COLUMBIA, Mo. — Back to friendly confines.
After a bye and two road games, Missouri football will return to its home turf this weekend for a Southeastern Conference clash with Auburn.
No. 19 Mizzou (5-1, 1-1 SEC) hosts Auburn (2-4, 0-3) at 11 a.m. Saturday on ESPN. MU hopes to further distance itself from a debacle against Texas A&M in its first road game of the season, while Auburn is aiming for its first win of the year against a power-conference opponent.
Here are three things to watch for in the matchup of different colored Tigers:
How will Mizzou’s defense attack Thorne?
Through its rough start to the season, Auburn’s offense has been loose with the football — the Tigers average the third-most turnovers per game in the nation. Quarterback Payton Thorne, who has thrown six interceptions, is part of that problem.
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Missouri will, of course, try to exploit Thorne’s penchant for picks and force a few more. How the MU defense attacks Auburn will shed significant light on how defensive coordinator Corey Batoon wants to approach an opportunity at an aggressive game plan.
His hand has been forced at times this season by mobile quarterbacks like Boston College’s Thomas Castellanos and Vanderbilt’s Diego Pavia, whose skill sets require the brunt of a defense’s attention. Opponents like Murray State, Buffalo and Massachusetts aren’t the type to draw the full force of Missouri’s playbook.
And the Tigers defense couldn’t stop A&M in any capacity.
So far, Mizzou has relied on zone coverage more this season under Batoon than it did last year with Blake Baker as the defensive coordinator. Missouri’s cornerbacks play roughly 1.6 snaps in zone coverage for every man play, according to Pro Football Focus’ tracking, which is up from roughly 1.4 in 2023.
But how that looks against Auburn and deep threat KeAndre Lambert-Smith could be interesting.
So, too, will be the matter of blitzing. Batoon seems to be more conservative in that regard, which could hold true once again this week.
There’s an argument to be made that sending pressure makes sense as a way to attack Thorne, potentially forcing him into ill-advised throws. It likely won’t be that simple.
Thorne’s completion percentage is actually one-tenth of a point higher when he faces a blitz, going from 59.2% against a normal pass rush to 59.3% against the blitz. Neither mark is particularly electric, but it may be a deterrent. Other than a quicker release and slightly shorter throws, Thorne’s statistical profile doesn’t change much against blitzes.
Except for his turnovers. He’s thrown all six of his interceptions on plays that didn’t involve a blitz. Yes, you read that right — it goes against the expected trend.
Dropping more bodies back into coverage, then, may be the way to force Thorne into more picks.
Young players with bigger roles?
Regardless of whether they’re blitzing, there will likely be some fresher faces on the Mizzou defense following season-ending injuries for linebacker Khalil Jacobs and defensive end Joe Moore III.
Triston Newson is expected to remain the starting outside linebacker, but he was listed as questionable with an undisclosed injury on the first of the week’s mandated injury reporters. MU opened this week’s practices expecting to have Newson available.
Regardless of his availability, freshman linebacker Nicholas Rodriguez is in line for a sudden promotion. With Newson sidelined and Jacobs forced out of the game against UMass, Rodriguez was Missouri’s leading tackler. He’s likely to be a rotational option behind Newson but very much a contributor.
“We’ve been utilizing him on special teams to try to prepare him for this opportunity,†coach Eli Drinkwitz said. “I think there’s several young guys that we’ve felt like we needed to get them going, and he’s certainly one of them.â€
Second-year defensive end and Troy Buchanan product Jahkai Lang is likely to see more of an established role in the edge rusher rotation, replacing Moore. Five-star freshman Williams Nwaneri is also in the mix but still appeared in a scout team jersey at Tuesday’s practice while Lang saw more work in a walkthrough segment.
Another sellout crowd
Mizzou fans will be rising with the sun on Saturday morning for a tight morning of homecoming activities. The annual parade will begin at 8 a.m., looping through the MU campus and downtown Columbia before wrapping up in time for fans to enter the stadium for the football game’s 11 a.m. start.
It’s a more compact time frame than usual: Missouri routinely asks the SEC for an afternoon or evening kickoff for its homecoming game to more comfortably accommodate the parade, but the league dished out a morning game nonetheless.
After playing in front of more than 97,000 of another team’s fans against Texas A&M and fewer than 17,000 against UMass, Mizzou will be ready to see a home crowd again. Drinkwitz is hopeful that will rattle Thorne, too.
“They’re a really talented football team,†he said of Auburn. “We need to force them into some uncomfortable situations, which I think the crowd can help us there.â€