Coulda, woulda, shoulda, in the end the little Engine is still on the first half of the mountain.
You're talking about a year that wasn't just a "down" year for the SEC East,.... but perhaps the worst year for the East in all history. Let's look at the rest of the teams in the division.
2. USC(11-2)
3. UGA(8-5, 5-4)
4. Vandy(9-4, 4-4)
5. UF(4-8, 3-5)
6. Tenn(5-7, 2-6)
7. UK(2-10, 0-8)
UGA received bowl eligibility by beating North Texas, Appalachian State, and Georgia Tech(7-6). They also lost to Vandy that year.
Consider me unimpressed that Mizzou couldn't get it done in the worst year ever for the SEC East when even Vandy had a better overall record than UF, UGA, and UT.
Casting records aside, it could be argued that the three top teams in the East were Mizzou, USC, and Vandy.
Still admiring how great mizzou was?