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1) We've got to start by putting a bow on the 2023 Mizzou football season. We'll do that in two ways. First of all, let's finish up the Cotton Bowl.
The only thing that matters is that Missouri beat Ohio State. You have heard and will continue to hear some things about the Buckeyes' playing their third string quarterback and being without two of their top three receivers. And it's at least somewhat valid. They are a worse team than they would have been with Kyle McCord, Marvin Harrison and Julian Fleming in the game. If the situations were reversed and Brady Cook, Luther Burden and Mookie Cooper had been out, Mizzou fans would be saying the result of the game was invalid too.
But who cares? That's a story for Ohio State fans. That's not your story. Your story is that Missouri beat the No. 7 team in the country and one of the best programs in the history of college football to clinch an 11-win season. Nothing else much matters.
The second thing you've heard and will hear is that Ohio State didn't really care about this game anyway. And that's not one I'll listen to. Because the entire storyline on the television broadcast and coming from the Ohio State players was intent on disproving that. "People say Ohio State won't care about this game, but they want it known that couldn't be further from the truth and they're here to win the game." If you tell everyone who will listen that you care going in, you can't tell them you didn't care when it doesn't go your way.
Missouri outplayed Ohio State. The third-string quarterback didn't play offensive line, which is where the Buckeyes' problem was. Ohio State actually had fewer starters out on defense than Missouri did and Mizzou's defense was better. So let the Ohio State fans say whatever they want to say. But don't let it dent your pride in what your team went out and did on Friday night.
2) Now we'll go bigger picture. Mizzou went into the game ranked 9th. They beat a higher ranked team than anyone behind them in the rankings can beat (except Liberty and that's not going to happen and even if it does, Liberty isn't jumping past Missouri). The Tigers will pass the Buckeyes in the final rankings. They may pass Florida State. I'm not sure if they should because I simply don't know how to assess Florida State. They hadn't lost a game all year with their actual team on the field. And then in the final game of the year they put out an impostor team wearing Florida State uniforms and got humiliated. They'll be penalized for that and they should be, but will a 13-1 Florida State team that went 1-1 against the opponents it had in common with Missouri fall below an 11-2 Missouri team? I don't know. They might. The end result is that Mizzou will end up 7th or 8th in the final rankings.
Believe it or not, that would be the 8th best final ranking in school history. Here are the others:
2013: 5th
2007: 4th
1969: 6th
1965: 6th
1960: 5th
1941: 7th
1939: 6th
I'm not qualified to assess the first five of those seasons because I wasn't alive for any of them. There are people who I'm sure will tell you the 1960 and 1969 seasons were better. Maybe. I don't know.
But I covered the 2007 and 2013 seasons. So where does this one fall in the ranking of best seasons of my lifetime? I'll say third, but the margin isn't big. I still believe 2007 was the best Missouri football season I've ever seen. The Tigers were ranked No. 1 in the country for a week, they won a division, they were a half from a conference title and a national championship appearance when only two teams made it. I believe Missouri was the second best team in the country that year. I just think they happened to play in a league with the best team in the country and turned the ball over against that team too often (I know Oklahoma didn't win the national title, but I do believe it was the best team in the country).
The 2013 season also had the Tigers a half away from a conference title and probable national title game appearance. I think things like that have to matter even if they're somewhat arbitrary and outside your control. A race you win is better than one you finish third even if you ran a better time when you finished third. The 2013 team proved Missouri could compete in the SEC and gained Missouri respect that it hadn't had since the 1960s. It was also perhaps Missouri's best team on the offensive and defensive lines.
As a season, I put 2023 behind those two for a simple reason: The conference title was out of reach for this team in the last two weeks of the year. Again, that's not entirely within their control. Had 2023 Georgia played in Missouri's conference in 2007 or 2013, maybe that would have been the case then too. But it wasn't. The 2007 and 2013 teams only lost a second game because they played a conference title game, which the 2023 team didn't have to do.
For 2023, I'll say this, though: It's the most unexpected of the great seasons in Mizzou football history. The Tigers got to No. 1 in 1960 (when there wasn't a preseason poll). They started 1969 ranked 10th. Plenty of people thought they'd win the North in 2007. The only season that rivals this one as far as coming out of nowhere is 2013 and I'd still say I was less surprised by that one than this one.
By any measure, this is one of the five best seasons in the 133 years of Mizzou football. That'll do.
3) The reward for this year--or at least some of the reward--is a new contract for Blake Baker, Kirby Moore and Eli Drinkwitz. We don't know the details on any of them yet, but I've got some ideas.
All three are likely to get a year added to the current timeline on their contracts. We know Drinkwitz, who was under contract through 2027, is now locked in through 2028. Baker and Moore each had two years left on their deals and I think will have another year added to that, meaning the new deals will run through the 2026 season. Moore made $850,000 in his first year. I'd guess that is going to go up north of a million, maybe as high as $1.25. Baker was making $1.2 last year and I'd bet on that being around $1.5. Drinkwitz made $6 million this year and I think that's going to be more like $8 or $9 million.
Some will object to that. You just paid them last year. Why are you doing it again already? Because that's the cost of doing business in college athletics. You can't compare their jobs to yours or mine. It's just not the same world. You have to pay them in advance because if you don't, somebody else will. Maybe there's nobody out there who's going to offer Eli Drinkwitz $7 million this year...but if he wins 10 or 11 games again next year, there will be. And while loyalty isn't really much of a thing in college coaching, if that happens, at least Missouri will be able to say "We rewarded you before everybody else was willing to."
Here are the salaries of the SEC head coaches:
- 1. Nick Saban, Alabama (No. 1 overall): $11.407 million
- 2. Kirby Smart, Georgia (No. 3 overall): $10.706 million
- 3. Brian Kelly, LSU (No. 6 overall): $9.975 million
- 4. Jimbo Fisher, Texas A&M (No. 7 overall): $9.15 million
- 5. Mark Stoops, Kentucky (No. 8 overall): $9.014 million
- 6. Josh Heupel, Tennessee (No. 9 overall): $9 million
- 7. Lane Kiffin, Ole Miss (No. 10 overall): $9 million
- 8. Billy Napier, Florida (No. 16 overall): $7.27 million
- 9. Hugh Freeze, Auburn (No. 20 overall): $6.5 million
- 10. Sam Pittman, Arkansas (No. 22 overall): $6.358 million
- 11. Shane Beamer, South Carolina (No. 24 overall): $6.125 million
- 12. Eliah Drinkwitz, Missouri (No. 25 overall): $6 million
- 13. Clark Lea, Vanderbilt (No. 56 overall): $3.052 million
- 14. Zach Arnett, Mississippi State No. (58 overall): $3 million
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