Tigers climb to No. 6 in BCS rankings
The Tigers entered the top 10 in the BCS rankings for the first time since 2007.
Published Oct. 26, 2010
The Missouri Tigers football team finds themselves in the top 10 of the BCS rankings this week, coming in at No. 6 after upsetting the Oklahoma Sooners on Saturday night.
The undefeated Tigers also jumped up 11 spots in the AP Coaches poll from 18th to seventh. Missouri hasn’t been in the top 10 of the BCS rankings since 2007, when they were ranked first overall.
“That’s pretty exciting, I mean everybody likes to be ranked highly,” freshman quarterback James Franklin said. “It shows respect and how good your team is, but at the same time rankings aren’t exactly the most important thing. But I think what it does for the football team is give us more confidence to know that we’ve kind of worked our way up there.”
Although Missouri is 7-0 for the first time 50 years, the Tigers are the lowest ranked of the seven remaining undefeated FBS schools.
“It’s a respect issue, like it always is,” sophomore T.J. Moe said. “You always have to come out and fight for respect, because if you don’t come out and earn it nobody is going to give it to you. You have to take it as a challenge and play with a chip on your shoulder.”
Sophomore tailback Henry Josey said that the team hasn’t focused on rankings as much as proving themselves to critics.
“It’s not a problem to us at all,” sophomore tailback Henry Josey said. “We’ve been underdogs two weeks in a row and we’ve come out and shown everybody what we can do. We just stick together as a team and that’s the biggest thing mostly.”
The Tigers are coming off their first defeat of a No. 1 team in program history, and likely will rise even higher in the rankings if they defeat 14th-ranked Nebraska on Saturday. Even so, Moe said the team is trying to keep their focus on the field.
“Just like preseason rankings, none of that stuff matters,” Moe said. “When we show up in the last week of the season and we’re where we are, or higher, then we’ll be happy about it. But right now, you can’t really look at it.”
When it comes to respect, Franklin admitted that the Tigers appreciate the ranking but believe that continuing their strong play is more important. “I think it definitely motivates us,” Franklin said. “But I don’t think a lot of us think we should be as high as some of the teams that are undefeated. Our mindset is keep working hard, and everything will fall into place.”