Mizzou Tigers headed to Music City Bowl to face Big Ten’s Iowa Hawkeyes on Dec. 30
The Missouri Tigers will get a shot at one last win to conclude their pandemic-riddled season.
Mizzou accepted an invitation Sunday to play in the Music City Bowl, facing No. 15 Iowa. The 2021 Music City Bowl is scheduled for 3 p.m. Dec. 30 at Nissan Stadium in Nashville, Tennessee. Tickets for the game can be found here.
Bowl projections had Mizzou headed to the Outback Bowl in Tampa, generally considered a more desirable destination than the Music City Bowl. But rules are different during a pandemic. MU athletic director Jim Sterk said in a normal year, SEC teams submit a list of bowl preferences to the SEC, and the league then tries to accommodate the schools.
But in 2020, every team qualified for a bowl regardless of record. Sterk said after the Citrus Bowl chose Auburn, SEC programs were ranked based on winning percentage. That left Mizzou atop the crowd at 5-5, meaning MU could choose to go to Nashville for its bowl game.
MU coach Eliah Drinkwitz said the Music City Bowl fit perfectly on the Tigers’ calendar. His players can return home for the holidays; then after the game is over, they can go back to their families to open 2021.
“Get to be in a city like Nashville, which is central to where most of the player’s families are going to be,” Drinkwitz said. “We knew that we were going to be able to go home for Christmas and be home for New Year’s. When you wrap all of those things together, it just made perfect sense that these guys were going to get great bowl gifts.”
There will be a stark difference between bowl trips, though. What’s usually a celebration of the season and a week full of events at the host cities will be treated like a road game. MU and Iowa will fly into Nashville right before the game, then disperse as a team the day after the contest.
Drinkwitz said the team plans to congregate in Columbia at night on Christmas. They will then conduct a usual game week, with two practices in Missouri and two in Nashville. Drinkwitz said players will be tested once they return from the break, which will be followed up by three straight days of PCR testing. Once they’re in Nashville, the Tigers will go through further testing to “make sure there’s no adverse risk to anyone that’s involved in the trip or anyone in the game.”
Drinkwitz sees a slew of positives, including staying at the lavish Gaylord Opryland Hotel, in going to Nashville. He added that his daughters are excited about the indoor ice skating and other activities. Players will also get bowl gifts, gear and other perks.
Mizzou gets a tough opponent on top of it all in the form of the Hawkeyes. Iowa posted a 6-2 record in the Big Ten West, finishing the regular season on a six-game winning streak. Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz tested positive for COVID-19 two days ago, so he said he will coach virtually from home for now. Ferentz said he hopes to be back in time for the bowl game.
“They’re a very talented defense,” Drinkwitz said. “Know that they’re very fundamentally sound. Coach Ferentz is going to be committed to running the football, stopping the run and playing good defense. Solid special teams. It’s going to be a very difficult opponent, much in the mold of what we see every game in the SEC.”
Drinkwitz said it’s too early to discuss roster injuries as the Tigers only suited up 52 players against Mississippi State. He confirmed MU offensive lineman Larry Borom will not play in the bowl game as he prepares for the 2021 NFL Draft. The Tigers will, however, have MU running back Larry Rountree III, who tweeted out that he will play in the postseason game. The captain had accepted an invite to the Reese’s Senior Bowl once his MU career is wrapped up.
“It is an honor to be selected to play in the Music City Bowl,” Rountree said in his tweet. “An honor the 2020 Mizzou Tigers have definitely earned! Having been denied the opportunity last year, and having never won a bowl game, I plan to take full advantage of this opportunity!! With that said, I will play.”
It’s a rematch of the 2010 Insight Bowl, which resulted in a 27-24 Hawkeyes victory. The Tigers finished that season 10-3 under former coach Gary Pinkel. MU leads the all-time series against the Hawkeyes 7-6.
MU qualified for a bowl game last season at 6-6, but had to sit out because of NCAA penalties. The Tigers’ last bowl appearance was against Oklahoma State in the 2018 Liberty Bowl.
Drinkwitz had said his team will go to a bowl game in the lead-up to Sunday’s announcement. Multiple teams around the country, including Kansas State, USC and Penn State, have opted out of the postseason, citing the mental toll the year has taken and other COVID-19 considerations.
“It’s a celebration,” Drinkwitz said. “We’re going to make sure our guys enjoy the opportunity to go to a great city, a great American city, Nashville. We’re going to make sure that our guys enjoy our team while they’re here in preparation for that.”
The Tigers are hoping to close out 2020 with a win after dropping their final two regular-season games. MU was blown out by Georgia and Mississippi State, falling out of the College Football Playoff rankings.
Mizzou was one of the surprises of a top-heavy SEC. Drinkwitz’s team was projected to finish sixth in the SEC East, but the Tigers exceeded expectations with a third-place finish in the division. While two losses to close the season hurt Drinkwitz’s SEC Coach of the Year chances, his name was firmly in the mix throughout his first season at Mizzou.
After dropping their first two games, the Tigers won five of their next six. There were plenty of highlights from the 2020 season, including a four-down goal-line stand against LSU, a thrilling comeback over Arkansas and a 41-0 dismantling of Vandy.
“We get to stay in the Gaylord Opryland Hotel instead of that wonderful Hilton Garden Inn that we stayed at (in Starkville, Mississippi),” Drinkwitz said. “That’s going to be a step up. No offense to the Hilton Garden Inn. But that’s going to be an awesome opportunity. We get bowl gifts and we get recognition and we get bowl gear. Guys will get per diem while they travel home and away. There’s a lot of awards.”
This story was originally published December 20, 2020 at 3:31 PM.