Terez Hall isn’t here for heartfelt sentiment.
“I’m not a sentimental cat,” the senior linebacker said.
So much so that heading into the MU captain’s pregame recognition on senior day, Hall saved a thank you from coach Barry Odom for a later date.
“[Odom] ain’t sensitive, but I felt it going that way, so I cut him down, man,” Hall said. “Can’t let it go that way.”
Hall made his hug and chat from Odom a brief one, then trotted onto Faurot Field for the final time, where he would be a key contributor for Missouri’s defense in a 38-0 shutout of Arkansas (2-9, 0-8 SEC).
As a whole, Missouri (8-4, 4-4 SEC) allowed under 200 yards of total offense, but Hall’s day saw significant impact made on just two plays. First, he came up with an interception on a third-and-5 to give Missouri an opportunity to score its second touchdown of the day on the ensuing drive.
“The running back cut Cam [Hilton] and I’m like, ‘This dude gonna try to throw the ball?’” Hall said. “I was praying to god about it too, like, ‘Hey, I need a pick, man.’”
The interception was the first of Hall’s MU career and it preceded a fourth-and-5 sack four drives later. He swallowed up another opportunity for the Razorbacks to put points on the boards with a hit from behind that lost Arkansas 14 yards.
Hall wasn’t the only senior – or Tiger with the last name Hall for that matter – who made his impact felt in their final game at Faurot.
Wideout Emanuel Hall finished the night with one of his best performances of the season, racking up 153 yards receiving on six catches, including a pair of touchdowns.
“I think [offensive coordinator Derek] Dooley and Drew [Lock] were both trying to get us the ball and we executed,” Hall said.
Hall’s second touchdown of the game was one he spoke highly of, a deep slant route that went 67 yards to the end zone.
“That was one of the things I talked about earlier in the season,” Hall said. “I want to take a slant all the way to the crib, and that’s the closest thing I can get to it. It was a really exciting play.”
Hall was one of 19 total seniors – 10 of them starters – to play in Missouri’s season finale, and it was a spectacle years in the making.
“To finish the season with these guys,” Emanuel Hall said, “we’ve put in a lot of work. There’s been a lot of adversity.”
Missouri football’s 2018 senior class started its career going 5-7 in Odom’s inaugural year, which included a season-ending loss to Arkansas, 28-3 on the road, that cemented Missouri’s bowl ineligibility. Fast forward four years and it’s an entirely different story.
With the win Friday night, Missouri finished 8-4 – four games over .500 as opposed to two games under – in the regular season and are currently tied for fourth in the SEC East standings, as opposed to second to last in the division at season’s end in 2015.
“We were less worried about scheme in the fourth quarter,” senior captain and offensive lineman Kevin Pendleton said. “‘Wow, this is the last time we’re playing at Faurot.’ It was a good feeling in the fourth quarter to just sit back and realize it.”
Odom joked in postgame that Missouri would “file a waiver” in the hopes of getting most of this year’s senior class back.
“We owe that group a lot,” Odom said. “They have painted a picture for how you’re supposed to prepare and how you’re supposed to hold together through good times and not so good times.”
_Edited by Bennett Durando | bdurando@themaneater.com_
