No. 25 Texas A&M football is hot, and so are the No. 9 Missouri Tigers.
The two squads have played 16 times since 1957, with the Aggies taking nine of the games. Missouri, despite losing the first six matchups against the Maroon and White, has won seven of the last 10.
The Aggies and Tigers will forever be associated with each other. After the collapse of the Southwest Conference, four SWC schools combined with the Big 8 Conference to form the Big 12 in 1994, with play beginning in 1996. A&M and Mizzou were charter members.
The Aggies, led by legendary coach R.C. Slocum, won a conference championship in 1998 after an appearance in 1997 where they came up short to Nebraska. The Tigers had two conference championship appearances during their stint in the Big 12, falling to Oklahoma in both 2007 and 2008.
In 2011, the SEC announced the addition of two more programs: A&M and Mizzou. The two would begin play in the conference in 2012. Since then, the Aggies have a conference record of 54-45 and the Tigers sit at 48-51.
This season, the Tigers head to College Station coming off a bye week. Their last game resulted in a victory in a double-overtime thriller against Vanderbilt. Missouri is 4-0 with a 1-0 record in SEC play. During the bye, the team did not focus on A&M, but rather on itself and saved game preparation for this week, Missouri coach Eliah Drinkwitz said on “The Bobby Bones Show.”
The Aggies head into the game 4-1 and atop the SEC with a conference record of 2-0. While favored at home, the Maroon and White will look to upset the top-10 team. Their hot streak continued last week with a 21-17 win over Arkansas in the last Southwest Classic held at AT&T Stadium in Arlington.
Coach Mike Elko is not unfamiliar with Drinkwitz, he explained in Monday’s press conference.
“A lot of respect for him,” Elko said. “[I’ve] known him for a long time, going all the way back to when he was the offensive coordinator at NC State and I was at Wake Forest, and that was the first time we went head to head with each other. Just a lot of respect for who he is, how he runs a program, what they do.”
The two ACC schools have been rivals since 1910, and Elko and Drinkwitz have both had a hand in the series. Elko was the Demon Deacons’ defensive coordinator and safeties coach from 2014 to 2016 and Drinkwitz served as the Wolfpack’s offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach from 2016 to 2018.
The two coaches faced off as coordinators in 2016. Drinkwitz and the Wolfpack’s air attack proved too much for Elko’s Demon Deacons. Wake Forest could not surmount NC State’s early 17-0 lead and ultimately succumbed, 33-16.
Now with the Aggies, Elko is out for revenge as a head coach.
College Station will be home to SEC Network’s traveling shows ahead of the game. “The Paul Finebaum Show” will be live from 2-6 p.m. at Aggie Park on Friday. On Saturday, “Marty & McGee” will be live from 8-9 a.m., followed by “SEC Nation” from 9-11 a.m., both at Aggie Park.
Saturday’s kickoff is set for 11 a.m. at Kyle Field on ABC.
