It’ll be Tigers on Tigers this weekend on Faurot Field.
Missouri football faces Auburn on Saturday in Columbia, which is the first game between the two teams since Mizzou squandered a couple golden opportunities to win in Jordan-Hare Stadium in 2022.
MU (5-1, 1-1 SEC) is entering the second half of its season, despite some question marks in its biggest games, still on the fringes of the conversation for a College Football Playoff Berth.
Auburn (2-4, 0-3) hasn’t stopped shooting itself in the foot this season — coach Hugh Freeze’s second at the helm — and faces an uphill battle for bowl eligibility.
Here is what you need to know about the Auburn Tigers before they visit Columbia for Mizzou’s homecoming matchup:
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Missouri football faces error-prone Auburn offense, QB
Missouri coach Eli Drinkwitz only sees one “glaring weakness” with this Auburn team.
“It shows up in all their losses, which is turnovers,” the Missouri coach said. “Other than that, they’ve played well enough to win football games.”
Freeze’s Tigers are among the most turnover-prone teams in the country through six games, with nine picks thrown and six fumbles lost. With 15 through six games, only East Carolina and Southern Mississippi have given the ball away more.
The Auburn coach spent a fair portion of his Monday press conference talking about a decision quarterback Payton Thorne made on a fourth-and-1 late against Georgia to bring star running back Jarquez Hunter into pass protection rather than handing the ball off for a potential first down. Auburn could have made it a one-score game with points on the drive, but ended up turning it over on downs and losing for a third straight game.
“Obviously,” Freeze said, “we didn’t coach it well enough for him to know he didn’t have to do that.”
Auburn is sticking with Thorne at quarterback, despite dabbling with backup Hank Brown earlier in the year. That wasn’t Thorne’s first mistake, as a late pick six on a third-and-short against Oklahoma ended up costing the Tigers the game.
The QB is averaging 247.6 yards per game and has 10 touchdowns with six picks.
Auburn’s multiple offensive playmakers
AU might be prone to some mistakes, but it has weapons to make the clean plays count.
KeAndre Lambert-Smith has been a stellar addition at wide receiver for Auburn since transferring in from Penn State, catching 24 passes for 510 yards and six touchdowns.
“Really excels in the jump ball, excels in the back shoulder, which has been areas that we’ve struggled with at the DB position,” Drinkwitz said. “So, that’s a point of emphasis for us.”
Five-star freshman Cam Coleman missed some time with an injury, but while healthy has given AU some big-play ability with 23.6 yards per catch.
But it’s Hunter, the Tigers’ running back, who may pose the biggest challenge for Corey Batoon’s defense. Hunter has been one of the better running backs in the SEC, taking his handoffs 6.8 yards a pop for 528 yards and three touchdowns this season.
“As good a running back as we’ve gone against,” Drinkwitz said. … “He’s proven he’s a really, really good player with really good vision, really good quickness, really good speed. We’re going to have to bring our feet with our tackling, or to challenge ourselves to tackle better.”
The good news for Missouri is that Thorne is not particularly mobile, which has put the Mizzou defense under some duress through the first half of the season. But the coverage issues through most of the season — and the inability to stop the run that uncharacteristically reared against Texas A&M — will be put to the test against an Auburn team that can pack a punch.
Who to watch for on defense
Drinkwitz called the matchup between two of his former commits “the game within the game.”
That matchup is MU running back Nate Noel versus AU defensive end Jalen McLeod, both of whom committed to the coach while he was in charge at Appalachian State.
McLeod has 7.5 tackles for loss this season, forming a formidable duo up front with fellow edge rusher Keldrick Faulk, who has five sacks. Linebacker Eugene Asante, who Drinkwitz called “probably the best linebacker we’ve played so far this year,” has been active on that front, too, with five QB hurries.
Auburn’s exploitable characteristic is likely its inexperience, as the Tigers among the most freshmen starting on defense than any team in the nation.
But the front looks mean which has MU’s staff considering some options on how to handle defensive coordinator D.J. Durkin’s players.
“We’re gonna have to figure out if we want to use five-man protection to try to get the fifth guy out and make them cover, or do we keep him in the backfield and match him up on the linebackers?” Drinkwitz said. “So, there’ll be a little bit of cat-and-mouse game just because of the odd-front structure that Coach Durkin uses.”
Score prediction: Missouri 28, Auburn 20
Missouri has to take care of business this week, or its shot at a College Football Playoff berth is, well, shot. This Missouri team, recent performances not forgotten but momentarily placed aside, has learned how to win. MU is 16-3 with one loss at home since the beginning of last season.
Auburn can’t get out of its own way this season and is likely to hand Mizzou chances. We’re predicting Drinkwitz’s Tigers move to 17-3 in their past 20 and 6-1 on the year, but not without a little sweat.
This article originally appeared on Columbia Daily Tribune: Scouting report, score prediction for Missouri football vs Auburn
