‘Learn the lesson, leave the event’: No. 16 Mizzou turns page from first loss to first road trip

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

In the wake of No. 16 Mizzou football's first loss of the 2025 campaign to No. 6 Alabama, on Saturday, the Tigers are taking a familiar mindset into game seven: 'we lost, but all is not lost.'

In fact, it's the same way head coach Eli Drinkwitz and his team approached the game following the first loss of the 2024 season, as well, after a crushing 31-point defeat at the hands of Texas A&M.

"There's nothing you can do about the past," Coach Drinkwitz said. "You can only learn from it. Learn the lesson, leave the event. Keep moving forward and, again, you can't wallow in self-pity. No one's coming to save us. Nobody feels sorry for us. Auburn sure doesn't give a damn about us losing that game. They would prefer that we sat here and answered questions about it."

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

Before highlighting the matchup against Auburn at Jordan-Hare Stadium, Coach Eli fielded quite a few questions about the loss to the Crimson Tide, including on play-calling.

In the three-point loss to Alabama, quarterback Beau Pribula's longest throw was a 27-yard strike to true freshman wide receiver Donovan Olugbode with less than two minutes in the game. All-in-all, the Tigers averaged about 10 yards per throw, on Saturday. Drinkwitz said that throwing the ball down the field is always something that a team is going to look to do, but in order to do that, you have to fix some other areas.

"It comes down to 1-for-10 on third down. You can't design verticals if you can't convert third downs," he said. "It really comes down to those execution numbers as much as anything."

He also took questions about Pribula's outing against the Crimson Tide, during Tuesday's weekly meeting with media members. The former Penn State backup about 57 percent of his passes for 162 yards and a pair of touchdowns, but also threw a couple of critical interceptions.

The final turnover proved the most costly, as it came on a potential game-winning or game-tying drive, as Mizzou was down by three with less than a minute to go.

"Playing quarterback in this league and playing quarterback in general is a growth process and every rep is an opportunity to improve," Drinkwitz said. "He's played well enough for us to win five games and we had the ball the last drive of the game, with an opportunity. There's always going to be growing pains with a first-year starting quarterback...I shared with him yesterday that there was a lot of questions surrounding Brady Cook's ability to lead late-game drives. I think he put all of those to bed in his final two seasons as starting quarterback, so you kind of got to allow guys to grow into it and not expect that the first time anybody shows up to anything, they're gonna be perfect."

Mizzou's six-game home stand is finally coming to an end, with the upcoming night game at Jordan-Hare Stadium. The Tigers will hope to open up the road slate better than they did in 2024, when the team went 1-3 in conference away game.

Coach Drinkwitz did his best to prepare his team for this very moment during fall camp, as he brought his guys out to Lindenwood University in St. Louis for a mock road trip.

"I think last year our first road game kind of surprised us. I know it surprised me. I didn't know what to expect, you know, being a transfer, being at a new school. I think now we just kind of know what to expect, we know what the expectation is from being at a hotel, to transitioning into the away locker room," left tackle Cayden Green said. "I know for the transfer guys, now they know what to expect and they know what the expectation is."

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

Green returned to field after missing the games against South Carolina and Massachusetts, due to a minor minor medical procedure on his right foot to repair an injury that he suffered at practice on Wednesday, Sept. 17.

He said, as of now, he feels good, but does not feel like he played good enough against Alabama.

"I definitely think, especially in the run game, there's some stuff I need to work on, you know, knock the rust off a little bit. But, that's the beautiful thing about football is we got a tough road game this coming week, so I have a chance to fix it," he said.

The Tigers will be facing an Auburn team that is still winless in Southeastern Conference play, but has come incredibly close to breaking through, specifically in last week's game against No. 9 Georgia.

"They're a good team, they're a talented team," defensive tackle Chris McClellan said. "Everybody in the league has talented players, so we just got to go out there and be us. I don't think it's about them or anybody else. We just have to go out there and play our brand of football and do our thing."

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

Coach Drinkwitz and his team will roll into Auburn as a 1.5-point favorite over the other Tigers, according to BetMGM Sportsbook, as MU looks to get back into the win column.

Defensive end Damon Wilson experienced quite a few gut-punches, similar to the loss Mizzou took against Alabama over the weekend, and said it's all about taking a 'next play' mentality to bounce back.

"You gotta get over it," he said. "You just gotta move on to the next and that's the only way you can get better is to keep moving forward."

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

A good portion of the players on Drinkwitz's roster have experienced a road game with him before and some have even experienced a road game at Auburn before. But, playing at Jordan-Hare Stadium at night will prove to be an entirely different animal.

Coach Eli knows the environment well, as he spent two years on staff under former head coach Gus Malzahn. Although he hasn't told the team what it's like yet, he plans to this week.

"He hasn't [showed us anythng] yet. I know he said that he was going to show us something [on Tuesday]. I've watched games that they've played in, so I kind of have a general understanding of it, but I'm just excited to see what [Coach Drinkwitz] is going to show us today," tight end Brett Norfleet said.

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

Mizzou and Auburn will kickoff under the lights at 6:34 p.m. at Jordan-Hare Stadium on Saturday.