Mizzou loses starting center for the season, ahead of South Carolina matchup

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

The injury bug keeps biting for the Mizzou football team. During Tuesday's weekly press conference, Tiger head coach Eli Drinkwitz announced that starting center Connor Tollison is out for the season with a leg injury.

The Missouri-native is set to get surgery on his leg, which will end his year, prematurely, for MU.

"It's very tough news for us as a program and as a team. Connor was Mr. Consistent, as good a center as we've had here," Drinkwitz said. "Really, really good football player. I know he'll bounce back, know we'll get him back for next year."

You can watch the full press conference with Drinkwitz in the video player below.

Just as he did on Saturday against Oklahoma, Drake Heismeyer will step into Tollison's role. Heismeyer is a redshirt senior from St. Charles, Missouri, who has spent his entire career in Columbia. For the past two season, fans have primarily seen him on special teams, but he played in every game in 2022 and 2023.

Coach Drinkwitz is confident in the preparation that Heismeyer has had over the years.

"The thing about Drake is he loves being a part of the football team, he's embraces his role. You know, he's one of the best, he's on our middle shield on punt team and takes pride in that, knows all the looks and understands it. So, he's played quite a bit of football, he just hasn't played in the role that we're gonna ask him to play now," Drinkwitz said. "It's just going to be about stepping into that moment and owning the moment. We have a lot of confidence in him. You know, he had to do this a couple of times during fall camp with different injuries during the day for Connor and I thought he did an excellent job on Saturday...He doesn't have to replace Connor, he's just got be the best version of Drake he can be."

That tough blow at center also comes with remaining uncertainty at the quarterback position, as far as injuries go.

Mizzou's starting quarterback Brady Cook did not play in the win against Oklahoma due to injury and, so far, there is no real update on his status versus South Carolina. Coach Drinkwitz said that they will know more about Cook's abilities later in the week, but his team will prepare for backup quarterback Drew Pyne to be the starter versus the Gamecocks.

Pyne came up clutch for the Tigers in the renewed rivalry win over the Sooners, as he threw for three touchdowns and 143 yards. It was a great bounce-back from a tough outing at Alabama, when he came in for Cook and threw three interceptions.

Since Pyne has been getting more first-team reps, Drinkwitz said the biggest growth he has seen is in the backup quarterback's pocket presence.

"It's harder to replicate live rush, as much as anything, in college football because, you know, we're trying to be so protective of the quarterback in practice. You don't want anybody around his arm or hand, so for him to be able to see and develop, push up in the pocket vertically, I thought in the game was really a big difference."

Of course, the success of any offense in football all comes down to chemistry. Mizzou's has been disrupted a bit with injuries to Tollison, Cook and other players. But, the Tigers keep finding a way.

"With a quarterback down, we know that across the board, offense and defense, we just got to be behind our quarterback. We got to be behind everybody that's injured, really. We got to play for each other. Like, go back to the hard workouts we've been through together and just the hard times together that we've been through, we've got to go back and reflect on those times and really dig deep," running back Nate Noel said.

You can watch the full press conference with Noel in the video player below.

MU will face a tough South Carolina team at Williams-Brice Stadium in Columbia East on Saturday. It's a Gamecock squad highlighted by one of the most talented running backs in the conference.

Raheim 'Rocket' Sanders transferred to South Carolina from Arkansas. In 2024, he ranks fifth in the SEC with an average of about 77 yards per game. He's racked up 696 yards on the ground, so far, and tallies 10 touchdowns.

"I mean, it just all comes down to gap assignment and everybody doing their job and tackling, that's going to be a big deal," linebacker Corey Flagg said. "He runs hard, man. He breaks through a lot of tackles, you got to bring your hook, so...just got to make sure we're wrapping up."

You can watch the full press conference with Flagg, as well as cornerback Nicholas Deloach Jr. in the video players below.

Mizzou and South Carolina will kickoff at 3:15 p.m. CT at Williams-Brice Stadium on Saturday.