COLUMBIA, Mo. — Missouri football has found itself in a bit of a pinch.
The No. 21 Tigers’ undefeated record was blemished in a brutal way last weekend. They could use a chance to get right, but that can’t realistically happen against an inferior opponent this weekend.
It’s the kind of pinch that can wake up a slumbering team.
“We all have a perfection dream, but that’s not reality,” Mizzou coach Eli Drinkwitz said.
A la Thoreau, MU (4-1, 1-1 Southeastern Conference) will escape from reality in the foliage of Massachusetts for a time, facing 1-5 UMass at 11 a.m. Saturday in Amherst. The Tigers are favored by roughly four touchdowns, which isn’t far off the margin of their defeat to Texas A&M last weekend.
The echoes of that result will continue to ring through Mizzou’s ears for another weekend. Because Missouri is facing one of the Football Bowl Subdivision’s lowliest programs, there isn’t much it can do that will cleanse the bitter taste lingering about the collective palate in Columbia.
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“There’s always going to be narratives,” Drinkwitz told his team this week. “There’s always going to be criticisms. There’s always going to be opportunities to point the finger — that really doesn’t have anything to do with us.”
Don’t take that dismissal as an indication that there won’t be adjustments from MU, though.
The combination of brewing positional battles — like at cornerback between Nicholas Deloach Jr. and Toriano Pride Jr. — and a win that should be in hand by the heart of Saturday’s lunch hour means there could be added competition within the roster.
On the road for the second weekend in a row — one of two times this season that the Tigers will play away games in back-to-back weeks — even the travel component went under the microscope.
“You look at everything,” Drinkwitz said. “You look at preparation, the travel, the practice plans.”
Last week, Missouri traveled on the day before the game, touching down in College Station roughly 20 hours before kickoff. This time, Mizzou flew out on Thursday, touching down near Springfield, Massachusetts, around 9:30 p.m. local time. That schedule gave the Tigers all of Friday for on-site game preparation.
It’s part of a rather delicate balance for the MU coaching staff: The resonance of collapsing against the Aggies raised a whole string of red flags that could be significant, or could wind up being no more than blips on the radar.
“You have to be steady in your approach and understand that, again, one day doesn’t define the season,” Drinkwitz said. “The people who, I think, run into the most trouble are the ones who jerk the steering wheel too fast. A slight adjustment can change the direction and angle of a football team.”
Strangely enough, it was his analysis of the Tigers’ performance against Texas A&M that reassured Drinkwitz that only slight adjustments would be necessary.
He saw a lot of things on tape, but:
“I didn’t see anything on the film that told me we had a lack of effort,” Drinkwitz said, “and I’m keenly aware to look for that because that would tell me that there’s a deeper issue.”
A quieter game this weekend could benefit Missouri, and it will be quieter in multiple senses of the word. For one, a 17,000-capacity stadium won’t be as loud as the 97,000 fans who packed Kyle Field last weekend. And even after last Saturday’s chaos across college football, this week could produce its own fireworks: The Red River Showdown between No. 1 Texas and No. 18 Oklahoma, a Big Ten clash between No. 2 Ohio State and No. 3 Oregon and a big Southeastern Conference matchup of No. 9 Mississippi and No. 13 Louisiana State will all command more national attention than MU-UMass.
The Tigers’ next chance to make a legitimate statement will be their October 19 homecoming game against Auburn. For now, they’ve got the peace and place to steady the ship.
“There’s going to be bad days,” Drinkwitz said. “You’re not always going to have peak performances, as much as we would like to. It doesn’t have to define us, but we do have to respond. And we do have to respond in a better manner — and how we respond will define who we are as a team and what kind of character we have as a program.”
Class of 2025 safety decommits
Mizzou’s 2025 recruiting class lost safety Dyllon Williams on Thursday night as the three-star Alabama prospect announced that he’d decommitted from MU.
Williams had verbally committed to the Tigers on June 11. He’s the third player to decommit from Mizzou during this recruiting cycle.
Missouri has recently offered other safeties in the ’25 class, suggesting the program was prepared and has alternate options in mind.
With 16 commits, Mizzou’s recruiting class remains ranked 17th in the country by 247Ƶ.