Mizzou football looks to clean up imperfections ahead of SEC opener at Vanderbilt

They’re on their first four-game winning streak of their head coach’s tenure.

They’re ranked for the first time since 2019.

They’re off to a 4-0 start for the first time since 2013.

Time to take some time to let your hair down, kick the shoes off and appreciate the moment, eh Mizzou football?

Nope … If the Tigers are enjoying life in rarified air, they’re doing a good job keeping mum.

“Our goal wasn’t to be ranked, our goal was to play for a championship,” MU coach Eli Drinkwitz said. “And this week it’s to be 1-0, so all that really is just noise to us.”

Next up, Missouri football begins its Southeastern Conference campaign with a trip to face Vanderbilt (2-3, 0-1 SEC) on Saturday in Nashville, Tennessee. The Commodores are on a three-game slide, but the Tigers aren’t letting their guard down.

“I know that they're gonna have their best shot ready for us at home,” Drinkwitz said.

But the head coach isn’t sure Missouri has delivered its best shot yet, either.

Drinkwitz addressed more areas for improvement than reasons for celebration during his Tuesday press conference, including, but not limited to, third-down woes on both offense and defense and a worrisome list of injuries to key players.

So even as the Tigers move into their league slate undefeated, cleaning up is their cornerstone.

Drinkwitz was upset with the team’s 36.36% (16-of-44) conversion rate through four games on third downs, which he noted is in large part because of an inability to get into third-and-manageable situations

“A lot of the issues we have are penalties. The drives that we have penalties put us behind the chains and then we're not able to get back into a manageable down and distance,” Drinkwitz said. … “That all resulted in us having long third downs that we weren't able to convert, so we've got to do a better job with the things that we can control.”

That task could be made all the more difficult if 50-50 injury statuses don’t swing in the Tigers’ favor.

Starting quarterback Brady Cook and star wide receiver Luther Burden are both questionable for Saturday’s game.

Cook, who was a full participant during the portions of Missouri’s practice open to the media Tuesday, is a 72% passer for more than 1,000 yards, seven touchdowns and zero interceptions through four games. Burden, who stood in one spot catching short passes for most, if not all, of Tuesday’s practice, is averaging 126 receiving yards a game.

In short: Not players the Tigers want to travel without.

Moreover: Freshman tight end Brett Norfleet also is questionable for Vanderbilt, but after missing Saturday’s win over Memphis, he was a full participant Tuesday. Wide receiver Mekhi Miller will not play against Vanderbilt, per the head coach.

Flip the sides, and third-down struggles are on the docket again.

Per The Athletic’s “Stop Rate” report, Mizzou ranks No. 73 in the FBS for getting offenses off the field by way of “punt, turnovers or turnover on downs,” using data against solely other FBS opponents, which excludes MU’s opener vs. South Dakota.

The Tigers have managed stops on 62.9% of those drives, but exactly 0 out of 12 times in the red zone. Of those 12 trips, eight opposition red-zone possessions have resulted in touchdowns.

“There's a variety of issues, but it comes down to us executing our assignments, coaches making the assignments more clear so that we can play with less confusion and more aggression,” Drinkwitz said. “We’ve got to stay in our rush lanes, we’ve got to cover better man-to-man. When we mix up the coverages and get to the zone cover, we’ve got to make sure we're matching in our zones.”

And the injury bug has come for key players on defense, too.

Cornerbacks Ennis Rakestraw Jr. and Dreyden Norwood are both being evaluated for injuries before facing Vanderbilt, Drinkwitz said, and Kris Abrams-Draine was wearing a no-contact uniform Tuesday. All three, however, were full participants in practice. In front of them, sixth-year defensive end Darius Robinson also is questionable for the Vandy trip.

If that feels like a lot of doom and gloom for a 4-0 team, worry not.

If it hasn’t been pretty at times, three straight one-score wins without lighting up the stat sheet tell a tale.

“That’s the exciting part for me with our team, is we’re not playing a lot of great football down in and down out,” Drinkwitz said during his weekly radio show, Tiger Talk, on Tuesday evening. “We’re playing a lot of tough football, but when we start playing that great football down in and down out, man, look out.”

This article originally appeared on Columbia Daily Tribune: MU looks to clean up imperfections ahead of SEC opener at Vanderbilt