WEB EXTRA: SEC Network’s Matt Stinchcomb previews Mizzou and Alabama’s Top-15 clash

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

On Saturday, the No. 14 Mizzou football team will host No. 8 Alabama in a game that could end up having College Football Playoff implications for both sides.

SEC Network analyst Matt Stinchcomb sat down with ABC 17 Sports Director Nathalie Jones to preview the matchup, which will air on KMIZ. He said if the Tigers can pull off their first win over the Crimson Tide since joining the Southeastern Conference, it will put them more firmly in the playoff conversation.

"The hard part for Mizzou this year is that the schedule is so soft relative to a lot of the teams in the Southeastern Conference, that if you don't have these wins, if you can't take care of this, then that's going to ultimately bite you," Stinchcomb said. "More than anything else, I think it puts Missouri, you know, front and center. Right now, they're kind of on the fringes of the conversation. I think a lot of people are a little bit hesitant, you know, given the opposition so far. So, this is quite the stage for Missouri to announce, you know, 'hey, we're for real this year.' What a feat that will be given the the number of new parts that they've had to employ."

You can watch the full conversation with Stinchcomb in the video player below.

Stinchcomb said after five-straight wins to open up the 2025 campaign, he believes this game agains the Crimson Tide will be Mizzou's first true test of the season.

Alabama will look to slow down the rushing attack that's been MU's bread and butter through the first leg of the season. Between running backs Ahmad Hardy and Jamal Roberts and their dual-threat quarterback Beau Pribula, Mizzou has been gouging opposing defenses on the ground.

That'll make for an interesting matchup against a Tide team that has given up quite a few rushing yards against mobile quarterbacks in the past couple of games. In wins over Vanderbilt and Georgia, Alabama allowed both QBs Diego Pavia and Gunner Stockton to rush for a combined 98 yards.

Stinchcomb said that'll be something Mizzou will look to exploit in this Top-15 clash. Overall, he's been impressed with the play of Pribula, who transferred in from Penn State in the offseason, through the first five games.

"I think it just shows that there's a lot of good players and they can come from just about anywhere and ones where we otherwise wouldn't anticipated, right. Not that Penn State is, you know, like the hinterlands of college football, but you think about the Cam Wards of this world that, you know, end up being incredible football players that were playing in places like Incarnate Word. No one's thinking about them when you talk about college football, so he's been great," Stinchcomb said. "I do think and hold [Mizzou in] very high regard, offensively. Ahmad Hardy has been a huge contributor for them, but they've done a great job of integrating new faces in their offense for a long time now."

Hardy leads all of college football in rushing to start his sophomore season and will look to continue that trend, as the Tigers enter the heart of conference pay. However, a line that's even more impressive than his 730 rushing yards is that 544 of those came after contact, a stat which also leads the nation.

"A lot of his yards are because he breaks tackles so well. I mean, no one has forced more missed tackles than Ahmad Hardy this year, he's got 50 of them. So, you think about a lot of that's after contact, a lot of that is when it's not just a guy just getting an arm on you, it's he's had a chance to get you to the ground and you're able to break free," he said. "In a defensive minded league, albeit an offensive minded game, this is still a defensive minded league...Once you start getting into the teeth of that Southeastern Conference element of your schedule, it should change. It's likely to change. But Alabama's going to have to tackle well, which is something that they did not do the last time out versus an offense that's this balanced."

On the flip side, Alabama will look to capitalize on some holes that were exposed in Mizzou's secondary through the Tigers' first five games.

In Tuesday's weekly press conference, Coach Drinkwitz told media members that improvement was a big focus during their bye week. In the first five wins of the year, 70 percent of the yards that MU's defense allowed came through the air, with many of them coming in the form of costly, explosive plays.

The Tigers will need to tighten that part of the defense up, as Alabama comes in with quite a few weapons.

"Isaiah Horton, Germie Bernard, who has is now no longer a secret and I think everyone knows that is probably the best not just receiver on this Alabama team in what is a very deep and talented wide receiving corps, but maybe the best football player, according to the coaches, which is really, really high praise," Stinchcomb said. "But then on the other end of it, too, is Ty Simpson and the way that he's playing and the decisions that he's making and albeit aggressive ones. You know, it's not like he's just managing the game, it's that he's performed at a really high level, really proficient passer, good decision maker, a mobile quarterback in his own right. He was the number two dual threat QB coming out of high school, so it's not like he's a statue back there. He's proven to be a really, really proficient passer and that's concerning. You know, when you talk about the way games can be impacted, it's really two significant ways. One is turnovers or takeaways and then the other is explosive plays. It's a concern because Alabama is more than capable of exploiting the passing game, specifically, which compromises the secondary attacks."

You can watch Mizzou's showdown with Alabama at 11 a.m. on Saturday on KMIZ.