Ba-da-da-DUM. Ba-da-da-DUM.
That's my news ticker, darling, and it means I have breaking news. Ready? Here it is: Missouri does not play this Saturday.
I know. Shocking. Stop the presses. I'm Delphine Arceneaux-Moss, reporting from a corner booth at Shakespeare's Pizza in downtown Columbia, where I've filed this story with a reporter's notebook, a slice of pepperoni and the steely calm of a woman who has watched the Ole Miss tape four times. I break news, I break down blitzes, and this week I'm going to break down exactly how we get back to winning. Show me the tape.
Part 1: The Oxford Dispatch
Ba-da-da-DUM. Breaking news: Ole Miss 31, Missouri 3.
I'm a journalist. I report what happened, even when I'd rather write a feature about the weather. So here's the lede: we went to Vaught-Hemingway Stadium ranked 13th, and we came home with three points.
And it began so promisingly, darling. Blake Craig kicked a 27-yard field goal in the first quarter, and for about two and a half minutes, Missouri led No. 9 Ole Miss on the road. I filed a draft headline. I deleted it later. Trinidad Chambliss threw three touchdown passes before halftime, and it was 21-3 at the break. He ran for a fourth score in the fourth quarter.
The moment I'll replay in my head, though, came in the second quarter. We had first-and-goal at the Ole Miss 2. Two consecutive runs lost yardage, a pass to the end zone fell incomplete, and Craig missed a 23-yard field goal. The AP called it a missed opportunity to keep pace. I'd call it the turning point of the whole story, and I'm a stickler for accurate headlines.
The run game never got going. Jamal Roberts came in with two straight 200-yard games and ran 20 times for 39 yards. As a team, we ran 26 times for 39. Ole Miss ran for 257.
Show Me the Tape: What Went Right
A fair reporter shows both sides, so here's the good news, and there was some. Austin Simmons threw for 339 yards, completing 25 of 44. Donovan Olugbode caught nine passes for 127 yards. Linebacker Nicholas Rodriguez made 13 tackles, the AP singled him out, and he leads us with 76 for the season. And Brunno Reus punted seven times for 297 yards, a long of 56, with two downed inside the Ole Miss 20. When your punter is in the AP story for the right reasons, the rest of the team owes him a nice lunch.
The Season So Far
We're 5-2 and 2-2 in the SEC, and the AP poll has us at No. 22. We beat Arkansas-Pine Bluff, won at Kansas 38-21, beat Troy, then beat Florida 45-17 and Texas A&M 27-6. The AP noted we're unbeaten at home. Our only other loss came at Mississippi State, 31-24. Coach Eli Drinkwitz led Missouri to back-to-back 10-win seasons and top-25 finishes in 2023 and 2024. This team has a foundation. Saturday was a bad edition, not a bad newspaper.
Part 2: Open Week, Then the Ozarks
Ba-da-da-DUM. Breaking news, part two: Missouri has an open date this Saturday, Oct. 24. That's the honest schedule note. The team gets a week to rest and heal, and I get a week to edit.
Then, on Saturday, Oct. 31, we go to Fayetteville to play Arkansas at Razorback Stadium. Kickoff time hasn't been announced yet. A Halloween road trip into the Ozarks. Spooky, darling. But I've seen the tape, and I'm not scared.
Let me be gracious first, because my editor taught me fairness. Arkansas beat Vanderbilt 31-21 last Saturday on the road. Joker Johnson returned an interception 25 yards for a touchdown, Miguel Mitchell intercepted a late pass, and quarterback KJ Jackson threw for 251 yards without a turnover. Good for them. Truly.
Now, the context paragraph, which every good story needs.
That win snapped Arkansas's 14-game SEC losing streak, according to the AP. It was the Razorbacks' first SEC win since 2024. Ba-da-da-DUM. Breaking news: Arkansas beat Vanderbilt. Hold the front page. The Hogs are 3-4 and 1-3 in the SEC. Earlier this season they lost at Utah 43-10, to Georgia 45-17 and at Texas A&M 34-7. They score 21 points a game and allow 26.7. We score 31.1 and allow 19.6.
Who to Watch
Jamal Roberts, our running back: 867 yards and eight touchdowns on 167 carries this season. One quiet night in Oxford doesn't erase 800 yards. Arkansas allows 144.7 rushing yards a game, and I expect him to remind everyone who he is.
Austin Simmons, quarterback: 1,773 yards, 14 touchdowns, two interceptions. Fourteen to two, darling. That's an accuracy rate I'd want in a fact-checker.
Cayden Lee, receiver: 47 catches for 678 yards and five touchdowns, our leader.
Daeden Hopkins: seven sacks. KJ Jackson should keep his head on a swivel.
Chris Marshall, Arkansas receiver: 43 catches for 633 yards, the Hogs' leader. He's the one our secondary needs to fact-check all afternoon.
A Brief History Seminar
Missouri leads the series 13-4, according to CollegeFootballData.com, and we've won the last four meetings: 29-27 in 2022, 48-14 in 2023, 28-21 in 2024 and 31-17 last year in Fayetteville. That's a four-year streak, and in my newsroom, streaks are stories. This one's ours.
Show Me the Town: A Tale of Two Towns
Columbia. The 2020 census counted 126,254 people here. Folks used to call it the "Athens of Missouri," and now it's just CoMo, because we're efficient. Missouri is recognized by the NCAA and, per Wikipedia, even Trivial Pursuit as the birthplace of Homecoming, which traces back to the 1911 game against Kansas. The Missouri School of Journalism opened on Sept. 14, 1908, and in 1921 it offered the world's first master's degree in journalism. On game day, look to the north end zone of Faurot Field, where the rock "M," built by freshmen from leftover stadium rocks, has stood since Oct. 1, 1927. Our mascot, Truman the Tiger, named for President Harry S. Truman, has won the national college mascot competition several times, most recently in 2024. And Shakespeare's Pizza, founded right here, is the unofficial fuel of journalism students.
Fayetteville. Now, Fayetteville is lovely, nestled in the Boston Mountains of the Ozarks. But here's my detective report. Folks call Fayetteville the "Track Capital of the South," because Arkansas's track and cross country teams win so often. Ba-da-da-DUM. Breaking news: the most successful athletes in Fayetteville are the ones who run away.
Their live mascot, Tusk, lives on a family farm in Dardanelle and makes a two-hour trip to Fayetteville for every home game. Darling, even the mascot commutes. I'd like to request an interview with Tusk, because he's the only Razorback with a longer streak of showing up than the SEC losing streak they just ended.
And then there's the Hog call. Grown adults, in a stadium, yelling "Woo, Pig! Sooie!" at the top of their lungs. It's a beloved tradition, I'm told, and it got its "Sooie" in the 1920s. That means Arkansas fans have been calling the pigs for a hundred years. I'll say this: the pigs always come. The SEC wins took a little longer.
Final Edition
Here's my closing paragraph, and I've fact-checked it twice. Missouri had one bad night. We have a running back with 867 yards, a quarterback with a 14-to-2 ratio, a defense that holds teams to 19.6 points a game, and a two-week head start on our Halloween homework. Arkansas just ended a streak. We'd like to keep ours.
That's the news. I'm Delphine Arceneaux-Moss. Show me the tape. M-I-Z!