After a much-needed bye week, Auburn returns to the field Saturday against one of the most puzzling teams in the Southeastern Conference.
Missouri is up next for Hugh Freeze and his Tigers as both teams go into the matchup with things to prove. For Auburn, the motivation is obvious, a chance to turn around the season after a disappointing 2-4 start.
For Missouri, the black and gold Tigers are still looking to reassert themselves after a 41-10 loss to Texas A&M two weeks ago.
Saturday‘s battle should pit two teams with plenty of motivation and there’s reason to believe both teams have a chance to win.
Here’s a closer look at Missouri:
The team
Missouri started the season just outside the top 10 and climbed as high as No. 6 in the country during a 4-0 start.
The run didn’t come without concerns, though, as close calls against Boston College and Vanderbilt raised questions about the true quality of the team. Those questions were answered in the eyes of many against Texas A&M and not in the way Missouri was looking for.
The Tigers lost 41-10 in a game where they gave up over 500 yards of total offense and only averaged 4.16 yards per play themselves. Texas A&M ran for 236 yards against Missouri, highlighting defensive vulnerabilities in Missouri’s biggest test of the season so far.
Missouri rebounded with a unique road experience in Amherst against UMass, but it wasn‘t a game that was ever going to change anyone’s mind about the team. The Tigers have yet to beat any team of real quality this season, though their narrow overtime win over Vanderbilt is looking better as the season goes on.
The staff
Drinkwitz is in his fifth season as Missouri’s head coach and is close friend of Freeze.
“I have great respect for him and who he is and how he does things. It’s going to be a tall task for us there just to go and compete with a really, really good Missouri team,” Freeze said during his Monday press conference.
Freeze and Drinkwitz never worked on the same staff, but Drinkwitz does have ties to Auburn. He was a quality control coach at Auburn during the 2010 and 2011 seasons, making him part of the 2010 national championship-winning staff.
The other major connection between the Auburn and Missouri coaching staffs is first-year Missouri defensive coordinator Corey Batoon.
Batoon came to Missouri from South Alabama and worked with Freeze both at Liberty and Ole Miss. He was never a defensive coordinator for Freeze, but worked with him as a defensive assistant and safeties coach.
“He’s a heck of a guy and a heck of a defensive coordinator,” Freeze said. “That presents its own challenges.”
Players to watch
Coming into the season, Missouri was tipped as having one of the most exciting offenses in the SEC. Returning the highly touted trio of Brady Cook, Luther Burden III and Theo Wease Jr., the offense isn’t lacking in weapons.
However, the offense hasn’t put up the kind of numbers many expected at the halfway point of the season. Burden and Wease both have right around 400 receiving yards and Cook has just 1,351 passing yards and seven touchdowns.
Those aren‘t bad numbers, but for Cook and Burden, they’re not on pace to reach their totals from last season.
Missouri’s best offensive player this season has arguably been running back Nate Noel. The fifth-year Appalachian State transfer has 471 rushing yards on the year and is averaging six yards per carry.
Noel’s health could be in question, though. He didn’t play in Missouri’s game against UMass due to what the ESPN broadcast described as “back tightness.”
Defensively, Missouri is statistically one of the best teams in the SEC. The Tigers rank fourth in the conference in yards per game allowed and 12th in the country. The Texas A&M performance gives some reason to doubt Missouri’s capability against more advanced offenses, but the Tigers are still solid defensively.
The unit is led in the middle by linebacker Corey Flagg Jr., who leads the team in tackles with 29. A transfer from Miami, he also has one sack and one forced fumble on the season.
Another player to watch is defensive tackle Chris McClellan. A transfer from Florida, McClellan leads the team in sacks with 2.5 and has a pass rush grade of 88.2 on the season, according to Pro Football Focus.
Peter Rauterkus covers Auburn sports for AL.com. You can follow him on X at @peter_rauterkus or email him at prauterkus@al.com
