Behind enemy lines: The Missouri experience

The Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders didn’t have much bounce-back time on their hands after they dropped a Homecoming heartbreaker to the Hilltoppers of Western Kentucky. After that game, the team immediately turned the page and set their sights in the direction of Columbia, Missouri with the intention of spoiling the Missouri Tigers' own Homecoming – a tough task indeed.

Heading into the contest, MT had a respectable record of 4-2, while the Tigers had struggled out of the gate with a record of 2-4, placing them in the bottom cellar of the SEC East Division.

I decided, as a writer for GoMiddle, that I wanted to immerse myself behind enemy lines and make the trek to see what homecoming at the University of Missouri is all about. After all, they invented the festivities.

First, I went to Mizzou’s website to go beneath the surface. Check the link below:

http://www.mizzou.com/s/1002/alumni/interior.aspx?pgid=569

Everything started with a man by the name of Chester Brewer. In 1911, Brewer was the head coach and athletic director for Mizzou. Brewer wanted to figure out a way to get alumni and current students more involved with the program, so he invited the entire alumni community to come “back home” for Mizzou’s ballgame against Kansas.

Brewer never even fathomed that Homecoming would catch on and become a fixture and a tradition at Missouri, let alone everywhere else in the country.

Homecoming is a week long deal on campus in Columbia.

Prior to even making the trip, I wanted to look and see what all the Missouri Homecoming hubbub was all about. I did some due diligence and learned that the Homecoming week schedule there is jam packed.

There is a whole barrage of events and activities during week for students and alumni to participate in. There is a blood drive, the “True Mizzou” Tailgate, a talent show, a Homecoming ball, a “decorate the district” function, a hall of fame luncheon, a campus decorations event, a spirit rally, a step show, a parade, and then the actual game.

Like I said – jam packed.

So, we have established that Homecoming at the University of Missouri is kind of a big deal.

Sure, there is a ton of hoopla surrounding the week, but ultimately, everything is structured around the game itself. Before diving into the Homecoming experience itself, it’s important to take a gander at exactly who MT was up against.

The Missouri Tigers have been playing the game of football since the year 1890. They have been members of the SEC since 2012. Prior to that, Missouri was in the Big 12 Conference.

The Tigers have been to a total of 31 bowl games in their history, and have racked up some hardware over the years as well. Mizzou has accumulated 15 conference titles and five division titles to go along with two national championships in their program's history.

After joining the SEC, Mizzou repeated as back-to-back East champions in 2013 and 2014. Barry Odom is at the helm for Missouri and is coaching in his first year. He was the defensive coordinator before taking over for longtime head coach, Gary Pinkel.

Lots of MT faithful who made trip to Columbia did so by way of car or some other type of vehicle. From the mid-state area, with no traffic, the trip would take anywhere from six to seven hours, depending on where you were specifically located. My trip took roughly seven hours as I hit some traffic around the St. Louis area as well. From talking with some fans, the same thing happened to them. A note for future travels, if you will.

We spent Friday night in Jefferson City. The next morning, we drove from Jefferson City to the Missouri campus in Columbia. The trip took roughly 35 minutes, enough time to take in some scenery along the way.

There were plenty of events underway on the campus when we arrived. The parade kicked off at 9 A.M and lasted for about one hour or so. Parking on the campus, as you might imagine, was absolutely bonkers. There were several parking garages, but it was slim pickens as most of them were completely full. There were a few free parking spots, off the beaten path and within a couple miles from campus. The open lots were lots for the veterinary school. We decided to roll the dice and park there, hoping not to get towed.

Just mere hours before the actual game, the temperature settled in at 71 degrees.

Let’s proceed to the campus itself. Before even setting foot in Columbia, I opted to do some research about the university. The campus there is 1,262 acres in its entirety. The campus is actually just a tad bigger than MT’s campus, which is listed at just around 1,000 acres. The campus is said to be known for its beauty as it pertains to architecture. This notion held to be true.

The architecture is very old fashioned and pristine. The "campus columns" are at the heart of the campus. There is a sign indicating the importance of the six columns. They are said to be the outright traditional symbol for the entire university. If you want to read more go to this site: http://missouri.edu/about/history/columns.php

Just as the acreage may indicate, the campus is fairly widespread. Outside of the stadium area, the most popular areas were around the student union building, the Ellis Library, and the student center.

Although the architecture is aging gracefully, it looked moderately refurbished. All the grass in the area was well manicured as well.

Most college football clubs have a celebrated “walk” for their team. Typically, the walk leads from a certain area all the way to the stadium itself. The Missouri Tigers tradition is called the “Tiger Walk”.

Kickoff for the game was slated to start right on the nose of 3 P.M. The walk took place two and half hours prior at 12:30 P.M. The walk was held near the “Tiger Walk Bridge” across Providence road to the west of the stadium. Fans, cheerleaders, and band members essentially escort the team to their entrance of the stadium. The walk starts west of the stadium and leads all the way up to the stadium, which is the finish line.

The entire Blue Raider football team, including players, coaches and trainers, made their way into Memorial Stadium and Faurot Field around the same time as Mizzou. Both teams entered the premises and got their bearings around 12:45 P.M. The Blue Raiders rode the team bus to a rendezvous point prior to entering the stadium.

After the Tiger Walk festivities, we went searching for some Blue Raider fans. For a while, it seemed like we were playing “Where’s Waldo." There were obviously droves of Missouri fans, but we had a difficult time pinpointing MT fans outside of the stadium and on campus. Finally, we came across some clad in blue near the student center.

Out of sheer interest, I asked around to figure out the capacity of the stadium. Inside the stadium, the gate worker mentioned it is 71,004. It became apparent that the Band of Blue did not make the trek to Columbia. There was also no Wi-Fi inside the stadium which was a bummer because I, along with others sitting around me, wanted to stay current with other college football scores. As is the case with most capacity level stadiums, the LTE signal was quite congested and very unreliable.

Our seats were in section two in the corner of the south end zone. The stadium section seats were in alphabetical order except for a couple of numbered sections in the end zone. We quickly learned that we were right smack dab in the middle of the MT contingency. Once the game kicked off, our little section filled up. Ball-parking here, but there were probably 200 Blue Raider fanatics in our section. There were folks of all ages, too. We entered the section about an hour before the game and there were many MT fans who had already beaten us to the punch and claimed their seats in the section way early.

Before the opening coin toss, the Missouri band took to the gridiron to play their tunes. The name of the band is “Marching Mizzou”. It was announced that the band has 300 undergraduate members. To spice things up, the band was also comprised of alumni band members who “came home” to take up instruments with the new generation of musicians. There were around 40 alumni members in the unit on this day. They wore gold t-shirts to identify themselves as alumni, while the student band members wore their traditional garb. The Marching Mizzou blared songs such as their fight song, “Every True son/Fight Tigers.” Link for the fight song below:

The game began and from the onset, I felt like I was attending an arena football contest. It was a battle between two potent offenses. I began to try to pick up on some of the nuances going on in the crowd. Every college program has their own home field customs inside the stadium during a ballgame. This is no exception at Faurot Field.

Every time Missouri earned a first down, the man working the loud speaker would say “M-I-Z” and everyone in black and gold would holler “Z-O-U!” There was also a gigantic drum that two members of the Missouri student body would beat. One student would hit the drum three times for “M-I-Z” and then the other would hit it for “Z-O-U” Also, when the Tigers put points on the scoreboard, Truman, the Tiger mascot, would do pushups in the end zone.

Another neat thing was in the opposite end zone, across the way from where all the Blue Raider faithful were sitting. There, was a huge “M” made out of rocks. Around those rocks was a large patch of grass. That area was full and congested by Tiger fans who brought blankets and laid down in the area – a pretty cool and unique way to take in the action.

I stopped being fixated on all the bells and whistles and tried to get zoned in on the action of the game. Again, it felt like arena football was being played. Everybody in section two was true blue, though, and garnered the attention of the entire stadium every time MT scored. Every time MT put points on the board, section two went bananas. When this happened, everyone was giving section two a dumbfounded stare. This did not faze the rowdy Raiders, though. The crowd in that section may have not been massive, but they brought the noise for sure.

As the game wore on the temperature took a pretty big dip. Near the end of the game the temperature was 56 degrees - 15 degrees lower than it was just before the game.

At the end of the day, MT prevailed, winning a barn burner, 51-45. The attendance was announced to be 52,351.

The result of the game did not deter the fans from socializing. After the game, fans were still out and about, socializing and mingling. Downtown Columbia was still hopping and going full force.

The college football world took note of the MT’s performance in the “Show Me State." The Blue Raiders displayed a lot of grit and a lot of moxie. In the history books, this victory will rank up there with MT’s road win over Georgia Tech a few years ago as well as the win over Vanderbilt about a decade ago.

As for my experience, it was certainly an impactful one. Many programs around the country do a great job of presenting an extravagant game day atmosphere, and Mizzou is no different. This was the eighth SEC stadium that I’ve traveled to in my life, and I’d have to rate Mizzou in the upper echelon. It was a little disappointing to see as many empty seats as we did around the stadium, but from talking with fans and former players, it appears as though there is still some disconnect between the fanbase and the football program. Mizzou’s slow start out of the gates didn’t help the cause, either. Overall, though, it was certainly a trip that I’ll remember.

As for the Blue Raiders, next up on the docket is the Florida International Golden Panthers. Middle Tennessee is still on a quest to win the conference USA East division. A win at Florida International will go a long way and keep them in the mix with Western Kentucky.