On Oct. 11, the Missouri Tigers resembled anything but the Eastern Division champions of the Southeastern Conference.
In a lunchtime matchup against Georgia, the Tigers turned the ball over five times in a humiliating 34-0 home loss. The setback dropped Missouri to 1-1 in league play and seemed to justify how the Tigers could lose a late-September home game to Indiana, which wound up 4-8 overall and 1-7 in the Big Ten.
Georgia dealt Missouri its first shutout loss in 12 years.
“We’ve come really far since then,” Tigers defensive end Markus Golden said. “The leaders pulled everybody together after that game and let everybody know that we couldn’t let that one game define our whole season. The whole team took pride in wanting to fix it, and we told ourselves that all our goals were still ahead of us.”
Since that debacle, Missouri has knocked off six consecutive SEC foes to post a second straight 7-1 league mark and a date with No. 1 Alabama this Saturday in the Georgia Dome. Georgia assumed control of the East after thrashing the Tigers but lost it three weeks later, when Florida upset the Bulldogs 38-20 in Jacksonville.