'Stop the Run, Have Some Fun': How Mizzou Built Stout Run Defense

Through four games of the 2025 season, the Missouri defense has established its identity. Head coach Eli Drinkwitz put it simply: “stop the run, have some fun.”

“I think you see the hallmarks, or the DNA of what we want our defensive football team to be: stop the run, have some fun,” he said after Missouri’s Week 4 win over South Carolina.

In that victory, the Tigers allowed -9 rushing yards, effectively shutting down anything the Gamecocks tried to get going on the ground. Before that, Missouri gave up 31 to Kansas in Week 2.

“We've been able to stuff the run without having to add a lot of pressures or anything like that,” Drinkwitz said. “We have a little bit of line movement, but for the most part, we're just able to control our gaps and escape, and then play down those linebackers.”

The rush defense has come up big in crucial moments late in games.

Against both South Carolina and Kansas, the Tigers have trailed entering the fourth quarter. To comeback, the Tigers leaned on their own run game, and stopped their opponents in order to take control of the pace of the game.

Missouri outrushed South Carolina 99 to 1 in the fourth quarter. Against Kansas, the Tigers gained 92 yards on the ground compared to 20 for the Jayhawks in the final quarter.

“Anytime you can stop the run, you're really never out of the game,” Drinkwitz said.

Missouri looked to the transfer portal this offseason to boost its run defense after losing both of its starting middle linebackers to graduation. That replacement came in the form of Josiah Trotter, a transfer from West Virginia.

“We felt like in the portal defensively. … we needed to add a difference maker stopping the run, and that's what we did,” Drinkwitz said Tuesday.

At 6’2, 237 lbs., Trotter has patrolled the middle of Missouri’s defense. His physicality is a key part of his playing style.

"Sometimes, you gotta have a guy just whoop another dude,” Trotter said. “That's what it comes down to in the run game, playing with physicality."

Trotter leads the team with six tackles for loss. He is consistently in on the action, leading the team in total tackles with 26.

“I feel like Trotter takes up the whole box,” defensive back Daylan Carnell said in a press conference Tuesday. “If it's a run inside the tackles, he's gonna make it.”

Another piece that Missouri added through the transfer portal that has helped the run defense is junior defensive end Damon Wilson II. The Georgia transfer plays a sneaky role in the run defense, drawing a lot of attention from opponents. His distracting presence allows other Missouri defenders to slip through the cracks.

“Damon was one of those guys that came in where you could tell he would be a ‘dude’ right away,” Trotter said. “It's gonna help a lot of those other guys (on the) D-line. It kind of takes the focus off of us.”

Carnell offered a different perspective on the defense, explaining how the ability to efficiently stop the run is a positive factor, but it doesn’t trump the disappointments of the team’s pass defense.

While Missouri’s run defense has excelled, its defensive secondary has suffered.

“I feel like sometimes we’re stopping the run so well,some of the guys want to get in on that too,” Carnell said. “Guys gotta just do their job. You got an assignment, do it, and everything else will take care of itself. We just got guys having bad eyes, getting greedy, just little things.”

The secondary gave up eight passes of 15 or more yards in the Week 4 win, exposing issues that need to be addressed.

READ: Eli Drinkwitz Diagnoses Mizzou's Secondary Issues Following Week 4 Win

It’s still early in the year, but the errors need to be cleaned up, especially as Missouri nears a difficult part of its schedule.

Even though the secondary has struggled, Missouri’s defense can hang its hat on its stout run defense.

Read more Missouri Tigers news: