The Missouri Tigers defeated the Tennessee Volunteers 36-7 on November 11, 2023. Nine months later, the Tigers still want you to remember that, and that reminder came in a very cringe way.
Missouri safety TreVez Johnson came to Missouri media day wearing a shirt that declared the Tigers to be Tennessee state champs.
Indeed, Missouri did defeat the Vols after toppling true national powers in Vanderbilt, Middle Tennessee State, and Memphis last year. Jokes aside, state champion shirts are more proper for states like Florida (or at least it used to be), where Miami, Florida State, and Florida used to battle for the national championship and being the best team in the state meant something. Missouri is basically just bragging about finally beating the Vols and a handful of afterthoughts.
The win over the Vols also happened to be Missouri's first over UT since the 2018 season, which marked the start of the tumultuous Jeremy Pruitt era in Knoxville. Missouri went 1-2 versus Pruitt, by the way.
It's understandable the Tigers were enthused about the win, as Josh Heupel's teams had laid a combined 128-48 two-year beatdown on the Tigers. That, of course, also prompted Tigers head coach Eli Drinkwitz to hit Heupel with the "we stand on business" line as they briefly shook hands last year.
Every time Missouri sends out their braggadocious energy over the win, the more it shows that it's becoming a bigger thing to beat Tennessee. And it looks like, unless both teams face off in the SEC title game or playoffs, that the Tigers will get to keep those bragging rights for at least one more year.
Maybe there will be a commemorative hat by then.
Related: National outlet undermines their own ranking of Tennessee Vols' James Pearce with an incredible stat
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