Mizzou vs. Kansas: Tigers primed for Week 2 rivalry clash

LAWRENCE, Kan. (KMIZ)

There are rivalries that you watch. Then, there are rivalries that you feel.

For generations, Missouri and Kansas have been separated by a border — but connected by something much, much deeper: one of the best rivalries in all college sports.

On Friday night, head coach Eli Drinkwitz and company will pay Mizzou's first visit to Lawrence, Kansas, since 2005. Although there's a lot of hype and noise surrounding this game, Drinkwitz said that's far from what his team is focused on.

"This week really for us is not really about that," he said. "Like, all the jokes and all the different stuff is to try to create the rivalry, but now we're in the middle of the week. It's really going to come down to execution. You know, getting hyped up for the game is not — our guys want to play, you know? But, we got to make sure that we understand how to execute on the road. I'm way more concerned with handling noise and handling travel playing on a Friday night. You know, I'm way more concerned about that than whether or not our guys want to play in the game. Our guys understand the significance of the game and all that."

The Tigers are treating their first road game of the season as a business trip, not buying into all the outside noise. After all, Missouri emphasized that it will have its hands full on Friday night.

Although Mizzou is a 5.5-point favorite over the Jayhawks, the Tigers are not taking this opponent lightly. In fact, they've keyed on a few guys that will be difference-makers in this game, including KU dual-threat quarterback Isaiah Marshall.

"I think the challenge with players like Isaiah Marshall and dual-threat quarterbacks is every play becomes, you know, every pass play becomes really a two-play part, where you have the pass play, which he's an effective thrower and then he can pull it down and become a runner. So, you have to play two plays within a play," Drinkwitz said. "There's no magic answer to it...There was a couple of years ago we played a quarterback that we said, 'hey, if he throws it to beat us, we'll be okay with that, but we're not going to let him scramble to beat us.' But that's not really what you can do with this guy. So, you know, we're going to have to be disciplined. We're going to have to rush the quarterback and play pass coverage and then, you know, utilize our pass rush lanes. And we'll see how it plays out."

Mizzou is, undoubtedly, watching lots of tape on Marshall, but — overall — the Tiger defense didn't seem overly concerned with the opposition when talking to local media members on Tuesday.

"I wouldn't say anything stands out in particular," safety Santana Banner said, when asked what stands out about facing Kansas. "I mean, they're a college football team. I mean, they're in the way of our goal that we want to make it to the playoffs. So, that's all I see it as."

But that kind of goes with the theme of the week for Coach Drinkwitz's squad: worrying about themselves, not about what's going on outside of the program.

Yes, there's a trophy waiting at the end of this game for whoever comes out on top. But to get that trophy and, more importantly, the win, Drinkwitz said there are a lot of things his team will need to improve on from Week 1.

"We're going to have to defend the run, we're going to have to handle and contain a quarterback, we're going to have to handle pressure defensively, we're going to have to see multiple coverage looks, and our quarterback is going to have to decipher through that, which we haven't seen so far," he said. "We're going to have to protect the quarterback way better than we did last week; we're going to have to rush the ball with much more effectiveness. So, you know, I'm really more concerned with the execution than I am about the hype of the game."

The Tigers will look for a faster start from their run game out in Lawrence, as Mizzou only mustered 22 yards on the first 11 carries in the opener against Arkansas-Pine Bluff. While Drinkwitz said it's unfair to expect 80-yard touchdown runs in the first carries of the season, he also acknowledged that the ground game will need to find some juice against the Jayhawks.

Meanwhile, the passing game will look to bring the same energy it did in the first half of the win over the Golden Lions to the Sunflower State.

Quarterback Austin Simmons looked as good as anybody could've asked in his first start in more than 360 days. The senior completed 89% of his passes for 252 yards and four touchdowns, showing fans what his teammates already knew about him.

"That was kind of a surreal moment," wide receiver Cayden Lee said when asked about catching another touchdown from his former Ole Miss teammate. "To be able to go through it with him — the good, the down, the bad, and everything that he went through last year — just being able to see him go out there and just have fun again is really awesome to see ... Obviously this has nothing to do with the coaching decisions last year or anything like that, so go ahead and say that. But, you know, it's a lot to go out there and be a starter and then to have that removed from you. So, just being able to just continue to be the player that you were and that we all knew that he was gonna be is awesome."

In the first half of the season opener, Simmons' play was complemented by a defensive effort that only allowed Arkansas-Pine Bluff to gain six total yards.

Of course, the "Death Row Defense" will be tasked with a much greater challenge and opponent in Week 2. But once again, they're worried about themselves -- and ignoring all the outside factors.

"Really just focusing on keeping our head on straight," Banner said. "Not seeing it as something different than what it is: just a football game, end of the day. I mean, we're going there, people going to be yelling at us. I mean, so what? That's what you signed up for."

After the 2026 edition of this game wraps up, there are no matchups between Mizzou and Kansas football on the books, at least for quite some time. KU head coach Lance Leipold said that he'd like to see these games continue to be scheduled because he believes it's what the fans want.

As for Drinkwitz? He went with the theme of the week: focusing on going 1-0.

"I'm really just focused on playing this game on Friday. You know, it's important for us to get a lot better. You know, we need to make a jump from Week 1 to Week 2. I don't have any big significant thoughts on a larger scale than that," he said. "That's really more up to the athletic departments and [athletic directors], and they'll make those decisions."

Mizzou and Kansas will kick off at 7 p.m. Friday at David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium.