Kansas and Missouri reignite rivalry
Olivier Desbois
The border showdown was renewed on the football field Saturday, bringing excitement around Kansas football not seen in years. The Kansas-Missouri rivalry had been dormant since 2011, when Missouri left for the Southeastern Conference. Last week, students blocked out the letter “M” on signs around KU’s campus as a nod to their rivals. Nervous anticipation could be felt all around Lawrence.
During the game, Kansas hosted a watch party inside the new David Booth Memorial Stadium. Students had the chance to tour the new renovations to the stadium, as well as sit on the field to watch the game on the jumbotron.
“It was awesome,” Noah Logan, a Kansas student who attended the stadium watch party, said. “I don’t think many other places are doing that, especially for as big of a game as it was.”
In Columbia, the border showdown means just as much to Tiger fans.
“When I got into football, it was always the big game,” Jack Vuch, who graduated from Missouri in 2016, said. ”Especially when it’s the first time the two teams have played in forever, you want to take control of the rivalry and get off to a good start this season.”
On Saturday, pregame festivities began at 9 a.m. when ESPN’s pregame show, SEC Nation, went live from the Carnahan Quad on the University of Missouri’s campus. People crowded onto the lawn to watch the show and hear the university’s band perform. About a half mile from the set, fans surrounded Faurot Field at Memorial Stadium to tailgate.
Throughout the city, dozens of banners with drawings of Tigers beating Jayhawks hung from apartment buildings and fraternities. Groups of Missouri fans chanted “M-I-Z… Z-O-U” along with expletives directed at KU fans.
“Everybody’s so excited,”Jack Teeter, a University of Missouri junior, said. ”We obviously don’t like these guys, and they don’t like us. So we’re excited to just punch them in the mouth right out of the gate here.”
The game kicked off at 2:30 p.m. and KU struck first. They took a 21-6 lead into the second quarter after a few deep passes from quarterback Jalon Daniels and a scoop and score. However, Missouri would go on three scoring drives to tie the game at half time. Kansas had no answers for the Tigers’ offense, which put up 595 total yards on the day.
The game went back and forth in the second half until a 63-yard touchdown run by sophomore Jamal Roberts iced the game for Missouri. The environment in Columbia was rowdy all day, and Kansas will be looking for revenge next season when they welcome the Tigers to Lawrence.
