'Right Here, Right Now': Mizzou Has Chance for Season-Defining Win Against Texas A&M

To those on the outside, the outlook for Missouri's season might be murky. Some might even say it's over.

But, to anyone inside of Missouri's practice facility, everything they want with four games left in the season is absolutely still in play. In fact, it's right in front of them, starting with Week 11 against the Texas A&M Aggies.

"If you would have told us when we started the fall camp that we would be ranked coming out of the second bye week with an opportunity for everything we want in front of us, we get to play a top-10 team at home, which everybody signed up for, and we all said yes," head coach Eli Drinkwitz said on Tuesday.

Drinkwitz has always preached staying present and blocking out any outside noise. That message has very much stayed with him and his team heading into their biggest game of the season.

That being said, having a big chance to win a big game won't mean much if Drinkwitz's squad doesn't actually walk away with a win. Executing at the highest level and playing team football will be notable parts of the equation that equate to a victory.

"The opportunity that we wanted is right here, right now," Drinkwitz said. "We have to take advantage of it and every journey never goes as planned."

It's very clear that there have been games that the Tigers could have won, like their road trip to Vanderbilt and home bout with Alabama, but failed to do so. Having another chance at a ranked win, especially at home, needs to be an opportunity they can't pass up on.

"Them being a number three team, I think that's what makes the opportunity," center Connor Tollison said. "It's just us improving. We've had opportunities and we didn't maybe seize it."

Texas A&M arguably is the best team the Tigers have faced up to this point. The national polls and College Football Playoff Rankings would cosign that.

Just because Missouri is facing the third-ranked team in the nation does not mean they need to go in with low expectations. The Tigers might just be one big win away from the outlook of the season flipping on its side, but it has to happen in Week 11 against the Aggies.

That's going to make every single play from each player at every position that much more important.

"Don't make excuses and go attack it and everybody that's on our football team in this organization has earned the right to be here, and they just gotta lean into it, and they got to lean into their opportunity," Drinkwitz said. "Don't make it bigger than it is. Trust their training, trust the elite edge preparation that they've gotten, and go attack it. There's really nothing to fear. It's just a hell of an opportunity laying out there for us, and we're going to go attack it and go have fun doing it.”

Part of seizing the opportunity in front of the Tigers is seeing what freshman quarterback Matt Zollers is made of. It'll be his first career start as a college football player and it's coming against one of the best teams in the country.

That shouldn't be taken lightly, especially given the talent level of the Aggie defense. That's not exactly the unit that you want your true freshman quarterback playing against in the biggest moment of his career to date, but it also allows him to prove himself in the brightest spotlight possible.

"Offensively, everybody, coaches, players, everybody has to reduce the friction that Matt feels," Drinkwitz said. "So that'll be the challenge this week. He just needs to be himself. We're excited for the opportunity."

READ: How Beau Pribula, Sam Horn Have Helped Mizzou From the Sidelines

Zollers has managed to catch the eyes of his teammates throughout the season, including the last week and a half, when he was running with the ones. They can also see that he's ready for the chance to prove himself ahead.

"He's a talented player, talented quarterback, with a really bright future, and I'm excited to see what he does the next games going into the rest of the season," safety Jalen Catalon said. "So I'm excited to see his growth as we as we go along in season. Like I said, so far, we've seen a lot of great things."

Missouri can go and snatch that exact opportunity at 2:30 p.m. on Saturday, hosting the third-ranked Aggies at Faurot Field.

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