It’s safe to say that no matter the outcome of Monday’s Advocare v100 Independence Bowl, a new era of Missouri football would begin at the final whistle.
After a season in which conference realignment morphed from mere rumors to solid fact, the Tigers would not be criticized if their minds had already wandered to the years ahead in the Southeastern Conference.
But Missouri (8-5) came to play Monday night, securing a 41-24 victory over North Carolina (7-6) despite the rainy weather and sparse Shreveport, La., crowd. And if their motivation for this one game is any indication, the Tigers could indeed be looking forward to a bright future.
“Our seniors sat down by themselves and they came out and handed me a list of why it was important to play in this football game,” coach Gary Pinkel said. “So I read this to (the team) and the players were all excited. It came from the seniors. I didn’t do this. I think it set the stage for everybody. I was really pleased with how they played.”
The Tigers offensive assault seemed to move the ball at will on the ground against Tar Heels, rushing for 337 yards on the nation’s 16th best rush defense. Both sophomore quarterback James Franklin (142 yards) and junior running back Kendial Lawrence (108) ran for more than 100 yards in the win.
The catalyst for the offensive outburst was Franklin, who played perhaps his best game as a starter. In his first bowl start, Franklin accounted for 274 all-purpose yards and three touchdowns. He looked poised inside and outside of the pocket, making decisions with both his legs and arm to help the Tigers score consistently.
Franklin said he finally started to find confidence as the season wore on.
“After there were two games where I didn’t do well, the guys around me, no matter how I performed, were positive with me,” Franklin said. “That’s where I started having fun, because before that in the back of my mind I was always worried what they thought (when I made a mistake).”
North Carolina got on the board first. North Carolina senior wide receiver Dwight Jones beat sophomore Missouri cornerback E.J. Gaines for possession in the endzone on a pass from Tar Heel quarterback Bryn Renner on the game’s opening drive.
Franklin led the Tigers to a quick response, driving into North Carolina territory in just under two minutes. Then Missouri offensive coordinator David Yost pulled some trickery out of his playbook. Franklin took the snap and tossed it to junior wide receiver T.J. Moe behind the line of scrimmage, who then fired a bullet downfield to a wide-open Wes Kemp for the score.
“We had that play ready by halftime,” Moe said. “I was a little nervous because the defensive end shot up the field. So I got some depth … I took a couple steps and the corner bit and I let her rip.”
Missouri went on to score on its next two possessions before a couple of Tar Heel mistakes gave the Tigers a chance to widen their advantage. Sophomore linebacker Andrew Wilson forced a fumble early in the second quarter, leading to a Missouri rushing touchdown.
On the next North Carolina drive, junior linebacker Zaviar Gooden converted one of the strangest turnovers in recent Missouri memory. Jones hauled in a pass, only to lose the ball after a hit from junior safety Kenronte Walker. The ball popped free, landed on Jones’ back and rolled into the arms of a diving Gooden.
The two turnovers were just the highlights of a strong defensive performance for Missouri, which held North Carolina to 353 yards of offense. North Carolina couldn’t find a groove on either side of the ball, a sign of the consistency Pinkel had asked his team to work on throughout the season.
“If there was one area I was kind of disappointed with in our football team it was sometimes our defense would be playing great and our offense wouldn’t,” Pinkel said. “(Tonight) we had that consistency of everybody coming in and playing as a team from the beginning, from the first play. This was a very complete game against a good football team.”