Mizzou enjoying role as underdog
COLUMBIA, Mo. — Missouri Tigers running back Larry Rountree III said he was holding his tongue when asked whether all the pressure was on No. 2 Alabama coming into Saturday’s season opener. After all, the Crimson Tide are heavy favorites with annual national championship aspirations.
The Tigers, on the other hand, are breaking in first-year Coach Eliah Drinkwitz and a new offense. There’s talent on both sides of the ball, but MU is faced with an improbable task and staring at a 28-point spread. It’s a brutal start to open the Drinkwitz era.
But don’t tell Rountree about the daunting challenge ahead. Or the rest of the Tigers.
“They’re the second-ranked team — cool,” Rountree said. “It’s no different. This is the SEC, every game, you gotta come prepared to play. If you don’t come prepared to play, you know what’s going to happen. I’m not going to sit here and go on the field and be like, ‘Oh, it’s Alabama.’ ”
The Crimson Tide took a step back last year, picking up not one but two regular-season losses to SEC West rivals LSU and Auburn. Nick Saban’s team didn’t qualify for the College Football Playoff for the first time since its inception in 2014. It was a disappointment, but only in relative terms when the standard is so high.
Alabama once again gushes with playmakers on both sides of the ball. The Crimson Tide boast All-SEC players all over the field, whether that’s running back Najee Harris, wide receivers Jaylen Waddle and DeVonta Smith, linebacker Dylan Moses or elsewhere.
“Coach Saban has been at Alabama 14 years,” Drinkwitz said. “He’s got a tremendous support staff. He’s got more coaches as analysts with head coaching experience than I think I am years old.”
The keys to the game, Drinkwitz said, come down to execution — which is never a guarantee. The coach said the Tigers have been working specifically to hone their craft and physicality, but against a team like Alabama, that’s where the Crimson Tide shine with their endless depth of premier players.
If there are some points of optimism against a juggernaut like Alabama, Mizzou faces them early in the season. The Crimson Tide have no fresh film of the Tigers, much less who their starting quarterback is. That gives them slight competitive advantages, and MU can use any bits it can.
There’s also the sloppy play that has plagued college football during the opening weeks — especially for teams in their first game of the season. With spring football wiped out and preseason camp altered beyond normalcy, it has led to more turnovers, missed tackles and execution failures, Drinkwitz said.
Of course, Alabama is 13-0 in season openers under Saban, so even some of those pluses are wiped out.
“We’re going to have to play physical football,” Drinkwitz said. “They’re a tremendous football team in the trenches and we’re going to have to match that physicality. We’re going to have to be fundamentally sound and be great tacklers. We’re going to have to protect the football.”
Some players on the roster went up against Alabama during the 2018 season, Rountree included, so there’s some familiarity. That was the first time linebacker Nick Bolton — before he became an All-American — earned major snaps. Former Tiger Terez Hall was ejected for targeting, then it was the Bolton show from there as he picked up eight tackles in the game.
It was in a losing effort, though, as the Drew Lock-led Tigers were blown out.
“Personally, I’ve grown a lot,” Bolton said. “It’s been a while since I’ve played at Alabama. That was two years ago. I got a whole full SEC schedule behind me. I was also kind of fat my freshman year. I’ve kind of slimmed down since then, little bit better shape. I hope that gives us a chance to play better.”