The first glimpse at the kind of season 2020 would turn out to be in the SEC came when Missouri made a goal-line stand to beat LSU near the beginning of the season.

Mizzou LB Nick Bolton was a part of the big play, which sent the Tigers into a celebration frenzy and provided an early highlight for the Eli Drinkwitz era in Columbia. But it did more than that for Bolton, who shared those thoughts on a segment on Sirius XM College.

“That kind of showed what we had built ourselves on going forward,” Bolton said. “Just playing with grit, determined, not really giving up. They had a bunch of yards in the game, almost 500 yards of total offense. For us to get a stop when it really mattered it highlighted my season this year, really my career. Just trying to show those guys how preparation, and not giving up, and using stuff that we instilled in the spring, even though we didn’t have the full spring, or the full summer we wanted because of COVID, just getting all those guys together and executing at that level when it really matter was one of the highlights of my career.”

Bolton certainly improved his NFL Draft stock last season, and some mock drafts, like one from Bucky Brooks of NFL.com has him going No. 24 overall to the Pittsburgh Steelers.