Heading into the week two game against Kansas State, Missouri coach Eli Drinkwitz seems to be a little more serious. The Tigers (1-0) handled their business at home in the 52-24 win over Louisiana Tech but Drinkwitz and company know that the team they played last week is a far cry from who they get next stylistically and talent-wise. While there are some things to fix in all three phases of the game Drinkwitz was pleased with the result and how the result came about (for the most part).

Something that didn’t directly impact the team on the field physically but mentally were the fans and Drinkwitz took note of that, especially in the student section. For a couple of seasons, fan attendance has been up-and-down but the 47,000-plus crowd that showed up on Thursday night was a good start, as Missouri looks to try and get more fans vested (for the entire season) in the football program.

"(I) was pleased with the outcome of the game. Obviously, to get a win at home 一 I appreciate the student section. I appreciate the athletic administration for making the move to Thursday night,” Drinkwitz said. “Appreciate the university making all the accommodations that they needed to, but really appreciate the students for showing up and making it a great atmosphere and a great time, and really enjoyed the win.”

It’s going to take a little more than a week one win over an overmatched opponent to get Faurot Field to capacity (62,621) but week one’s blowout win is a start.

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Drinkwitz had a lot of praise for Kansas State running back Deuce Vaughn and defensive end Felix Anudike-Uzomah. Both players were named to the preseason all-Big 12 team after impressive 2021 seasons.

The 5-foot-6, 173-pound Vaughn, recorded 1,404 yards and 14 touchdowns on 235 carries. He also caught 49 passes for 468 yards and four touchdowns.

Drinkwitz likened Vaughn to Tyler Badie and his low center of gravity isn’t what worries Missouri's coach. It’s Vaughn’s dynamism that brings concern.

“You know, I don't think he's all that little again, he reminds me a lot of Tyler Badie, and so those guys have seen that that style of back before. So, I'm not concerned about that,” Drinkwitz said. “What I'm more concerned with is his talent. His vision, his speed, his toughness, his ability to read their scheme, that duo scheme, set people up in blocks. If a defensive lineman gets eyes in the wrong gap, he's going to expose it. If they get out of their gap he's going to expose it.”

Defensive coordinator Blake Baker said similar things about Vaughn and that Vaughn makes something into nothing at a moment’s notice. He also said that the defense has to learn concepts when playing against a team that plays out of multiple personnel sets in order to contain the Kansas State offense.

“They do a good job. They’re multiple in their personnel and multiple in their formations. They're multiple on their formations within that personnel. So they present some challenges in that way," Baker said. "The one thing about them is they're going to show us something that we haven't seen either from a formation standpoint or play standpoint or the combination of two.

"So, we got to learn concepts is what I'm really trying to get to and at the end of the day, we have to understand what our rules are and apply those rules out on the field."

Anudike-Uzomah was the Big-12 Co-Defensive player of the year in 2021 after he recorded 52 tackles, (37 solo), 14.5 tackles for loss, 11 sacks and six forced fumbles. In week eight of last season versus TCU, Anudike-Uzomah was given credit for six sacks, which would’ve tied an NCAA record, before it was lowered to four sacks after two of the fumbles that happened on those plays crossed the line of scrimmage and resulted in those plays being counted as rushes.

Drinkwitz went as far as to say that Anudike-Uzomah is already worthy of being a first-rounddraft pick, and that offensive tackles Javon Foster and Zeke Powell will have to be prepared to play hard every snap for the duration of the game if they want to limit Anudike-Uzomah’s disruption.

“Felix (Anudike-Uzomah) is a tremendous talent that can rush, fit 一plays extremely hard,” Drinkwitz said. “No reason to not think that he is an NFL first-round type of talent at the defensive end position. … They're going to have to trust their technique, and they're gonna have to play hard for four quarters. Any type of play off is going to result in a big-time negative play going against him.”

Last season, Missouri was the 124th best run defense in the country.

This season, Missouri is the No. 1 run defense in the country. That is true. If you add in some context you realize that they beat a team that was given too much credit for how hard they played last season under a different coach with different personnel in Louisiana Tech.

So, that doesn’t do too much in letting the Tigers and their fans know if the run defense is truly fixed or just looked better against an overmatched opponent. Missouri should find out quite a bit more against Vaughn and the mobile Adrian Martinez.

It appears that the defensive theme of the week is gap discipline. What this means is that the front seven (mostly the defensive linemen) are responsible for plugging certain holes and making plays out of those holes. Bad gap integrity is what led to the offenses running all over the Tigers last year. It’s much more important when facing Kansas State’s offense line which Drinkwitz and Baker believe is the best position group of the Wildcats’ offense.

Kansas State left guard Cooper Beebe is a preseason All-American and he was the Wildcats’ sixth-best offensive lineman who played more than 15 snaps versus South Dakota, according to PFF College. He graded out at 73.5 while right tackle Christian Duffie had the best offensive grade on the team at 83.6, followed by left tackle KT Leveston at 79.2, backup right guard Hadley Panzer at 77.0, backup right tackle Carver Willis at 76.2 and right guard Taylor Poitier at 73.8.

It's important to note the Poitier went down with an ACL injury and will miss the remainder of the season.

Nonetheless, nine of the Wildcats’ 15 highest graded offensive players were linemen. Now, it was versus South Dakota of the FCS, but that is still impressive.

Captain and safety Martez Manuel said he was preaching to the defensive line about making sure they do their jobs and not try and be the star of the show by doing other people’s job.

“I’ve been talking to the defensive line about last year, and our gap mentality and I think we’ve got to be a lot more patient because Deuce (Vaughn) is such a good back,” Manuel said. “He likes to hop around back there until the hole develops, so we can’t have defensive linemen jumping in the gap and then jumping out of it...We got to play for each other we can't have somebody that's trying to run up their stats and try to do everything wrong screwing the person behind them.”

The Tigers defensive line seemed to be the best position group on the field versus Louisiana Tech controlling the gaps and setting the edges but with the increase in competition defensive tackle Jayden Jernigan believes that they will also have to be more physical in addition to the gap discipline.

“They (Wildcats’ offensive line) are very disciplined. They all move at the same step at the same time. So, that's just the stuff that we are going to look at. It's all film. It's all still gonna be a game,” Jernigan said. “We just have to out-physical them. That's the whole basis of the game. Whoever wins the trenches is gonna win the game.”

For the first time since Missouri joined the SEC, it will face Kansas State and the feeling regarding the Tigers facing an old Big 12 foe is mixed. While fans of both teams are likely to have a little extra juice in this one, the players and coaches view it only as the Tigers' first true test against a Power Five team.

Considering the last time Missouri played Kansas State most of the players on this Missouri team were 7-11 years old the “rivalry” doesn’t really feel alive.

Drinkwitz and company seemed more motivated to prove they can win on the road. Something they didn’t do much of last season.

“We had one road victory. So, it's a test for this football team to have its identity to establish what we want to be going on the road,” Drinkwitz said. “So, I don't really think what happened in the past has anything to do with what's gonna happen on Saturday.”

After the win over Louisiana Tech, Drinkwitz announced that earlier on Thursday Chance Luper had a serious illness that will keep him sidelined six to eight weeks.

On Tuesday, Drinkwitz gave an update. He said that Luper is at home and out of the hospital but that his status for return is now unknown.

“Chance is great and out of the hospital back at home. He hasn't been able to be back with the team yet just because he's dealing with just the uncomfortable part. I don't know how long he's going to be out,” Drinkwitz said. “Still a contact sport and dealing with this specific illness, we are going to have to really rely on the doctors and make sure. But dad's doing well. Chance, is very disappointed, I think in the doctor's office (on Thursday) they're talking about sending him to the emergency room and he's saying, 'you mean I can't play tonight?' So, it means a lot to him.”

Luper was expected to have a big role in the offense and with him being out that paves the way for Mekhi Miller to see some action. Miller, a true freshman from Overland Park, Kansas, saw 11 snaps and caught one pass for 17 yards versus Louisiana Tech. It’s possible Miller will see more time as the season progresses, especially if any more wide receivers have to miss action. What was seen as a very deep wide receiver room has now thinned out considerably.

"Mekhi has always been down there with this and trying to bring him along. Just in case we had an injury. Peanut (Demariyon Houston) hasn't been able to go because of the nagging hamstring injury that gonna keep him out for an extended period of time, and so now this just thrust Mekhi into even more of a role in a room that's gotten a little thin," Drinkwitz said. In the summer, we thought this room was going to be pretty deep. That's why we moved Ja'Marion Wayne. So that's the game, that's football, that's life."

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