16-in-16 2025: Missouri Tigers
Can Eli Drinkwitz keep the wins coming and make it three straight 10-win seasons in Columbia?
By: Bossman
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The last two seasons in Columbia, Missouri, have Tiger fans feeling the winning ways from the Pinkel era may be back for good. After a rough start to his career in Como, where Mizzou had trouble breaking through the .500 ceiling, Eli Drinkwitz has notched back-to-back double-digit win seasons. He’s created a fun atmosphere that is drawing in recruits, and as unbelievable as it might be to some outside of the Show Me State, they just keep winning.
2025 may be Drink’s toughest test yet in his tenure. The Tigers must replace a significant amount of their offensive production, including stars Brady Cook, Luther Burden, and Theo Wease. Tigers fans have tasted winning, and they aren’t real keen on falling back to the middle of the pack.
With so many unknowns, can Drinkwitz keep the Tigers in the upper half of the SEC this season? Can he make it three straight double-digit win seasons?
State of the Program: 9/12 biscuits: Dark horse to win the conference; Pillsbury Golden Flaky layers. Very good, with a few more layers would be elite.
It’s hard not to give Mizzou an extra biscuit or two after turning in another double-digit win season, but there are a few good reasons for that. Going into 2024, Mizzou returned 71% of its offensive production, which included stalwarts like Cook, Burden, and Wease. This season, that flips, as they return just 30% of offensive production. The defensive secondary looks stout, but they also must replace plenty of production on the defensive front.
With all of the question marks that surround Mizzou, it’s tough to give them those extra biscuits that would put them in elite territory in the conference, despite their recent two-year run. Even with all of the moving parts, it’s hard not to give Drinkwitz the benefit of the doubt that he will maximize the talent on this roster.
On the NIL front, the Mizzou collective, Every True Tiger, doled out a whopping $31.7 million in NIL payments across the athletic department in 2024. About $7.5 million of that was paid out to football. While that seems like a high number, it’s next to last in the SEC, with only Mississippi State trailing. To keep up with the Joneses and help Drink keep that winning standard, the Tigers will need to up the ante.
Mizzou has invested heavily in their facilities in recent years, keeping pace with the rest of the conference. They are currently constructing a massive $250 million upgrade to the north end of Memorial Stadium, which is set to be completed ahead of next season. One unfortunate casualty of the upgrades is that the iconic rock “M” on the hill is no longer there. Revenue from the new north end zone is expected to be reinvested back into the NIL coffers. In 2019, the Tigers opened their new training facility attached to their south endzone renovation, which cost them $98 million. When you take a look inside, it’s state-of-the-art and competes with the best of the SEC. They also have the Stephens Indoor Practice Facility, which opened a few years ago and houses an indoor field.
In recruiting, Drinkwitz has elevated the program to heights unseen. Though modest by some SEC standards, Mizzou has upped their game in recruiting and in the portal, which has been showing up on the field. Their five-year high school class rank average is 19th in the nation, and they’ve averaged sixth in the nation in transfer portal classes over the last three seasons. Drink and his staff have been going to WORK and it’s paying off. As you can also tell by the chart below, Missouri’s staff is one of the best in the SEC at doing more with less.
What went right in 2024?
To hit 10 wins, including the bowl win, plenty must go right. And the Tigers had just that happen last season, as that returning production ended up being a big difference maker. While Brady Cook and Luther Burden may not have had the world-beating seasons everyone expected, they were still plenty productive and helped notch Ws for Mizzou. Cook is just a gamer, and he battled through injuries and tough games to push the Tigers to nine regular-season wins.
The Tigers also were helped by one of those seasons where the ball always seems to bounce your way. Mizzou was 6-1 last season in one-score games, meaning luck was on their side. Who can forget the Vandy game, where the Commodores missed multiple field goals that could have tied or won the game? Or how about the Oklahoma game, where the Tigers gutted it out in Norman behind backup Drew Pyne and a fumble return for a touchdown in the waning seconds of the game?
Overall, Missouri was a good football team last year, but they also drew the big end of the stick in multiple games. As a fan, who can complain about that?
What went wrong in 2024?
The offense wasn’t as explosive in 2024, and that showed in those one-score games and in big-time, head-scratching blowouts against Texas A&M and Alabama. Ranked ninth in the country going into College Station, the Aggies put a hurting on the Tigers, smoking them for a 41-10 win. Just a few weeks later, a struggling Alabama team shut out Mizzou and poured 34 points on their head.
Those were embarrassing losses that might break most teams, but Drinkwitz kept the team level-headed and they recovered after each of those losses en route to a 10-win season. How much can you really nit-pick when you win double-digit games? Answer: not much.
What the Tigers needs in 2025
The Tigers need to grow up, fast. And I don’t mean maturing in personality - I mean that this group has many young, new, and unproven faces who will be playing significant snaps for the Tigers this season. If they have any shot to notch a third straight 10-win season, they need these new kids to grow up and mesh quickly, particularly in three position groups.
The first is the obvious: QB. Beau Pribula transfers in from Penn State where he saw limited action behind Drew Allar, and mostly utilized his legs. Sam Horn is a talented veteran, and he and Pribula will split snaps in the season opener. One of these QBs will need to take this job by the horns and not look back.
At wide receiver, it’s wide open - no pun intended. Burden, Wease, Mookie Cooper and Mehki Miller are all gone. Marquis Johnson (25 rec/352 yds/1 TD) and Josh Manning (13/192/1) return, as does TE Brett Norfleet (26/235/2). They’ll be expected to take on a bigger share of the offense along with Mississippi State transfer Kevin Coleman, now on his fourth school. Coleman has plenty of experience, though, and almost had a 1,000-yard season last year in Starkville. A few of these guys will need to step up to help break in whoever the new starting QB is going to be.
Finally, the defensive line is talented, but they lost All-SEC defensive end Johnny Walker (9.5 sacks) and Kristian Williams. They return Zion Young and Chris McClellan, who both had 2.5 sacks and 39+ tackles, to go along with former five-star and Georgia transfer Damon Wilson and four-star App State transfer Nate Johnson.
Also keep an eye on the offensive line, which is breaking in multiple new starters and only has a combined 77 career starts. The Tigers need that line to bond quickly and to give ULM transfer running back Ahmad Hardy, who is expected to have a stellar year, running room so he can take pressure off either of these new QBs.
How they can earn some extra biscuits
With one of the “easiest” schedules in the SEC, according to many preseason specialists, the Tigers have a real chance to keep the momentum going, even with all those question marks surrounding the team.
However, it will be difficult for Mizzou to earn extra biscuits this season. While their schedule sets up nicely, to earn a 10th biscuit, they’ll need to have an electric season that sees them hit double-digit wins for a third season in a row and push for a CFP spot. You MIGHT could talk me into giving them an extra biscuit with a nine-win campaign, depending on how the wins and losses shake out, but the Tigers are already on the verge of huffing rarified air. To hit that rare marker, you have to show you have staying power.
With so many questions, that’s a tall order.
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