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Missouri won the East Division and returned to the SEC championship game last season.
Many were surprised that the Tigers made it back to Atlanta.
After what happened the year before, maybe fans should have been prepared. The Tigers brought back two defensive ends in Shane Ray and Markus Golden who had shown flashes of brilliance, a quarterback in Maty Mauk who started four games in 2013 as well as an experienced backfield.
A weakening SEC East and the emergence of several talented yet rarely-used upperclassmen also paved the Tigers’ way for a Georgia Dome return.
Missouri’s 2013 team, though, came completely out of left field for the program’s first SEC Championship appearance.
The SEC has only been playing conference championship games since 1992, but there have been plenty of surprise participants along the way. Not all of them managed to win the title, but they did exceed nearly everyone’s expectations.
Here are the five most surprising teams to appear in those games:
5. Auburn Tigers, 2013
We begin our list back in 2013, only with the team that actually won the SEC Championship.
With heroics like Ricardo Lewis’ tip catch against Georgia and Chris Davis’ Iron Bowl miracle, Auburn rightfully became the story of 2013.
Except nobody saw it coming.
Auburn went winless in the SEC in 2012 en route to its worst season in 60 years. Nick Marshall was a relative unknown at the quarterback position and Gus Malzahn, in his first season as head of the Tigers, wasn’t too far removed from coaching high school football in Arkansas.
Auburn and its powerful rushing attack beat Missouri in Atlanta before losing the national championship, which makes the Tigers one of the most unlikely BCS title runners-up as well.
4. Tennessee Volunteers, 2007
Tennessee’s previous season wasn’t a bad one. The Volunteers went 9-4, dropping home games to LSU and 2006 national champions Florida while also losing at Arkansas. The 2006 Volunteers weren’t up to the same standards as their late 1990s teams, but there’s no shame in three of your four losses coming against highly-ranked teams (the other being an Outback Bowl loss against Penn State).
But 2007 wasn’t supposed to be any better. The Vols returned the second-fewest starters in the SEC and had to play the sixth-toughest schedule in the country. Those were the days when travelling to Cal and Florida were considered torrid affairs. A trip to Atlanta seemed out of the question.
Yet Tennessee represented the East in the SEC Championship. The Vols went a respectable 6-2 in conference play, but an an early-season win over a Georgia team that finished No. 2 in the country was enough for Atlanta. Erik Ainge, Arian Foster and Eric Berry led the way during Tennessee’s eventual 10-4 season.
The Vols lost the SEC Championship to eventual national champions LSU before defeating Wisconsin in the Outback Bowl. The season marked a turning point for Tennessee, as four assistants left for other jobs. Head coach Phillip Fulmer only lasted one more season in Knoxville, and the program has been trying to regain that 2007 magic ever since.
3. Arkansas Razorbacks, 1995
In many ways, the ’95 Arkansas Razorbacks were the SEC’s first surprise championship participant. Still treated as newcomers in the conference, Danny Ford’s team sputtered to a 4-7 (2-6 in SEC) record the year before. Narrowly losing the 1995 season opener at SMU seemed to signal a similar season for Arkansas.
But the Razorbacks recovered by winning three straight conference games, including at No. 13 Alabama. Arkansas finished the season unranked but held a 6-2 SEC record, good enough to represent the West Division in the SEC Championship over solid Alabama and Auburn teams.
But, as was proved in Atlanta, the West was the weaker of the SEC’s two divisions. Arkansas got pummeled 34-3 by national runners-up Florida.
Despite the letdown, the 1995 season established Arkansas as legitimate conference competitors. It was the first season the Razorbacks posted a winning SEC record. They were the 2013 Missouri team before the Tigers’ former conference even had 12 teams.
2. Georgia Bulldogs, 2011
The Bulldogs began the year losing their first two games, both close contests against Boise State at the Georgia Dome and at home against South Carolina.
Those high-scoring games, as well as the previous season’s 6-7 record (3-5 in SEC), magnified defensive problems for Georgia and second-year coordinator Todd Grantham.
But Grantham and the Dawgs righted the ship rather quickly. Future pros Alec Ogletree and Jarvis Jones helped solidify the defense as sophomores, while Aaron Murray overcame a slow start on the offensive side of the ball to become one of Georgia’s all-time great quarterbacks.
Georgia won the remainder of its games during the regular season, finishing 7-1 in conference play. It returned to Atlanta for the SEC Championship, benefiting from Florida slipping under first-year head coach Will Muschamp and South Carolina losing a late-season game at Arkansas.
LSU crushed UGA in the title game, but Georgia created a bedrock for more SEC East success in 2012.
1. Missouri Tigers, 2013
We finally return to the 2013 Tigers, who may hold the title as least-likely SEC Championship participant for eternity.
There were so many great storylines with that team. Missouri was the SEC newcomer that didn’t belong. There was a quarterback controversy between James Franklin and Maty Mauk. Michael Sam came out to his teammates in fall camp, then didn’t speak to the media before being named SEC Defensive Player of the Year.
It’s not just that Missouri was coming off a bad 2012 (5-7, 2-6 in SEC). The Tigers also lost some of their most important players from that injury-plagued team, including Sheldon Richardson, T.J. Moe and Kendial Lawrence. Mizzou fans wanted Gary Pinkel – the same Gary Pinkel who became the program’s all-time winningest coach – fired.
Even if you thought the Tigers could make big improvements in 2013, no one was picking them to go to Atlanta. A .500 conference record seemed an attainable if lofty objective.
But then the Tigers beat all their non-conference opponents. They followed that with wins at Vanderbilt and Georgia. A homecoming loss to South Carolina in overtime dampened fan spirit, but not the team’s.
Missouri (12-2, 7-1 in SEC) continued to roll, wrapping up the SEC East at Faurot Field against Johnny Manziel and Texas A&M. That win inserted the team into the national championship discussion before Mizzou lost to Auburn.
I was an optimist in 2013, believing Mizzou could pull off eight wins. But the SEC Championship Game? No one thought the Tigers were ready for that.
Mike Shaw is a contributing writer for Saturday Down South. He covers SEC football, Missouri, Texas A&M and Arkansas. Follow Mike on Twitter @michaelvshaw
