Mizzou Football will face Texas in the Texas Bowl

After rebounding a disastrous season, Mizzou football has drawn a pretty decent bowl game. They will face the Texas Longhorns in the Texas Bowl this year.

It seems like forever ago that we were talking about Barry Odom being on the hot seat for Mizzou football. Suddenly the Tigers became one of the hottest teams in the SEC as they finished the season with six straight wins and climbed out of the SEC East basement. Now Mizzou will finish the year facing Texas in the Texas Bowl on December 27th.

While the season is still ultimately a disappointing one for a team with so much talent, getting the Texas Bowl has to feel good for them. It’s not a coveted January 1st bowl game, but the Texas Bowl is still a pretty recognizable game for even casual college football fans. That’s good news for this program.

Of course, you can say what you want about the Texas Bowl. I mean, this is literally nothing more than a game to make the state of Texas feel self-important when it comes to football. The entire premise of the game has been that Texas will always have teams good enough for a bowl game. However, reality has not been kind over the years.

Live Audition For Scouts

Drawing Texas in this game also works out well for those Mizzou players that are thinking about the 2018 NFL Draft. Despite no longer being a national power, Texas still draws a ton of national interest. That includes NFL scouts. The Tigers have several players that should appeal to.

Not the least among Missouri’s top potential pros is junior quarterback Drew Lock. There is still a lot of speculation about what decision he will make this offseason. Lock has the numbers to make a case for going to the NFL right away, though his tape is not all that he could hope for. A strong bowl game performance could determine his fate. Past MVPs of this game include NFL quarterbacks Andy Dalton and Ryan Tannehill.

Related Story: Mizzou: Drew Lock Sets SEC Records With Performance

Other players who will be looking to make some noise in this game include seniors Ish Witter and J’Mon Moore. Both players came on strong towards the end of the year and will be hoping they can improve their draft stock a little bit more before the offseason workouts. The Texas Bowl will be extremely important for both of them.

Big Game For Recruiting

Another advantage to playing in the Texas Bowl is that there are sure to be plenty of recruits in attendance for this game. Mizzou needs to replenish some of their talent moving forward, and a game like this presents an opportunity to get some high-quality players interested. That would be huge for Barry Odom.

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The Missouri offense makes for a natural recruiting tool in games like this. Players love to be a part of a high-flying, exciting offense that scores on big plays. That is exactly what Mizzou brings to the table. If the Tigers offense can come out and put on a show, they will certainly walk out of the building with a few players being interested in coming to Columbia.

All in all, this game presents a lot of opportunities for both the program and the players on the roster. It is certainly a lot more than what fans were expecting back in October when the team appeared totally hapless. Barry Odom has now saved his job and put the Mizzou program in a position to get stronger.

It’s been quite a season for the Mizzou football team this year. From heightened preseason expectations, to a coach on the hot seat, and now heading to a bowl game with a chance to improve the program. The Tigers should be proud of how they rebounded this year, and looking to keep that going with a strong Texas Bowl performance.