama.

The Citrus Bowl gets the next pick. If only two teams are in the playoff bowls, the third would slot here. If all three make the bowls above, Mississippi State or LSU likely goes to Orlando.

After that, the Outback, TaxSlayer, Music City, Texas, Belk and Liberty make their choices. Ole Miss is ineligible to play in a bowl game. Florida and Tennessee likely won’t reach the necessary number of wins to be bowl eligible and Missouri could knock Vanderbilt and Arkansas out of consideration. That means the league would have only nine bowl eligible teams and each of the six bowls listed here would choose from among those teams.

Missouri’s running game has been perhaps the most important factor in the four-game winning streak. The Tigers ran for 585 yards and seven touchdowns in wins over Idaho, Connecticut and Florida. But the ground attack hit another level against Tennessee’s 127th ranked run defense (it was 123rd before the game). Ish Witter, Larry Rountree III, Dawson Downing and Micah Wilson churned up a combined 433 yards on the ground against the Vols.

"More than anything offensively, our ability to run the football, 430 yards it's obviously a good day," Odom said. "It opens up a lot of things offensively for you when you can do that. We controlled the clock."

Perhaps the most unappreciated part of that attack was the play of Missouri’s tight ends. They did not catch a single pass against the Vols, but were vital to Mizzou’s offensive success.

"Those guys did a really good job this past week of handling first-level players," offensive coordinator Josh Heupel said. "They've been physical, playing with better pad level, better technique. They're running their feet on contact and that's a big part of our run game having picked up the last couple weeks."

"They're the sixth man," Witter said. "I think they've been doing a great job with that. They've definitely been showing they can't just catch the ball, they can also make blocks to spring us to the next level."

The biggest beneficiary of all the blocking was Witter, who posted a career-best 216 yards on Senior Night.

"Going into the game, you want yourself to have a good game, but you know, I didn't see it like that," Witter said. "Which is pretty cool. It was definitely a great time."

Speaking of Senior Night, one Tiger that was honored was a name probably unfamiliar to most fans. Adam Roland came to Mizzou as a walk-on offensive lineman from Oakville High School. He has since bounced back and forth between offense and defense.

Over the course of four seasons, he has seen action in only one game. He played about ten snaps in Missouri's 79-0 blowout of Delaware State in 2016. But for Roland, that’s not the point.

"To me it's just a family tradition," Roland said. "This right here, what I'm a part of now, is why I started playing football when I was seven years old. That's the one dream I had was to be able to come play football at Mizzou.

"Not a lot of people are willing to sign up to be a practice squad player for four years. But to me, just the name on the back and being able to represent the University like my family has in the decades before me, that means more than anything."

"Without those guys, we don't function," defensive line coach Brick Haley said. "He's done a great job. He's never, ever said anything about being forced to move or whatever. He just goes with the flow and does anything you ask him to do."

Haley and Roland have formed a quick bond in the coach's first year with the Tigers.

"I have a great relationship with him. We're very close," Haley said. "That's probably why we hugged each other so long at the ceremony."

"He's probably one of the closest relationships that I've had on the coaching staff in my four years here," Roland said. "It's kind of interesting how things and relationships blossom in such a short time considering he's the shortest-tenured coach I've had in my four years. It started from the moment he walked in in January."

On Saturday night, when Roland came out of the tunnel, instead of his customary No. 61, he sported 23. It looked odd on a 6-foot-3, 325-pound lineman. Heck, it looked odd on any Missouri player. The number is the one of six in Mizzou history to be retired…and the only one to be retired twice.

One of those honorees is Johnny Roland, an all-American defensive back for the Tigers in 1965, a running back with the St. Louis Cardinals and New York Giants for eight years in the NFL and a College Football Hall of Famer. He is also Adam’s grandfather.

Over the summer, Roland approached the equipment staff to ask about wearing his grandfather's number on Senior Night. After getting the blessing of Roger Wehrli (the other retired No. 23), the coaching staff informed Roland it was a go. A few of his teammates knew, but many didn't know the significance. Even Roland's family didn't know what he had planned.

"They didn't notice it at first," Roland said. "They were kind of just caught up in the moment and me being introduced and coming out and just kind of enjoying senior night. It wasn't until we were kind of walking off the field and they kind of looked and noticed it. They were like, 'Oh wow.' Everybody thought it was just as cool as could be."

For Roland, being a Tiger was a lifelong dream. He had talked to Lindenwood, Southern Illinois, and Southeast Missouri State among others.

"As I was in the midst of making my highlight tapes to send to all of the coaches, I tagged coach (Josh) Henson and coach (Nick) Otterbacher in that HUDL film and I said, 'Why not give it a shot?' Roland recalled. "As soon as I got the call that I could be a preferred walk-on here, I dropped the conversations with everybody else. I said, you know what, this is what I wanted to do. This is why I started playing."

Roland didn’t get in the game on Saturday. It’s not likely he’ll get in one this season. But for him, the memory of taking the field under the lights in the No. 23 jersey will last forever.

"It was as emotional a night as I've ever had," he said. "It goes up there with my high school senior night and graduation and things that you would probably expect to be up there. I think this probably tops the list.

"From the moment I walked in the locker room, I knew it was going to be one of those special days."

Missouri remains relatively healthy entering the season’s 11th game. Damarea Crockett and Christian Holmes remain unlisted on the depth chart. Holmes is almost certainly headed for a redshirt at this point in time. Crockett has been out since the second quarter of the Georgia game with a shoulder injury that required surgery. Starting center Trystan Castillo injured his ankle in the second quarter against Florida, but Odom said he could have returned if needed.

The game at Vanderbilt will kick off at 6:30 on Saturday night and will be televised by the SEC Network. The regular season finale at Arkansas is at 1:30 on Friday afternoon, Nov. 24th and will be televised nationally on CBS.