Mizzou football set to close out regular season with a trophy game

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

Although the goals of the 2025 Mizzou football season may have evolved over the last few weeks, one can remain the same: going unbeaten in trophy games.

On Saturday, head coach Eli Drinkwitz and his team will close out the regular-season with the annual Battle Line Rivalry meeting against the Arkansas Razorbacks, down in Fayetteville. This year's showdown feels a little different, though, as both teams will not only play for a trophy, but play for pride.

Few teams have faced more adversity in the 2025 season than the Razorbacks, who have not won a game since firing former head coach Sam Pittman on Sept. 28. Sitting a 2-9 on the season, this final game is all about playing for pride.

"They are a very dangerous team, as being able to tell through the point differential [this season], the number of close games that they've played, the style of offense the Coach Petrino has put together, so it's going to be a real challenge. Obviously, for them it's senior night and it's an opportunity to win a trophy and so we know we're going to get their best," head coach Eli Drinkwitz said. "I would like to say, you know, I have a lot of respect for Coach Pittman and believe that he did a really nice job at the University of Arkansas. I believe he deserves a lot of praise for the job he did there when he took over that job. I mean, it was in a really tough spot and Coach Pittman went in there and got some really good results...I do believe he left that job in much better shape than when he found it. I think Coach Petrino has performed admirably in a very difficult situation."

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

As for Mizzou, Saturday's game marks a chance to bounce back from a lackluster offensive showing in the loss at Oklahoma. Following that game, Coach Drink said that his offense lacked creativity and rhythm.

As he looks to get that unit closer to where it needs to be, he was asked, during Tuesday's weekly press conference, what he needs to see tangibly injected into that unit to find more success scoring the football.

"I think there's a style of defense that has been played against us the last four games, that's carried over. If somebody is going to play extra hat in the box and play man-to-man and you can't figure out how to stop, get people open or create explosive plays, then then that lacks, you know, what we need to do in order to be successful," he said. "We were able to create enough movement at the line of scrimmage versus Mississippi State to allow our running backs to to get free in the first two drives of the game. We were creating, you know, enough movement for our running backs to get movement, but, you know, for whatever reason, they were able to fix that and we didn't really have a counterpunch...We got to have a counterpunch."

Coach Drinkwitz added that another big area prohibiting his team from finding rhythm on offense is third downs. In the loss to the Sooners, MU went 3-of-15 converting on third downs, as has been a trend in all the team's losses this season, going a combined 14-55 on money downs in the losses to Oklahoma, Texas A&M, Vanderbilt and Alabama.

Quarterback Beau Pribula said that a lot of the issues stem from needing to be more effective on first and second downs.

"When we set ourselves up for easier third downs, I think that's when it's, you know, easiest. Just finding ourselves on first down, you know, maybe getting even negative yards at times and it just kind of puts us in a bad place for setting us up on third down because there's not many things you can do or call on second down or third and long. It's tough against especially a good defense like Oklahoma. So just trying to put ourselves in better spot on first and second down to make it easier third manageable," he said.

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

Although Arkansas has had an abysmal season in the win/loss column, the team will still present a challenge to the Tiger defense.

The Razorbacks actually rank No. 5 in all of the Southeastern Conference in points per game, averaging about 34 points per outing. That's kept them in some games this season, just losing by an average of 3.8 points in games against then-No. 12 Tennessee, then-No. 4 Texas A&M, Auburn and Mississippi State.

The MU defense is watching out for Arkansas quarterback Taylen Green, as they head down to Fayetteville, as well.

"I think they have a really explosive offense. I think their quarterback keeps them alive. I mean, our coach said he's pretty dynamic, has a long stride. I mean, just overall their quarterback, plus the run game is something that's always hard to stop because you just don't know where they're going to go," defensive end Damon Wilson said.

You can watch the full press conference with Wilson, as well as safety Santana Banner in the video players below.

The Tigers will kickoff against the Razorbacks at 2:30 p.m. down in Fayetteville, on Saturday.