Mizzou Football: Realistic expectations for 2019 season

Mizzou football is heading into a new era with a new quarterback at the helm, but the Tigers should be pretty good in 2019. What are some realistic expectations for the black and gold this coming year?

Drew Lock is gone and off to the NFL, but the Missouri Tigers should still be fairly competitive in 2019. They were fortunate that former Clemson quarterback Kelly Bryant elected to transfer to Mizzou and now he’ll spend his final year of eligibility in Columbia, helping the Tigers win games.

There’s one big question mark heading into the 2019 campaign and that’s if MU will be eligible or not to participate in a bowl game. In case you hadn’t heard, the NCAA banned Mizzou football, baseball, and softball from postseason play after a student reported academic fraud against athletes from those three sports.

With Missouri appealing the sanctions, the final decision might not come for a year and that could mean this year’s team could participate in bowl season, assuming they win at least six games. Baseball and softball were both able to this year due to the appeal, so fingers crossed that either the sanctions are lifted or that the process lasts past football season.

Anyway, back to realistic expectations for the 2019 Mizzou football team.

When looking at the 2019 schedule, things look good for the Tigers to win at least six or seven games, which is enough to qualify for a bowl game. Obviously nothing is automatic in sports, but the games that SHOULD result in wins would be against Wyoming, SEMO, Troy, Vanderbilt, Tennessee, and Arkansas.

The tougher games on the schedule are against West Virginia, Kentucky, and Georgia, all of which could easily result in losses for the Tigers. West Virginia smacked this team around when the two played in Morgantown in 2017, but this time it’d be in Columbia and Will Grier is off to the NFL now, making the Mountaineers a lot less threatening.

Kentucky narrowly escaped Columbia with a victory last year, but they’re going to be just as good in 2019. The game will take place in Lexington this go around, so that’s definitely a game that Missouri could lose.

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Lastly, there’s Georgia, who has constantly had Mizzou’s number since the Tigers joined the SEC. The two went back and forth last year, but MU had five turnovers and that ultimately did them in, as the Bulldogs left Columbia with a win.

The “could go either way” games would be against South Carolina, Mississippi, and Florida. MU has struggled against the Gamecocks over the years, but has been surprisingly good against the Gators. They haven’t played the Rebels since 2013, a game in which Mizzou won 24-10.

Since Barry Odom has been the head coach of the Missouri Tigers, the team hasn’t had a lot of “big wins”. They’d blow the doors off weaker opponents, as they should have, but would fail to live up to expectations against ranked opponents.

Last year, the Tigers knocked off a ranked Florida team and were on fire after that. They had a disappointing loss in the Liberty Bowl to conclude the Drew Lock era, but the Tigers proved they could beat a quality opponent.

Kelly Bryant adds fuel to the fire of why this season could be special for Missouri fans. He played in big time games for Clemson (including a National Championship) and the hope is that he can continue to make big plays for his new team.

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If I had to predict a final record for the Missouri Tigers, I’d say they go 9-3 with a respectable bowl game appearance, assuming the sanctions are lifted or the case is still ongoing.

What realistic expectations do you have for Mizzou football this year?

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