Missouri’s win over Troy didn’t exactly scream dominance, but the Tigers still found themselves moving up when the latest rankings dropped.
After a 27-17 victory Saturday night, Missouri climbed from No. 20 to No. 19 in the Week 3 AP Top 25 Poll, picking up 369 votes. The rise comes with a brutal stretch still ahead, one that will put the Tigers in the middle of a crowded SEC race featuring a season-high 10 teams in the AP top 25 after Florida cracked the list.
That road only gets tougher from here. Missouri is set to face six ranked opponents the rest of the way, including back-to-back November games against No.
1 Texas at home and No. 2 Georgia on the road.
Before that, the Tigers head to Oxford on Oct. 17 for a matchup with No. 4 Ole Miss.
Next up is a ranked test in Starkville. Missouri plays No.
24 Mississippi State at 6:45 p.m. Saturday, marking its first ranked matchup since a 17-6 loss to No.
8 Oklahoma in Norman in the penultimate game of its 2025 regular season.
The Tigers have gone a while without a ranked win. Their last one came in Week 3 of the 2024 season, when they beat No.
24 Boston College 27-21 at home. Since then, Missouri has fallen to No.
25 Texas A&M, No. 15 Alabama, No.
21 South Carolina, No. 8 Alabama, No.
3 Texas A&M and No. 8 Oklahoma.
Missouri also moved in the Week 3 LBM Coaches Poll, rising from No. 22 to No. 21.
The Tigers landed in the middle of a cluster of SEC teams, sitting one spot behind Texas A&M, one spot ahead of Florida and three places above Oklahoma. Texas A&M dropped after a 31-21 loss to unranked Kentucky, while Florida moved up after beating Auburn 44-39.
Oklahoma, meanwhile, beat New Mexico 14-6 but remained unranked in the AP Poll.
Mississippi State enters the matchup after earning 114 votes and landing as the second team out following a 41-34 win over unranked South Carolina.
The AP Top 25 had Texas at No. 1, followed by Georgia, Notre Dame, Ole Miss, Indiana, Miami, Ohio State, Alabama, BYU and LSU. Texas Tech, USC, Penn State, Tennessee, Utah, Louisville, Iowa, Michigan, Missouri, Oregon, Florida, SMU, Texas A&M, Mississippi State and Houston rounded out the poll.
The Coaches Poll listed Texas, Georgia, Notre Dame, Indiana, Miami, Ole Miss, Ohio State, Alabama, BYU and Texas Tech in the top 10, with Missouri at No. 21.
In Other News...
Missouri Escaped Troy With A Problem Tigers Fans Can't Ignore
Missouri got out of Troy with a win, but it did not look like the kind of afternoon that lets a team breathe easy. The Tigers leaned on a 27-17 result in a game full of mistakes and defensive breakdowns, while Eli Drinkwitz was left to acknowledge both the sloppy play on that side of the ball and the offenses own inefficiencies.
The good news is Missouri is still undefeated, and the schedule does not leave much time for self-scouting. SEC play is next, starting with Mississippi State, and the gap between surviving a game like this and being ready for what comes next is the part Tigers fans cannot ignore. [Read more 🡒]
Mizzou Finally Got The Response It Needed In One Troubling Win
Missouri spent the lead-up to Troy trying to clean up special teams after earlier problems with blocked field goals, and the emphasis showed up in a much more meaningful way on Saturday. Blake Craig handled the kicking duties cleanly, and DaMarion Fowlkes turned a punt return into a touchdown as the Tigers got 13 points from a unit that had been a concern coming in.
For Eli Drinkwitz, it was the kind of response that mattered even in a win that still left plenty to sort through. The special teams play looked sharper and more reliable, but the bigger message from the sideline was that Missouri still has to keep improving across the board if it wants better results ahead. [Read more 🡒]
Mizzou's Win Over Troy Made One Trust Issue Hard To Ignore
Missouris 27-17 win over Troy did what it needed to do, but it also offered a pretty clear snapshot of how Eli Drinkwitz is viewing this roster right now. The Tigers used a concise lineup of 42 players, leaned on a handful of sophomores who brought energy to the game, and got just enough from Connor Bazelak, who finished 10 of 19 for 91 yards and a touchdown. Elijah Dotson and Daeden Hopkins were among the younger players who helped make the rotation feel more productive than decorative.
What stood out, though, was the trust issue underneath the result. Drinkwitz said the rotation came down to confidence in the players who gave Missouri the best chance to win, which is fine in theory and revealing in practice. When a coach keeps narrowing the circle that way, it usually says as much about who he still believes in as it does about who is merely getting reps, and that remains one of the more interesting threads to watch as the Tigers move forward. [Read more 🡒]