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Finally, after months of anticipation for the Crimson Tide’s trip to Columbia, it’s actually game week.

Bama (4-1) is ranked No. 8, while Mizzou (5-0) is No. 14.

It’s the biggest regular-season game of coach Eli Drinkwitz’s career.

It’s Mizzou’s chance to finally beat Alabama for the first time since joining the SEC (0-5).

And it’s Mizzou’s chance at a signature win, which would catapult the Tigers into playoff contention.

We’re going to play football, yippee!

I think the Tigers will win. As I wrote a year ago entering this same matchup, I didn’t think the Tigers could win that one — and they didn’t, losing in Tuscaloosa, 34-0. But this feels different.

Mizzou is coming off a bye week and could focus for a fortnight on this game, almost like it’s a playoff game. Meanwhile, Alabama is amid a gauntlet of games against ranked opponents.

To start the year, Bama lost a September stunner to then-unranked Florida State. After a couple of bounce-back wins, Bama beat No. 5 Georgia two weeks ago and won the redemption game this past Saturday against No. 16 Vanderbilt. Oh, and after Mizzou, the Tide play No. 12 Tennessee, South Carolina, No. 11 Louisiana State and No. 6 Oklahoma.

Whoa, Nellie! What a stretch.

Meanwhile, Missouri hosts the game and has an incredible 15-game home winning streak. Only Oregon has won more in a row at home. Oregon is quite good at football.

Mizzou’s defensive front seven is mean. No, menacing. Defensive end Zion Young is a star. Damon Wilson II is emerging as a star on the other side of the line. Per Pro Football Focus, Mizzou has 93 quarterback pressures, good for third in the Southeastern Conference. And the Tigers are No. 2 in the nation (not just the conference) in yards allowed per game.

Sure, their secondary is, um, vulnerable. And yes, Alabama is excellent on offense, notably on third down. But here’s thinking the black-and-gold defense distracts Bama’s blockers enough to thwart huge plays.

And on the other side of the ball, Mizzou’s got “South Carolina’s daddy” in daddy-to-be Ahmad Hardy.

The great running back, who had a touchdown and 138 yards on 6.3 yards per carry vs. the Gamecocks, just announced on social media that he and his significant other are having a baby (there was a gender reveal on Instagram and ... it’s a boy!). Hardy’s legend has grown in Columbia, and he’s only five games into his Mizzou career. Not only because of his total stats — 733 rushing yards are tops in the nation, while his touchdown total of nine is second — but also how he compiles them.

By running through a pile.

Three different weekends this season, he’s led the country in missed tackles caused (per PFF) — and another weekend, he had the second-most.

Many on social media — and some in the actual media — have already anointed Hardy as a candidate for postseason awards. I’ll personally reserve judgement until after a season-shifting game such as Saturday’s. But if Hardy rushes Mizzou to victory, then it’s fair to channel Keith Jackson’s call about Desmond Howard when Jackson proclaimed: “Hello, Heisman!”

Mizzou played Bama three times before joining the SEC. The Tigers won in 1968 and 1975 but lost in 1978.

The win in September of ’75 was epic. Mizzou led 20-0 at the half. After the game, Bama coach Paul “Bear” Bryant said: “All in all, it was a good old country beating.” Alabama went on to win the rest of its games and a share of the national title.

“It’s beyond time for Mizzou to get past the mystique of Alabama — it’s been 50 years since Mizzou has beaten Alabama, 50 years!” said Mizzou legendary offensive lineman Howard Richards, who played in the 1978 game and is currently a Tigers radio broadcaster.

“My belief is that you must not change your approach to what you normally do each week to prepare for this opponent but approach what you do and do it to your absolute best. Your approach should force you to be laser-focused in every meeting to learn all of the tendencies of the guy across from you; anticipate every move he might make on any given play, enabling you to win on every single snap. Be physical, yet poised, play smart football and don’t give them any gifts.”

Gosh! Can Richards suit up? He sounds ready for some football.

Per the Tide, here’s the thing: A Bama team with a blemish on its record is still better than most undefeated teams. But here’s thinking this still all lines up to Mizzou victory. Alabama plays these big games all the time — this is the big game for Missouri.

There is significance to winning this game, both because of past history and future history-making (like, this coming winter).

J.J. Bush, a linebacker from Theodore, Alabama, changed his pledge to Mizzou on Friday. He’s ranked as the 13th-best linebacker in the 2026 recruiting class by 247Sports.

Bush visited MU along with a few other schools in the summer but committed to Arkansas. When the Razorbacks fired coach Sam Pittman last week, however, he reopened his recruitment, and the Tigers rekindled their interest.

Bush is listed at 6-foot-3, 210 pounds.

A day later, Missouri pulled one of the best prospects in Arkansas out of the state. Terry Hodges, a running back from Bryant, Arkansas, verbally committed on Saturday. He’s the No. 15 running back nationally and third-best recruit in the state, per 247Sports.

Hodges is listed at 6-foot, 180 pounds.

The commitments of Bush and Hodges brings Mizzou up to 14 players in its 2026 recruiting class. The Tigers are still likely to add a few more — perhaps late flips from rival programs — before signing day in roughly two months’ time.

Still, even with two more four-star recruits in the fold, it’s not shaping up to be an especially strong recruiting cycle for MU coach Eli Drinkwitz, who has begun to de-prioritize high school recruiting as he finds more traction through the transfer portal.

The Tigers’ 2026 class is ranked No. 58 nationally by 247Sports, which puts it just behind Sacramento State and trailing the likes of Purdue, Boise State and South Florida. Within the Southeastern Conference, Missouri is ranked ahead of only Arkansas — a program losing recruits due to its dismissal of Pittman.

MU-Auburn set for evening kickoff

Mizzou’s first road game of the season will take place under the lights, the SEC announced Monday.

MU’s Oct. 18 game at Auburn will kick off at either 6 p.m. or 6:45 p.m. that day and be broadcast on either ESPN or the SEC Network, the league said. That matchup had previously been designated as a flex between the afternoon and prime-time windows.

The ultimate decision on which time slot and TV network will be given to the dueling set of Tigers will come after Saturday’s games. Missouri hosts No. 18 Alabama while Auburn hosts No. 10 Georgia.

This month in particular will ask a different question of No. 14 Mizzou: Is it plucky or lucky?

And whichever it is, is that enough to keep MU on a path toward a special season?

The pluck and luck factors are more about the type of game that Missouri is likely to encounter over the next few weekends than the opponents. At home to a blueblood in No. 8 Alabama, at a flawed but finnicky Auburn and at the chaos machine that is Vanderbilt are each individually more difficult matchups than Mizzou saw in its first five games.

Make no mistake: They’re winnable for the Tigers. Losable, too. The margin between those outcomes is probably going to be slim.

Get used to it.

Mizzou is projected to play in six games yet this season that’ll have a one-possession spread, according to Kelley Ford Ratings’ algorithm. That’s tied for the most in the SEC with Oklahoma. Florida is the only other SEC team projected at five or more one-score spreads.

Those matchups are the Crimson Tide, Auburn and Vanderbilt this month, then home against Texas A&M, at Oklahoma and at Arkansas in November.

That’s when and where the pluck and luck will be tested.

One-possession games never feel like they’re about analytics, sustainability or the quote-unquote “better” team winning. Instead, they’re a matter of singular decisive plays, costly turnovers, points left on the board, guts, grit and the occasional twist of fate.

MU is one of only a few SEC programs not to have played in a one-score game yet this season, joined only by South Carolina and Vanderbilt.

Yet the Tigers are quite experienced in those close contests.

Dating back to the program’s breakout 2023 campaign, Missouri is 10-1 in one-possession games.

There was a narrower-than-needed win against Middle Tennessee in Week 2 of the ’23 season, followed by Harrison Mevis’ 61-yard walk-off field goal to beat Kansas State by three points. MU beat Memphis by seven in the Dome at America’s Center, then converted on fourth-and-17 to set up a two-point win over Florida late in that season.

The calls only became closer in 2024.

Six points was the margin in a nonconference win over Boston College in Week 3 of that season. A missed field goal in double overtime got the Tigers past Vandy a week later, by three points. Four points and whatever was pumped into Brady Cook’s ankle against Auburn. Seven points of cushion created during the hullabaloo that was the ending of MU-Oklahoma. At South Carolina, the one loss, suffered by four points and even more missed tackles than that. In the snow against Arkansas, seven points. In the Music City Bowl against Iowa, three points thanks to another long field goal.

Plucky? Lucky?

Hard to say, and it didn’t really matter — like how the distinction won’t this month, so long as the Tigers continue their winning ways in this kind of game.

It wasn’t always like this. Like one-score games themselves, teams’ performances in those matchups tend to swing back and forth.

Mizzou lost three one-possession games in a row during the 2022 season: an unfortunate fumble at Auburn, an almost-upset against Georgia and a seven-point road defeat to Florida.

But since going 7-7 in one-score games during Eli Drinkwitz’s first three seasons coaching the Tigers, winning those games has become a calling card of the team’s turnaround. An involuntary calling card, perhaps.

“Everybody’s talking, ‘They were so good in one-possession games,’” center Connor Tollison said a few weeks ago when discussing the offense’s success. “Like, they don’t have to be one-possession games.”

Indeed, they don’t. It might be better for everyone’s cardiac well-being if they weren’t. But at Mizzou and in the SEC — particularly with this year’s conference landscape so fertile for parity — one-possession games will stick around anyway.

Better be ready for it.

What kind of progress No. 14 Mizzou made toward all three goals will show quickly and clearly during Saturday’s high-profile showdown with No. 8 Alabama. The first of the priorities to take the stage will be recovery, particularly as it relates to one of MU’s most important offensive players.

Left tackle Cayden Green will be questionable for Saturday’s game, Drinkwitz said, with his undisclosed lower-leg injury.

Green participated in some “rehab reps” during the Tigers’ Monday practice, and his mobility and comfort would be evaluated more Tuesday afternoon. Regardless, there’s likely to be a degree of uncertainty around Green’s status all the way until kickoff, so he’s likely to be listed as questionable on Missouri’s four Southeastern Conference-mandated injury reports leading up to Saturday.

“Won’t know for sure or for certain until the end of the week,” Drinkwitz said, “so follow along closely to the SEC availability report and (ESPN reporter) Pete Thamel’s tweets.”

Green has missed Mizzou’s past two games with the injury, which occurred during a Sept. 17 practice. He and the team opted for an unspecified “procedure” he underwent the day before MU played South Carolina, and he’s been wearing a walking boot on the sidelines since.

While it has not been and still isn’t a guarantee Green will be able to return against the Crimson Tide, this game against Alabama has been the optimistic target for his recovery.

Jayven Richardson started in Green’s place at left tackle against South Carolina and UMass and would do so again if Green winds up missing a third game.

In other injury news, starting cornerback Drey Norwood (soft tissue) and second tight end Jordon Harris (hand) are both “full go” after their bye week recovery, Drinkwitz said. They’d been limited against UMass due to those injuries, which were considered fairly minor.

Different bye week from 2024

One of the more rightfully maligned moments of Missouri’s 2024 season was its flop of a performance following the first bye week of that campaign, a 41-10 defeat at Texas A&M.

That gloomy return from a week off spiraled out of hand before the Tigers could even get into a flow on offense, and it proved costly.

MU spent its first idle week of this season differently than it did in 2024, Drinkwitz said, but not really because of the dud against the Aggies.

“Each bye week’s uniquely different based off the circumstances of the team, what the team needs in order to continue that season,” Drinkwitz said. “... Last year — we’ve already addressed it — it was a little bit more to do with the first road trip than necessarily the bye week plan.”

Tweaks Drinkwitz has made to the program’s preparation further confirm that feeling. Mizzou spent one fall camp weekend staying at a ӣ����Ƶ hotel and then scrimmaging at Lindenwood for a “mock road game,” hoping to give players a taste of what travel will look like before it’s really happening.

And this time, the Tigers are still at home after their bye.

How MU fares on the road will be tested after Saturday’s conclusion of a six-game homestand, the longest in the nation, when Missouri next plays at Auburn and at Vanderbilt.

As far as bye week lulls go, Drinkwitz noted that the Tigers performed well after their second bye of the 2024 season, when backup quarterback Drew Pyne led Mizzou to an eventful win against Oklahoma.

To stave off any rust that might’ve formed during the bye, Missouri worked some “good-on-good” — also known as starters versus starters — reps into its practice over the last week and will keep that going in the next day or two before the week ends with walkthroughs.

While the extra week ought to help Mizzou get ready for Alabama, the toughest team it will have seen yet this season, the Tigers also spent some time looking ahead to Auburn and Vanderbilt. These three games, after which MU will have its second bye week, are particularly pivotal for sorting out the program’s standing and trajectory within the SEC.

With that in mind, Drinkwitz tailored this bye week’s programming more toward what’s ahead of Missouri than what’s a year behind it.

“It was a different approach,” he said, “but it was based off it being a different need for our team.”

Among the highlights:

• The year's Braggin' Rights game between MU and Illinois, set for Monday, Dec. 22 at the Enterprise Center, will tip off at 7 p.m. and be televised on FS1.
• The Tigers' SEC opener, against national champions Florida, will be a 7:30 p.m. game on Saturday, Jan. 3. 
• Missouri will close the regular season on national television against Arkansas on March 7.

Here's Mizzou's broadcast schedule, as of Tuesday: