Mizzou suffers second straight loss in Zollers’ first collegiate start

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

No. 22 Mizzou Football fell short of toppling one of college football's three remaining undefeated teams.

The Tigers (6-3) dropped back-to-back games for the first time since the 2022 season, losing 38-17 to No. 3 Texas A&M (9-0) at Faurot Field. MU's three losses have all transpired against top-10 teams.

Matt Zollers made the first start of his collegiate career in the absence of Beau Pribula, who is recovering from a dislocated ankle that he suffered against Vanderbilt in Week 9. Mizzou's true freshman quarterback finished the game 7-of-22 for 77 yards and also surrendered a fumble.

Zollers' fellow freshman teammate Donovan Olugbode was his top target, ending the contest with a team-best three catches and 74 receiving yards.

"[Matt Zollers] got off to a really slow start. You know, we didn't do a good enough job getting comfortable throwing the football. You know, completions were tough, they were challenging every throw. But, I thought he did a nice job with, you know, trying the deep ball, which created some pass interference calls. I thought Donovan had a couple of big catches, but ultimately, we got to do a better job with a freshman quarterback, protecting him. There can't be free runners on him and that happened too many times," head coach Eli Drinkwitz said. "I didn't think he made bad decisions in the pass game. It's not like he was throwing the ball up in jeopardy and putting us in terrible spots. We let him down as coaches, tonight, with the protection plan."

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

Texas A&M held the Tigers off the scoreboard for the entire first half, forcing three punts and one takeaway. Offensively, the Aggies scored two touchdowns in the opening 30 minutes with a 4-yard pass from Marcel Reed to Ashton Bethel-Roman and a 1-yard run from EJ Smith. The latter of those two scores was aided by a sack fumble from Daymion Sanford on Mizzou's side of the field.

Defensively, MU forced Texas A&M to punt on four of its six first half possessions, holding them to just 148 yards in the first half. Triston Newson finished as MU's leading tackler with 11 total tackles and Darris Smith posted the team's only sack in the second quarter.

Linebacker Josiah Trotter said his unit's execution was the key to limiting the Aggies to just seven points at the two-minute timeout.

"Dominating the run, trying to make them one-dimensional, and then, trying to get them off the field. You know, especially a good team like that, just getting them off the field. But, in that first half, I felt like we did a good job of just executing our job and stopping the run," Trotter said.

You can watch the full postgame press conference with Trotter, as well as safety Jalen Catalon, in the video players below.

After the Aggies assembled a 21-point lead with a 48-yard touchdown throw from Reed to KC Concepcion early in the second half, the Tigers finally added their first points to the scoreboard at the 6:49-mark of the third quarter. DaMarion Fowlkes drove the team inside Texas A&M territory with a 55-yard kickoff return, and then, Jamal Roberts ended the possession with a 4-yard touchdown run to cut the deficit down to 21-7.

"Just running the ball, just getting as much yards as I can after contact to help our guys out on offense," Roberts said.

You can watch the full postgame press conference with Roberts, as well as left tackle Cayden Green, in the video players below.

However, the Aggies outscored the Tigers 17-10 moving forward. Texas A&M tallied two field goals and two touchdowns, highlighted by a 57-yard rushing touchdown from Rueben Owens. Mizzou's last visit to the end zone was from Ahmad Hardy, who broke free for a 45-yard touchdown run in the fourth quarter, his second-longest rush of the season.

Roberts and Hardy fueled MU's offense, accounting for 219 of the team's 284 total yards. The St. Louis native finished with a team-best 110 rushing yards, closely followed by the UL-Monroe transfer with 109 yards on the ground.

Up next - Mizzou will regroup ahead of hosting Mississippi State in its home finale on Saturday, Nov. 15 at 6:45 p.m.