Missouri Tigers: Good, Bad and Ugly Vs South Carolina

The Missouri Tigers lost to the South Carolina Gamecocks this week.  This drops the Tigers to 2-7 on what has been an awful season.

The Missouri Tigers went into Columbia, South Carolina this week playing for pride and the hopes of staying out of the SEC basement.  Neither motivation was enough for the team though as Mizzou lost 31-21 and fell to 2-7 on the season.  In the end, the Tigers defense simply could not contain the Gamecocks offense.

Even though the season is all but done for the Tigers, this game was a bit of a must win for them.  In the SEC, the stronger schools will block out the weaker ones when it comes to recruiting.  Sure, this happens in all conferences, but not quite like in the SEC.  When a team falls to the bottom in this conference, they tend to stay there for a very long time.

Mizzou fans knew coming into this season that it would be a long year.  The program is essentially trying to rebuild itself.  After the drama of the events from this offseason and last year, Missouri needed to show some life this year.  Tiger fans haven’t seen any signs of that life since an early on blowout of Delaware State.

It is hard to see where the Tigers go from here.  Missouri is not going to be a destination school for most recruits.  There is no big name coach to attract top tier athletes to the program.  Showing that the team was still capable of winning was a major tool for the Mizzou staff.  Now that isn’t available either.  This week’s game was important, but the Tigers didn’t rise to the occasion.  Here is the good, bad, and ugly from the loss.