Missouri Football: Can Tigers pose threat to Georgia, Florida in SEC East?

Nobody expected much out of Missouri football during the 2020 season. It was a pandemic season with an all-SEC schedule and first-year coach Eli Drinkwitz had just arrived from App State.

After a couple of deflating losses to Alabama and Tennessee to start the season, Missouri shocked LSU and proceeded to win five of their next six games and had a quarterback that was giving SEC defenses fits. The Tigers were humbled a bit in their final two games against Georgia and Mississippi State, but there is enough there for Tigers fans to be excited about heading into 2021.

The SEC East has Georgia and Florida, who are always thought to be the top two contenders in the division, but what is unclear is who could possibly challenge these two teams and make sure there’s no cakewalk to the conference championship.

With Tennessee, South Carolina, and Vanderbilt all having new coaches and starting tough rebuilds, why not Missouri? They have the quarterback and they have added some nice pieces around him this offseason, which should make this offense even more potent. Another big plus for Missouri is that it does not have to play either LSU or Alabama in its crossover games.

When Missouri first got to the SEC in 2012, it was unclear if they would ever be able to contend in the conference. After a tough 5-7 debut season, Missouri shocked the nation by winning the East in 2013 and were a win away from the national championship game before they fell to Auburn in the SEC title game.

After winning the East again in 2014, Missouri has not been able to find that level of success and is hoping that Drinkwitz can deliver that.