Five years of frustration will come to an end on Thursday, as the Missouri Tigers take on Arkansas in the Independence Bowl. Mizzou hasn’t been to a bowl game since their 1998 win over West Virginia in the Insight.com Bowl. Since then, the Tigers have been anywhere from bad to mediocre. Now at 8-4 MU finds itself on the way up. Brad Smith’s exploits as a running quarterback are well known, but the Tiger defense will have its hands full as well as they take on Razorback quarterback Matt Jones, who has 1,868 yards passing and 633 on the ground. Running back Cedric Cobbs is a handful as well, with 1,179 yards rushing. Arkansas certainly has the edge in bowl experience—while Mizzou has missed the post season in each of the last five seasons, the Razorbacks have gone to five straight bowl games. However, that doesn’t mean they’ve performed well. Arkansas is 1-4 in those five bowl games. Thursday’s game will mark just the fourth meeting between the two teams, with the last game coming in 1963. The Tigers are 2-1 against the Razorbacks.
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