Mizzou hosts Texas A&M Saturday

The Missouri Tigers (3-3, 0-2) welcome the #21 Texas A&M Aggies (4-2, 1-2) to Columbia on Saturday.

How to watch or stream

Time: 11 a.m. CT

TV: SEC Network

Stream: WatchESPN

Line: Texas A&M -11.5

Total: 59.5

When Mizzou hired former NFL head coach and defensive coordinator Steve Wilks over the offseason, it seemed like a massive step in the right direction for the program. Ryan Waters, a holdover from Barry Odom’s staff, decided to head east to Illinois, opening a spot for Wilks to join Eli Drinkwitz in Columbia. Through six games, the results have been disastrous, as the Tigers have allowed 499 yards per game, second worst in the nation. To make things worse, it’s not as if Mizzou has played a particularly daunting schedule. The only currently-ranked team the Tigers have faced were the Kentucky Wildcats, who torched Mizzou for 520 yards, 207 of which came from running back Chris Rodriguez.

The flip side to all of this, however, is the fact that Mizzou’s offense has nearly replicated the yards their defense has given up. The Tigers come into Saturday averaging 467 yards per game, as Tyler Badie has done a lot of the heavy lifting on the offensive side of things.

A&M obviously comes in riding the high of knocking off Alabama last week. We’ve seen plenty of emotional hangovers in college football over the years, which could very well happen here for the Aggies, as well.

Zach Calzada should be fascinating to watch. He had 285 yards and three touchdowns against Alabama last week, and if he can complete 21 passes against the Tigers, he likely will have more than 285 yards. Mizzou needs to force him into making mistakes, something they haven’t done well this season.