The best things about Mizzou in 2025 ...Middle East

Georgia and Texas. That’s the entire list.

Oh, what list am I referring to? That’s the list of SEC teams who won more games than Mizzou the last 2 seasons. It’s a short list because, well, Mizzou is 21-5 the last 2 seasons. Alabama and Ole Miss also had 21 wins the last 2 seasons, but yes, the list of SEC teams with more wins than Eli Drinkwitz‘s program in 2023-24 is just Georgia and Texas.

Even without a Playoff berth, that’s upside that deserves to be appreciated. Mizzou has a coach in the $9 million range who is in good standing, it signed a top-15 recruiting class, and it landed 7 transfers who were rated as 4- or 5-stars. Steady? You bet. The positives are all over the place.

There’s no better time to be positive than talkin’ season. That’s what I always say. Each of the next 16 days, we’ll look at the best things about each SEC team. This daily series will align with the SEC Network Takeover, which runs from Saturday, June 28 until July 13, AKA just before talkin’ season officially kicks off at SEC Media Days on July 14.

Mark your calendars! ?️The @SECNetwork Takeover returns June 28-July 13Each of the 16 @SEC schools will takeover the network for a day of school-centric programming with 24 hours of the year's best momentsMore on #SECNTakeover ➡️ t.co/LJHK4ml6wk pic.twitter.com/WScfaJo7Tp

r those keeping track at home, that’s alphabetical order.

So far, here are the teams that we’ve done:

Today, we’ll continue with the best things about Mizzou in 2025:

Best offensive player: Connor Tollison, C

While I’m awfully tempted to go with a transfer like the underrated Kevin Coleman Jr. (Mississippi State) or Ahmad Hardy (Louisiana-Monroe), Tollison is the choice here because he’s one of the best returning centers in the sport. The silver lining of his season-ending knee injury in the Oklahoma game was that it might’ve been what tipped the scales for him to return to Mizzou with an NFL departure on the table. Fortunately for Mizzou, an all-important anchor of that offensive line is back with 35 career starts under his belt.

Tollison’s 4th year as a starter will likely include all sorts of preseason accolades, and understandably so. In 1,206 career pass-blocking snaps, he allowed just 6 sacks and never more than 2 in a season. But Tollison’s prowess has been felt most in the run game. He was a major reason why Cody Schrader took the college football world by storm in 2023 when Mizzou was a semifinalist for the Joe Moore Award. Tollison might not have quite the NFL upside of teammate Cayden Green, but in the last 2 seasons, he’s been a major floor-raiser in that offense.

Best defensive player: Josiah Trotter, LB

In addition to Georgia transfer Damon Wilson II, one of the prized transfer pickups for Mizzou was getting Trotter from West Virginia. In his first full season, he earned Big 12 Defensive Freshman of the Year honors. The son of Eagles legend Jeremiah Trotter Sr. and brother of former Clemson All-American Jeremiah Trotter Jr. was everywhere as a redshirt freshman. He racked up a whopping 92 tackles in 12 games, including 4 tackles for loss. He also added 12 quarterback pressures and 7 hurries for a West Virginia defense that lacked depth.

At Mizzou, he’ll be in the middle of a unit that ranks No. 5 in FBS in percentage of returning defensive production. That’s because Mizzou is loaded with veterans on the defensive line after quietly finishing 2024 with a top-20 scoring defense. Trotter won’t have the 5-star accolades of someone like Wilson, but it’ll be evident from the jump that he’s the best player on that side of the ball.

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Best freshman: Donovan Olugbode, WR

This might be the first chalky choice, but it’s the right one. Olugbode was a top-100 recruit out of IMG Academy (Bradenton, Fla.) who could’ve picked basically anywhere in the country. He made a Luther Burden III-like decision to take his talents to Columbia, where he’ll have a path to get snaps immediately in a new-look receiver room. OK, it’s not a total overhaul in Mizzou’s receiver room — Marquis Johnson and Joshua Manning are back — but it’s a post-Burden/Theo Wease world. That means opportunity is up for grabs in a receiver room that’ll be searching for a new go-to guy.

Olugbode looked the part in 2 national all-star games, and he continued that as an early enrollee. It’ll be interesting to see how the true freshman is used. When Burden was a true freshman in 2022, Drinkwitz put a bit too much on his plate and later realized that just playing him almost exclusively in the slot was better for his game. Olugbode might not be as college-ready as Burden was, and he’s also got the aforementioned Coleman stepping in as a proven slot receiver in the SEC. One would think, though, that Drinkwitz and Kirby Moore would like to have him on the 2-deep with the freedom to move him around the formation in Year 1.

Best game: Week 4, South Carolina vs. Mizzou

This rivalry — it is indeed a rivalry — is incredibly underrated. Every year, it delivers thrillers. Last year was no exception. We had a Mizzou comeback on a wild 4th-down play to Burden, which initially looked like it would extend the Tigers’ win streak in the matchup to 6, but it was followed by a coming-of-age drive by LaNorris Sellers that was capped off with a bulldozing run by Rocket Sanders. This year, the battle of Columbia will again be appointment viewing.

Mizzou hasn’t lost a home game since Jayden Daniels led LSU to that comeback win in 2023. South Carolina, on the other hand, only lost 1 true road game last year, and it was a thriller at Alabama. While some might suggest that the game against the Tide a couple weeks later is more important, Mizzou fans know the significance of beating South Carolina, especially when it’s a Gamecocks team with legitimate preseason buzz. This game will have a major say in whether both teams can stay in the national conversation with extremely favorable starts to their respective schedules.

Best reason for improvement: That schedule

I already outlined why I thought Mizzou’s schedule could be the 2025 version of what Indiana’s 2024 schedule was, so I’m not breaking any news by saying this. But it’s truly remarkable to consider that Mizzou can check the following boxes:

That’s extremely rare. Obviously, Mizzou won’t have a chance to capitalize on that schedule unless Beau Pribula is the real deal. The Penn State transfer could be the second coming of Will Levis, or he could be the second coming of Brock Vandagriff. We don’t know. What we do know is that Hardy and this ground game should be the focal point of the offense after his 1,300-yard season as a true freshman at Louisiana-Monroe. Whether Mizzou can impose its will with a new-look offense remains to be seen, but there’s a ton of grace with the way the schedule sets up.

Nobody should be stunned if Mizzou finds itself in the Playoff conversation with just 1-2 losses heading into November.

The best things about Mizzou in 2025 Saturday Down South.

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