KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Missouri football fan is a resilient old sap. Mention Missouri football and a litany of lowlights flash before their eyes like recurring bad dreams. Oklahoma 77, Missouri 0. Al Onofrio and 1-10. The Fifth Down. The Fleakicker. The entire Woody Widenhofer Error.
Erase them from your memory banks. They are mere bugs on the windowpane that clearly shows your bright future, Missourians. Rub your eyes. Pinch your cheeks. Then read this next sentence: Your Missouri Tigers are one win away from their first outright conference title since 1960. They are two wins away from a national football championship.
And no, you are not dreaming.
The Tigers, ranked fourth in the Bowl Championship Series, made it a reality Saturday night with a quarterback deemed too short to play for his home-state Texas Longhorns but proved too tall for the second-ranked Kansas Jayhawks. Chase Daniel threw himself into the thick of the Heisman Trophy race and his Tigers into the vastly shortened list of national title contenders in beating bitter rival Kansas, 36-28.
Before the largest Arrowhead Stadium crowd since its first year way back in 1972, 80,537 fans saw essentially an NCAA quarterfinal playoff game. This North Division winner advances to Saturday’s Big 12 Championship in San Antonio, and if the North wins there, it moves to the BCS Championship in New Orleans on Jan. 7.
Top-ranked LSU’s loss Friday had little bearing on this game. Missouri and Kansas were already ranked too high to care. But it gave Daniel a chance to tell the world who is No. 1 today.
“It’s us,” he said as Missouri fans screamed “Heisman! Heisman!” from the nearby stands. “There’s no reason we shouldn’t be. The top two teams lost. We beat the No. 2 team in the nation. If we’re not No. 1 something’s wrong.”
In the biggest game in this rivalry’s 116 years, Daniel had a performance that will be remembered for another 116. The junior from Southlake, Texas, picked apart the nation’s eighth-ranked defense to the tune of 40-of-49 for 361 yards and three touchdowns.
He nickel-and-dimed Kansas for a 14-0 lead, and right when Kansas sophomore quarterback Todd Reesing started getting hot in the fourth quarter, Daniel kept drives alive with pinpoint passing for two clinching field goals.
Suddenly, this runty 6-foot, 225-pounder looks in place in the same room with Tim Tebow, Darren McFadden and Colt Brennan. You can bet Daniel will be in the same room in New York with those guys during next month’s Heisman ceremony, too.
“You saw it,” Missouri coach Gary Pinkel said. “America saw it. They saw this guy, in adverse conditions in the fourth quarter, having to make plays. I’m going to tell you that this guy is special.”
Kansas was supposed to be special, too. But what Kansas didn’t have was Missouri’s battle toughness. Basically, Kansas (11-1, 7-1 Big 12) stepped up in class and got outpointed, peppered with punches for 12 rounds by a more seasoned veteran.
This is what happens when you go 11-0 but the only teams you’ve beaten with winning records are Central Michigan and Texas A&M, both 7-5.
Missouri (11-1, 7-1) had taken Oklahoma’s best shot and lost only 41-31, had beaten Illinois and throttled Texas Tech. Facing a Kansas team claiming a signature win over an A&M team that just forced out its coach wasn’t going to shake up the Tigers.
Not with Daniel, who had a year more experience than Reesing, and it showed. Shelving the bombing raid that buried Colorado three weeks ago, 55-10, Daniel systematically picked apart Kansas’ defense. In the first two scoring drives, Daniel hit 10-of-12 passes for 101 yards and two touchdowns for a 14-0 lead.
A Missouri safety with 12 seconds left ended Kansas’ final hope, but it’s only the start for Missouri. The Tigers are a revenge win over Oklahoma from likely facing West Virginia for the national title.
OK, Missourians. It’s time. Go ahead and dream.
John Henderson: 303-954-1299 or jhenderson@denverpost.com
