The Missouri Tigers face their biggest challenge so far in the Crimson Tide this Saturday.
In fact, Columbia has not hosted an AP top-15 matchup since September of 1979.
Alongside their head coach, Beau Pribula, Ahmad Hardy, Zion Young, and Jalen Catalon provided insight into how the Tigers will look to pounce on the Tide.
Eli Drinkwitz | Head Coach
Opening statement:
“Looking forward to moving onto Alabama, which is a really good football team and a very difficult test for us. I think Coach DeBoer has his team playing at an elite
level. Obviously, now that his team and culture is really installed you can see why he’s one of the elite coaches within college football. He’s got great assistants that have really established their identities in all three phases. I think Coach Grubb on the offensive side of the ball, you can see his influence, the offensive dynamics. Very explosive offensively, especially through the pass game. He really does a great job of utilizing formation in the boundary early in the game to dictate what you’re going to be in from a play callers standpoint and then knows how to attack those coverages. I think it’s his ability to do that which gets his quarterback into some really good, comfortable situations that then allows the run game to open up. They have a really dynamic offensive line. Running back being back has helped them control the clock and control the ground game. He does a really good job at blitz pick up. And then obviously their wide receivers are electric with their ability to utilize space, winning man-to-man and vertically down the field. I think their quarterback, again, is as good, if not better, as what other coaches have been speaking about him, his ability to make off-scheduled plays, maneuver in the pocket, be accurate with the football. There’s zero doubt he knows how to attack cover two, he does a really good job at that.”
“Going to be a tough out on the offensive side of the ball. Defensively, obviously Coach Wommack knows defense, knows how to defend us, did an excellent job last year. Multiple schemes, multiple fronts, multiple coverages. Can disguise pressure, has a really good feel for the game, you can tell he’s been a former head coach, just as a play caller he understands the style of game it’s going to be and how to take away your best players and how to take away what you want to do. They have elite players at all three levels, they force takeaways and protect the ball, they’ve played complimentary football this year at a really high level. Then obviously, special teams, there’s a lot of variety of what they do in their punt scheme and in their return games. They’re very sound and create explosives. So it’s going to be a challenge, one that I think our team is excited forward to. I know our fans are excited. 11am kick, we’ll be ready to rock and roll. Cayden Green will be listed as questionable this week. He did get some rehab reps yesterday. The challenge will be to see where he is today and see how that progresses. Won’t know for sure or for certain until the end of the week. So follow along closely to the SEC availability report and Pete Thamel tweets and you’ll know.”
On what they took away from the Alabama-Florida State game:
“I don’t know if it’s a blueprint. We’ve looked at every game. You know the beauty of the bye week is to look at every game they’ve played from last year, starting with us and how they tried to defend us. You look to see if there’s common themes that people have tried to exploit, obviously Coach Malzahn has his own system in place, which creates a little bit of a challenge to try to replicate what he did. I think the biggest thing is to watch the jump from week one to weeks two, three, four, and they’re really not even the same team. The way they played versus Wisconsin and Georgia and Vandy, in comparison to week one, it looks like a totally different team. Obviously, I think getting the big man back in the middle, Keenan, I think he is a complete difference maker for them and I think that was big for them on the defensive side of the ball. They know who they are. I think the offense has been a little more complimentary with what they’re trying to do on the defensive side of the ball too.”
On the familiarity with coordinators and coaches:
“Yah it just creates more mind splinters than anything because you start thinking ‘if this, then that’ or you start thinking too much about it. It’s going to be a players game. I think scheme will have something do with it, but it’s going to be a players game. Obviously, I have a lot of respect for what they do offensively just because that was the style of offense that we wanted to bring to here in complimentary with what we were doing in the run game. I think if you start asking too many questions you go down rabbit holes.”
On the difference in preparation of the bye week from this season compared to last:
“I don’t know, I didn’t really spend any time looking at that aspect of it. I think each bye week is uniquely different based off the circumstances of the team, what the team needs in order to continue that season. 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. 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.”
On what Alabama was able to do well in the run game against Vandy:
“I think they do a lot of shifts in motion to try to create, uncover gaps, or find a weak support player. If you’re weak in support against that offensive line, that’s a tough out. They’re really big and physical. I think their offensive line coach does a really good job. Obviously, the running back’s got elite vision and toughness. And then I think your biggest issue is that you’ve got to pick your poison. Do you want to get beat in the pass game or do you want to be light in the box and defend it from explosive passes? Vandy was playing quite a bit of cover two, which cover two is going to leave you a little short in the run game unless you’re trapping it. They were then able to pick apart the cover two in second and long situations. Ty was making some throws that were pretty incredible.”
On Alabama’s success on third downs and controlling the clock:
“I think the Georgia game, and Vandy, was extremely well done on their third down plan. The quarterback makes very good decisions, not easily deceived with disguise, unaffected by pressure, ability to escape. I think those things make it really hard to gameplan a quarterback on third down. You kind of have to pick your poison. Like if we play zone, he’s going to pick us apart, if we blitz, he’s going to stand in there and identify the one-on-one matchup and take it. So, I think that’s what they’ve been really good at. I’m pretty confident he had three scrambles for first down with his feet against Georgia. And in the first two he stared down the barrel of some blitzes and delivered. He’s really good.”
On what makes Ahmad Hardy effective:
“I mean obviously we’ll find out week. 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. But, we’ll find out this week.”
On how the secondary attacked the bye week:
“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.”
On injury status:
“Drey [Norwood] was a full go yesterday. In fact outside of Cayden [Green], Jordon’s [Harris] full go. Logan’s [Reichert] been a long-term. He’s not back yet. Maybe could get him back next week but probably not, but hopefully by Vandy. Sam and Blake are still out.”
On conversations with Beau about reviewing the tape on turnovers:
“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. I think Coach Moore and Coach Gleason have done a really good job of not trying to overload him. You know as a quarterback this game is too complex and too complicated to be played without some errors. You just can’t have compounding errors.”
On how Brett Norfleet has impressed him this season:
“Wow. I think there’s a lot of different ways. With Brett, he’s always been a really good physical blocker at the point of attack. He’s been a featured person in those blocks. Obviously he’s been very consistent with the football, he’s done a good job chipping, but I think the single biggest, greatest growth with Brett has been his mindset and the way he talks to himself. Brett used to be and still battles, we all do, with a negative voice and sometimes he would get down on himself instead of finding a way to maintain neutrality and be positive and really focusing on this play. I’ve seen him growing in that area and I think it’s allowed him to play more free and play more consistent.”
On Beau’s improvement since UCA:
“Well I think honestly versus UCA and even somewhat versus kansas, he was a little bit more reckless with taking off and wanting to run and thinking that it was his only component. I think he’s such an accurate passer and he’s finding ways to continue to throw the football, outsmart the defense not just out tough the defense or out physical the defense with his skillset. That’s really the key to being a good quarterback – knowing what they’re doing and how to attack them. As he continues to grow in that it’s going to continue to get more and more challenging each week. Obviously we’re focused on this week but we spent some of the bye week on next opponent prep, and if you look at some of these defenses that we’re going to face, the amount of disguise and variance in what they do is going to continue to be a challenge.”
On what’s the best way to avoid needing to ‘shake off the rust’ off a bye week:
“Well 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.”
Beau Pribula | Quarterback
On improvement since game one:
“I think it’s just improved really ever since game one. I think that’s kind of normal. When an offensive line can kind of mesh and get together and the running backs like Jamal and Ahmad can get in their flow, I think that’s really been the main area of improvement. It’s just being comfortable with each other and not just running one type of run, kind of mixing in variations of runs, whether it’s gap scheme or outside zone, inside zone, different things like that to kind of keep the defense on their heels has been good as well.”
On how Roberts and Hardy have helped him:
“It’s huge. You know, anytime there’s a run game, it just helps. It just makes my job easier. Anytime the offensive line can get movement up front and the running backs can get yards, keep us on schedule, it puts us in a great position, especially making third downs easier, second and medium, second and short. Just puts us in an easier position. Then obviously for different things like play action, it can open stuff up because now you have to respect the run. I think it just makes my job easier.”
On what he’s expecting from the Alabama defense:
“It’s a really good football team. Very physical, great size, all the measurables from a team you’d expect from Alabama. We just need to play a good game and stay true to ourselves and not try to do too much. Really good football team and that’s what you expect in the SEC week in and week out.”
On assessing the first five weeks:
“I think it’s been a solid start. I think just continuing to be consistent. I think in the bye week just working on different things as far as, footwork, kind of adjusting different things that I think can help me in the pocket, just pocket awareness and different stuff like that. There’s always a lot of different things to improve even when games go well. There’s a lot of things you can take out of that. So having five games so far this year to kind of nitpick and see different areas I can improve was kind of good to take a step back and kind of focus within to see how we can improve.”
On what he’s learned from the interceptions:
“I think just being consistent in my decision-making. I think it’s something that, it’s just one thing, each interception kind of has its own story. It could be a different thing each time, whether it’s just a bad decision or putting myself in a bad decision, different things like that. So just kind of seeing why they happen and then just fixing the different areas of why they would happen.”
“I think it’s really just taking what the defense gives you. You look at the first game compared to our last game we just played, first game they were letting us rip it down the field, and then last game they were just not. They weren’t going to let that happen. UMass you can’t just force it down the field because they’re not going to give you that. You’ve just got to take what the defense gives you each week. And moving forward, depending on what kind of defenses the teams run and what they do, I think they’ll kind of naturally happen.”
On Brett Norfleet:
“I think he’s been super consistent in the blocking game and the receiving game. I think he’s been a really steady target, even yards after catch. I think he’s been really good this season so far.”
On what allows him to focus on necessary improvements:
“Probably because I always want to get better. Even after a great performance, I’m my biggest critic always. I always look at the things I need to improve, and that’s just the inner drive of always wanting to be the best version of myself. I’ll always be that way. Just continuing to do that without being too hard on myself at the same time, you got to keep a fair balance.”
Ahmad Hardy | Running Back
On how he’s been able to break tackles and get past the initial defender:
“Let’s start with the line up front. They get a great push up there, so I don’t have to make a lot of guys miss but the guys I;m supposed to make miss, I try to make them miss.”
On Alabama’s run defense:
“I mean guys coming down to tackle. I mean they’re coming down making tackles. The defensive line plugging the gaps. We’ve just got to be better than them at that.”
On the plan of attack if defenses change their approach against him:
“There’s really nothing to prepare for, we just do what we do. I mean prepare for what we do every week, to execute, to come ready to play and that’s just what we do.”
On if running through someone has always been his running style:
“Pretty much, yeah. Unless it’s kind of difficult then I’ll try to go around them but try to go through them first.”
On who he watched growing up that he tries to emulate:
“I only watched Marshawn Lynch when I was growing up. Now I watch guys like Derrick Henry, Saquon Barkley, things like that.”
On what he took from those running backs:
“Of course they run though guys, they make guys miss. They break a lot of tackles. The vision, also.”
Zion Young | Defensive End
On what has stood out about the defensive line:
“We’re just playing explosive and violent right now. Very physical. Like I said last time, the best is yet to come.”
On how he and Damon Wilson feed off each other’s explosiveness:
“He got his game and I got my game. We bring something totally different, so it’s complimented. We work together.”
On how their strengths play well off of each other:
“I feel like Damon’s very explosive. Damon’s a speed rusher. I’m a big time power guy. That’s more so of our size difference. I’m in the 265 range, he’s in the 250-240ish range.”
On the Alabama offensive line:
“They’re very good. They work together. They’ve got some pretty good tight ends. They all just work together on this whole offense.”
On self–improvement over the season:
“Like I said, it’s the offseason. I wanted to improve my pass rush game – I improved a lot on that. I wanted to improve my run game as well – I improved a lot on that. But like I said, we’ve only played five games, best is yet to come seriously.”
Jalen Catalon | Safety
On the biggest takeaways after watching film over the first five weeks:
“I would say just continuing on the details. We’re playing great football but there’s always things you can work on as individuals and as a team. So, I think the goal that we had for this bye week was for everybody just to hone back in on the details and things that we might need to work on from a backend standpoint, to things from up front, to the box. I mean everybody had details we had to work on that, so that was the main thing and main focus.”
On what Alabama and Ty Simpson provide in the pass game:
“He’s a great quarterback. They have a great offensive plan for him and I think he executes it well. I think our job is just to hone in on details that we’ve worked on this past week with things that we might have lacked in and that might be one of those areas, so I’m sure we’ll have a game plan for that. But I’m just excited to play a great opponent like Alabama and it’ll be a good one.”
On the safeties improving ‘eye discipline’:
“If it’s your man, focus on your man. And if you’re playing vision, then focus on the vision that you have to have whether it’s this guy or that guy. That’s the main thing is just focus on your guy. That’s the main part of it.”
On what goes into fixing miscommunication between the safeties:
“I think you just go back to the details. You just talk to each other and say, ‘here we got to say this or we have to say that or it has to be like this or like that’. I think the coach has done a great job with us with having a plan for fixing those details. Like I said, there’s things that everybody has to work on but that’s definitely one of the things that we toned in on. So definitely worked at that and got better. I think over the weekends been a great bye week for us. So I’m excited to go into this week and show what we’ve improved on.”
