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COLUMBIA, Mo. — There’s not much known about Central Arkansas, the Football Championship Subdivision team that will be a five-touchdown underdog against Missouri when the 2025 season begins this week. Like with other FCS teams the Tigers have faced in nonconference openers, scouting the Bears is difficult.

Luckily for Mizzou, its coach has some connections.

MU coach Eli Drinkwitz, who grew up about an hour and a half west of Central Arkansas’ campus, knows some people involved with the Bears — starting with a family tie.

“Famous alumni, Anna Drinkwitz,� he said. “She’s a proud graduate. Don’t remember the year, but my sister graduated from there.�

Drinkwitz knows some of the coaching staff, too, including associate head coach and tight ends coach Brooks Hollingsworth, who’s in his fifth stint with UCA.

“Have a great relationship, long-term relationship with (him),� Drinkwitz said. “(He) used to recruit the area when I was a high school football coach, so have a lot of respect for him and his career as a football coach.�

Having coached high school football in Springdale, Arkansas — just north of Fayetteville and about two and a half hours northwest of Conway, where Central Arkansas’ campus is — gives Drinkwitz an intergenerational connection to one UCA player.

Malachi Henry’s dad also coached at Springdale from 2006 to 2009. Henry is the Bears’ best receiver.

“Malachi would have been 4 or 5 at the time,� Drinkwitz said. “Awesome to see his career develop and will be excited to face him and to watch him chase his dream as a Division I football player. Pretty cool moment there.�

Henry caught 41 passes for 683 receiving yards and five touchdowns as a true freshman last season, earning some FCS freshman All-American nods. If the Central Arkansas offense is going to find any traction against the Missouri defense, he’s one potential target.

But the Bears, of course, face an uphill battle to put up significant points.

They’ve put up a 13-10 record over the past two seasons after joining the United Athletic Conference, including a 6-6 finish last year that fell flat after a 6-2 start to the campaign.

Nathan Brown heads into his sixth season coaching Central Arkansas, which is the only college football program he’s known. Brown was the school’s best-ever quarterback, earning Division II and FCS All-American honors in the 2000s.

After a brief shot in the NFL, Brown got into coaching and went right back to his alma mater, working his way up to offensive coordinator and eventually head coach.

“Have a lot of respect for their program and their head coach,� Drinkwitz said. “... He had a storied career there as a quarterback and player and now obviously a very successful coach. Has done a tremendous job building and maintaining the success of that program through a lot of different head coaches.�

As far as what Brown’s team will look like, though — that’s more of an unknown. He’s back to calling plays this season, which is new and therefore complicates the task of finding game film standpoint. UCA also has a new defensive coordinator this season.

“It’s a challenge, obviously, to figure that out to some extent because they do have new coordinators,� Drinkwitz said. “... We can watch last year’s scheme. It’s always been a little bit similar to the scheme that (Brown) played for.�

Even so, that shouldn’t keep that Tigers from dominating. They faced a similar challenge when scouting FCS program Murray State ahead of the 2024 opener yet breezed through that game for a 51-0 win.

Central Arkansas did present a little bit of a scare to the last Football Bowl Subdivision team they faced, scoring three fourth-quarter touchdowns to force Arkansas State into a last-minute touchdown for survival.

Still, a Sun Belt team like Arkansas State is not on the same talent level as Missouri, so Thursday’s contest shouldn’t even be that close.

The Bears know the challenge and just hope to be competitive.

“If you take the first game against Missouri, that’s a mountain in itself,� Brown said recently. “They’ve got more scholarships. They recruit the top talent in the country. Missouri’s won 21 games in two years. So I put that Missouri game in its own category, but we are going up there to compete and make it a four-quarter game.�