Mizzou Football: Ranking opponents for 2020 season

7. Mississippi State Bulldogs

Missouri doesn’t square off against Mississippi State all that often, with their last match-up taking place in 2015 and the Bulldogs winning it with ease (31-13) despite that game taking place in Columbia.

This time around, the game will take place in Starkville and it’s actually the final game of the regular season for both teams. The season stretches into December, so this match-up will be on December 5th and will close things out for both the Tigers and the Bulldogs.

The Bulldogs have a new head coach in Mike Leach, who saw a tremendous amount of success at Washington State, so he should be able to make Mississippi State a respectable program again. Leach is the main reason why Mississippi State could be a tough out for the Tigers, especially with this being a road game, but it’s a winnable game for Mizzou for sure.

6. Tennessee Volunteers

Tennessee started their 2019 season off pretty rough, but turned things around and ended the season with an 8-5 record. One of those wins came against Missouri late in the year – a 24-20 victory in November – and Tennessee had some small hype surrounding them this year.

Unfortunately, they – like the rest of the SEC – have a tough schedule in 2020 and that’s going to make it tough for them to achieve everything they wanted to. While the Volunteers aren’t necessarily an intimidating team, the Tigers travel to Knoxville for their second game of the season (on October 3rd to be exact) and are very likely going to be 0-1 at that point.

Their game against Tennessee could honestly be a must win game for them, but it won’t be that easy unfortunately. The Volunteers will probably beat Missouri, but this game could go either way for sure.