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The 121st battle between the Tigers and Jayhawks will kick off at 2:30 p.m. Saturday, televised on ESPN2 and available over the radio locally on KTRS (550 AM). The SEC Network’s “SEC Nation� will broadcast live from the MU campus earlier on Saturday morning.

Mizzou is 1-0 after demolishing Central Arkansas, a Football Championship Subdivision program, 61-6 to open the season last week. KU is 2-0 with wins over Fresno State and FCS team Wagner.

Injuries have already affected the Tigers’ season. Placekicker Blake Craig is out for the season with a torn ACL, while backup quarterback Sam Horn is sidelined indefinitely with an unspecified leg injury.

Here’s what to watch for in the 2025 Border war.

The spectacle

If you’ll be one of the 57,321 fans who’ll make up the 14th consecutive sellout of Missouri’s Faurot Field, you’ll probably be hoarse by the time this one is over. This has been the school’s most anticipated home game in a while — maybe since the programs announced back in May of 2020 that they’d be resuming the series.

On-site pregame show aside, the tailgates are likely to be more energetic than normal. “Mr. Brightside� blasting through the stadium sound system with its accompanying unprintable chant will be a hit with the student section and more than a few of those seated elsewhere.

Corby Jones, who grew up in Columbia before quarterbacking the Tigers in the late 90s, will handle the Big MO duties.

And then there’ll be the game itself.

MU coach Eli Drinkwitz brought in guest speakers this summer to talk to current players about the history and magnitude of the Border War, which dates back to the Civil War. Those lessons were both new and necessary for a generation of players who were in elementary school the last time these two rivals met.

It didn’t take long for them to pick up on the appropriate attitude for Saturday’s contest.

“I know what it takes,� defensive end Zion Young said. “Hopefully, it’s going to be a bloodbath that game. Good luck to those guys.�

Containing Jalon Daniels

There aren’t many college quarterbacks with more seasons under their belt than Kansas QB Jalon Daniels, who is entering his sixth season with the Jayhawks.

That experience should help him avoid mistakes, even in a high-pressure, loud environment like he’ll encounter in Columbia, but the onus is more on the Tigers to keep the Jayhawks’ dual-threat leader contained.

Daniels’ quarterbacking style will be far from foreign to Missouri, though when Drinkwitz heaped praise on his opponent, he called him the best version of a mobile signal-caller that the Tigers have seen.

The key to stopping him is in part containment — when rushing, avoiding the temptation of powering past him and opening up escape lanes. And once Daniels gets out of the pocket — which he will no matter the containment efforts — MU will need to have its secondary hold up in coverage.

Breakdowns against mobile quarterbacks plagued Mizzou at times last year. Of the 14 passing touchdowns the Tigers allowed last season, 10 came against just three dual-threat QBs: Boston College’s Thomas Castellanos, Vanderbilt’s Diego Pavia and South Carolina’s LaNorris Sellers.

Players to watch

Among the Missouri players who’ll have an individual spotlight on them Saturday:

• True freshman Robert Meyer is now MU’s kicker when it comes to field goals following the injury to Craig. He was perfect on extra points last week, but the kicks will probably get a little less routine — or at least have a little more pressure — this week. He’s an unknown at this level, so Drinkwitz and company will be learning what they have in their new kicker alongside everyone else in the stadium.
• Beau Pribula is, perhaps a bit unceremoniously, the starting quarterback following Horn’s injury and a strong debut outing. He looked comfortable in Game 1, but the uptick in talent between Central Arkansas’ defense and that of Kansas should be significant.
• OK, not an individual here, but a duo: left tackle Cayden Green and left guard Dominick Giudice. After moving to those spots late in fall camp, their first game together was rocky. Pribula faced more pressure and took more hits than would’ve been optimal for a game against an FCS team. There was always going to be a chemistry-building process for Green and Giudice, but if they haven’t taken steps forward, KU’s edge rushers will punish them. Watch Pribula’s blind side on his behalf, especially early on or when the Jayhawks deploy stunts along their D-line.

For months — really, years, since the 2020 announcement that Mizzou and Kansas would once again play each other in football this season — the rivalry served a grandiose purpose. Fans have anticipated Saturday’s 2:30 p.m. clash between the Tigers and Jayhawks (TV: ESPN2; radio: KTRS 550-AM locally) for quite some time. Tickets for the game sold out before they were even available to the general public.

The rivalry between MU and KU served not as bulletin board but rather chalkboard material this summer, when Drinkwitz brought in guest speakers to teach his players why this game means so incredibly much.

There will be other big games deeper into Missouri’s 2025 season. In two weeks, a clash with South Carolina looks like a possible bellwether for how both programs will stack up in the Southeastern Conference this year. A vulnerable Alabama team comes to CoMo just two weeks after that.

But ask a Mizzou fan whether they’d rather go 11-1 with a loss to the Jayhawks or do much worse on the whole but thump KU and they’ll probably need some time to think it over. Even in a conference where every game supposedly means more, this game means the most.

“Our guys understand that,� Drinkwitz said Tuesday.

Now, he’s trying to get them to set that pressure aside, which is the point where the high stakes of the Border War bordered on unhelpful.

“The issue is,� Drinkwitz continued, “are we going to be able to execute? Are we gonna be so focused on the crowd, doing this (he made the universal ‘get loud’ gesture with his arms), that we forget it ain’t about that?

“It’s about hands inside. It’s about executing your assignments, about having eyes on your keys. It’s about communicating the formation adjustments. It’s about offense, making sure that we’re all on the same page, on identifying the fronts that they’re going to be in. That’s going to be way more important than whether we had a guest speaker tell us about 1854 or 1960 (when) they played an ineligible player. OK, great. Perfect. Let’s make sure we’ve got a rip/liz call.�

To briefly translate the football speak: “Rip/liz� is a variation of a Cover 3 defense pioneered by Nick Saban and Bill Belichick when they were with the Cleveland Browns in the early 1990s. It involves rotating safeties to head off the seam routes that are the Achilles heel of a Cover 3 shell and will later be relevant to this story.

The bottom line: The elements of Saturday’s game that are great for fans — think “Mr. Brightside,� contumely hurled in the parking lots, the anger only unsheathed when that school from the west comes to town — are not so great for the players. Or at least are a slippery slope.

“There’s a fine line between over-hyping and getting so emotional that you don’t have poise and control,� Drinkwitz said. “You want to have energy. You don’t want to be emotional.�

“Poise and control,� said out loud, sounds a lot like poison control, which is one metaphor for what he’s been doing this week. Mitigate the degree to which the rivalry seeps into the locker room, make it feel as familiar as possible. If that’s even possible.

“You love playing in big games,� starting quarterback Beau Pribula said. “That’s why you play. That’s why you want to come to schools like Mizzou. … But at the same time, you gotta have the same process. The same process as it was for Central Arkansas is the same process we’ll have for KU.�

Maybe that mentality will erode once the Tigers take the field or absorb the clamor of the crowd or feel the crunch of their shoulder pads sinking into Jayhawk blue and red.

The hope, from the MU side of things, is that the tunnel vision that comes with a critical football game will at some point take over — either by nature or necessity.

“Like I tell the team all the time: The pregame speech isn’t gonna execute in the fourth quarter,� Drinkwitz said. “So it’s all good for ‘SEC Now’ and to put it out there, and the mini movie’s gonna capture it, but at the end of the day, man, in a two-minute drive or on the swing eight or money downs, ain’t nobody thinking about ‘Coach Drink said this’ or ‘This guest speaker said this.’ �

So the mental prep for the Border War’s return has been an exercise in nuance, in asking college-age athletes with undeveloped frontal lobes to comprehend two things and set one of them aside.

Here’s where rip/liz coverage comes back in. It’s a perfect metaphor.

There are a lot of moving parts to it: namely, the idea of establishing a dividing line through the defense. Where that line is depends on where the ball is placed, and cornerbacks need to have a precise feel for when they cross it so they know where there is safety help available and where they’re on an island. Safeties need to read when a route is going vertical versus tucking underneath.

A rip/liz call is, in one sense, a matter of compartmentalizing and reacting appropriately.

Like playing in the Border War.

“We’ve got our hands full,� Drinkwitz said, “between understanding the rivalry and the intensity of the game, and understanding that the game is played on the field.�

A: It’s pretty high. I'll tell you a quick story. We were over in Atlanta during media day with the 'SEC Nation' crew. We knew where we were going the first weekend. The second weekend we were thinking Ole Miss at Kentucky. One of our guys said, "I think we're just going to go to that game." And I said, ‘Hold on a second!’ I stood up. I said, ‘We might be missing the best game.’ And so they said, ‘What do you mean?’ I said, ‘This Kansas-Missouri deal!’ And they look at me like, ‘Well, what's that all about?’ I said, ‘Let me explain it to you.’

So I told them – the year the network launched, the Kansas City Fighting Tiger Club invited me to come speak. So I flew out there, and after the speech at some place, I had to go do my radio show. And I said to (the person hosting me) that I need to do my show. He said, ‘Where is it (set up for you to host the show)?’ I said, ‘It's in Kansas City, Kansas.’ He said, ‘I'm not going.’ I said, ‘What do you mean?’ And he explained it to me, and I'm like — Oh my goodness, they really take this thing seriously. So I think I got somebody else to sneak me across the state line, but it was the craziest thing I'd ever seen, and I never forgot that.

And I told everybody the story, and they started looking at Laura Rutledge and said, ‘That's pretty amazing.’ I said, ‘I promise you, we've been to Kentucky, it's a nice place, but the atmosphere at this place will be off the charts.' And fortunately, they listen to me for the first time in 12 years.

One of our producers here is a KU graduate. So I've heard it from him. He'll actually be there this week — but I won't let anybody know who he is.

I mean, listen, I spent most of my career in Alabama feasting — and I mean feasting — off the Alabama-Auburn rivalry. I made a career out of that rivalry. … But I think this one's on the same level based on what I'm hearing. And again, I've never been to a Missouri-KU game.

Q: What stands out to your eyes about the Missouri Tiger football team?

A: I think it starts at quarterback. I talked to Coach (Eli) Drinkwitz right before the game (against Central Arkansas). And I just feel pretty good about that (situation). I'm a believer in what Drink is doing out there. I've spent a lot of time this week talking about Alabama (after losing its first game). Fans say, ‘And we got Georgia coming up, and we got LSU in Tennessee.’ And I say to them, ‘And you're also going to Missouri.’

With Missouri, I can't base much on a game like that (against Central Arkansas), because that's just too one-sided. But you're much better off winning that game the way the Tigers did, than having pedestrian performance.

Q: You mentioned Coach Drinkwitz — you've gotten to know him over the years. What stands out to you about him?

A: I mean, I love his personality. He'll come on and just go off in any direction. He's got kind of a little bit of Steve Spurrier from yesteryear, little bit of (Lane) Kiffin, except he's actually more glib than Kiffin. The last time we talked, you may have seen it, he kind of goes into Taylor Swift story, where he manages to insult Oklahoma in the process.

A lot of times I've interviewed him and he'll say, ‘I'm not going to say anything today.’ So then you kind of know that he's already stepped in it a week before. But there are very few coaches that will go that direction — and so, that makes him unique. It makes him popular. We're talk show hosts. I used to be a sportswriter and a columnist, and after the game, you don't go up to somebody (for an interview) who's not going to say anything. You go up somebody who's going to say something interesting.

Q: So I'm very curious to hear your answer about this. Do you feel that traditional SEC teams accept Missouri as one of their own? Or even 10-plus years into this, there's still a prove-it factor in play?

A: Prove it (laughter). I could give you the company line, but you know that I wouldn't be telling the truth. It's still very strange. I can't explain it. And everybody knows all the facts, and everybody knows what Gary Pinkel did, and everybody knows how good Missouri has been.

I told Drinkwitz this story recently. I was on a plane going to the Alabama-Michigan Rose Bowl Game. These two Ohio State fans were sitting in front of me, drinking like fish on a five-hour flight, and we were all watching the Missouri-Ohio State (Cotton Bowl matchup). And it may have been one of the best times I've ever had on a plane, just watching them suffer in their indignity. And they kept looking back at me, and I was trying not to get, you know, thrown off the plane.

Q: And regarding Mizzou, is part of it that they haven’t proven it, in addition to the fact that they're on the fringe (of the conference map) — they're basically Midwest, not southern. So from fans, there's a lot of like: ‘They're not one of us, just yet.’

A: I think that's it right there. It's just, it's just different. Kentucky's a little different too, but Kentucky's been in the SEC for so long. … I understand the conversation, but Missouri's done enough where they shouldn't have to deal with that.

Q: And last question, can you describe why the show 'SEC Nation' works so well?

A: It works because it takes place on Saturday while everybody is at a fever pitch for football. And I mean, it's easy to compare the show to 'College Gameday,' but it's different. It hasn't been on the air for 25 years. But it also has some uniqueness to it. I think we have the best host in college football in Laura Rutledge, and we got the biggest name in college football in Tim Tebow. And I think that really matters a lot when it comes to credibility. And we have the most disliked person in the SEC in me. But we try to keep it light. ... And it’s the first time we’ve been to Missouri in a while.

The two schools have been playing each other in men’s basketball again for the last few years but haven’t faced off on the football field since 2011, so this ought to be a marked occasion.

My read on what’s to come? The signs of the Border War’s return are subtle now, but Saturday should be a spectacle.

Construction continued as normal on the north end of Faurot Field on Thursday. The steel beams that have almost completely closed off that side of the stadium make it more difficult to see inside than when it was wide open just a few years ago, but the south side videoboard already showed the MU and KU logos on the scorebug — set to 0-0, in case you’re wondering.

The closest Mizzou dorm to the stadium is Brooks Hall, which sits on the edge of the parking lot that separates Stadium Boulevard from campus itself. Except the sign no longer reads “Brooks Hall.�

Someone placed pieces of black electrical tape over the “K� in the residence hall’s name, crossing it out for the same reason that Tigers fans opt not to capitalize that letter in Kansas. “BrooXs Hall,� it’ll be, for one weekend only.

It’s not the only anti-Jayhawk stunt to take place on campus this week. One enterprising fan ripped the head off a plush version of the KU mascot, added some faux feathers and blood for effect — and in Speaker’s Circle at the heart of the MU campus.

Striking, as far as visuals go. The display didn’t make it through Wednesday night, though — maybe confiscated, maybe snagged to be frat-house décor.

I walked north from the stadium along Tiger Avenue, past Stankwoski Field and the pockets of grass and fraternity parking lots that’ll be filled with tailgates on Saturday morning. Realistically, during and after the game too.

Right at Rollins Street, left at the tiger fountain, and a fleet of 18-wheelers blocked off one campus side street. In the middle of Carnahan Quad, crews began to piece together the SEC Nation set.

Paul Finebaum will host his eponymous talk show from that set on Friday, then the SEC Network’s pregame programming will originate from the set before games kick off on Saturday.

Security guards blocked off access to the set via sidewalks as it was assembled, but it’ll be open to fans — and a popular pregame stop for fans who haven’t had a network show stop by in a few days. It’s not “College GameDay,� but a chance to wave signs on TV is still an opportunity to do exactly that.

Two students walked past the quad, discussing the ultimate indicator of how bustling CoMo will be on Saturday.

“We don’t really know what to do,� one said to the other, “because cover is going to be insane.�

Yes, Columbia’s bars will be able to charge a premium this weekend, something a strong sector of students and out-of-towners will be happy to pay. (Those coming from out of town will hope they already have their hotel booked: seven of the top 12-rated hotels in town are sold out.) It’s not like the Border War comes around every weekend.

Or even every year.

The last time Missouri and Kansas played football here was in 2006. Most current college freshmen hadn’t been born yet. Even the seniors were toddlers at that point. They only know about Todd Reesing’s “sodden� helmet and what Armageddon at Arrowhead meant from the YouTube highlights.

That’s what makes Saturday and the return of this rivalry odd. The present generation of students at both schools has barely gotten a taste of it.

The Border War, which played annually for more than a century and through actual wars, didn’t survive conference realignment. What used to be a basketball game at each school and a football game oscillating between them became nothing. Dormant dislike, relegated to history.

Mizzou students have risen to the occasion for the return of men’s basketball games between MU and KU, camping and queueing outside of the arena for spots in the student section. They rushed the floor with appropriate gusto when the Tigers toppled the top-ranked Jayhawks last December.

More than a few of them are probably counting down to the first time “Mr. Brightside� will blast through the Faurot Field sound system, accompanied by a new light show this year. There are only two words they need to know, and one of them can’t be printed here — but it’ll echo loud enough on Saturday.

The challenge, in the event Mizzou beats a tricky KU team led by veteran quarterback Jalon Daniels, will be keeping the students off the field. After storming the field against Kansas State in 2023 and the court against the Jayhawks last basketball season, the MU administration is drawing a line in the stands. The fans will stay in them, no matter the satisfaction of the win.

Field and court stormings now come with a $500,000 fine, per the Southeastern Conference, which in this case would be paid out directly to the University of Kansas. That’d be tough to stomach for an athletics department whose most successful basketball coach, Norm Stewart, refused to fill the team buses with gas in Kansas to avoid injecting a dime of Missouri money into that state’s economy.

“We need to expect to win,� Mizzou athletics director Laird Veatch said last week, “particularly against KU.�

So the university is asking its students to be, of all things, restrained in the face of a rivalry. The same will be asked of the grown-ups, for lack of a better term, in the crowd.

That includes following instructions on where to enter the stadium. With the north concourse completely out of commission due to construction, the only way to cross between the east and west stands of Memorial Stadium is a narrow pathway in the south end zone.

The passageway there is only four or five people wide, at most, so it quickly turned into an unmoving blockage of people during last week’s season opener — both unsafe and entirely avoidable, which is why fans will now be required to enter the stadium on the side where their seats are located. The university will offer shuttles around the exterior lots to facilitate this change to entry.

Important, but dry in the face of what Saturday’s game means.

This campus, lying in wait Thursday as it has for close to two decades now, only has to wait a little bit longer. Put The Killers — The Xillers for this weekend? — in your music streaming queue. Budget for a higher-than-normal cover. And get ready for a fan base to re-learn or for the first time discover what it looks like when the Border War comes to Columbia.

Eli ±á´Ç´Ú´Ú:ÌýGood morning, all, and welcome to this week's Mizzou chat. We're just two days away from the return of the Border War. I took a long walk around the MU campus this morning to see how prep for the game is coming along... crews are building the SEC Nation set on one of the quads, and the K on one sign was crossed out with tape. Seems to me those are signs of preparedness. Now for your questions!

Tom O:ÌýJust have to comment on last week game when I saw Horn would start the second half I felt the so called competition for starting quarterback was rigged based on the prior Cook/ Horn so called competition. But Horn unfortunate injury put that to rest. I would point out Cousin Shane has Bo ranked the number 7 quarterback in the SEC after the first games were played.Hope he can stathere or improve. I was more disappointed in our kicker injury than Horn from an importance standpoint. Your thoughts?

±á´Ç´Ú´Ú:ÌýYeah, the decision that Horn would've played the second half sealed it for me. That's just not a competition against an opponent like Central Arkansas. I see some other questions in the queue about it, so we'll discuss that decision, but the point is largely moot given the injury.

If Pribula can play like the 7th best quarterback in the SEC, Mizzou will be in great shape. This team isn't built to need an upper tier QB — and it would be unfair to expect him to be that. If he can be in the upper half of SEC QBs, though, that's a big plus. 

You're right to view Blake Craig's season-ending injury as more of a blow to MU than Horn's. For one, Drinkwitz hasn't ruled out Horn for the season. Don't take that to mean he'll be playing a ton in November or anything like that, but that's the official word out of the program. But regardless, the team that attempted the most field goals of any FBS program last season losing its kicker is a big deal — and bigger than losing its backup quarterback. Maybe Robert Meyer is a great kicker. Maybe he's serviceable. Maybe he's not. Whichever it is will shape how the Mizzou offense can operate for the rest (really, all) of this season.

¸é³Ü²õ²õ:ÌýGood morning, Eli. I assume Matt Zollers is now the back up quarterback. What are his strengths. Mobility? Arm?

±á´Ç´Ú´Ú:ÌýYes, Zollers is now the backup quarterback for Mizzou. His biggest strength is his arm. He's thrown 60-yard passes before, so he can absolutely uncork one when needed. What isn't clear — because high school tape means nothing compared to playing SEC defenses and we haven't seen him do that yet — is the accuracy, ability to go through reads or how his mobility looks against this league's defenders. So really, he's an unknown.

´³´Ç³ó²Ô³¢:ÌýGood morning Eli-Too early for you to share your Saturday keys to a MU win? Mine are the two; 1.) Containing the KU QB and keeping him that pocket versus his explosive attributes outside and his ability to make plays; and 2.) The play of our Left side of the O-Line. Can we avoid blind side pressure and allow Beau to get set and make positive yard plays? Pretty simple or am I too simple?

±á´Ç´Ú´Ú:ÌýSeems astute to me. I'd expand on No. 1 to include disciplined coverage from the MU secondary when Daniels gets outside of the pocket — which he will, no matter how much containment is a point of emphasis. I discovered an incredibly telling stat yesterday that I put in my story about what it'll take for Mizzou to stop Daniels: Of the 14 passing touchdowns the Tigers allowed last season (not very many!), 10 came from three games: Boston College, Vanderbilt and South Carolina. The three quarterbacks in those games? Thomas Castellanos, Diego Pavia and LaNorris Sellers — all three mobile quarterbacks. That they burned MU with their arms and not their legs shows where the Tigers' weakness was: coverage breaking down once DBs became focused on the movement of the quarterback, not the receivers working themselves open. 

As Drinkwitz mentioned in his Tuesday presser, Daniels is plenty capable of passing the ball to open receivers. So, silly and simple as it sounds, not gifting him windows to throw when he bounces out of the pocket feels like the key. 

And to your second point, the offensive line will need to be better than it was against Central Arkansas. Pribula took too many hits for an opponent of that caliber. KU's pass rush will be much better. It's not just for this game but for having him healthy all season. That left side needs to come together quickly.

¶Ù°ä³Ò:ÌýEli: Give me your best theory as to why Drink has now twice held a fake QB "competition." It's obvious that Pribula was the guy based on the plan to give him the whole first half, which, barring catastrophe, would have ensured that Horn would get maybe a series or two with first teamers and license to throw. After that, it would be handoffs. So, not a fair fight. It's fine the Beau is ED's guy. He looked great, but why all of this nonsense again?

±á´Ç´Ú´Ú:ÌýBeats me. Truly. Maybe it was to make Kansas have to prepare for both. Maybe Drinkwitz just wanted Pribula to "win" it in a game. I really can't think of a great reason to extend the charade. I think it hurt Cook's standing with the fan base more than it helped him in '23. That probably won't be true this season, but that's more because of the injury than anything else. 

I guess this is one of those things that separates coach psyche from beat writer psyche. I understand the merits of the competition, and Horn was good enough to deserve a shot. It was reasonably close for a little while. When I watched the scrimmage about halfway through fall camp, I came away thinking that it would be Pribula's job but that I understood why Horn was still in the mix. 60-40 in Pribula's favor was as close as I ever thought it was. 

Whenever the next QB battle is, fans probably won't buy into it or believe it. Can you blame them? Maybe this turns into the coach who cried QB competition. It's a gamble that it works out and produces wins. Pribula's performance against Central Arkansas was a positive first step toward that, but it was UCA. And it's not like there's any other option besides him now. Aside from the injury, it was set up for a needlessly weird end to the battle.

¶Ù°ä³Ò:ÌýI agree that the fake competition hurt Cook vis a vis the fans, but it's seems really disrespectful to Horn to have done this twice to him. On a different note, the thing that convinced me that Pribula is legit was his accuracy on those out patterns. To me, accuracy is more important than arm strength (within reason). Those were tough throws no matter the competition, and he put the ball exactly where it needed to be multiple times.

±á´Ç´Ú´Ú:ÌýOne of the things Kirby Moore praised with Pribula when I talked to him before the start of camp was his accuracy on the intermediate throws — those 10 to 20-yarders. That definitely showed up against UCA. The deep passes to Johnson showed Pribula can air it out every once in a while. Effective or not, that's just never going to appear more than a few times a game. Being able to hit crossers and outs that are still downfield but in a more reasonable range is a much more sustainable bread and butter for an offense. Certainly an encouraging start in that realm. 

²Ñ±«³Ò°¿³¢¶Ù:Ìýwas very impressed with Josiah Trotter and it seems to me he might be the perfect player to set as a spy to contain Daniels. That requires that the rest of the defensive backfield will have to cover the Kansas receiving corp. I think Trotter may be the next great linebacker from Mizzou, a position that has the same history as the DE's. Thanks for your solid coverage on Missouri sports.

±á´Ç´Ú´Ú:ÌýTrotter absolutely has that potential, and the linebacker room is just as deep as the D-ends are this season. I'll add to your point by saying Khalil Jacobs could also be a really important cog in defending Daniels. Jacobs can move so well that I see usage for him both as a blitzer and as someone who's a "spy" or just tasked with keeping an eye on Daniels.

´³´Ç³ó²Ô³¢:ÌýHow loud can the Fans get Saturday? Let's show the SEC Network we were worth their trip!

±á´Ç´Ú´Ú:ÌýI suspect quite loud. I'm excited just to wander around for a bit before heading up to the press box to see this fanbase at its peak. 

¶Ù°ä³Ò:ÌýAs many have noted, the one worrisome part of the UCA game was the line play, specifically pass blocking on the left side. So, a question and an observation: 1) How much of Green's struggles were communication based vs physically being beaten? 2) Over the past few years, it feels like the line has often started slowly and gotten much better as the season progressed. So, while the mistakes make me nervous, I do feel confident that the unit will gel based on history,

±á´Ç´Ú´Ú:ÌýI'd say almost exclusively communication. The snaps where someone made it through the line unblocked seemed to be an assignment thing vs. a getting beat thing. So I'd be pretty confident in those issues being buttoned-up soon. We know Cayden Green's a very competent blocker, so it'd be very unexpected if real blocking issues arose. It seems like it's more the chemistry that's still coming together, which makes sense. 

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Safety Jalen Catalon and right tackle Keagen Trost, Mizzou’s oldest players, were 6 years old for that 2007 showdown and 10 for the last game between the Tigers and Jayhawks.

Ten current Mizzou players weren’t even alive the last time the two rivals met in Columbia, during the 2006 season.

Missouri and Kansas haven’t played each other in nearly 14 years. For the 18- to 24-year-olds on the MU roster — and all of those enrolled at the University of Missouri as undergraduate students — that means the Border War is a foreign fight from another time.

So when Chase Daniel and “Armageddon at Arrowhead� are at best fuzzy memories to players, how does a football program impress upon them the magnitude, the importance of the rivalry they’ll help revive?

Classes, of sorts.

MU coach Eli Drinkwitz brought in a variety of guest speakers over the summer to meet with the team and fill them in on why Tigers and Jayhawks loathe each other.

“We talked about how it started, we’ve talked about players and the big games and stuff like that,� safety and team captain Daylan Carnell said. “We’ve watched highlights too. They done showed us a whole bunch. We’ve seen a lot about it. We’ll definitely be ready. We know it’s coming.�

With 120 meetings dating back to 1891, there’s plenty of ground to cover — even if the basketball rivalry has historically meant more than the football one.

“The first one was more of a historian type of talk: how like we’ve been playing, what’s the record, all that jazz,� center Connor Tollison, another team captain, said. “And then Andy Hill came and talked to us.�

Hill, who recently retired from coaching after 18 years at Mizzou and several more with the Kansas City Chiefs, was a little more, well, colorful in his KU lesson than what a standard history lecture might include.

“He was yelling and screaming and cussing and whatnot,� Tollison said, “about (how) they don’t really like these guys. Nobody likes these guys. We don’t really like them.�

Drinkwitz declined to elaborate on what messages were conveyed to his team during those summer meetings or who else, besides Hill and a historian, delivered them.

“The point of it is not what they said,� Drinkwitz said. “The point is to make sure that our fan base and our players understand that we know the significance, historically. We understand the importance. We’re not overlooking or undervaluing this game. We know it’s an important thing to our team. ... We got all that out of the way.�

The talks were insightful for Mizzou players who didn’t know what they would be walking into this weekend — like starting quarterback Beau Pribula, who grew up a Penn State fan in Pennsylvania.

“I thought it was just a sports rivalry,� he said, “but I guess it goes beyond that.�

Indeed it does, Beau. Indeed it does.

So the lessons to be learned for the Tigers are that the Border War dates back to a real war and spans more than a few generations — and the weight therein of a game that carries so much consequence to people across two states.

“It means a lot to a lot of people,� Drinkwitz said. “It’s a privilege to wear the ‘Mizzou’ on your chest. And when you wear Mizzou, you’re representing 6 million people in this state.�

While the MU coaching staff has now tamped down rivalry talk to try to keep players focused on the fundamental elements of Saturday’s game, the summer meetings about this matchup were meant to provide the kindling for the fire that’s to come this weekend.

“You have a tangible thing that you’re playing for,� Drinkwitz said. “In college football, you don’t always have that after a game. Sometimes you just get an ‘atta boy.’ There ain’t no ‘atta boy’ after this one.�

For at least one Missouri player, the lessons worked. Ask defensive end Zion Young, who grew up in Atlanta and started his collegiate career at Michigan State, what he learned about the Border War and it’s clear he gets it.

“I know what it takes,� Young said. “Hopefully, it’s going to be a bloodbath that game. Good luck to those guys.�

Mizzou (1-0) is coming off a 61-6 win in its opener Aug. 28 vs. Central Arkansas. Kansas (2-0) beat Wagner 46-7 on Aug. 29 at home and routed Fresno State at home the week before.

The Jayhawks were Big 12 in an unofficial media poll. The league did not organize an official poll.

Betting lines and ESPN analytics .

Missouri is 57-54-9 all-time vs. Kansas and has won three straight and five of six. The teams haven't met since 2011 and not since 2006 on a college campus.

Here's how to watch Mizzou vs. Kansas football:

Mizzou Tigers vs. Kansas Jayhawks TV, live stream and radio

Game time: 2:30 p.m. CDT/3:30 p.m. EDT Saturday, Sept. 6

Location: Faurot Field at Memorial Stadium in Columbia, Missouri

TV channel:Ìý·¡³§±Ê±·2

Live stream:Ìý

Radio: KTRS (550 AM and 106.1 FM) in 51ºÚÁÏ, across Missouri and online through the

Storylines

Mizzou players took classes to learn about the Border War

Kansas QB Jalon Daniels is the exact kind of quarterback who has given the Tigers problems

Mizzou kicker Blake Craig done for season, quarterback Sam Horn out indefinitely

Columnist Benjamin Hochman explores what the Kansas rivalry truly means to Mizzou fans

Catalon and Daniels should have faced off in 2022, when the former was at Texas but missed almost all of the season with an injury. When KU played the Longhorns in 2023, Daniels was hurt.

But last year, with Catalon playing for Barry Odom’s UNLV team and Daniels playing a full season for the Jayhawks, they battled on the field.

On Saturday, when Mizzou (1-0) hosts Kansas (2-0) for the return of the Border War rivalry, Catalon and Daniels will meet again — this time as two veterans whose individual matchup will be key in determining the game.

Daniels is the exact kind of quarterback who has given the Tigers problems in the past, particularly last year. Corralling him is both a nuanced and necessary task for the MU defense to hold up against a shifty Jayhawks offense.

The days and hours leading up to Saturday’s 2:30 p.m. kickoff (TV: ESPN2; radio: 550-AM KTRS, locally) will be dominated by the off-field storyline of a resumed rivalry. When it comes to the actual game, however, much of it will boil down to how Missouri handles its first tricky opponent of the 2025 season.

“I think their quarterback is a terrific player,� MU coach Eli Drinkwitz said. “He’s back to his former self.�

By that, he means the preseason Heisman Trophy contender Daniels looked to be heading into a 2023 campaign he lost to injury after just three games. There isn’t that same buzz around him these days, but he’s still quite dangerous.

Through the Jayhawks’ two blowout wins to start the season — against Fresno State and Wagner — Daniels has thrown for 456 yards, seven touchdowns and one interception while completing 80% of his passes. He has also picked up 65 yards on the ground.

That start to 2025 follows an up-and-down 2024 that saw Daniels complete just 57% of his passes while throwing for 2,454 yards, 14 touchdowns and a Big 12-high 12 picks.

The threat posed by Daniels is not about what he’s done, though. It’s more about what he can do to punish a defense unprepared to cover downfield options while keeping his rushing ability contained.

“That’s the conundrum that you’re put in with him,� Drinkwitz said. “He’s played a lot of football. He’s seen a lot of different things, so there’s not a whole lot of things that you’re going to do that confuses him. He’s an excellent thrower of the football. They do a really good job of moving the pocket, which I think is really subtle but really helps him because he’s already moving — now (when) he decides to take off running, he’s already got momentum. When he’s in the pocket, you’re going to have to really work to constrict the pocket, but you’ve got to stay in your rush lanes.

“We’ve played several of these styles of quarterbacks before — in the SEC, that’s becoming more and more popular — but we’ve never played anyone like him, or maybe as good as him.�

Catalon is the exception in that he has played Daniels.

In that matchup, which KU lost 30-23 to UNLV, Daniels struggled to the tune of 12 for 24 passing, just 153 passing yards, no touchdowns and two interceptions. He did score twice with his legs in that game but couldn’t find any traction through the air.

Is that a helpful baseline for the safety to draw upon?

“Definitely,� Catalon said. “I’m taking tendencies and things I’ve seen before. But I know every single year people develop and become better than they were last year.�

Daniels’ growth aside, Mizzou will need to show development and better defensive play against quarterbacks like him.

The Tigers allowed 14 passing touchdowns in all of 2024, but 10 of those came in just three games: against Boston College’s Thomas Castellanos (three), Vanderbilt’s Diego Pavia (two) and South Carolina’s LaNorris Sellers (five).

All three quarterbacks had the escapability to require adjustment from MU’s pass rushers — a dedicated effort to contain and not over-rush to open up scramble lanes. They also found ways to punish an undisciplined secondary for gazing hungrily into the pocket instead of tracking the wideouts charging behind them. The only catch Vanderbilt wideout Joseph McVay logged last season, for example, was a 65-yard touchdown reception granted by a Missouri coverage bust.

If Kansas’ offense looks like it has so far this season, it’ll deploy shifts, fakes and options to challenge the defense’s ability to make reads. One overcommitment from one player on one play could be enough to concede a needless touchdown — as Mizzou learned last season.

Saturday’s game against the Jayhawks, then, will test the Tigers on what they’ve learned from last season’s struggles against mobile quarterbacks with a high-stakes first exam of the fall.

“We’re just going to have to a really good job of tackling,� Drinkwitz said. “We’re going to have to a great job of covering because at the end of the day, if wide receivers are open, he’s going to throw it to them.�

Yeah. Well, nice try, Coach.

Then-No. 8 Alabama looked completely overmatched while failing 31-17 at Florida State. The Crimson Tide face-planted against a team that finished 2-10 a year ago.

That nonconference loss was a painful blow for the Southeastern Conference. Another one occurred in Columbus, where Ohio State stuffed then-No. 1 Texas and overhyped quarterback Arch Manning 14-7.

SEC temperatures are already rising. Second-year Alabama coach Kalen DeBoer is under extreme duress, and Texas coach Steve Sarkisian is circling the wagons around The Next Manning.

Meanwhile, LSU fans are dreaming of a national title after watching their team subdue Clemson 17-10, thanks to its rebuilt defense directed by former Mizzou defensive coordinator Blake Baker.

Auburn coach Hugh Freeze started his make-or-break Season 3 with a 38-24 victory at Baylor. South Carolina remained on track for a breakthrough campaign by handling Virginia Tech 24-11.

These nonconference victories remind us the league’s depth remains as strong as ever — which only adds to the angst of Alabama and Texas fans after what they saw in Week 1.

The Crimson Tide could plunge way back into the SEC pack. They are 5-5 since starting last season 4-0. Those five losses equal more than 20% of the total from Alabama’s previous 16 seasons combined.

“I choose to believe we’ve got a good football team,� DeBoer told reporters. “But we can’t play on our heels. We’re not going to be what we think we can be, what we want to be, if that’s the case. And that falls on everyone. I don’t just point the finger at the players.�

He can’t pass the blame while earning $10 million this season. DeBoer is on the hot seat, although his $63 million buyout offers substantial insulation.

His support eroded last season with losses at Vanderbilt (Alabama’s first to that perennial doormat in 40 years) and at Oklahoma (a 24-3 no-show against the dispirited Sooners, who finished 6-7).

SEC high priest Paul Finebaum cut to the chase with this view of Alabama on ESPN:

“Let’s not forget, this was a national championship contender. They have enormous talent. Probably the second most talented team roster wise in the country, but they looked soft. DeBoer looks clueless at times. It feels like a house of cards.�

Alabama will play four times before coming to Boone County to face Missouri. Its game at Georgia will be especially problematic if DeBoer can’t pull his team together.

After dealing with Truman, the Crimson Tide will host Tennessee, play at South Carolina and host LSU during their next three weeks.

So it goes in the SEC. If a program slips, the resulting fall can become devastating.

Texas has scheduled victories against San Jose State, UTEP and Sam Houston up next, so the Longhorns can regroup. Sarkisian can expand his play list after sheltering the jittery Manning against Ohio State.

“It wasn’t just him being young, (we’re) young on the offensive line with new faces — a new receiver, a new tight end — some (different) people playing in this environment,� Sarkisian explained. “So you try to do the things that you think they do well, especially with a new defensive coordinator which we didn’t have a bunch of information on of what they were going to do (defensively) from his past and what they’ve done at Ohio State.�

OK, but Sarkisian makes $10.3 million per year off his reputation as an offensive mastermind. It’s reasonable to expect him to devise more creative plays for Manning than the timid calls he made in Columbus.

Again, we’ll defer to Finebaum:

“Well, the truthful thing to say is, it was a disastrous beginning. Now you can look inside and find good things, but mostly he was not ready for the moment, and neither was his coach. I was more disappointed in Steve Sarkisian, who I had believed was the best offensive play caller in America. He just did not dial up very much. He was outmanned on the defensive side by Ohio State, and I came away optimistic that Arch would get better, but that’s not what we were expecting and that’s not what we got.�

What happened to Alabama and Texas energized fans elsewhere in the SEC. Georgia and LSU are widely considered serious College Football Playoff contenders, along with those two storied programs. They gained a leg up in the chase.

South Carolina, Ole Miss, Tennessee and Florida want in on that action too. Texas A&M, Missouri, Auburn and Vanderbilt also possess aspirations this season, and Oklahoma seeks a big rebound with Brent Venables on the hot seat.

Any sign of weakness at the top of this cutthroat conference is well received by the others. One program’s pain is every other team’s gain.

As we like to say in this space, in the SEC it’s just more mean.

“Sam has an injury that’s going to keep him out for an extended period of time,� Drinkwitz said.

“I’m not going to get into specifics, but he will be out. Don’t know how long yet, but he will miss an extended period of time.�

Craig will be a significant absence for the Tigers, who have relied heavily on their kickers in recent seasons. There was some hope heading into his Tuesday surgery that part of the ligament was intact, but the operation revealed it was a full tear meaning Craig will miss the rest of the season.

True freshman Robert Meyer will assume field goal kicking duties in Craig’s absence. Oliver Robbins will handle kickoffs.

Meyer was the No. 13-ranked kicker nationally in his recruiting class. Out of Colfax, California, he made 15 of his 19 field goals as a high school player.

“He’s got a great leg,� Drinkwitz said. “It’s just confidence and understanding conditions. He’s always been able to kick, so he’s just got to have confidence that he can do it in front of sold-out crowds.�

Meyer made all four of the extra points he attempted against Central Arkansas following Craig’s injury but remains entirely inexperienced as a field goal kicker at the college level.

Even with that uncertainty, Drinkwitz shot down the notion MU would need to change its offensive philosophy or play-calling due to a decrease in confidence at kicker.

“I’m not going into it thinking he’s not going to be able to do something that I know he can do and showed in practice,� Drinkwitz said. “Now, do we have to adjust after we see things? We’ll figure that out, but (we’re) not putting limitations on players going into it. He’s practiced, he’s performed, he’s kicked in big moments in fall camp.�

Still, as a bit of insurance, Missouri added junior college kicker Ryder Goodwin, who was playing for Northeastern Oklahoma A&M, over the weekend to pad its depth at the specialist position. He practiced with the team Monday and is expected to be immediately eligible.

Goodwin, who hails from Bristow, Oklahoma, made two of his three field goal attempts in 2024. He converted from as far as 47 yards in high school and can kick with both his right and left leg, per his high school recruiting profile.

Kicker has been a position of outsized importance to Mizzou. Craig led the nation with 34 field goals attempted in 2024, which was five more than any other Southeastern Conference kicker. The year prior, Harrison Mevis attempted the second-most of any SEC kicker. Each delivered vital points and wins in 2023 and ’24 via long field goals.

Craig was injured while covering one of his kickoffs during the Tigers’ 61-6 win over Central Arkansas.

That Horn, who was in the competition to be Mizzou’s starting signal-caller, likely won’t play this year is a blow to an offense that had flirted with the idea of a two-quarterback system — and a brutal twist of fate for a two-sport athlete who signed with the Los Angeles Dodgers over the summer.

Horn was hurt while running the ball on a double-quarterback play in the first half of that game. He’d been expected to play the second half as MU’s primary QB while he competed with Beau Pribula to become the starter. But because Drinkwitz and offensive coordinator Kirby Moore had prepped the offense for the possibility of using both at times in 2025, Horn came in for a 6-yard carry that ended his season.

To even participate in the QB battle, Horn returned from Tommy John surgery he underwent in early 2024 and rebuffed interest from Major League Baseball. The Los Angeles Dodgers picked Horn, a righty who can throw 98 mph off the mound, late in the draft and signed him for a $500,000 bonus — with the allowance that he could still play football this fall.

As such, Horn’s injury doesn’t just affect his career on the gridiron — it’s also a potential setback for his pro baseball journey, which may well have started next spring. He still has another year of eligibility to play college football and could likely receive a medical waiver that would give him back this season, too, if he misses the rest of it — but the call of professional baseball may prove too strong.

The Tigers will use true freshman Matt Zollers as their backup quarterback moving forward. Zollers, a four-star recruit out of Royersford, Pennsylvania, stepped in for the latter stages of the win over Central Arkansas and completed all three of his passes.

“I feel a lot of confidence in Matt, especially after him being able to go in and perform the way he did,� Drinkwitz said. “... Make no mistake, Matt Zollers is the future for us at the quarterback position.�

MU also brought Brett Brown, a former walk-on quarterback who was with the team last year, back onto the roster. The additions of Brown and Goodwin keep the Tigers at 105 active players.