Coming out of the bye week, No. 23 Mizzou travels to Arkansas, aspiring to win its fifth straight in the Battle Line Rivalry.
On paper, Arkansas is one of the more favorable matchups for the Tigers in SEC Play. Bill Connelly ranks the Razorbacks 71st in his latest SP+ rankings, 11 spots lower than Kansas and 37 beneath Texas A&M, two teams the Tigers beat by a combined 38 points.
But this is the SEC. No opponent is easy, and in 3 of the past 4 matchups, the Razorbacks have either led at half, tied
at half, or led in the third quarter against MU. This season, Arkansas has slowly put together momentum over the past couple of weeks.
After a 2-3 start that included blowout losses to Utah, Georgia, and Texas A&M, the Razorbacks narrowly lost to a top-15 Tennessee team (That beat Alabama a week later). Most recently, the Razorbacks picked up their first SEC road victory since 2024, defeating Vanderbilt 31-21.
“Coach (Ryan) Silverfield and his staff are doing a really good job,” Eli Drinkwitz told reporters on Tuesday. “I think you can see as you watch the tape, they’re forming their identity, they’re sticking with their process, they’re figuring out who they are, and it resulted in their win at Vanderbilt.”
A part of the Razorbacks’ success is slowly finding something in the run game. Over the past two weeks, Arkansas has committed to running the football. The Razorbacks have rushed the football a combined 75 times against Tennessee’s SEC schools in the past two weeks.
Take away Arkansas’ season opener against North Alabama, and 50% of the team’s rushing yards have come over the past two weeks. The team has also earned its best run offense grades of the season over the past two weeks: 77.2 and 68.2.
Now, why does this concern Mizzou’s defense? They rank third in the SEC with just 103.9 rushing yards allowed, and have already limited Florida’s Jadan Baugh to 13 yards on 12 carries.
But the last time the Tigers defense was on the field, it resembled the performance more similar to Mississippi State than Florida or A&M. Mizzou surrendered a season-high 257 rushing yards to Mississippi and a PFF run-defensive grade of 55.5, its worst of the season. While Kewan Lacy picked up 122 yards, his running mate, Makhi Frazier, added another 101, while forcing a team-high 5 missed tackles, and found success through the teeth of the Tigers’ defense multiple times.
Mississippi’s success came from multiple factors. Ole Miss’ offensive line won at the line of scrimmage, creating holes for Lacy and Frazier to shoot through. The misdirection also allowed for Frazier and Lacy to have easy running lanes to the outside.
Mizzou also missed 14 tackles against the Rebels, compared to 9 between the Florida and A&M games. While that’s an area that was cleaned up after Mississippi State, it came back to haunt them in Oxford.
As for Arkansas, running back Braylon Russell, who has yet to play against the Tigers, despite being in Fayetteville since 2024, presents a challenge that Mizzou has faced before this season.
“They’ve got good players, obviously, besides Chris Marshall and KJ Jackson, the running back, Braylen Russell has been a talented big back,” Drinkwitz said. “That has given us problems in the past, if you think about (Fluff) Bothwell and some of those guys, that’s going to be a real challenge for us.”
When Bothwell played against Mizzou, he forced 9 missed tackles, while averaging 3.96 yards after contact. As Drinkwitz mentioned, both Bothwell and Russell are similar in size. Bothwell is 5-foot-10, 230, while Russell is 227 at 6 ‘1. He’s a powerful, bruising runner and saw an increased usage at Vanderbilt. He carried the ball 14 times, the most attempts since week 1. He did most of his damage in Nashville in between the tackles.
He’s not the only one who will contribute to Arkansas’ run game either. Jackson is a capable runner from the quarterback position, while Sutton Smith and Cam Settles help keep things fresh, both having over 40 attempts this season.
Arkansas doesn’t have a flashy rushing attack, but it’s a physical run that it has been leaning on the past two weeks. Mizzou will face it after having an off afternoon against Mississippi. Bothwell is a unique type of running back, and the Tigers will see a similar style of player in CJ Baxter (Kentucky), who is also 6 ‘1, 227, and on the No. 1 team in the SEC standings.
As mentioned at the top, this ideally is a favorable matchup for the Tigers. Being 10-point favorites on the road is a strong indication of that. But the Razorbacks present a unique challenge as the Tigers’ run defense embarks on a “get right” opportunity.
