The Unexpected Challenge Mizzou Will Face in its First Road Game of 2024

The Tigers are headed to College Station to take on the Aggies for their first away challenge of the season.

Sep 21, 2024; Columbia, Missouri, USA; The Missouri Tigers prepare to take the field ahead of a game against the Vanderbilt Commodores at Faurot Field at Memorial Stadium. / Matt Guzman/MissouriOnSI

By the luck of the draw, the No. 9 Missouri Tigers made it to Week 6 before they had to hit the road for a matchup. Their first away game is no easy out, however.

They can prepare for the infamous noise at Kyle Field and for the Texas A&M Aggies team, but they can't prepare for many things. In their 2024 campaign, they've already faced adversity and improved from it, but have yet to travel.

"It's an interesting situation," head coach Eli Drinkwitz said at a press conference ahead of the Texas A&M game. "We've got 46 new players on the team, so it's going to be a lot of newness for everybody."

Drinkwitz will have to put his dad hat on to get through the travel portion of the road game. He will be in charge of getting all the players and coaches on the same page in order to make it to College Station without a hitch.

"For a head coach who worries about everything, that's a little bit of point of concern for me right now," Drinkwitz said.

This marks their first ever collegiate road trip for the handful of the Tigers' 29 true freshman who made the travel squad. It will add an interesting twist to their game-day routines and throw them into the deep end of the true challenges of playing a SEC road game.

"This is a new thing,” Drinkwitz said. “This is a new team. We've got 46 new players."

Amongst their new players, they also have a class of 15 transfers that have traveled on a road trip, but just not with this team. While this isn't entirely new to them, each coach does travel differently. The transfers will have to adjust their old travel routines for their new coach.

"We've all traveled before," Drinkwitz said. "But it's the first time traveling together."

The last time Missouri faces Texas A&M at Kyle Field, the Tigers went home with a 34-27 win. But that was a decade ago. The Aggies are just 2.5-point favorites, promising a dogfight.

Despite the troubles that lie ahead for them, Drinkwitz and the Tigers are looking forward to the lessons they can learn from the new challenge.

"(The exciting part is) going on the road, testing ourselves, seeing where we are at and trying to play the best ball that we've played so far this year," Drinkwitz said during the Tiger Talk radio show.

Read more Missouri Tigers news:

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Eli Drinkwitz Preparing for Marcel Reed, Not Conner Weigman at Quarterback
Limiting Texas A&M's Nic Scourton Major Focus Ahead of Mizzou Matchup