Missouri football will take on the Auburn Tigers on Saturday, Oct. 19 at 11 a.m. for this year’s Homecoming game. After a 41-10 loss to the Texas A&M Aggies that derailed their momentum, Missouri is looking to regain their early-season form with a victory over a struggling Auburn team that enters the game with a 2-4 record. Missouri is undefeated at Faurot Field this year, sweeping a four-game homestand to open the season. 

Auburn and Missouri have faced off four times previously, with Auburn holding the 3-1 all-time series lead. The two have met once during head coach Eli Drinkwitz’s tenure in 2022 which resulted in a 17-14 overtime victory for Auburn. The circumstances are different for this matchup, as Missouri enters the game ranked for the first time in the series since 2013. Missouri must beat Auburn for the first time since 1973 if they want to retain hope of competing for a national championship.  

Defensive backs must dominate

The Aggies were extremely effective in throwing the ball against Missouri, with quarterback Conner Weigman completing 82% of his passes for 276 yards in a surgical performance. The Tigers cannot allow the same to happen against an Auburn team that has struggled at the quarterback position this year. 

Auburn senior Payton Thorne has gotten the majority of the snaps under center after starting five of the team’s six games so far. However, redshirt freshman Hank Brown has been called upon at times to lead the offense, starting over Thorne in a victory over New Mexico in September. 

Missouri defensive backs like Daylan Carnell, who has 19 tackles and four pass deflections this year, will be crucial in forcing Auburn to try and win the game with their running game, which averages 163.2 yards per game. 

Rushing game must regain form

Running backs Nate Noel and Marcus Carroll were crucial in Missouri’s narrow win over Vanderbilt; Noel finished with 24 carries for 199 yards and Carroll added a touchdown on five carries. After gaining only 68 yards on the ground against Texas A&M, the Tigers’ rushing offense fell from 15th to 42nd in the country. Noel and Carroll must be more involved if Missouri wants to beat Auburn.

In their most recent loss to Georgia, Auburn gave up 88 yards and two touchdowns to the Bulldogs’ Trevor Etienne. Re-establishing the dynamic rushing attack that led the way to a 4-0 start would be a huge step toward defeating Auburn.

Unlock the vertical passing game

Luther Burden III and Theo Wease Jr. proved last season that they are two of the country’s best receivers, combining for 1,894 yards and 15 touchdowns. Although the pair has still been effective this season with a combined 805 yards, the Tigers have not been able to unlock the deep passing game. Besides Wease’s 59-yard touchdown near the end of the Texas A&M blowout and a 63-yard touchdown to Joshua Manning where all 63 yards occurred after the catch, the longest passing touchdown thrown by Brady Cook this season was a 25-yard completion to Burden against Vanderbilt.

The Tigers connected on plenty of deep balls in 2023, which was one of the central factors in Cook’s breakout season. Bringing that element of their offense back would force Auburn to spread their defense out and focus on passes to all parts of the field, putting Missouri in the driver’s seat to win the Homecoming game.

Edited by Dylan Heinrich | dheinrich@themaneater.com  

Copyedited by Natalie Kientzy | nkientzy@themaneater.com 

Edited by Emily Skidmore | eskidmore@themaneater.com