Missouri coach Eli Drinkwitz broke some tough news during Tuesday’s news conference, announcing that kicker Blake Craig will miss the rest of the 2025 season with a torn anterior cruciate ligament, while quarterback Sam Horn is expected to miss an “extended period of time” with a leg injury.
Drinkwitz didn’t get into specifics on Horn’s injury. He said he isn’t sure what the recovery timeline will be for the junior. Craig, on the other hand, underwent surgery to repair his ACL on Tuesday morning — eliminating the possibility of a return this season.
Missouri will lean on true freshman Robert Meyer to be its primary PAT and field goal kicker, with Florida Memorial transfer Oliver Robbins handling kickoffs. But it also added transfer Ryder Goodwin from the JUCO ranks at Northeast Oklahoma A&M to increase the depth at the position. At quarterback, the Tigers will once again bring in quarterback Brett Brown, a former walk-on.
“He’s always been able to kick,” Drinkwitz said of Meyer. “You’ve just got to have confidence he can do it in front of a sold-out crowd, which is always a nervous thing to do.”
In last Thursday’s 61-6 win over Central Arkansas, Meyer knocked in all four of his extra-point attempts but did not get an opportunity to kick a field goal. Although there’s a lot Meyer hasn’t experienced in his young career, Drinkwitz believes the Colfax, California, product is capable of performing.
“I’m not going into it thinking he’s not going to be able to do something that I know he can do and shown in practice,” Drinkwitz said. “Not putting limitations on players going into it. He’s practiced, he’s performed, he’s kicked in big moments in fall camp.
“It’s not like we’re having open tryouts, because we don’t have anyone else on the roster that’s ever kicked.”
Goodwin will compete to see what role he gets “as quickly as possible.”
As expected, Beau Pribula will continue to be Missouri’s starting quarterback and Matt Zollers will be his primary backup option. The true freshman got reps in the fourth quarter against Central Arkansas, completing all three of his passes for 58 yards and a touchdown.
Though it was a small sample size, Zollers’ performance gave the coaching staff more reason for confidence. His involvement with the team through all stages of the offseason is already proving to be important.
“Make no mistake about it, Matt Zollers is the future for us at the quarterback position,” Drinkwitz said. “There’s just got to be a maturity of growth now.”
Horn’s injury isn’t going to affect the way Pribula operates in-game, either. He’s a quarterback who excels on the ground and embraces contact from defenses. Drinkwitz has no plans to change the play style of his starting signal-caller.
“Beau’s going to be Beau,” Drinkwitz said. “You can’t control injuries. You can’t be afraid of them.”
Understanding the rivalry
If one thing is certain, this group of Tigers has been made aware of the importance of the Border War rivalry.
Drinkwitz invited speakers throughout the summer to speak on the history between Missouri and Kansas — even predating football. For the players who didn’t have much of an understanding beforehand, they’ve certainly been caught up now.
“I had no idea about the whole Civil War history,” Pribula said. “I thought it was just a sports rivalry, but I guess it goes beyond that. So that was pretty cool.”
“There ain't just an atta boy after this one. There's a dagum war drum and several other stuff out there," Drinkwitz added. "You win it, you get it. If you don’t, you don’t. I don't care who you are, if you're a competitor and there's something on the line, I don’t care if you’re playing against a buddy at home with a one-on-one. If there's a Diet Coke on the line, you want to stinking win, because it’s painful if you don’t.”
Since those bases have already been covered, the focus for Mizzou has shifted purely to the game and the execution the Tigers need to win.
“The biggest thing I’m telling our team is you’ve got to understand it, but once the ball is kicked, you’ve got to play the game,” Drinkwitz said. “The most important thing for us right now is to improve from last week’s performance, both technically, fundamentally and execution-wise.”
The Jayhawks share the same sentiment. In coach Lance Leipold’s news conference Monday, he expressed a similar ask of his players as Drinkwitz.
“To me, (rivalries are) what makes college football special,” Leipold said. “But at the same time, it’s still a matter of how you prepare, your focus and everything you put into it and then going out and executing on game day. We always want to be an enthusiastic team and not an emotional team.”
Many of the players on the field could be playing in front of the loudest crowd of their careers, and both Drinkwitz and Leipold understand what a win means to their respective fan bases. It’s up to both programs to stay calm in the chaos.
“That’s why you want to come to schools like Mizzou, to play in big-time atmospheres,” Pribula said. “But at the same time, you've got to have the same process. ... We’re just focusing on this week of preparation to be the best we can be on Saturday.”
Tigers remain unranked
Missouri is still unranked in The Associated Press Top 25. The Tigers received 42 points, positioning themselves at No. 32 if the list was extended, exactly were they stood in the preseason poll.
The Southeastern Conference as a whole underwent several shakeups this week. LSU jumped from No. 9 to No. 3 after a 17-10 win over Clemson, making it the top team in the conference. Texas fell six spots to No. 7 after its 14-7 loss to Ohio State, while Alabama dropped a whopping 13 spots to No. 21 thanks to a 31-17 loss to Florida State.
Mizzou is the No. 11 team in the SEC in the poll (nine ranked teams and Auburn at what would be No. 27). Its opponent, Kansas, did not receive any votes in the standard poll, though it did gain four points in the coaches poll. Missouri dropped from No. 27 to No. 28 in the coaches poll.
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