Older Tigers have team in good spot

Victory Friday puts them in 2nd straight SEC Championship.

COLUMBIA, MO. — Growing up in Kansas City, Shane Ray was a “Big 12 kid.” Through his redshirt season in 2011, Missouri was a Big 12 school.

Three years later, the Tigers find themselves competing for a berth in their second consecutive Southeastern Conference championship game.

“When we moved to the SEC, I realized the program was going into change,” Ray said. “Being young, I realized I had to be a person that would help build this program.”

Ray, a junior defensive end, leads the league with 13 1/2 sacks and 19 1/2 tackles for loss. He highlights a unit that, in conference play, ranks second in total defense (302.6 yards per game), first in rushing defense (109.3 yards per game) and tied for first in sacks (26).

Missouri (9-2, 6-1) also owns the SEC’s longest active winning streak on the road (10 games).

To clinch their second East Division championship outright, though, the 17th-ranked Tigers must win at home today against Arkansas (6-5, 2-5), which has shut out LSU and Mississippi the last two weeks. Should Missouri lose, Georgia will advance to the SEC title game.

“They know it’s out there,” Tigers coach Gary Pinkel said. “I’d like to believe they understand that all their atten- tion and focus has to be on themselves. You don’t want your players playing with any fear at all. You want them to play with a lot of confidence.”

Confident or not, many of the Tigers will be playing with a lot of emotion. The team plans to honor 19 seniors before the game, each one individually recognized and hugged by Pinkel as they walk onto Faurot Field on Friday.

The coach, a self-described “basket case,” said it will probably take a few minutes into the first quarter until he can pull himself back together.

“You grow such a great bond because you go through so much together,” left tackle Mitch Morse said. “It will be a sad day. I’ve had way too much fun with the guys, and I told them how much they mean to me and how they’ve made this season of mine so special.”