Missouri Tigers head coach Eli Drinkwitz has one primary job this season apart from calling plays: give Austin Simmons weapons to throw the pigskin. That’s their only roadmap for a hopeful double-digit win season. And frankly, that’s precisely what Drinkwitz cooked up right after the Auburn transfer got cold feet.

Coach Eli Drinkwitz and the Missouri Tigers are having a wild weekend on the recruiting trail. Mizzou made its biggest splash yet by signing star transfer wide receiver Cayden Lee from Ole Miss. If you’re not familiar with Lee, let us enlighten you. Cayden Lee is a certified playmaker for the Rebels from last season. He started all three of the Rebels’ playoff games and had a run last year with 665 yards and three touchdowns.

The only reason why Cayden Lee doesn’t have a 1,000-yard season is that the Rebels had way too many weapons to distribute the football. Plus, they were run-heavy with Kevon Lacy in the backfield. With the reunion with Austin Simmons, fans are expecting him to hit 1,000 receiving yards and a couple of touchdowns next season.

While the news about Lee is great, it did cause a bit of a ruckus in the receiver room. Horatio Fields, another transfer who had just committed to Mizzou from Auburn earlier this month, decided to back out. It looks like Lee’s arrival made the depth chart a little too crowded for Fields’ liking, so he’s heading elsewhere. It’s a classic “one in, one out” situation that happens a lot in the transfer portal era.

To make up for it, Eli Drinkwitz locked in on the recruiting side, and the Tigers kept some serious talent right at home by landing Preston Hatfield. He’s one of the top running back recruits for the Class of 2026 and plays for Lee’s Summit.

The Mizzou native ran for 1,662 yards and 18 touchdowns on 191 carries. Not bad. Hatfield is already a local legend after he smashed the Missouri state championship record by rushing for 457 yards (surpassing Ezekiel Elliott’s 419 yards) in a single game. That’s like 40% of his total rushing yards from the 2025 season.

At this point, it’s not an absurd thing to say Missouri’s 2026 squad is a serious contender for the playoffs. With a top-20 transfer portal class and now Hatfield, Coach Drinkwitz has the Tigers ranked as high as No. 13 in some “way-too-early” national polls for the 2026 season.

Expectations for Mizzou

After a solid 2025 where they finished 8–5 and made it to the Gator Bowl, the team is looking to make that “good to great” leap. Fans are on cloud nine because the Tigers are bringing back a seriously loaded roster, including what might be the best backfield in college football. The Tigers return a monster duo in Ahmad Hardy (a near-unanimous All-American) and Jamal Roberts, who combined for over 2,400 yards and 22 touchdowns last season.

The defense is a bit of a question mark right now. The Tigers lost some serious NFL-caliber talent like Zion Young and Josiah Trotter, so things might be a little “iffy” early on while the new guys settle in. To fix this, Coach Drinkwitz hit the transfer portal hard, bringing in over 25 new players, including a bunch of talented defensive backs and linebackers from across the Power 4.

The schedule is a total “tale of two halves.” The first five games look pretty manageable, including a huge rivalry game against Kansas on September 12. But if you’re a Mizzou fan, buckle up for November because it’s an absolute gauntlet. The Tigers finish the season facing Texas, Georgia, and Oklahoma all in one month. If they can survive that stretch, they could easily be looking at their long-awaited College Football Playoff spot.

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