Tigers hoping Wildcats’ run comes to end

The most recent time the Missouri football team walked off the field triumphantly after playing Kansas State, it was 1992.

Chase Daniel was in elementary school. The Church of England had just voted to allow women to become priests. “Aladdin” was the top grossing movie of the year. George H.W. Bush was still president.

You get the idea.

Missouri has lost close games during the streak, like the 21-18 defeat in 1994, and has been blown out, like the 66-0 loss in 1999. During last year’s game in Manhattan, Kan., The Wildcats scored 22 unanswered points to rally for a victory, a painful reminder of how the Tigers have managed to continually lose games to Kansas State.

“All losses are tough, especially like this game (last season),” sophomore linebacker Brock Christopher said. “Losing that way definitely did hurt. We obviously should have won that game, but we just weren’t able to come out with it.”

The long, tough losing streak isn’t lost on Missouri coach Gary Pinkel, who enters Saturday’s game at Memorial Stadium with an 0-5 record against Kansas State.

But, Pinkel turned glib when the streak was brought up at Monday’s media day.

“I think they know,” Pinkel said of his players’ awareness of the losing streak. “And I think this is, if I can recall, 2006. I can’t do anything about the past, none of us can. That would probably be a wasted thought, too.”

Senior wide receiver Brad Ekwerekwu said though he hates having lost to Kansas State in each of his years at Missouri, the streak wouldn’t be a motivational factor for him on Saturday.

Ekwerekwu, one of the most vocal Tigers when it comes to their stringent, one-game-at-a-time mentality, said it was just as important for the Tigers to forget about their loss last Saturday to Texas A&M as it would be to forget about a win.

“It’s definitely a wasted thought,” Ekwerekwu said. “It’s not even relevant to this year. We’ve made minor mistakes, but they’re things that we can correct. It’s just a matter of getting out and doing it.”

Wildcats coach Ron Prince did his best to handle the streak in a diplomatic fashion by dismissing the notion that the streak has any significance on this year’s game.

“I believe every year that the team has to be reborn, and I think it’s a different set of circumstances,” Prince said. “I think...the previous accolades or accomplishments of coaches or teams in the past I don’t think have a whole lot of bearing on how each team prepares this week and how the team’s play on game day.”

But Kansas State linebacker Brandon Archer didn’t hesitate to say the streak has been brought up at practice this week among the Wildcats players.

“It’s something we definitely want to uphold,” Archer said. “It’s one of the few records that we have the opportunity to keep, and we need to find a way to do it.”

TICKETS: Only about 1,000 reserved seats remained for Saturday’s game as of Thursday afternoon, the MU athletic department said. General admission tickets for the hill at Memorial Stadium will still be available on game day.