The Missouri Tigers are coming off a season in which they started out 1-5 and then turned things around to finish with a 7-5 regular-season record.

Heading into the 2018 season, the Tigers once again face a bulk of their toughest games early in the season, meaning another sluggish start could be in order.

In fact, according to ESPN’s FPI, three of the Tigers’ four toughest games come in the first seven weeks of the season. A Week 7 contest at Alabama is their toughest game, as the FPI rankings give Mizzou only an 11.7-percent chance of winning.

From there, games vs. Georgia, at Florida and at South Carolina are the toughest remaining contests:

  • Week 7 — at Alabama — 11.7%
  • Week 4 — vs. Georgia — 21.7%
  • Week 10 — at Florida — 32.5%
  • Week 6 — at South Carolina — 43.9%

The Florida game is interesting. Yes, it’s at The Swamp instead of Faurot Field this year, but this is still largely the same Florida squad that the Tigers beat 45-16 last season.

As far as the easiest games go, Week 1 vs. UT Martin (98.4%), Week 2 vs. Wyoming (90.6%) and Week 11 vs. Vanderbilt (86.6%) provide the Tigers the best chances to win.

Overall, ESPN’s FPI projects that the Tigers will go 7.2-4.8, which rounds to 7-5 — an identical record to last season. Will that be the case again? Only time will tell.