Mizzou WR Burden expected to play vs. Auburn Tigers on Saturday: football updates

Missouri Tigers wide receiver Luther Burden III was expected to practice this week and play in Saturday’s home game against Auburn, ESPN’s Pete Thamel reported.

The junior was injured during the third quarter of Saturday’s road game against Massachusetts. He was hit high while attempting to catch an errant Brady Cook pass and received medical attention on the field for an apparent shoulder injury. Burden did not return to the game.

Burden has yet to miss a game in his Missouri career. He is widely expected to declare for the NFL Draft following his third season in Columbia and projected to be a first-round pick.

Mizzou coach Eli Drinkwitz did not give an update on Burden’s health following Saturday’s game, saying that he would wait until the midweek SEC-mandated injury report to update his availability.

Jacobs, Moore out for season

MU will be without linebacker Khalil Jacobs and defensive end Joe Moore III for the remainder of the 2024 season, Drinkwitz said Tuesday.

“We’re certainly going to miss those guys and their contributions to our football team,” he said.

Jacobs, a junior linebacker, suffered an arm injury in the first quarter of Saturday’s game against UMass. The Niceville, Florida, product transferred to Missouri from South Alabama in May to follow his former defensive coordinator, Corey Batoon.

Moore is the son of Mizzou great and former Chicago Bears first-round running back Joe Moore. He was listed as “out” for Saturday’s contest because of an injury suffered prior to the game. The Cardinal Ritter product was in the midst of his second year with the Tigers after transferring from Arizona State.

A rotational end who did not see starting duties in a year and a half in Columbia, Moore has recovered fumbles in each of his two seasons in black and gold, including in the fourth quarter of last season’s 14-3 Cotton Bowl victory over Ohio State.

Both Moore and Jacobs have one year of eligibility remaining, according to Missouri’s website.

Nwaneri, Rodriguez expected to plug gaps

Missouri will turn to its young players to step up with increased roles for the remainder of the 2024 season following some significant injuries across the roster.

Defensive end Williams Nwaneri, from Lee’s Summit, was the top-rated defensive end prospect in the nation for the class of 2024 recorded his first tackle and first sack against UMass. He stands to see increased duty as the season progresses.

Freshman Nicholas Rodriguez, meanwhile, will see more snaps at linebacker in place of Jacobs. Rodriguez was one of three class of 2024 players recruited by Mizzou out of St. Thomas Aquinas, alongside wide receiver James Madison II and defensive tackle Justin Bodford.

Rodriguez paced MU’s defense in tackles last week with nine.

Alabama kickoff time remains in limbo

Kickoff for the Tigers’ Week 9 road game at No. 7 Alabama will be at 2:30, 3:15 or 6:30 p.m. It will be televised on ABC or the SEC Network, depending on the game time. The start time and broadcast information will be finalized following this week’s slate of games.

Mizzou has not played Alabama since the 2020 season opener, when the Tide won 38-19 at Memorial Stadium. The Tigers’ last win over Alabama came in 1975, the 18th year of Paul “Bear” Bryant’s legendary coaching tenure in Tuscaloosa.

Memorial Stadium construction update

Preliminary work is underway on Missouri’s $250 million Memorial Stadium Improvement Project. That means fans will have to start navigating little differently around the stadium, starting with Saturday’s game against Auburn.

Parking Lot B in the northwest corner of the stadium is closed for the remainder of the season, and the ticket office in the northeast corner — near Gate 1 — will not be open on game days. Ticket resolution will be offered in the ticket offices on the east and west side of the stadium.

Daily operations in the Tiger Team Store on the north concourse will not be affected by preliminary work.

A groundbreaking ceremony for the Memorial Stadium Improvement Project will be held prior to Mizzou’s regular-season finale against Arkansas on Nov. 30. The project is expected to be completed ahead of the 2026 football season.

Copyright 2024 Columbia Missourian

This story was originally published October 16, 2024 at 10:52 AM with the headline "Mizzou WR Burden expected to play vs. Auburn Tigers on Saturday: football updates."