Going bowling
The Tigers are bound for the Sun Bowl
With quarterback Chase Daniel at the helm, the Tiger football team has gone far in Coach Gary Pinkel’s sixth season — almost all the way to Mexico. Mizzou has accepted a bid to play in the Brut Sun Bowl in the border city of El Paso, Texas.
The game will take place Friday, Dec. 29 at 1 p.m. CST (12 p.m. MT), with national TV coverage on CBS. The Tigers will face the 24th Oregon State Beavers, a Pac-10 team that is ranked 24th nationally.
The Tigers (8-4) and Beavers (9-4) ended the season with similar records, but they took nearly opposite paths to get there. The Beavers started slow, losing three of their first five games, then turned it on to win seven of the last eight games — including an upset of national powerhouse USC. The Tigers, on the other hand, started at 6-0 for the first time since 1973 (when Mizzou also went to the Sun Bowl), but then lost four of the last six games, including a controversial heartbreaker at Iowa State.
However, the Tigers showed poise and pride and finished strong with a victory over rival Kansas. Daniel threw for a career-high 356 yards and four touchdowns in the 42-17 trampling of the Jayhawks. He earned his second Big 12 Offensive Player of the Week honors of the season. Mizzou hopes to carry that season-ending momentum all the way to El Paso and win its second-straight bowl game.
The MU Alumni Association is offering package deals and informationfor fans interested in traveling to El Paso for the game, tailgating and other events.
Check the Mizzou home page the week of the Sun Bowl for a daily blog by Web editor Chris Blose.