Mizzou defense shines in second scrimmage of fall camp

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

The Mizzou football team is one step closer to kickoff at Faurot Field, as the group put the second scrimmage of fall camp in the books, on Saturday afternoon. During the action, the Tiger defense took center-stage.

A select group of media members, including ABC 17 Sports Director Nathalie Jones, were able to watch Saturday's scrimmage and gain some insight on the 2025 team, midway through fall camp.

Although some players were held out of the scrimmage as a precautionary measure and coach's decision, some of the stars of defensive coordinator Corey Batoon's unit shined bright in work against the MU offense. Specifically, defensive end Daeden Hopkins, linebacker Khalil Jacobs and safety Mose Phillips III.

"I mean, Daeden felt like he was in our backfield pretty much all day with his group reps," head coach Eli Drinkwitz said "Khalil, I thought, in the backed up did really good stuff. You know, so those guys stood out to me."

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

Each and every time that Mizzou take the field, it become more and more clear that Jacobs has fully emerged as a leader of this defense. You can hear his voice loud and clear, he has command of his guys on the field and it feels like he's involved in just about every play.

"I think he did a great job today on first and second down, that's really where we challenged him to make impact plays...When he plays downhill, he's a difference-maker. He's always got great energy and juice and he's got command of the defense because they see how much work he's put in," Drinkwitz said.

The Tiger defense was able to wreak some havoc on Coach Drink's offensive line, on Saturday. Drinkwitz said they are still working to find the best five guys up front, but felt that that unit allowed less pressure on the quarterback in scrimmage two than they did in the first one.

Center Connor Tollison was one of the players held out as a precautionary measure, so the line looked a bit different than it would in a normal scenario. Nonetheless, redshirt junior Jayven Richardson continued to take the first-team snaps at left tackle. However, after practice, Drinkwitz hinted that some changes will be coming next week.

"We're gonna make some adjustments next week...You know, the goal is to get the best five and we still got two more weeks to get there. Next week we'll make a change and we want to see if we got a different starting five next week to see what it looks like," he said.

Redshirt sophomore and West Virginia transfer Johnny Williams IV has been working behind Richardson in that competition to be starting left tackle. That could likely be one of the changes that Coach Drinkwitz mentioned, after being asked about the battle at that tackle spot.

Of course, the battle that everyone has their eyes on in fall camp is the competition to be Mizzou's starting quarterback. Sam Horn and Beau Pribula split reps with the first-team offense, on Saturday, as Coach Drinkwitz said he didn't see much separation between the two in the ongoing competition.

"They're both playing really good football right now, so we'll go into next week and keep the battle going," Drinkwitz said. "[I need to see] consistency in decision-making and consistency on scoring drives. You know, there was too many lulls in the middle by both of them, I felt like. You know, we just got to clean that up at the execution end. You know, neither one of them were very effective in the backed up situation, which could occure."

The best stat of the day for offensive coordinator Kirby Moore's group was that there were zero turnovers through scrimmage No. 2.

As ABC 17 Sports Director Nathalie Jones took in Saturday's, she jotted down a few of the biggest takeaways. You can find those below.

• Mizzou's offensive line still has some work to do to be a cohesive unit.
• Defensive coordinator Corey Batoon is utilizing his depth, mixing in a lot of different personnel.
• Freshman running back Marquise Davis is a tough runner and very difficult to take down. Davis really shined amongst all other running backs in the scrimmage, as sophomore standout Ahmad Hardy did not participate due to a coach's decision. Drinkwitz said they saw enough good reps from Hardy in the first scrimmage.
• Cornerback Toriano Pride Jr. has made some strides from last season. You can tell his confidence is up, as he came up with some big pass breakups and tackles in the scrimmage.
• The competition at cornerback is healthy. Washington State transfer Stephen Hall fit into the defense nicely alongside Pride Jr. in the first-team reps.
• Having linebacker Khalil Jacobs healthy will be a game-changer for the Tiger defense. It felt like he was in on just about every play, on Saturday, as he took command of his unit on the field. Jacobs brings energy, fire and leadership to the field.
• Linebacker Nicholas Rodriguez, who Coach Drinkwitz's has continually called out for having a great work ethic, worked quite a bit in the first-team reps.
• Defensive end Darris Smith, who is making his return from a season-ending injury last year, took a ton of first-team reps. He looked comfortable and effective.
• Defensive end Daeden Hopkins will be a player to watch, in the future. The true freshman was all over Mizzou's backfield, on Saturday.
• Quarterbacks Beau Pribula and Sam Horn split first-team reps pretty evenly. Each guy had their good moments and their not-so-good moments, but found ways to score some points.
• Wide receiver Marquis Johnson looks athletic this year. He came down with a pretty tremendous one-handed touchdown, over a defender's head early on in the scrimmage. The throw came from Horn, as he escaped quite a bit of pressure to get the touchdown throw to Johnson.
• Freshman wide receiver Donovan Olugbode has made strides since the start of fall camp. He got mixed in with some of the first-team offense runs.
• Coach Drinkwitz said he needs to see more consistency from wide receiver Daniel Blood, who had a few drops in Saturday's scrimmage.