Mizzou football coach on Border War game vs. Kansas: ‘We don’t like each other’
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- Missouri and Kansas renew football rivalry in Week 2 after 14-year hiatus
- Mizzou coaches and players emphasize historical roots and regional intensity
- Team prepares with history lessons as Border War returns to Faurot Field
Not much needs to be said about the buzz building around Week 2 of the college football season for Mizzou fans — that’s the day the Kansas Jayhawks finally return to Columbia for the long-awaited revival of one of the country’s most heated rivalries.
Missouri and KU haven’t met on the football field since 2011, when the Tigers won 24-10 in Kansas City. But after 14 years, Border War football is officially back, or will be when the teams collide at Memorial Stadium on Sept. 6.
MU coach Eli Drinkwitz made it clear at SEC Media Days on Thursday that this game means more than just another non-conference matchup.
“Yeah, I think rivalries are a great thing for college athletics and college football, particularly regional rivalries,” he said. “This one goes back a long way.”
Drinkwitz even gave a bit of a history lesson for the uneducated.
“The origins of our football name — the Tigers — is based off the militia that was formed to protect Columbia from people from Kansas and the Kansas area,” he said. “This is something that goes back a long way. It’s very deep, and it’s something our team is very keenly aware of.
“We understand the implications, the importance to our state. We look forward to playing that game, especially having it at home.”
Yes, that Civil War-era tension still lingers, at least from Missouri’s side.
“This thing goes back to the Civil War,” Drinkwitz said. “People died in this rivalry. So it’s intense.”
It’s clear that sentiment isn’t limited to the coaching staff. Players like Mizzou center Connor Tollison and defensive back Daylan Carnell echoed the same intensity Drinkwitz described.
According to both, the staff has gone out of its way to educate the current roster on the rivalry’s history, through team meetings, history lessons, and highlight videos, to make sure they understand what’s at stake.
“It’s a big one, I think the fans are excited,” Tollison said. I’d say us players — and I bet they are, too — are excited to renew that Border War.”
While Missouri already has rivalries with Arkansas and now Oklahoma, there’s something more personal and historic about facing that team from the west.
No one on the current roster has played in a Mizzou-Kansas game, but that hasn’t stopped the Tigers from embracing the moment. With the all-time series dating to the 1800s, and MU holding a narrow 57–54–9 edge, the rivalry returns to Faurot Field in Week 2, where the energy will be nothing short of electric.
As Drinkwitz put it simply: “We don’t like each other.”
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