51ºÚÁÏ

COLUMBIA, Mo. — Another week, another prominent college football program firing its head coach, another instance of Missouri coach Eli Drinkwitz’s name popping up as a potential candidate.

Last week, it was Penn State. This week, it’s Florida. Given the apparent proclivity of schools to dismiss coaches midseason in 2025, there will probably be others soon enough.

On Oct. 21, 1972, one week after losing 62-0 to Nebraska, the Mizzou Tigers football team stunned No. 8 Notre Dame in South Bend. Here is our original coverage of that game.

Whatever lies ahead for this year's University of Missouri football team, it is unlikely that anything will surpass Saturday's game for pure pleasure. Because the Tigers, dismissed as gridiron nobodies, rose up and dispatched the previously undefeated Fighting Irish of Notre Dame, 30-26, before 59,075 stunned and soggy spectators.

In a peach bowl of quarterbacks, Diego Pavia is a nectarine.

The difference is that peaches are fuzzy, while nectarines are glossy, shiny and smooth. That’s Pavia — figuratively, since Diego is a flashy standout, and literally, since, well, means nectarine.

These numbers won't look as nice as the fact that Missouri managed to win a gritty, ugly road tilt at Auburn. But anyone who watched knew there were real flaws in how Mizzou played.

From the struggle in the trenches offensively to the success in the trenches defensively, Pro Football Focus' trove of stats reinforces notions of how Saturday night's 23-17 win played out.

Mizzou fans who've wanted the national spotlight on this program, here you go. ESPN's "College GameDay," the well-known Saturday morning pregame show, is headed to the site of the Tigers' next game.

That site just happens to be in Nashville, Tennessee, where Missouri will face Vanderbilt at 2:30 p.m. next Saturday.

AUBURN, Ala. — Zion Young was ready to go. More than ready. Raring to go.

The Missouri defensive end was one of the team’s captains to head to midfield before Mizzou and Auburn, knotted up at 17-all after regulation, began overtime Saturday. The officials flipped a coin, and MU, the visitors, won.

AUBURN, Ala. — Missouri took the field with the floodlights off, cloaked in an appropriate darkness. Out of the south side of Jordan-Hare Stadium came Auburn, flanked by flares, present for a football game. Slowly, weightily, Mizzou’s players emerged from the north side, here for an exorcism.

For four quarters and two overtimes on Saturday, the Tigers grappled with each other and with the spirits of their programs. MU won, 23-17. Victory and a vanquishing.

AUBURN, Ala. — It wasn’t pretty.

The offensive line was pried apart. The quarterback was frequently pressured. The defense was still prone to breakdowns. It took overtime to get it done.

COLUMBIA, Mo. — The top 2026 recruit from the state of Oklahoma has picked Missouri.

A recent wave of positive recruiting developments continued Friday for the Tigers, with four-star defensive tackle Tajh Overton verbally committing to MU.