MU TO MEET NAVY

TIGERS DRAW NAVY IN TEXAS BOWL

It's official: Missouri play Navy in the 2009 Texas Bowl New Year's Eve in Houston.

Media suspicions that surfaced early in the week indicated the Insight Bowl committee favored Iowa State. The Independence Bowl also had a chance to take Missouri with its seventh conference-affiliated selection; but that committee also dropped down the ladder to take a 6-6 Texas A&M team.

The Tempe group apparently ignored MU's better record (8-4) and head-to-head win over the Cyclones and decided ISU fans would travel better for the New Year's Eve matchup with Minnesota, eh? I hope it snows in Arizona on New Year's Eve. The Aggies will face Georgia December 28 in Shreveport. It will snow in Shreveport.

Despite the apparent snubs, the matchup with the Midshipmen can be viewed as a positive opportunity for Mizzou. First, Houston is in the heart of Big XII recruiting country; and a number of Tigers are from south Texas. Second, television coverage will be twice as good.

The Insight Bowl will be televised by the NFL network, available to about half as many viewers as ESPN which will carry the MU/Navy game. Third, Navy, at 8-4 with its annual clash with Army on tap for Saturday, will be a great opponent for Missouri.

OK, so I might have indulged in the MU Sports Information Department's Kool-Aid.

The Middies will be going to their seventh consecutive bowl game, and their option game will contrast sharply with Mizzou's spread attack. Navy almost upset Ohio State in it's opening game, beat Notre Dame convincingly and played tough against Pittsburgh. They are not pushovers by any stretch of the imagination, but they don't pass the ball particularly well. Pass defense, of course, has been the Tigers' bugaboo.

Historically, Missouri is 2-0 against the Naval Academy, including a 21-14 win in the 1961 Orange Bowl in which the Bengals held Heisman Trophy winner Joe Bellino to four yards rushing. That victory, with President-elect John Kennedy in the stands, ended a stretch of six consecutive bowl losses for Missouri and capped an 11-0 season, marred by just one loss. That's right, dear readers, 1960 was the same year Kansas defeated MU in Columbia using an ineligible Bert Coan, a win KU was forced to forfeit after the season. Of course, by then it was too late for the Tigers, who made their strongest run at a national title that year. MU's other win over the USNA came in the 1948 campaign in Baltimore.

Don Steele

12/6/07