‘We can’t tolerate slow starts anymore’: No. 25 Mizzou looks for fast start against No. 8 Florida
COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)
Over the course of the first four weeks of the season, the Mizzou football team has shown its ability to fight.
The No. 25 Tigers clawed back for come-from-behind wins against both Kansas and Troy, and fell just short of the same feat against Mississippi State on Saturday. But, the goal for homecoming week against No. 8 Florida? Well, it's simple: don't put yourself in a position where you have to dig out of a massive hole and start fast.
In the first quarter of each of the last three games - against Kansas, Troy and Mississippi State - head coach Eli Drinkwitz and company have put zero points up on the scoreboard. Coach Eli said those slow starts, ultimately, come down to execution.
"You know, defensively we went out there and got us three and out [against Mississippi State] and offensively we drove I think we had a 10-play drive and then went for it on fourth down and didn't execute it. Then [the Bulldogs] went three plays and scored. So, you know, you got to execute that call better maybe try to search for a better explosive earlier in the game. I don't know what exactly the combination is there, but yeah," Drinkwitz said. "We started great in the second half, so, you know, something to look at. There's not a whole lot of changes to be made about it, but it's something that you get what you emphasize, you encourage what you tolerate. We can't tolerate slow starts anymore."
You can watch the full press conference with Drinkwitz in the video player below.
From a player-perspective, starting fast all begins in practice.
"Just going in practice and trying to start fast in practice and, yeah, just starting passing practice. Like today, go out there, execute fast. Execute as soon as you get out there. We don't need to take time to get the rhythm, we need to start fast during practice," wide receiver Donovan Olugbode said.
You can watch the full press conference with Olugbode in the video player below.
Mizzou will look to capitalize on the energy inside of Faurot Field for homecoming on Saturday, as the Tigers prepare to look for a bounce-back win against an undefeated Florida team.
People always say you can learn a lot about a team in its responses to adversity and losses. Coach Drinkwitz said he knows that his squad need to come into this behemoth of a matchup in bounce-back mode, after a lackluster start and finish against the Bulldogs in Starkville.
"I think this day and age, you know, everybody wants to be really quick to write people off and write chapters of a story or finality or obituaries or whatever you want to say based off of one thing," Drinkwitz said. "But, seasons are long seasons and, you know, it's not always going to go your way. Again, the the tale of the tape for us was a slow start and a slow finish. In between, I thought the fight was tremendous. I thought the way our guys battled, stayed together was good. It just wasn't good enough execution in the fourth quarter. We had, you know, two miscommunications in the secondary off of motions that really allowed them to have explosive plays. Obviously, the double move was an excellent catch, but we were supposed to be in a different coverage off that motion and we didn't get that adjusted out. That's an execution thing that we can fix moving forward. As coaches, we have to be better making sure that those guys are ready for that. And then we talked about the two minute drive. You know, again, as a group, as individuals, we can try as much as we can to put them in those scenarios in practice and we got to do a better job. But, you know, this is a whole brand new team coming together and trying to figure some of this stuff out together. I've been proud of the way they respond. Now, I mean, this is a really, really good football team we got coming in here, so we got to speed up the response and we got to have a bounce back factor, for sure."
But, MU is now turning the page to the Gators, who bring in one of the best running backs in all of college football: Jadan Baugh. The junior has tallied 600 yards and 11 touchdowns on 83 carries, for an average of 7.2 yards per carry on the year. Baugh leads the SEC in total yards and yards per game (150.0), as well yards per carry and touchdowns.
Coach Eli said he believes that Baugh is just about the best back in the entire country this season, reminding him a lot of what Tiger running back Ahmad Hardy showed in the 2025 campaign. He added that his defense has struggled quite a bit with inside out tackling in the game against Mississippi State, so - especially against a guy like Baugh - the Tigers have to do a better job of getting guys on the ground.
"Attack the man in front of us," defensive tackle Marquis Gracial said. "Obviously, you know, linemen and then just get them to the ground. We got to be better tackling this week."
You can watch the full press conference with Gracial in the video player below.
The Tigers are looking limit explosive plays, not just on the ground, but in the air, as well.
Coach Drinkwitz pointed to some miscommunications in the secondary against Mississippi State that allowed for game-breaking explosives to happen. Safety Elijah Dotson added that that performance against the Bulldogs wasn't up to his unit's standards.
"I mean, you know, you always got stuff to work on after games. We have some miscommunications, we got to pick it up and, you know, we're going to do that this week," he said. "We just got to continue to do what we've been doing, you know, throughout the week. We knew that, you know, with [Mississippi State's] different formations and things like that, we were going to have to communicate and, you know, we didn't do that. So, this week we have to do better work on there in practice and, you know, make a change."
You can watch the full press conference with Dotson in the video player below.
The Mizzou defense will hope to have starting edges Darris Smith and Langden Kitchen back to help defend this talented Gator offense, on Saturday. During Tuesday's meeting with local media, Drinkwitz said that both of those guys will be questionable for the game, as they deal with injuries. He doesn't anticipate they'll do a whole lot in practice this week, but they do need to be practice participants by Thursday in order to be game-ready.
Florida head coach Jon Sumrall also has a lot of talented playmakers on defense, who can create some havoc for quarterback Austin Simmons and company. Notably, Drinkwitz mentioned Kansas native Jayden Woods, who plays a hybrid role of edge rusher and outside linebacker for the Gators.
He's an elite pass rusher and run defender and plays with unbelievable effort all the time," Drinkwitz said.
Big guys like that will present quite a challenge for the Mizzou offensive line, who center Dominick Giudice feels like is getting better, week-in and week-out. He said the Tiger front five is still working towards being able to play together as one.
The Florida defensive front is very multiple and can present some odd, four-man looks. Giudice spoke on the challenge that presents for his unit.
"Obviously, the presentations give a lot of challenges. Just being able to scheme up how we're going to block different fronts and things like that, how we're going to get those to different formations, but it's a challenge that like we're willing to take on and we're excited to take on. They have a really good front, watching the tape. They have a lot of good players, so we're excited to take on this challenge. Will leave it there."
In these types of situations, it helps to have a guy like Simmons, who players and coaches say never gets rattled. Even in the tumultuous fourth quarter in Starkville, the leader of the MU offense kept a level-head. The impact of that, alone, can't be overstated.
Drinkwitz said situations like Simmons faced on Saturday, especially in that final drive, are all a part of the growth process for a quarterback. The senior completed 59 percent of his passes for 295 yards and three touchdowns against the Bulldogs, but couldn't help his unit find any points in the fourth quarter.
"Everybody wants it to happen right now, but the best teacher is experience. You can't manufacture experience any other way than going through it and he's done a really good job of of understanding. As much as he wants to be perfect and play perfect, and we all want him to be perfect, he's just continuing to grow and running his race and his journey, and he's doing a good job of that right now." Drinkwitz said.
Although Mizzou's toughest game of the season lies ahead, they are confident in their ability to takes lessons from their first loss of the season.
"I think one of the biggest ones is just not beating ourself," Giudice said. "You know, obviously having those self-inflicted mistakes, penalties, things like that to to clean those up is a big thing. I think a big emphasis that we have and just really make sure that we're putting the best product out there, not shooting ourselves in the foot."
Up next - No. 25 Mizzou will put what they've learned from the first loss of the year to the test against No. 8 Florida. The Tigers' homecoming game will kickoff at 2:30 pm on ABC 17.
