Still not like playing the ‘Jay-somethings,’ but Mizzou-Arkansas has fresh spice to it
Always and forever, the University of Missouri’s most authentic of rivals will be the University of Kansas. The feud was hatched and etched in the history of the states and the schools and indoctrinated into alumni and fans for generations, a dynamic at once contentious and symbiotic.
Dormant as it may be, with only some recent thawing after a different sort of ill will between them generated by Mizzou’s move from the Big 12 to the Southeastern Conference, that past still hovers even if as a bygone standard.
One invoked unbidden by Mizzou coach Eliah Drinkwitz Tuesday in the context of MU’s game scheduled for Saturday against designated stand-in rival Arkansas with former MU coach Barry Odom as defensive coordinator.
As the Tigers (4-3) play the Razorbacks (3-5) in a series still somewhere between an embryonic and contrived stage, I asked him why rivalries are so meaningful in the fabric of college football.
Smiling, he said that’s what “makes the game” and first referred to what he will tell people “all day long” remains the biggest rivalry he ever coached or played in: His first coaching job and high school alma mater, Alma (Ark.) High, vs. Greenwood.
“And that’s what college football is about,” he said, promptly adding, “I know we have our rivalry (with) that other school, whatever direction that is from here, (with) the Jay-somethings. But they’re not in the conference, and I don’t know when we’ll get to play them again. So we’ve got to have another one.”
So, presto, soon after MU moved to the SEC, they appended an “AR” to the front of Kansas, ladled a heaping teaspoon of honey over the matchup and tried to set it simmering to rival temperature.
Then they started calling it the Battle Line Rivalry and added a trophy so large (standing more than 4 feet tall and weighing more than 180 pounds) that Drinkwitz says that he couldn’t lift it alone.
What no one could immediately provide was a character to the series of comparable stature.
When the teams met in 2014, after all, it was the first time they had played in the regular season in 51 years. And while some of the games have held big stakes, including Mizzou beating Arkansas in 2014 to seal an SEC title game berth, it takes time and plot twists and a certain texture and relevance to make it matter more.
“It’s relatively young,” Drinkwitz said. “But you know, I’m sure we’ll figure out a way to continue to make it more and more appealing each year. And this year doesn’t lack any storylines, that’s for sure.”
Enough so to energize the meaning of this matchup now and perhaps cultivate more for years to come.
Start with the subplot of Odom, who almost exactly a year ago lost his job hours after beating Arkansas wasn’t enough to salvage a 6-6 finish in 2019 and 25-25 overall record in four seasons. Odom was a True Son of MU, where he was a star linebacker and spent most of his career and where many players hoped he would continue on.
Drinkwitz is so conscious of that he addressed it with the team.
“Absolutely, there’s no hiding it,” he said.
The message: Such attachments need to be rendered no different than they might be for “any of us who’ve gone against people we care about and have feelings for … At the end of the day, when you’re playing a game, it’s about the people in (your) locker room, (the) Mizzou on your chest and what we’re trying to do as a team.”
Meanwhile, there’s Drinkwitz’s extensive history in the state with that “AR” in front of it. He grew up a Razorback fan about 45 minutes from Fayetteville in Alma. He went to college at Arkansas Tech and coached at Springdale High and Arkansas State.
Other than rattling off some brief memories of Razorback teams past, though, he didn’t elaborate on any allegiance to the school.
“It is what it is,” he said.
Then he flipped the spotlight onto Arkansas coach Sam Pittman, who, like Drinkwitz, figures to be a candidate for some coach of the year honors. Pittman, incidentally, has Missouri ties (coaching at Trenton High and Mizzou years ago) and was hired to take over Arkansas just as Drinkwitz was by MU.
“He’s the perfect fit for what that program needs at the time that they needed it,” Drinkwitz said.
Left publicly unclear is to what degree Drinkwitz was or wasn’t interested in the Arkansas job at the time and vice versa.
Whatever the case, it’s not the first time a coaching shuffle has been part of Missouri-Arkansas history.
Beyond men’s basketball coach Mike Anderson leaving MU for Arkansas in 2011, there was the more momentous matter of Frank Broyles departing for Fayetteville in 1957 after just one season with a legacy that included recruiting Mizzou’s first black players, Norris Stevenson and Mel West.
Safe to say it worked out well for each school.
At Arkansas, Broyles went 144-85-5 and guided his team to the 1964 national title. His replacement at MU was Dan Devine, who went 93-37-7 before leaving after the 1970 season.
If the schools had played regularly then, Broyles’ defection might have been the underpinnings of a rivalry.
Instead, with the teams meeting only sporadically (1906, 1944 and 1963 in the regular season and twice in bowls) until MU’s SEC era, there was no framework to build on.
But suddenly now there are a considerable number of intriguing dynamics bubbling in a series marked by Mizzou winning the last four showdowns.
They say familiarity breeds contempt, and it might be understood that was long the case between Missouri and Kansas. You could make an argument that it even got unhealthy.
So now maybe it’s better to hope familiarity just breeds something that will gain interest and traction and momentum over the years.
And at least this year’s circumstances figure to stoke it more towards filling that void.