For Mizzou’s sake, hopefully Saturday goes better than Oct. 11, 2014.

That was the last time that Mizzou played host to a battle of ranked teams. Nearly 9 years ago, the No. 23 Tigers took on No. 13 Georgia at Faurot Field. CBS was in the house for the rare 11 a.m. local time matchup, which had plenty of buzz on the heels of Mizzou’s dramatic, double-digit comeback at South Carolina. There was hope that Mizzou would knock off a Todd Gurley-less Georgia squad and continue to build off the 2013 SEC East title season.

And then, with the nation glued to Columbia, Georgia forced 5 turnovers while limiting Mizzou to 147 yards of offense in a 34-0 beatdown.

It was a day to forget. Even though it was a season to remember — Mizzou went on to repeat as East champs — it was a reminder of how fleeting a national spotlight can be. One day you have it, the next, you’re left wondering when your stadium will play host to a game with real significance.

Nearly 9 years later, Mizzou finally has that opportunity again.

On Saturday, Eli Drinkwitz’s program will look to do something that hasn’t happened in even longer than 9 years: Win a matchup of ranked teams in front of the home fans. That hasn’t happened since the Tigers took down Johnny Manziel and Texas A&M in the 2013 regular-season finale wherein Henry Josey won it with one of the most memorable plays in program history.

There are similarities and differences with that matchup. Like in 2013, Mizzou will be tasked with taking down a preseason top-7 team from the SEC West that entered with one of the preseason Heisman favorites. Unlike 2013, Mizzou won’t kick off in primetime — it’ll be an 11 a.m. CT kick on ESPN — nor can it walk out of Saturday with a division title in hand. Nobody should be saying that the East runs through Columbia because as long as the 2-time defending national champs are in that same division, that’s where the conversation ends.

Mizzou can, however, send a loud message to the college football world with an LSU win. Goodbye mediocrity, hello national relevance.

If you think “mediocrity” is too harsh, tell me which one of these describes the program:

  • A) 5 consecutive seasons w/o a winning record
  • B) 8 consecutive seasons w/o an AP Top 25 finish
  • C) 33-42 record vs. SEC competition in Playoff era
  • D) 5-22 vs. AP Top 25 in Playoff era
  • E) All the above

It’s “E.” It’s always “E.”

In hindsight, “mediocre” might be a bit generous to describe what Mizzou has been in the Playoff era. Of course, that word doesn’t apply to this 2023 squad in the slightest. If you’re still associating Mizzou with mediocrity, you probably missed the part where Drinkwitz’s squad ranks in the top 1/4 in FBS in yards/play on offense and defense. DC Blake Baker led the nation’s No. 6 run defense in terms of yards/rush allowed and new offensive play-caller Kirby Moore has Brady Cook playing at an All-SEC level.

Cook is coming off a game in which he had a career-high 395 passing yards and 4 touchdowns while he set the SEC record for consecutive passes without an interception (326). That record-setting effort at Vandy helped Mizzou beat a Power 5 team while being ranked inside the AP Top 25 for the first time since 2014. Ever since Cook got booed during introductions during the Kansas State game, he’s been a man on a mission. In his past 3 games, he averaged 364 passing yards on 9.8 yards/attempt with 3.3 touchdown passes per game and obviously, zero interceptions. He did that while playing through a knee injury, too.

The efficiency is really what’s been impressive so far. If you exclude a service academy with 18 passes this season, Mizzou is No. 5 in America with 10.4 yards per pass attempt.

Of course, nobody has been more efficient and dynamic than Luther Burden III. It’s been a dream start to Year 2 for the former 5-star wideout. Burden’s transition to the slot has taken his game to the next level. Not only has Burden nearly doubled his average yards per reception — he went from 8.3 to 15.0 — but he leads the entire FBS in receiving with 644 yards. He’s also No. 1 among Power 5 receivers with 44 catches. Any concerns about his touches evaporated in September.

The bigger mid-September issue that Mizzou had to figure out was getting the non-Burden receivers involved. In the past 3 games, that became a non-issue. Former transfers Theo Wease (Oklahoma) and Mookie Cooper (Ohio State) combined for an average of 10 catches for 136 yards per game during those 3 weeks. It was Wease who made the grab to set up the historic 61-yard field goal to beat Kansas State (the inexplicable delay of game penalty also contributed to that SEC-record-breaking distance).

That’s what makes Saturday all the more intriguing.

LSU is coming off a game in which it allowed 707 yards. Brian Kelly counted 34 missed tackles that led to 284 yards of Ole Miss offense (H/T Shea Dixon). The well-documented issues in the secondary resulted in the nation’s No. 110 pass defense through 5 weeks, and no Power 5 team allowed more passing plays of 40 yards (7) than LSU.

We also don’t know what LSU looks like for an early kickoff in Columbia on the heels of that dreaded second loss. On the way to the Mississippi State game at 11 a.m. local time, Kelly took his team to a car dealership in Mississippi to stretch and refocus. That plan worked to avoid a sleepy start, and LSU stormed into Starkville like the preseason top-5 squad it was billed as.

We don’t know what kind of buttons Kelly will have to push Saturday, but it’s not crazy to think that if they’re the wrong ones, Mizzou’s time in the spotlight can be even brighter by day’s end.

This moment has been a long time coming for Drinkwitz. When Drinkwitz was at Appalachian State, he became a big fan of one of its famous former students, Luke Combs. One of Drinkwitz’s go-to Combs songs is “Does to Me,” with Eric Church. The message of the song is about appreciating the little things, and even if you’re just, as Combs describes, “a middle of the road, not much to show, underachieving Average Joe,” you still have your moments in life.

Maybe Mizzou’s moment is coming on Saturday. It sure seems like as good a time as ever to not be an Average Joe.