Mizzou football heads into Cotton Bowl near full strength

DALLAS — There was a common consensus among Missouri’s veteran crew when the Tigers’ Cotton Bowl berth was first announced on Sunday, Dec. 3

This class started this job, and they went through the fog and mire that lingered over the past.

Now, they’re going to see it through.

Mizzou football is in Arlington, Texas, where it will play its first New Year’s Six Bowl berth in program history. When the No. 9-ranked Tigers (10-2) walk onto the field Friday at AT&T Stadium, home of the Dallas Cowboys, for a much anticipated matchup with No. 7 Ohio State, they’ll do so at as close to full strength as possible.

“All the other seniors have decided (as of right now),” MU head coach Eli Drinkwitz said Dec. 3, “that they want to finish this thing out and play, so I don’t anticipate having any issues.”

The head coach was more or less right.

A long list of seniors are eligible and likely to hear their name called in April’s NFL Draft, including, but not limited to defensive end Darius Robinson, cornerbacks Kris Abrams-Draine and Ennis Rakestraw Jr., linebacker Ty’Ron Hopper and running back Cody Schrader.

Missouri head coach Eli Drinkwitz hugs senior defensive lineman Darius Robinson before a college football game at Memorial Stadium on Nov. 18, 2023, in Columbia, Mo.

Other than Rakestraw and Hopper, who have been ruled out of the game due to injuries that also held them out of the tail end of the regular season, MU looks set to field each and every one of its starters. Even portal entrants, Drinkwitz said, were eligible to participate with the team through the bowl, if they choose.

That’s a far cry from years gone by.

In 2021, at the Armed Forces Bowl in Fort Worth, Texas, just down the road from AT&T Stadium, Missouri coach Eli Drinkwitz said he held out then-star running back Tyler Badie to protect him as he…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/showtime-mizzou-football-heads-cotton-092029306.html

Author : Columbia Daily Tribune

Publish date : 2023-12-27 09:20:29

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