'What we're meant to do': Why Mizzou football is not surprised by breaking unwanted streaks

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — No, it doesn’t surprise Cody Schrader.

It doesn’t shock him. He didn’t doubt it was possible. Even when reporting for spring camp on the back of a middling year, he said he believed.

“It’s what we we’re meant to do,” Schrader said.

Mizzou football hammered and harangued and hounded the Hogs all the way to a 48-14 win Friday, and that prompted riotous celebrations from the black-and-gold-clad crew at Razorback Stadium. Yes, because the Tigers had just claimed the Battle Line trophy for the seventh time in eight years. Yes, because the overwhelming majority of the population left in the stadium were clad in black and gold.

But it was also because of history.

Nine years.

Nine long years since Missouri’s last 10-win season.

Ten years.

A full decade since Missouri was awarded a New Year’s Six Bowl berth.

In northwest Arkansas, the Tigers (10-2, 6-2 Southeastern Conference) ended one unwanted run and are all but certain to be selected and shut the door on the other.

“I think this team is meant to play on big stages,” Schrader said. “I think we proved that all year, and nothing's going to change no matter what bowl game we go to. But like I said, it's not only great for us, man, but great for the university, great for the city of Columbia, because it gets them fired up. It gets them looking, you know — when's the last time they got to look forward to Mizzou playing past December, into a New Year’s Six Bowl?”

The team has spent the past four months coughing up the phrase “Something to Prove” at any given opportunity, even on occasion when there was no opportunity.

Boy, did the Tigers ever.

The Battle Line rivalry that had produced some recent thrillers did nothing of the sort because at Missouri’s final hurdle toward a selection bowl, they leveled up.

The Tigers forced five fumbles, hounding KJ Jefferson out of the game with an injury accrued during the first Arkansas cough-up. They created a nightmare for his backup, Jacolby Criswell, who didn’t lead the team over midfield until there were two minutes left in the third quarter.

Schrader had his fifth straight game with 100 yards rushing. Indeed, he put up 217 yards and a touchdown.

Freshman Brett Norfleet waltzed — untouched — into the end zone on back-to-back offensive plays, both stemming from turnovers, within the first four minutes of the second half.

Missouri had the Hogs squealing.

And a first-half scuffle that saw Missouri right tackle Armand Membou and two Razorbacks (4-8, 1-7) ejected could spoil that.

“We were here to play football,” Eli Drinkwitz said. “They were here to fight.”

Drinkwitz called the Tigers “America’s team” — the one that’s “built on underdogs” coming together.

He brought up all the awards Missouri players are now up for — and how few of those players were on preseason watch lists or All-Conference teams.

Drinkwitz brought up the coaches who stayed, and those, like offensive coordinator Kirby Moore, who joined.. He credited Luther Burden III for not being swayed by portal pressure. He said it’s time for Division-II transfer Schrader to be recognized among the nation’s best.

He said they had something to prove — that familiar refrain for anyone glued to the Tigers.

But what does winning 10 games prove?

“I think it means teams can still win,” Drinkwitz said. “It's not going to be about the individual player. It's what football is all about. It's about the best team, and we talked about it the whole time — it's not about proving that individually we're talented. It's about proving that, as a team, we can win. And, you know, we've been in every game this year through the fourth quarter. Some of them didn't go our way, some of them did. But our guys never quit.”

Friday in Arkansas did go Missouri’s way, and it went there more dominantly — and with greater payoff — than most.

Schrader’s dream, he said, was to smoke cigars in the locker room at the end of the season.

The Tigers got stogies after last year’s win at Faurot Field over Arkansas — one that made them bowl-eligible at the last gasp.

Schrader doesn’t even like the taste of cigars, he said. He likely didn’t like the taste of 6-6, either.

But he smoked one anyway, and he said he’ll smoke another this year — one with smoke wafting toward one of the New Year’s Six Bowl sites.

Those are the games Schrader said you watch from the couch, “but now it’s reality.”

That reality, so far removed from Thanksgiving weekend last year, doesn’t surprise him, though.

“I think I've always believed it,” Schrader said. “And something I’ve really thought about, man, like, this team fit who I am really well when I came in. You know, we were underdogs before I even got here. Not a lot of people expected a lot from us, man. And this team has continually just proved people wrong. And we're proving ourselves right. … We're just proving to ourselves that we deserve and that we're more than capable, to play at this level.”

This article originally appeared on Columbia Daily Tribune: Why Missouri football is not surprised by breaking unwanted streaks