COLUMBIA, Mo. – The Missouri Tigers are coming out of their second bye week of the season, and preparing to take on No. 3 Texas A&M Saturday. Matt Zollers has replaced Beau Pribula as the starting quarterback, and the Tigers need to win out to keep any glimmer of playoff hopes alive. 

Here's everything head coach Eli Drinkwitz said to preview Texas A&M. 

Opening statement 

"First want to start by congratulating coach Gates and coach Harper both on getting season-opening wins last night. Coach Gates winning on the road at Howard, and then coach Harper, the women's basketball team, defeating UCA here at home last night. It's always great to start fast and now all sports really are kind of kicked off with women's basketball, men's basketball, football, you got gymnastics is getting ready to start their season. Wrestling, volleyball. So it's an awesome time, fun time here at the University of Missouri, and look forward to continue student support as we have a great opportunity here versus number three Texas. A&M, very excited about the opportunity to play a top team in the country here at home, another sell out, which is a tribute to the great fans that we have, and appreciate our student section, our fans, for making this just an awesome environment. It's going to be a challenging matchup. I think Mike Elko has done a tremendous job in two years at Texas a&m He has built a very good, talented, deep roster. He's done an excellent job, not only high school recruiting, but also does a really good job out of the portal. He's combined those teams. They have a very talented football team. They also have a tough football team. You can tell his culture and fingerprint is all over it from top to bottom. You know, offensively, Collin Klein, leading the way. Does an outstanding job offensively. I think Mizzou fans know all too well about Colin and his job, you know, as a player, but also as a coordinator. We battled him many times. He's developed that quarterback and developed the offensive system around Marcel, who's developing into what I think is a Heisman type season. He is playing at a really, really high level, distributes the ball really well, not only vertically, but horizontally. And then man, his added dimension when he runs is really, really impressive. It's got some Lamar Jackson esque type qualities to it from when I was in in the ACC in 2017 going against him in that in 2016 Heisman seasons. They're wide receivers. They attack the transfer portal. Conception is a tremendous player, along with Mario Craver, those two guys are dynamic, great, great speed, open space, catch the ball. Well, attack it. Well, they use them in multiple ways. Offensive line, very I think the strength of their team, four returning starters do a really good job establishing the run. They have a little setback with losing their start tail back, but you don't really notice, because the depth that they have with everybody else there. So I mean tremendous challenge offensively, defensively, physically, physical, tough minded defense, very multiple do not want to be in third downs against these guys. They do an unbelievable job second country, third down defenses only converting about 20% of the time. They're number one in the country in sacks. Again, they did a really good job of attacking holes through the transfer portal, getting some local guys here that we, you know, missed on with Cassius, Hal and William Lee, went and got some other guys that have played some really, really good football for him. So, very, very, very challenging. You know, for our team, it's really about us focusing on helping Matt execute at the highest level possible. We're excited about Matt's opportunity and what he's earned. You know, he has done a really good job in practice of leadership, stepping up, embracing the moment, embracing the opportunity. You know, there was a time in the early part of the season where Bo was a little bit beat up and Matt was getting extra reps with the ones, and those are going to pay off now for us. So that's that's been a real positive. We really were adamant throughout spring, throughout the summer, and even in fall camp, to really focus on three spots and make sure that Matt was getting developed, because we knew he was the future of the program at the quarterback position. But the future is now. I think it's important for us not to put too high of expectations on Matt. He does not have to win this game by himself. He's got a really good core players around him. We just have to play complimentary football in all three phases. Defensively, got to do a really good job of slowing them down. Special teams has got to do a great job covering kicks. And then offensively, you know, all 10, everybody, coaches, players, everybody have to, has to reduce the friction that Matt feels. And so that'll be the challenge this week. He just needs to be himself, and we're excited for the opportunity. So with that, I'll open it up.

On the challenges of the Aggies' offense

"I think that's the the challenge is they do a lot of different things well, and whether it's you know, their punt return game is really good, their kickoff return game is really good, their vertical pass game is really good. They're able to claw you out running the football defensively, they're able to stop the run, force one on one matchups make you execute for four quarters. You know, it's a really well built SEC football team, and it reminds you of going against the big time teams in the past, like what Georgia and Alabama and those kind of games have been, where you knew that any one mistake could lead to a break in the dam, and that it was going to be a 60 minutes where every inch was earned. And that's why I'm so complimentary of how quickly he's been able to build that kind of team and roster."

On potential playbook changes with Zollers replacing Pribula

"Yeah, it's not really the full playbook. It's about playing to what his strengths are. I think you answered your question. You know, are there things that we're going to add? Probably not, because he hasn't had a ton of reps of it, but are there things that he's more comfortable with than maybe Bo was absolutely so we can push those things in the playbook that maybe haven't been shown. You know? There were things that that we thought Bo did really well, that that's what we kind of emphasize, and there's things that Matt does well that we will emphasize."

On Texas A&M's strong third down defense

"Yeah, so as long as I've gone against Coach Elko, which started in 2016 he's always had a really good third down package that starts with attacking protections. Now he's going to try to get a five up presentation where you as an offense have to dictate, we're either going to man this or slide this. And what happens is, during the course of the game, whatever you practiced is usually what you stay with through the course of the game. And he, in my opinion, the first one, he tests you, send one out there, and then, now that he has the iPad, he goes up there, and he's super smart, and he realizes, okay, their plan was four man slide. So this is the beater, and he'll call okie sword, or he'll, you know, realize that, hey, they're slight, you know, they're, oh, wait, they're manning it. So here's the man beater. We'll bring two to this side. And so it's really a cat and mouse game. He does a really good job of setting up tendencies, too. So like last year, going into the Arkansas game, there was one player who had not blitzed the entire five game package, and so you would just say, hey, that's the one guy that's always going to drop out in coverage. So we'll account for everybody else. And then the first third down versus Arkansas, he coffee housed him, where he act like he was going to drop, and then blitz for a sack. So he's got a really good feel for how to attack you. And you know, does a really good job of calling it and then adjusting his calls. And then, you know that that's when it gets really challenging, is you felt like you had a really good plan, the bust in the mouth with something different. Same thing happened to us in 2016 we felt like we had something all dialed up. And the first one, he wrote his tendency. So gotta be willing to adjust."

On using his experience with Brett Rypien to help Zollers

"Yeah, you know, I think that's something that talked to Kirby about something that we've experienced before. Yeah, there's absolutely some lessons there. I think there's some things that we did make it a little bit easier on him, that we tailored the playbook towards. Brett was a different player than Matt, but very cerebral. Came in. Early enrollee was a battle all through fall camp. We knew he could be ready to go, and was similar in that he was the third quarterback, but once Brett got hurt, we knew we were going to him for the future and live well, there's, there were good days and bad days, you know, and that's, that's part of growing his quarterback. So we got to try to limit the exposure of Matt, not to put him on an island, you know. And that kind of happened to us, you know, looking back at Brett when we played Air Force and, you know, had to learn the hard way from that.

On what Zollers' showed during training camp, practice

"I mean, I think just look, the number one talent that Matt has is his arm. I mean, I think the way the ball jumps off his hand, I think we all can see it. He's got a really good arm in arm talent. You know, there's no defense for the perfect throw. That's just the reality of it. And so that always gave him a chance. Then it was just about processing the playbook and processing the timing of plays and understanding pockets and understanding defense and not going into what his coverage is, and all of that stuff takes time in reps, and we were able to really get those there were bad days in ball camp, and there have been a lot more good days recently in our good on good I thought last week, Matt had one of his better weeks of practice, just in the whole sense, the good on good, the Skelly, the two minute drive, the dirty show, like he's in command. So I think our team has a lot of confidence that he's going to be ready again. We got to make sure we don't put too much pressure on him."

How Zollers has handled the change

"I think there's just something about quarterbacks that just have this innate ability to lead and they're ready. They have a belief in themselves. They're kind of gunslingers, fighter pilots, quarterbacks, right? And Matt's got all those attributes and and it's his time, so he's ready to roll."

On Jude James

"Very consistent. Obviously, he's got play, making mobility with ball in his hand, does really good job running routes physical. You know, as a guy that we identified as an athlete because he played defense, was a key special teams guy that we thought could help us and knew to play, as an agent, has really embraced, you know, the opportunities that he's had."

On Pribula's role after his injury

"He's been awesome. Voter captain for a reason, addressed the team on last Tuesday, I thought, in a powerful way, has been around, will be around. Got some good news in yesterday's X rays and is working. He'll be in a walking boot. Should be able to be on the sideline for the game, so that's a good start towards his recovery."

On freshmen playing a large role

“Yeah, I don't think it's pressure. I think it's a privilege and an opportunity for them to play. They've earned it. You know, we addressed the team yesterday, if you would have told us when we started the fall camp that we would be ranked coming out of the second bye week with an opportunity for everything we want in front of us, and get to play a top 10 team at home, which everybody signed up for, and we all said yes. And so the opportunity that we wanted is right here, right now. We have to take advantage of it. And every journey never goes as planned. There's never been a journey that I've been on, whether it's, you know, taking family vacations or whatever it goes exactly as it's planned. And so our job is to adapt and adjust. Don't make excuses and go attack it. And everybody that's on our football team in this organization has earned the right to be here, and they just got to lean into it. And they got to lean into their opportunity. Don't make it bigger than it is trust or training trust the elite preparation that they've gotten, and go attack it. You know, there's really nothing to fear. It's just a hell of an opportunity laying out there for us, and we're going to go attack it and go have fun doing.”

On Cashius Howell, SEC Edge rushers

“yeah. I mean, he is a really, really good player out of Rockhurst, complete whiff on me for us not to try to take him out of high school, went to Bowling Green, and had a heck of a career, and then transferred to a and m and, you know, really regret that we didn't do a better job evaluating that. He's a dominant football player in this league. You know, every team that feels like has one, and he's as good as any of them, you know. And so it's going to be a real challenge for our Offensive Tackles. Obviously we have to account for it within our game plan, but the reality of it is like he is, he is elite. But when we played South Carolina, they had elite ones, and when we played Alabama, they had elite ones. And when we played Auburn, they had two elite ones. And then when we play Bandy, they had an elite one, who you know. So every team we play has got the ends, and we've got two really good ones too. That's what makes the SEC. I know every coach talks about how challenging our league is, but until you get in here and have to go every week and say, Holy cow, nobody else understands, and they never will finish up here.”

On Marcel Reed

“You know, last year got me in trouble, and they played Connor and he killed us, you know, but I believe that Marcel Reid for a long time. I mean, I was first on the bandwagon. So he's a really good player. You can tell the guys love playing for him. They love playing around him. You know, when he makes a mistake, he just bounces back. Keeps on going. Moments never too big, obviously, let a big game Lane drive versus Notre Dame, he's got a great quarterback coach and an offensive coordinator who sees it through his eyes and calls the game for him, I think, which is really fun when you're watching it, not going against it, but fun when you're watching it, because you see that camaraderie in the show. Yeah, I just, I'd like for Marcel to recognize that I was on the bandwagon first.”