Thirteen times this season, the Mizzou defense has given enough of an effort and played well enough for the Tigers to win.
But for the fifth time, it wasn’t good enough because the Tiger offense couldn’t provide any help.
Mizzou produced two good drives. First was the game-opening series that ended in a score. The second was the game-ending series where the Tigers’ attempt to pull off a miracle hit the turf as the Tigers lost the TaxSlayer Gator Bowl 13-7 to the Virginia Cavaliers.
“I’m disappointed for, obviously, the seniors,” Mizzou coach Eliah Drinkwitz said. “Connor (Tollison), the way he’s played and performed here for the amount of time he’s been here. For Zion (Young), for those guys. This is going to stick with me for a while, not doing enough to help them find a way to win.”
Familiar-feeling game
Saturday was a microcosm of much of the Mizzou season.
The Tigers opened with a great drive. But once the offensive script ended, any chance of moving the ball did, too. Right up until the 2-minute drill.
In the meantime, the Mizzou defense kept the Tigers close enough for that final 2-minute effort to matter.
Mizzou opened the game marching down the field on a seven-play, 74-yard drive as the Tigers easily cruised for a touchdown. Ahmad Hardy broke free for a 43-yard run and Jamal Roberts took a direct snap for a 5-yard touchdown run.
The Tigers seemed to be in control early and looked like they might just cruise to a ninth win.
But then the offensive script ended.
After gaining 74 yards and three first downs on the opening drive, Mizzou garnered just six first downs and 127 yards on their next nine. The Tigers offense was on the field for a total of 1:43 in the third quarter.
“That first drive, we had great rhythm,” Drinkwitz said. “The second drive we had a good rhythm. We just, we couldn’t convert some third downs and then that muffed punt, we were just out of sorts. There was a third-and-8, we run a 7-yard route. There’s a third-and-4 and we throw the ball behind him. That should have been a clear first down. So we were just off.”
And while the Tiger offense was struggling, Virginia was building some rhythm.
The Cavaliers got on the board with a field goal in the second quarter. Then after halftime, the Cavaliers put together the drive of the game, going 75 yards on 19 plays and eating up the first 10:07 of the second half.
The second half
“They had that (10-minute) drive to start the third quarter, had two fourth downs and it just, you know, we never at that point were able to get in and settle in on what we needed to do,” Drinkwitz said.
Virginia added another field goal to create the final score with a minute left in the third.
But thanks to the Tiger defense, Mizzou wasn’t out of the fight just yet. The Tigers got a stop on third down, one of 10 third down stops (though Virginia went 13-of-23 on third downs) and Virginia pooch punted with 10:42 left.
But the Tigers were unable to garner a first down once again and had to punt from the shadow of their own goalposts with 8:45 to play.
Once again, the Tiger defense got the stop it needed. But after a first down on a Hardy run, his first touch of the second half with 4:27 left to play, Mizzou got no farther.
The Tiger defense had to get a three-and-out and did, getting true freshman quarterback Matt Zollers the chance to be a hero with 1:33 left on the clock and 82 yards to go for the win.
Finally moving
Zollers and the Tiger offense finally got moving for the first time since the first drive. The quarterback hit throws of 11 yards to Kevin Coleman and 14 yards to Daniel Blood. Mizzou got in striking position when Zollers hit Donovan Olugbode on a 24-yard back-shoulder pass that he placed perfectly to lead Olugbode out of bounds. That pass put the Tigers at the Virginia 21 with 25 seconds left.
Two plays later and facing third-and-10 from the Virginia 21, Zollers rolled to his right and smartly fired the ball away instead of taking a sack. But his head hit the turf and he reached up to hold it for a second too long after the play. The officials sent Zollers off the field on fourth-and-10 with the game on the line, worrying about a possible head injury.
“They said he had to come out of the game,” Drinkwitz said. “I guess it was the referee’s decision.”
So in came walk-on quarterback Brett Brown to try to be the hero. Brown unleashed a beautiful pass, probably the best throw of the day for the Tigers, and hit Blood in the end zone. But a fantastic play from Virginia defensive back Devin Neal knocked the ball to the turf and Virginia held on for the win.
Stats
It was an abysmal performance for the Mizzou offense statistically. The Tigers ran just 55 plays and had 260 total yards. Of that, 159 came on the ground.
The bright spot for Mizzou was Hardy, who reached 89 yards, setting the Tigers single-season rushing record as he finished the year with 1,649, besting Cody Schrader’s 1,627 from 2023.
But in a key moment as the Tigers seemed to have some offensive momentum late, Hardy came off the field for a 4th-and-2 run. Zollers took it on a boot to his right and was stopped short of the line to gain.
Drinkwitz, who called the offensive plays with offensive coordinator Kirby Moore off to take the head coaching job at Washington State, produced one of the Tigers’ worst performances in the past three years.
“I know the fans are disappointed, I’m disappointed,” Drinkwitz said. “I know that locker room’s disappointed. And that’s a good thing. That’s a good thing when Missouri is disappointed after a season like this. That’s where we want to be, that’s what we’ve got to be. And so that’s what we’re going to continue to fight to uphold.”
Up next
The Tigers finished the season with a record of 8-5, the worst since 2022. Now Drinkwitz and his staff will hit the transfer portal, which opens on Friday.
Drinkwitz said he expects more portal exits after the game, but was sure to mention Hardy, Nicholas Rodriguez (who played a fantastic game with 15 tackles in Josiah Trotter’s absence) and Matt Zollers as players who have already signed to return to Mizzou next season.