What Texas A&M coach Mike Elko said about QB Matt Zollers, Missouri football before game
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The Tigers are in need of some magic at home.
No. 17/19-ranked Missouri football faces must-win matchups all the way out now if the CFP is the goal, and that run begins with one of the SEC’s strongest squads to date in undefeated and No. 3/3-ranked Texas A&M on Saturday afternoon in Columbia.
Mizzou (6-2, 2-2 SEC) will be without injured starting quarterback Beau Pribula and will play true freshman and former top-100 prospect Matt Zollers against the Aggies.
Texas A&M (8-0, 5-0) is a frontrunner to make the SEC title game and earn a bye in the playoff. The Aggies most recently knocked off LSU on the road, putting up 35 straight points in a second-half turnaround that put Brian Kelly out of a job in Baton Rouge.
Last season, Texas A&M ran the Tigers out of College Station with a 41-10 win that was seldom competitive.
Here’s what Aggies coach Mike Elko told reporters in College Station during his weekly media availability Monday in the leadup to facing Missouri on Saturday in Columbia:
On facing freshman Missouri QB Matt Zollers
Pribula is out indefinitely. Sam Horn has been out since his first snap of Week 1. That means the Tigers are turning to a true freshman against the nation’s No. 1-ranked third-down defense.
Zollers was impressive in his first piece of extended, competitive action against Vanderbilt after Pribula sustained a “non-fractured dislocated ankle” that is likely to keep him out for the full regular season.
The rookie led a game-tying drive and completed a Hail Mary that nearly sent the game to overtime against the Commodores, but the pass fell an inch short of the goal line. He has played 90 snaps as a college quarterback, with half of those coming in one half at Vandy and the remainder almost entirely made up of mop-up, end-of-game spots.
That does lend to a little unfamiliarity for the Aggies.
“There’s obviously not a ton of film,” Elko said. “We go back and watch his high school stuff, watch the part that he played in the Vanderbilt game. Obviously he’s a talented kid. I think he throws the ball really well. The ball jumps out of his hands. You can see that.
“So, I anticipate him being able to make all of the throws and see what he can do with his feet. He’s an athletic kid. I think he’ll present a lot of challenges to us.”
On Ahmad Hardy, Mizzou run game
Drinkwitz said earlier this season that the best thing you can do for a new quarterback is to get them a great running back.
Missouri has that in Ahmad Hardy, and it seems safe to assume the Tigers will lean heavily on the SEC’s rushing leader down the stretch with Zollers taking over at QB.
Hardy, after a comparatively quiet two-game stretch against Alabama and Auburn, was impactful against Vanderbilt with 97 yards on 20 carries. He is the ace up the sleeve for Mizzou, and the former defensive coordinator on the opposing sideline is keenly aware of what Hardy can do to a defense.
“He’s a really talented back. He big, he’s powerful. He runs through tackles. I think you see that consistently,” Elko said. “He’s always leaning forward, and so he always gets more than is blocked. That’s obviously a testament to being a really good running back. Systematically they do a really good job of running the football.”
Elko says ‘this is a playoff game’ for Mizzou
Mizzou’s situation is crystal clear, and Elko knows that.
The Tigers have to win out to reach 10-2, which is widely viewed as safe harbor for an SEC team to reach the College Football Playoff. The challenges are stacking. Mizzou is down to QB3 and gets two of the nation’s best defenses in the last four games of the year, with Oklahoma later down the line and Texas A&M coming to town this week.
So, Texas A&M’s coach called this what it is essentially is for the Tigers: An early playoff game.
“In terms of Missouri, this is the challenge that you have in college football today. They’re still very much alive for the playoff. This is a playoff game for them,” Elko said. “They obviously know they’re going to have to win out in order, probably, to get in. So, this is a huge opportunity for them at home on a big stage to make a statement that they’re going to go chase a spot in the playoff.
“There’s a lot more of that nowadays than there’s been in the past when only two or four teams were making the playoffs. So, in a lot of ways, this is a playoff game on Saturday in Columbia.”
This article originally appeared on Columbia Daily Tribune: What Texas A&M coach Mike Elko said about Missouri football before game
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