Missouri, Arkansas prep for pre-bowl workouts

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. -- Both teams playing on New Year's Eve in the Independence Bowl -- Arkansas and Missouri -- plan to take some time off from practice before they meet at Shreveport, La.

Except for a limited practice on Wednesday, Arkansas won't begin work until this weekend on its effort to win its first bowl game since the 2000 Cotton Bowl.

The Independence Bowl appearance will be the Razorbacks' sixth straight bowl trip under coach Houston Nutt, who is 1-4 in bowl games.

"I love the date of the bowl," Nutt said in announcing his team had accepted the bowl bid.

Last year, Arkansas players chose to go to the Music City Bowl instead of the Independence Bowl because the Shreveport, La., game was played on Dec. 27. Players would have missed spending Christmas with their families.

Some players may go through a limited workout today with coaches who are not on the road recruiting. Nutt will put the entire his team through its first full workout for Missouri at 10 a.m. Saturday and it will be back at 2 p.m. Sunday.

Practice times for next week could change depending on the finals schedule. Finals start on Thursday and run through Dec. 18.

A holiday party

Both teams will report to Shreveport for bowl practices and activities on Saturday, Dec. 27.

Missouri is making its first bowl trip since 1998 and only the fourth since 1983. Coach Gary Pinkel said his players also need time to take final exams.

"We'll practice Thursday, Friday and Saturday of this week and then take off for finals the following week," Pinkel said. "Then we'll practice Saturday, Sunday and Monday. The players will go home for Christmas, I believe after the morning practice on the 22nd. They'll come back up and then we'll depart on the 27th."

Missouri (8-4, 4-4 Big 12) didn't play conference foe Texas this year, so the Tigers and the Razorbacks have no common opponents this season.

Arkansas (8-4, 4-4 SEC) was 3-4 against the seven bowl teams on its schedule, while Missouri was 2-3. The Razorbacks' victories over bowl-bound teams came against non-conference opponents Tulsa, Texas and North Texas.

All four of Arkansas' Southeastern Conference losses were to bowl teams and three of those -- Florida, Ole Miss and LSU -- are playing on Jan. 1 or later.

Arkansas and Missouri each lost to a team playing for the BCS national title in the Sugar Bowl -- Arkansas to LSU and Missouri to Oklahoma.

LSU was helped by five turnovers to rout Arkansas 55-24 in the final regular-season game. The Tigers avenged a 21-20 loss in 2002 that kept them out of the SEC title game.

If not for Matt Jones' 31-yard touchdown pass to DeCori Birmingham with 9 seconds left in 2002, LSU would have gone to three straight championship games.

Even though Missouri's 34-13 loss to Oklahoma doesn't look that close, the Tigers were one of three teams to play the Sooners within three touchdowns before Kansas State beat them in the Big 12 title game.

Missouri tied Oklahoma at 10 before the Sooners scored three times in the final 9:40 of the first half, taking a 31-10 lead on Antonio Perkins' 69-punt return right before halftime.

Missouri's other losses to bowl teams were to Big 12 champion Kansas State and traditional rival Kansas. The wins were over Texas Tech and Nebraska.

Missouri ended a 24-game losing streak to Nebraska and the victory couldn't have come at a better time. The Tigers had a week off after losing to Kansas and they were staring at games against Oklahoma and Texas Tech.

"Our players got recharged and recommitted (after that)," Pinkel said. "The first practices after the game were probably the most spirited we've had since I've been here."

Pinkel said he's looking forward to seeing an evenly matched Independence Bowl.

"I think that's really good -- it's almost a perfect match," he said. "We're two 8-4 teams that play in very competitive conferences, who border each other but hardly ever play each other."

The Independence Bowl is sponsored by MainStay.