Missouri Tigers Football 2017 Season Preview
By Ben Almquist
Missouri Tigers 2017 Season Preview
Schedule Breakdown: Games 1-4
The season kicks off this weekend for the Missouri Tigers with the start of a long home stand. Mizzou plays its first four games of the season as the home team, which is a tremendous advantage. Looking at the schedule of opponents, the Tigers need to come out of this part of the season with a 3-1 record.
Missouri State (4-7 in 2016)
A nice soft opening to the season as the Missouri Tigers host an FCS opponent in Missouri State. This is akin to getting a preseason match-up as the Tigers should easily role over Bears. Not only is this a small school opponent, it’s not a very good one. Give me the Tigers in this one (1-0).
South Carolina (6-7 in 2016)
The Tigers and the Gamecocks of South Carolina are coming into this season in similar positions. Both teams are in the second year of new head coaches, play in the SEC East, and are not far removed from past success. However, the Gamecocks are coming off a bowl-eligible season, and I think they build on that. Mizzou drops a close one here (1-1).
Purdue (3-9 in 2016)
Coming off a tough loss, the Missouri Tigers should get a bit of a break as they host the Purdue Boilermakers. Purdue has fallen on some hard times and have fallen to the back of the pack in the BIG conference. They’ll see Mizzou as being in a similar spot, but the difference in conferences shows up here. The Tigers win this game handily (2-1).
Auburn (8-5 in 2016)
This is the game where things can get tricky for the Missouri Tigers. The Auburn Tigers look to have a very good team this year. This will be a tough game for Mizzou to keep pace in, and I’m really worried that it gets ugly early on. If that happens, it can carry over to the next few weeks. Missouri gets blown out this week (2-2).