The start to the much-anticipated 2018 college football season is fewer than 100 days away, and the Missouri Tigers are busy preparing for the upcoming season with summer workouts and classes. The schedule for the early portion of the season took shape today, as the Southeastern Conference and television partner ESPN released game times and network information for the first three weeks of the season, giving fans the opportunity to start making plans for the fall.
Head Coach Barry Odom's Tigers, fresh off a seven-win season and the program's first bowl game since 2014, will start the year with a Labor Day Weekend tilt at home against UT Martin on Sept. 1. The game will kick at 3 p.m. (CT) from Memorial Stadium/Faurot Field, and will be televised on the SEC Network alternate channel. Check with your provider for information on how to receive the SEC Network alternate channel, or visit http://getsecnetwork.com/channel-finder for more details. This will be the first chance for Tiger fans to see in person the South Endzone facility project that is underway and is changing the landscape of the stadium; for more information on the project, visit http://mizzousouthendzone.com.
The following week will see senior QB Drew Lock (Lee's Summit, Mo.) and company play host to the Wyoming Cowboys on Sept. 8, with a kick time set for 6 p.m. (CT). The game will be televised on either ESPN2 or ESPNU, with that determination to be made earlier that week. Lock, considered to be the nation's top returning quarterback by many pundits, leads an experienced offensive attack which returns nine starters from last year's bowl team. They'll be facing a Wyoming squad which went 8-5 a year ago and closed their season with a win in the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl.
With the 3 p.m. kick in week one and the 6 p.m. kick in week two, Mizzou is opening its home schedule with a game in each slot for the first time since 2013.
In week three, Mizzou will face its first road test of the young season, as they head to West Lafayette, Ind., to take on the Purdue Boilermakers. Game time for the Sept. 15 contest will be at 6:30 p.m. (CT), and will be televised on the Big Ten Network. The Tigers will look to even the score after a Purdue victory last season in Columbia, and they'll be looking to senior DT Terry Beckner, Jr. (East St. Louis, Ill.) and his defensive teammates to lead the charge. Beckner returns for his final year in a Tiger uniform as one of the nation's top defensive lineman and a candidate for national honors. He and his defensive teammates will look to build on the momentum created from last season's six-game win streak which closed the regular season.
All remaining games will be subject to the 12-day advance notice window, per league policy, meaning game times and television information will be announced two Mondays prior to each contest. The rest of the 2018 home season includes exciting games in Columbia against the likes of Georgia (Sept. 22), Memphis (Oct. 20 – Homecoming), Kentucky (Oct. 27), Vanderbilt (Nov. 10) and Arkansas (Nov. 23 or 24).
