Missouri defensive end Zion Young would prefer his team not to have to deal with close games like last week’s 42-31 victory over Kansas.
“We don’t want tight games,” he said. “We want to blow people out. But hey, if it comes down to that, we’ll take it on.”
Young might get his wish for a blowout Saturday when the 25th-ranked Tigers host Louisiana in Columbia, Mo.
Missouri (2-0) did show the ability to withstand a punch last week. Kansas stormed out to a 21-6 first-quarter lead before the Tigers spent most of the game’s remainder hogging the ball. They rolled up 595 total yards and 28 first downs, getting 334 yards in the air from quarterback Beau Pribula and 143 yards on the ground from Jamal Roberts.
Missouri coach Eli Drinkwitz was pleased with his team’s execution on that side of the ball.
“Rhythm, attack, execute is our offensive philosophy, and we define execution as playing well under pressure,” he said. “That’s what you have to do in order to win football games. That’s what we did.”
Pribula, a Penn State transfer who won the quarterback job with his strong performance as well as a knee injury to Sam Horn on his first snap Aug. 28 against Central Arkansas, has completed 53 of 67 passes for 617 yards with five touchdowns and no interceptions.
“Beau is really cool, calm, collected …,” Drinkwitz said. “In the biggest moments, in the toughest times, he was nails.”
Through two games, Louisiana-Monroe transfer Ahmad Hardy has 212 yards and two scores on 35 carries while Roberts has added 176 yards on just 21 attempts. Kevin Coleman, playing for his fourth school in as many years, has 16 catches for 174 yards and a touchdown.
While the Tigers are rolling offensively, Louisiana (1-1) is still trying to find itself. The Cajuns took some steps in that direction last week, rushing for 315 yards and three scores during a 34-10 home win over FCS opponent McNeese State.
Bill Davis compiled 132 yards and two touchdowns on 19 carries while Zylan Perry added 94 yards on 14 attempts.
“I thought we played really physical all the way to the whistle,” said Ragin’ Cajuns coach Michael Desormeaux. “I thought our receivers were excellent down the field. They were push-cracking, they were blocking safeties and we challenged them to do that.”
Desormeaux’s team will need to do more in the passing game to make Missouri sweat, though. New starter Daniel Beale hit on 14 of 22 passes last week, but for just 86 yards with a touchdown.
Ole Miss transfer Walker Howard started the season opener, a 14-12 loss at home against Rice, but was ineffective before leaving the game with an injury. Howard connected on just 10 of 22 attempts for 88 yards with an interception and sustained a season-ending oblique injury.
“Daniel operated really well in the run game (and) certainly in the throw game,” Desormeaux said. “There are some things that we’ve got to clean up, fix and do a bit better.”
This will be the first meeting between the schools.
