Week 5 gave Mizzou football a very different kind of buzz. The Tigers’ 45-17 win over a top-10 Florida team pushed them right up to the edge of the top 12, and with Texas A&M coming to Columbia after its own rocky stretch, the spotlight shifts again.
But the biggest takeaway from the Florida game wasn’t just the score. It was the way several Tigers stepped into bigger roles and delivered.
Jason Dowell was one of the clearest examples. The 2024 recruit has been working his way into a larger role for a while, and the jump in usage has been steady.
After totaling 31 snaps in three games last season, he’s already up to 142 in four games in 2026. Against Florida, he logged a career-high 34 defensive snaps, with 25 of those coming in pass-rush situations per PFF.
He made them count. Dowell finished with a sack and three pressures, including one early in the fourth quarter when he drove the Gators’ center straight back into Aaron Philo’s pocket and forced a checkdown that ended in an incompletion.
His work against the run stood out too, as Jadan Baugh was pushed to bounce a couple runs outside and got shut down quickly.
Dowell’s rise fit into a broader theme up front: Mizzou had enough depth to get creative. That led to Sterling Webb moving outside when Langden Kitchen and Darris Smith were both unavailable against Florida.
The switch paid off. Webb finished with four pressures, his most since he had six against Auburn last season, and he also beat Florida’s tight end cleanly for a sack on Philo.
From Matthew Gustafson’s Tiger Talk Notes and Quotes: Aggies Edition:
On shifting Sterling Webb out to defensive end against Florida: “Just another great example of the brotherhood doing whatever it takes to find a way to win. We utilize this line a lot: there’s a way to win every game, you just have to find it.
And I credit our coaches, [defensive tackles] coach [David] Blackwell and [defensive line] coach Chop [Harbin] and [edge rushers] coach [Brian] Early for finding a way to … we have the depth at d-tackle, so let’s slide Sterling out into the boundary and let him do the things that we need to do front-wise in order to stop the run. And then for him to get a transition to a sack was pretty big.
It was pretty awesome.”
The linebacker room got tested too. Eli Drinkwitz said the Florida game was a physical one, and Robert Woodyard Jr. left early in the first quarter, came back, then exited again in the fourth.
He enters this week as questionable on the depth chart. Nicholas Rodriguez also stepped aside for a few plays.
That opened the door for Jeremiah Beasley and Dante McClellan to handle more work than usual. McClellan set a career high with 31 snaps and posted a PFF tackle grade of 77.8, while Beasley reached a career-high 30 snaps and has now surpassed his total defensive snaps from the previous two seasons with 99.
If Woodyard can’t go against Texas A&M, both players could be leaned on again in a bigger way alongside Rodriguez.
Caleb Goodie Sr. rounded out the list with the kind of week that can change how an offense looks. He had been a stock-down candidate after playing just 15 offensive snaps against Mississippi State and nine against Troy, but that changed fast.
Against Florida, he caught two passes for 67 yards and a touchdown after entering the game with only one catch for five yards. The speed showed up, and the way he was used fit him perfectly.
That matters for an offense that can use a third receiver making real plays. Goodie has done that before at Colorado State and Cincinnati, and he has the experience to do it again in Columbia.
In Other News...
Missouri Freshman DJ Jones Faces A Far Bigger Fight Than Football
Missouri freshman offensive lineman DJ Jones has spent this season dealing with something far bigger than the normal grind of a college football fall. Jones underwent a heart transplant and is recovering, coach Eli Drinkwitz said, after preseason evaluations uncovered a significant heart problem that sent him to the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Florida.
Jones has not played this season and remains away from the team while Missouri continues its games, a reminder that his journey is now measured in medical updates rather than reps or snap counts. For a freshman trying to begin his college career, the focus has shifted entirely to recovery, and the Tigers are left pulling for a much more important comeback than anything on the field. [Read more 🡒]
Mizzou Fans Finally Got The Update They Needed On DJ Jones
Missouri fans got the update they had been hoping for on freshman offensive tackle Johnnie DJ Jones, who recently underwent a successful heart transplant and is now recovering. The need for the procedure was discovered during the Tigers freshmen intake, turning what should have been an ordinary start to college football into a deeply personal medical battle for one of the programs newest players.
Jones was treated at the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Fla., where the care team and donor family drew gratitude from coach Eli Drinkwitz and the Missouri community. For a team and fan base that had been following the situation closely, the news brings a measure of relief, even as Jones begins the long next stretch of recovery. [Read more 🡒]
Mizzous Front Seven Faces A Much Tougher Test This Week
Missouris front seven spent last week making life miserable for Florida on the ground, holding the Gators to 42 rushing yards on 25 carries and limiting running back Jadan Baugh to 13 yards on 12 attempts. Linebacker Nicholas Rodriguez was rewarded for his part in that effort, earning SEC Co-Defensive Player of the Week after piling up 11 tackles, a strong sign that the Tigers are getting consistent play from the middle of their defense.
The challenge changes quickly now, with Texas A&M bringing a different kind of problem to the table in quarterback Marcel Reed. Eli Drinkwitz and Missouris players have been stressing sound tackling and clean execution as the week goes on, because the front seven will need to carry over the same urgency against a much more mobile threat and do it without any drop in focus. [Read more 🡒]