DENNIS DODD
CBSSports.com
Someone had to win SEC East, Mizzou does it for 2nd year in a row
November 28, 2014 7:28 pm ET
Let's see, what was Missouri's best win this season?
It wouldn't be Indiana. The Tigers lost that one at home to a Hoosier squad that is winless in the Big Ten and lost to Bowling Green.
Certainly not Georgia. Six weeks ago the Bulldogs skunked Mizzou 34-0 – in Columbia.
The best win came late, as in late November, as in late Friday afternoon, as in the fourth quarter of the last game. It came over a last place team that had recently lost its last 17 conference games.
Naturally, they stormed the field Friday when the Tigers ploddingly, inexorably, finally overcame stubborn Arkansas 21-14.
That was enough for Missouri to clinch the SEC East for the second year in a row. Just enough. You did not want to be at the Georgia watch party that witnessed it from Athens. The Bulldogs' entire season was hanging on the result. It could have won the division in a tiebreaker sitting on the couch. Then that season fell off the cliff after a 15-0 fourth-quarter Missouri rally assured the result against a defense that hadn't given up a touchdown in it last 11 quarters.
Right now, little makes sense in the SEC. The league is both lauded for its excellence and derided for the East Division. But give credit for Mizzou (7-1 in the East) for being the best of "mediocre" in the East. No team in the entire league has a better combined conference record the last two seasons than Missouri.
Next Saturday, either Mississippi State or Alabama will play a team in Atlanta whose best win really is hard to find. The Tigers rallied in the fourth quarter to survive at South Carolina by a point. It gained 119 yards while scoring 42 points at Florida.
That same Florida team that smoked the Bulldogs made it possible for the Tigers in this improbable November by dropping 418 rushing yards on Georgia in the Cocktail Party. In this month alone, Missouri had to win at Texas A&M, at Tennessee and get by the hottest last-place team in the country.
Overall, the Tigers (10-2) won six in a row. It wasn't easy, pretty or logical. There's something to be said for the College Football Playoff selection committee chairman Jeff Long's weekly reminders about “body of work.” Mizzou had the best of it, in the East. Over the last two seasons, they're 14-2 in the Strength Everywhere Conference.
Alabama is second at 13-2, followed by Auburn at 11-4.
Yeah, I know they're 1-1 against Indiana in that span too but live with it. Super conferences have made it possible to win a league without even coming close to playing all your conference opponents.
Still, you would think there would be some sort of decent initiation period into the SEC. Missouri has been a part of the league for all of three years. Not for the Tigers who did it with offense last year, countering with defense this season. It was fitting that defensive end Markus Golden's recovery of Alex Collins' fumble with 2:13 left sealed it.
They did it with incredible fourth-quarter comebacks. In the last two weeks they have outscored Tennessee and Arkansas 28-8 in the final 15 minutes. In those games, quarterback Maty Mauk is 6 for 9 in the fourth for 195 yards and three touchdowns in final period.
Yeah, they rushed the field because their team it was unranked in the first CFP poll 32 days ago. It was ranked 24th in AP's preseason top 25.
It beat one ranked opponent along the way. Wait, South Carolina was once ranked 13th?
They rushed the field because initiation periods be damned. They rushed the field the field because Mizzou could actually be the end of this glorious SEC eight-year run.
Beat the No. 4 Bulldogs or the No. 1 Tide, and the SEC might be bumped out of the top four for the playoff.
That CFP selection committee wouldn't elevate the No. 17 Tigers to the top four, would they? Well, in that scenario the fourth-quarter Tigers from the mediocre East would be SEC champs.
How's that for a decent initiation period?