Missouri to face Texas in the Texas Bowl

On Sunday, Missouri learned its bowl destination and opponent, which is a familiar one. The Tigers will play Texas in the Texas Bowl, down in Houston, on Dec. 27 (8 p.m. on ESPN).

Bowl matchups vary wildly in excitement level, but this one could be fun.

First, the backstory. Texas’ perceived domineering attitude and Longhorn Network were major friction points in the exodus of teams from the Big 12 Conference, including, of course, Missouri and noted Longhorn-hatred enthusiast Texas A&M moving to the Southeastern Conference. Missouri’s last game against Texas, a 17-5 win in 2011, came days after the Tigers announced their pending move to the SEC.

Texas comes by its reputation of arrogance honestly. Take the 2013 comments of Texas’ then-athletic director DeLoss Dodds, who took the occasion of talking about a promised return to excellence for Texas to bash Missouri.

“Our bad years are not that bad,” he said. “Take a school like Missouri. Our bad years are better than their good years.”

Of course, that’s not true, even if Texas is a more accomplished program historically than Mizzou.

Missouri fans have referenced that quote plenty of times in recent years, such as when the Tigers won 12 and 11 games in the two seasons immediately following it, or when Texas bumbled away a game against lowly Kansas last year, becoming the “1” in the Jayhawks’ 1-26 Big 12 record over the last three seasons.

So there is plenty of conversational fodder to fill the weeks leading up to the actual game, played at NRG Stadium. But these two teams have enough intrigue based on this season alone.

Missouri recovered from a 1-5 start to win six straight and finish the regular season 7-5.

Texas suffered an embarrassing home loss to Maryland to start the season, the first game under new coach Tom Herman. But the Longhorns showed fight against big-time opponents like USC and Oklahoma, and managed to finish 6-6 and earn a bowl berth.

One of the key questions for the Texas Bowl is whether Missouri’s offense can keep rolling like it did in the second half of the season. Playing in the Big 12, Texas is familiar with the high-powered, up-tempo style of offense Missouri runs. The Longhorns had good showings against Oklahoma State and West Virginia, holding both to 14 points or fewer. Their defense presents a challenge for the Tigers.

On the other side of the ball, Texas rotated quarterbacks but still finished 36th in the nation in passing yards per game. Missouri’s defense gave up 425.3 yards per game, 86th in the country, and 31.8 points per game, so being opportunistic and forcing turnovers might be the key for the Tiger defense.