Mizzou football not as far ahead of Arkansas as it appears in records

Missouri enters Friday’s game with Arkansas riding a two-game winning streak in the series and most likely will end the day in Columbia with its third straight win — a convincing one at that.

Since the Battle Line Rivalry (a terrible name with a worse trophy) was established in 2014, the Tigers have only lost once (28-3 in 2015) and own a 6-3 all-time series lead.

Mizzou fans, and there are a few sprinkled around the state, are quick to point out this dominance.

Knowing them like I do dating back to the Big 8 days growing up in Iowa, Mizzou fans are quick to point out any sort of series dominance because it has been few and far between.

They’ll tell you Missouri “owns” Arkansas, and there is a great disparity in the two programs.

But the numbers only tell half the story, and like it has been throughout history, Arkansas is still the program with the most upside.

The main advantage the Tigers have is playing in the SEC East.

That is the ONLY reason they have two division titles. When Mizzou entered the league in 2012 following a pedestrian 5-4 Big 12 season, the Tigers promptly finished 2-6 in the SEC East. With Florida, Georgia and Tennessee all down, Missouri rebounded and won the division the next two seasons.

The Tigers then finished 5-7 in legendary coach Gary Pinkel’s final year in 2015. Barry Odom’s teams have finished 4-8 and 7-6, and the SEC East is still not close to what it has been when Georgia, Florida and Tennessee are in the their glory years.

The point is, Missouri has been inconsistent in a watered down division. The powers that be in Columbia were thankful it was expansion team Texas A&M assigned to the West and not them. There would be no division titles in the trophy case at Mizzou if the Tigers were in the West.

And that’s been Arkansas’ biggest problem, especially the past 10 seasons.

A Razorbacks team can be pretty talented and still take a backseat to the likes of Alabama, Auburn, LSU and even Texas A&M. Not only has the timing been good for the Tigers in the division, but they began playing the Hogs during the most tumultuous time in school history.

Missouri benefitted from the Bret Bielema Era, and no Hogs fan will ever forget the epic second-half collapse in the 2016 game against a 4-8 Tigers team.

Bielema left Arkansas with a putrid 1-3 record in the manufactured rival game against average at best Mizzou squads.

The trend won’t continue. Mizzou should enjoy the spanking they will dish out Friday, because it won’t last. This year will be the second time since they joined the league in 2012 that they have had back-to-back winning seasons.

The East is going improve steadily the next two seasons but bets are the Tigers won’t. Missouri’s NFL Draft prospect QB Drew Lock will be gone, and it won’t be easy to replace him.

The Tigers are primed for a losing season in 2019.

With an 18-18 record in three years, I am still not sure the former Tigers linebacker Odom is the coach that can lead the Tigers to upper echelon finishes yearly.

Mizzou was never a consistent threat in the Big 8-Big 12 until Pinkel arrived in 2001.

You can make a case that Odom is a better coach than his Eastern counterparts Derek Mason at Vanderbilt, Jeremy Pruitt and Will Muschamp at South Carolina, but I’d take Georgia’s Kirby Smart and Florida’s Dan Mullen any day and probably Mark Stoops at Kentucky.

So, is Odom a better coach than the Hogs’ Chad Morris?

No, and that’s why my money is on Arkansas becoming a better program and beating Mizzou routinely. The biggest difference between the two coaches is recruiting.

Morris has guided the Hogs to one of the worst seasons in school history and his first recruiting class is ranked by some services in the Top 10. Morris’ deep Texas connections have paid off and will continue.

If Odom thought recruiting in the Big 12 was tough with Texas schools, it’s even tougher in the SEC East with the likes of Georgia, Florida and Tennessee mining the rich South that is hundreds of miles away from the Midwest.

With a team featuring such lackluster talent, we didn’t get to see Morris’ real coaching ability this year.

That should come more next year. The problem next year will be a glut of inexperience. It could be another losing season, but the talent should be improved.

Will that be enough to beat Mizzou next year? Yes. And the disparity between the two should rapidly decrease even with Arkansas playing in a much tougher decision. Morris may have other problems but beating Missouri won’t be one of them.