In 1975, the Missouri Tigers claimed victory against the Alabama Crimson Tide.
It was a Monday night in Birmingham, Alabama, when the Tigers dominated the Tide by a score 0f 20-7.
From a previous Rock M
article by Rock M blogfather, Bill Connelly:
“Just seven minutes into the game, Missouri had already made a statement. The Tigers held Alabama to a three-and-out, then ground out a 12-play, 58-yard touchdown drive to go up, 7-0. And after another failed Alabama drive, a 17-yard run by running back Tony Galbreath set up a 44-yard field goal.
With 12 minutes to go in the first half, the Tigers struck again. Safety Jim Leavitt recovered a fumble at the Alabama 32, and Mizzou needed eight plays to hammer out another scoring drive, capped by a nine-yard, up-the-middle run by fullback John Blakeman. A 46-yard field goal by Tim Gibbons gave the Tigers a stunning 20-0 lead with time to go before halftime.
For the game, Galbreath finished with 120 yards on 32 carries; his 89 first-half yards set a pace that Alabama simply couldn’t match. Mizzou scored on four of its five first-half possessions, and Alabama never threatened to make up the difference.“
This Al Onofrio-led team limited the Tide to just 118 yards over the course of the entire game. Alabama managed just 31 yards over 34 rushing attempts.
Similar to the current Mizzou defense, which is the 11th-best defense and also a top-20 rush defense according to SP+, the Tigers completely shut down their opponent.
Back then, the Tide were still led by Bear Bryant who spoke pure truth after the loss.
“They kicked the hell out of us,” said Bryant. “What more can I say …. I think we were pretty fortunate not to be beaten worse. They beat us worse than the score indicates …. All in all, it was a good old sound country beating.”
50 years ago was the last time Mizzou came out on top over the Crimson Tide.
Overall, the Tigers are 2-6 all-time against the SEC powerhouse, going 0-6 since 1975.
Last year, Mizzou was shut out against the conference foe for the first time.
What changes this year?
For the first time in 50 years it feels like a win is attainable. So let’s check the boxes of how this can be accomplished.
In a defensive breakdown by Nate Edwards, he notes, “Check out the yards per carry after contact: 1.41, SECOND in the country! If a Mizzou defender gets their hands on you, you’re typically doing down right there. That’s elite.”
Plus, the Tigers have the third best passing defense.
Edwards’ piece also details the god-tier style defense Mizzou plays on third down:
“And just like on offense this is the best stat in my humble opinion: Mizzou’s defense is God-tier in 3rd-downs, currently ranking 2nd. As I’ve said multiple times at this point, this is the secret sauce to why Mizzou has won in such dominating fashion, especially as SP+ sees it: they win on 3rd downs on both sides of the ball. Yes, keeping offenses to low efficiency and forcing them to connect on unreliable explosive plays helps, as does the uptick in havoc. But having an offense that can’t be stopped and pairing it with a defense that doesn’t let you convert is one of the most reliable, consistent ways to play (and win!) football games.”
All of what is listed above displays success. However, a brand new challenge is presented to Mizzou as they face the #9 team in the country.
Ty Simpson is a stellar quarterback and his arm is quite powerful. Pair that with Mizzou’s faulty secondary and you’re facing the danger zone.
Alabama loves a good explosive play thanks to Ryan Williams and Germie Bernard and Mizzou’s defense shows their weakest moments during a major pass play.
So, shut down the run game and cause turnovers. Now, obviously this is easier said than done, but it’s possible from this Tiger team.
Ahmad Hardy and the run game
He’s the nation’s leading rusher and a force to be reckoned with.
Currently, Alabama allows the fourth-most rushing yards per game in the SEC. Overall, the Tide sit at 88 in the nation regarding their rushing defense.
While Alabama was able to keep Vandy’s run game under control after the first quarter, it’s still a major area for the Tigers to exploit.
Including Vandy, what about rushing yards allowed in previous games?
- Florida State – 230
- ULM – 93
- Wisconsin – 92
- Georgia – 227
- Vanderbilt – 135
Who better than to put it to the test than Heisman candidate Ahmad Hardy?
All season head coach Eli Drinkwitz has reinforced not only how Hardy is a freak of nature when running the football, but also that nothing has been able to stop him yet.
“I mean obviously we’ll find out this week,” said Drinkwitz. “I mean he’s done it his whole career but the challenges continue to grow this week. He’s really good at keeping his lower body churning and he doesn’t have a really good strike zone.”
Hardy also says the Tigers are ready for whatever plan of attack faces them.
“There’s really nothing to prepare for, we just do what we do,” said Hardy. “I mean prepare for what we do every week, to execute, to come ready to play and that’s just what we do.”
Hardy and the endzone are practically a match made in heaven. He’s scored a touchdown in every game this season, including three against UMass.
The last time he faced a conference foe he scored a touchdown and racked up 138 yards.
Time for Hardy to do what he does best – run through everyone. Thank you to Marshawn Lynch for being his inspiration.
Bye Week
Mizzou is coming off a well placed bye week. The downside of the bye week? The rust you need to shake off.
In a press conference on Tuesday, Drinkwitz told media how they plan to avoid a slow start and no bye week hangover.
“We’ll go good on good, which we did quite a bit in the bye week, yesterday, and we’ll do it again today and tomorrow. So the speed of the game stays the same, the speed of decisions, the intensity. Today is Toughness Tuesday, we’ll get a great inside drill, we’ll get a a great dirty show, we’ll get a great crossover, which are all game-type reps that we need, and then play football. We have a saying, we want to be tough but we don’t want to be dumb tough. Trying to find that, walk that line of not being dumb tough, fresh horses run fast races, so we’ve got to make sure our guys are ready for what lies ahead in this next part of our SEC schedule, we can’t beat them up in practice.”
Last year when Mizzou came off a bye week the hangover had them weak. They fell 41-10 to Texas A&M, only adding points to the scoreboard in the second half.
“I think last year, we’ve already addressed it, was a little bit more of having to do with the first road trip than necessarily the bye week plan,” said Drinkwitz. “I think the second bye week we came out with a little bit more spirit to us. Obviously, you have to guard against the rust. I think this past week there were a couple of teams after a bye week and didn’t quite have the same kind of sharpness that they wanted. That’s why the first thing we said about our goal was to sharpen our edge, and that was to find things we needed to improve on. It was a different approach, but it was based off it being a different need for our team.”
The blessing of the bye week? Time to improve.
Regarding the secondary:
“That was really component number two for us: improvement. Improving our zone cover. You know we’ve given up a lot of explosive passes in some of our zone stuff. So trying to make improvements to our zone distribution. We’ve had too many penalties in the backend too, so trying to get better at not utilizing our hands in inappropriate ways. Hard to describe that one.”
Regarding Beau Pribula’s recent interceptions:
“There’s some common threads. Biggest thread on the pick against UMass was his pushed up in the pocket and the ball got deflected by a D-lineman, which caused it to sail right. We just got to be a little bit better, we use the term ‘take the space you need, but only the space you need.’ I think sometimes quarterbacks can get a little bit too antsy to push up in the pocket. You’ve go to be able to just have subtle pocket movements to find that you need to deliver some balls. If you look at the common theme, whether it was the fumble versus kansas or that interception, we’re pushing too far in the pocket. Just got to clean that up a bit. Really, really appreciate and am pleased with Beau. He’s been one of the most coachable quarterbacks I’ve ever been around. He has the right mentality on trying to grow, trying to get better, and utilizing all the different aspects he can to improve. He’s really hungry to improve and understands the best game is still out in front of him.”
Home Field Advantage?
The Mizzou Tigers haven’t lost at home since October 7th, 2023, against LSU.
To magnify the scale of this accomplishment, here’s a quick list of things the Tigers have done since.
- Defeated Ohio State to win the Cotton Bowl
- Luther Burden III has scored a touchdown with the Chicago Bears
- Set a record for most home wins in a season (7)
- Eli Drinkwitz signed a contract extension through the 2029 season
- Armand Membou was drafted seventh overall by the New York Jets. The tackle was the highest Mizzou draft pick since Aldon Smith who also went seventh overall in 2011.
- Darius Robinson was selected in the first round, 27th overall, by the Arizona Cardinals
- Ennis Rakestraw was drafted by the Detroit Lions.
Missouri currently boasts a 15 game home winning streak. Their current streak is tied for second in the FBS.
Who else has a 15 game home winning streak? Alabama.
But this game won’t be played at Bryant-Denny Stadium, it’s at Faurot Field, which will be dripped in gold all around the stadium.
Additionally, the Crimson Tide don’t display the same strength when they’re on the road.
Over the last two seasons, they have dropped four games on the road. In the first game of the season they were shut down at Florida State, but were able to walk away with a major road victory in Athens, Georgia.
Eli Drinkwitz & co know exactly how important it is that this game will be played at Faurot.
“It’s a morning game so if you got to get those fireball shots going or Bloody Mary’s early, whatever you got to do, but at 11:00 it’s got to be the best atmosphere in college football,” said Drinkwitz. “That’s what it’s got to be. And you know, we’ve sold this thing out. Y’all been an incredible part of the reason why we’ve been undefeated at home for however many of the last games. This streak ain’t dying Saturday. So, let’s make sure we’re ready to roll. Y’all be ready to go. Our team will be ready to roll.”
Santana Banner also noted the role fans will play and had one simple request: “Scream every play. Just yell.”
Upset Alert
Columbia will host an AP top-15 matchup for the first time since 1979. With this comes the opportunity to manufacture one of the biggest upsets in school history.
And even if Coach DeBoer wears the “black hoodie of death,” Eli Drinkwitz has the Tigers ready to pounce.
