Finally!

Growing up a Tiger fan, there was a lot of pain. I was 9, nearly 10 years old before Mizzou saw a winning football season. I've sit through a lot of games, the first coming back in 1992, and until I went to college, most of those games I sat through were losses. Now, unlike my good friend Ben Herrold, I don't know the exact number of Mizzou football games I've been to in my life. It's a lot. However, in a rare occurrence, I wasn't one of the 71,000 plus fans on hand at Faurot Field. But, watching the game on TV, and seeing Mizzou break-through and beat the Sooners for the first time since 1998, and only the second time in my life, I was just as happy and satisfied.

Growing up, for me at least, the bully of the bygone days of the Big 8 was Nebraska. That football team that we couldn't EVER beat, and in the meantime was not only winning conference titles, but some national titles as well. It didn't much matter though, because Missouri was never very good. A losing streak against the Huskers that began in 1979 didn't end until 2003. However, since that time, Nebraska has taken a back seat for me, as I'm sure they have for most Mizzou fans, and the disdain has been directed at Oklahoma.

For all the crap I give Gary Pinkel (some deserving, some just bitterness), he has had Mizzou on the brink of national prominence many times, and the program has seen more sustained success then at any point since the Dan Devine era. The one team that time and time again stood in the way of the Tiger's push to the top, has been Oklahoma. In 2007, Mizzou rose to #11 and traveled to Norman to play the Sooners. Mizzou would blow a 4th quarter lead and wind up losing, 41-31. However, the Tigers picked themselves up off the mat, and didn't lose another game all year. The Tigers rose to #1 in the nation for only the second time in school history and found themselves one win away from playing for a national title. Only the Big XII title game against the Sooners stood in the way. We all remember what happened. Mizzou lost 38-17. The Tigers would win a horrible north the next year in 2008 only to be crushed 62-21 by the Sooners in the conference title game again. After a transitional year in 2009, no one was quite sure what to make of the 2010 group.

Now, the night after this 2010 team's 36-27 win over a Sooner team that sat atop the BCS rankings, it looks as though Pinkel and the Tigers have FINALLY broken through. It's taken 10 years, but Pinkel has Mizzou 6th in the BCS and he's notched his first win over Oklahoma. He didn't do it with a flashy offense and a finesse team that doesn't play much defense or run the ball much. He did it with a hard nosed TEAM. No real superstars, just the ability to go toe to toe in the trenches and on both sides of the ball with the nations elite. This years group, no matter what happens, aren't going to get out "physical-ed".  No, this team is different. People will still say that the 2007 win over Kansas in the "Armageddon at Arrowhead" is Pinkel's biggest win. Right now, on the sole fact we rose to #1 because of it, and it was a battle of top 5 teams that bitterly hate each other, I'd agree. However, if Mizzou can win this coming weekend in Lincoln, Nebraska (a place where wins have been hard to come by for Mizzou), last nights win has a chance to take the top spot. If Mizzou keeps winning, really, each game from here on it becomes the biggest game. Maybe, just maybe this Tiger team can take that step that Pinkel's other teams failed to do and win the league. Or, maybe, this group can take the step that no Tiger team has ever taken, and bring a national title to Columbia.

But right now, all that matters is Coach Pinkel is no longer winless against the Sooners, and that Missouri has finally earned some national respect.