COLUMBIA, S.C. — With just enough players to field a team, the Missouri Tigers came to the Southeastern Conference’s other Columbia as favorites for the first time this season. They played like it for the first half Saturday at South Carolina.
The second half lived up to 2020’s pledge to make nothing easy.
On the field for their first game in three weeks and with a roster depleted because of injuries and COVID-19 contact tracing, the Tigers outlasted South Carolina 17-10, needing a takeaway in the game’s final minute to clinch their first road victory under coach Eli Drinkwitz.
In the annual battle for the Mayor’s Cup trophy, players were missing. Coaches were missing. As always in the Year of COVID, the fans were missing. Just 13,603 were spread out around Williams-Brice Stadium.
Those who stuck around had their hearts in their throat . . . until Mizzou linebacker Devin Nicholson snagged Luke Doty’s pass to seal the win that brought the Tigers to 3-3.
Among those back home in Missouri was Tigers’ defensive coordinator Ryan Walters, who has been away from the team for nearly two weeks. When his wife, Tara, tested positive for the virus, Walters and their two sons had to quarantine at their home in Columbia. As of Saturday, Walters and both boys have tested negative.
With cornerbacks coach David Gibbs calling plays from the sideline, Walters watched their defense dominate the Gamecocks in the first half then squelch the comeback in the second.