Mizzou reclaims Mayor’s Cup, defeats South Carolina in SEC opener
COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)
The Mayor's Cup is returning to No. 23 Mizzou Football's trophy case.
The Tigers (4-0) earned a 29-20 win over South Carolina (2-2) to clinch their sixth win over the Gamecocks in the last seven seasons. With Saturday's victory, Mizzou has clinched a flawless four-game start to its campaign for a third consecutive year.
You can watch extended highlights from Saturday's win in the video player below.
"Just really, really proud of our team. That was a heck of a battle tonight. I thought Coach [Shane] Beamer really had his team prepared. You could tell they were ticked off about last week's performance and came in and fought. I'm really proud of our team for not really flinching, obviously a missed extra point, give up a big bomb, get stuck in the red zone a couple of times. We just kept hammering away. Ultimately, at halftime, I told our guys if we will just shore up the boots and we'll continue to run the ball, we will win the game because in the fourth quarter you got to run to win," head coach Eli Drinkwitz said. "Ultimately, that's what we were able to do."
You can watch the full postgame press conference with Coach Drinkwitz in the video player below.
After forcing South Carolina to punt on its first two possessions, MU opened the scoring with a 9-play, 99-yard touchdown drive. The Tigers used back-to-back plays to gain 52 combined yards on a rush from Ahmad Hardy (27) and a pass from Beau Pribula to Brett Norfleet (25), setting the stage for an 8-yard touchdown throw to Joshua Manning. MU led 6-0 early in the second quarter.
However, South Carolina battled back on its next possession to gain its first advantage. LaNorris Sellers delivered a 49-yard touchdown pass to Vandrevius Jacobs to put the Gamecocks ahead 7-6.
Although Mizzou added two more field goals to the scoreboard in the first half, South Carolina held the lead at halftime. Sellers turned Pribula's second interception of the season into his second touchdown throw of the contest, finding Brian Rowe Jr. for a 24-yard score. The Gamecocks carried a 14-12 lead into the break.
"That play happened and there's nothing you can do about it after it happens. You know, you can learn from it, correct it moving forward and, you know, that's important. But after that, you know, I don't think I let it affect me because you can't. So, just learning from your mistakes. It could be it could be anything, not just interceptions, you got to learn from what you got and get better," Pribula said.
You can watch the full postgame press conference with Pribula in the video player below.
South Carolina extended that advantage to five points with the first of its two second half field goals from William Joyce. However, Hardy erased that lead with a rushing touchdown on Mizzou's second drive of the third quarter, giving the Tigers a 18-17 advantage.
Hardy finished the game with 138 yards on 22 carries, including that five-yard score. Saturday's win marked the fourth consecutive contest that the sophomore running back has hit 100 yards on the ground.
The transfer from the University of Louisiana-Monroe also gave a lot of credit to the guy that takes some off of his workload: running back Jamal Roberts.
"I just look at it as the one two punch. What he can't do, I can do. What I can't do, he can do," Hardy said.
You can watch the full postgame press conference with Hardy in the video player below.
The fourth quarter was the difference-maker in this SEC showdown. The Tigers outscored the Gamecocks 11-0 in the final 15 minutes of action, highlighted by a 16-yard rushing touchdown from Roberts and a game-sealing 40-yard field goal from true freshman kicker Robert Meyer.
Collectively, the Tigers tallied 285 rushing yards with three different players hitting the 70-yard mark, including Hardy (138), Roberts (76) and Pribula (72). At the same time, MU's defense held South Carolina to negative yards on the ground (-9).
"You know, just coming together, playing team ball and, you know, stop the run every every week. That's that's our main focus, week-in on defense. Especially this week because Coach Drink told us the message was stop the run and have some fun. So, you know, we just going to keep playing blocks and playing hard on the edges, setting hard edges, making it hard for teams to run the ball in the middle and on our side," defensive tackle Chris McClellan said.
You can watch the full postgame press conference with McClellan, as well as linebacker Nick Rodriguez in the video players below.
Up next - Mizzou will take a brief break from SEC action to wrap up its non-conference schedule. The Tigers will host Massachusetts in the 114th edition of homecoming on Saturday, Sept. 27 at 6:30 p.m.
