Tigers to finish home schedule against Iowa State

Missouri has not won a Big 12 game at home this season.

By Sean Leahy

Published Nov. 20, 2009

Missouri’s seniors will take the field Saturday in Memorial Stadium to try to prevent something they have never experienced: a winless home conference season.

Missouri has not gone without a win in the Big 12 on Faurot Field since 1994 and Saturday’s game against Iowa State will be the Tigers’ last chance to push across a home conference win.

“I just want to get something for the fans,” senior right guard Kurtis Gregory said. “We disappointed them in our three conference games so far this year (at home). We shouldn’t be doing that to our fans. You’ve got to win at home. That’s kind of an expected thing.”

Recent history is in Missouri’s favor because the Tigers have beaten Iowa State five of the last six times the teams met.

This year’s Cyclones squad has been no pushover in Big 12 play. Iowa State is bowl-eligible for the first time since 2005 and is coming off a victory over Colorado last weekend. The Cyclones also upset Nebraska on the road Oct. 24, limiting the Cornhuskers to seven points.

Senior double-threat quarterback Austen Arnaud has thrown for 1,434 yards this season and run for 437 more.

“They’re playing very, very well,” coach Gary Pinkel said. “(Arnaud’s) probably as best a dual-threat that we have in this league.

The Tigers, 0-3 in the Big 12 at Faurot Field, are coming off a convincing 38-12 win over Kansas State last weekend.

Heading into the contest with Iowa State, Pinkel preached the importance of putting together solid performances two weeks in a row.

“In the whole football season, we have not played two back-to-back good games and I’m responsible for that,” Pinkel said. “There’s a lot left out there, too, but sooner or later you got to take care of business.”

Senior linebacker Sean Weatherspoon said Missouri’s best performances are on opposite ends of the schedule.

“You can put our K-State game and our Illinois game together and say those are our two best games of the season,” Weatherspoon said. “There’s eight games between there, so hopefully we can get it going a little bit quicker.”

Missouri will be without senior wide receiver Jared Perry. He cracked his right tibia against Kansas State and will sit out the rest of the regular season, though there is hope he can make it back for a bowl game.

With Perry on the sidelines, the Tigers will be missing one of the key supporting players alongside senior wide receiver Danario Alexander.

Perry and Alexander are part of a senior class that will be saying goodbye to Faurot Field come Saturday. The group will go down as one of Missouri’s greatest, with two Big 12 North championships and three trips to a bowl game as Missouri is bowl eligible again this year.

Weatherspoon wants his career on Faurot Field to end on a good note.

“I’m sure it’s going to be pretty emotional,” Weatherspoon said. “I got to go out the right way. I want to have a big game myself, I want everything to be hitting just like it was this past weekend.”