While it wasn’t the dream season that Eli Drinkwitz and Missouri hoped it may have been, the Tigers still have an opportunity to secure a 9-win campaign and take plenty of momentum into the offseason during their upcoming bowl game.
And this postseason will see Mizzou venture to Jacksonville to take part in the Gator Bowl at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 27. After a delay, Tigers learned they will face Virginia, which played for an ACC championship on Saturday.
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Missouri landed in the Gator Bowl following an up-and-down 2025 campaign. The Tigers started the promising season red-hot, ripping off five straight wins to start the year with victories over Kansas and South Carolina highlighting the slate.
But a crushing 27-24 home defeat at the hands of Alabama took some wind out of Drinkwitz & Co.’s sails, and even a gutsy double-overtime win over Auburn in response wasn’t enough to keep the ship afloat. Mizzou dropped 3 of its last 5 games to work out of the CFP picture and into the middle of the pack in the SEC.
With quarterback Beau Pribula set to return alongside a host of other promising young players, the Tigers could certainly use a quality win over an ACC foe as a needed boost heading into winter training.
Parker is currently the sports editor for the Enterprise-Journal in McComb, Mississippi. He's a graduate from Mizzou who has experience covering the Tiger football and basketball beats for SB Nation, and he's worked for a variety of sports news outlets in the past.
