Missouri Tigers Poised for a National Championship

Missouri came into this season with dreams of winning the Big XII North.

Now they have their eyes on a much bigger prize: the National Championship.

Before this season, the Tigers had never finished with more than four wins in Big XII play, but Saturday’s win against hated rival Kansas boosted their record to 7-1.

With that emotional win behind them, Mizzou must now look ahead to this Saturday in San Antonio, where they will face the only team to beat them so far this season—the Oklahoma Sooners, who dropped the Tigers 41-31 on October 13 in Norman.

The Tigers left that game with the knowledge that they could hang with the top teams, and now feel they can win on Saturday if they play their best game.

This matchup should be more favorable for Missouri. The Sooners will be without RB DeMarco Murray, and DE Austin English will likely sit as well.  On the other side of the ball, the Tigers will welcome back RB Tony Temple, who missed the first matchup with a sprained ankle.

Saturday's game will also be at a neutral site, as opposed to the first matchup, which took place during Oklahoma’s homecoming.

Despite these advantages, Chase Daniel will have to play another monster game to lead the Tigers to the promised land in New Orleans.

Daniel has emerged as one of the Heisman front-runners this season, and rightfully so. He has just under 4,000 passing yards—the most of any Heisman contender—and has led the Tigers to their first number one ranking since 1960—not to mention one game away from playing for a national title. 

It seems as though many have already closed the book on the Heisman race in favor of Tim Tebow, but Chase Daniel could sneak up and take it if he has a huge game against Oklahoma—especially with Tebow's regular season over, and Daniel playing on national television for the second week in a row.