The Missouri Tigers have announced the addition of Troy University to the non-conference football schedule for 2026, filling up the SEC school’s non-conference slate through that 2026 campaign.
The addition of Troy for ’26 gives MU four non-conference games that season, two with border rivals. Troy will travel to Columbia to tangle with Mizzou on November 21, 2026, with Arkansas-Pine Bluff at Faurot Field for a meeting on September 5th.
In between those two non-conference tests, Missouri will travel westward down I-70 to Lawrence, Kansas, to play the Kansas Jayhawks, on September 12th, with a trip to Champaign, Illinois to take on the Fighting Illini on September 26th.
The Troy at Missouri game does feature a bit of historical intrigue, as the Trojans stunned the then 19th-ranked Tigers in Troy, Alabama in 2004, one of the biggest wins in TU program history. Missouri returned the favor with wins over Troy in 2002, 2005, and 2019, all in Columbia.
Missouri’s first-year coach, Eliah Drinkwitz, comes to Columbia from Troy’s Sun Belt Conference, having guided Appalachian State to a 13-1 record and conference title in 2019, including a 48-13 win at Troy.
Coach Drinkwitz, in the 2021 recruiting cycle at MU, continues to find good success, recently picking up verbal commitments from Garden City (KS) Community College defensive end Shemar Pearl and Cocoa, Florida high school senior defensive back Zxaequan Reeves as the 11th and 12th commitments in the class, respectively.
Pearl, a native of Plano, Texas, was a commit to Missouri in his senior season, but had to sign with Garden City in the junior college ranks before eventually re-committing to Mizzou. He joins 4-star defensive end Travion Ford of St. Louis as the only two edge rushers in the class to this point. He chose MU over Baylor, Texas Tech, and South Carolina, but coming out of high school had offers from the likes of Alabama and Georgia. He stands 6 foot-5 and weighs 235 pounds.
Reeves is 6-foot-2, 180 pounds. Yet to earn a composite ranking from 247Sports, he is seen as a “late, but fast-riser” in the recruiting world. A three-star recruit, he pledged to the SEC’s Tigers over Pittsburgh, Florida Atlantic, Massachusetts, and Florida A&M.
The next commit to watch for Mizzou fans this weekend is that of high school senior linebacker Dameon Wilson of Kings Mountain, North Carolina. His announcement is scheduled for Saturday, with Missouri in the mix, along with North Carolina, North Carolina State, and Kentucky, among others. 247Sports has Wilson as a fairly strong Missouri lean going into the weekend.
In other region recruiting news, former Trenton and Princeton football coach Sam Pittman has another quarterback commitment at the University of Arkansas, with three-star dual-threat Lucas Coley committing to the Razorbacks late last week over offers from Colorado State, Virginia Tech, Louisville, and Central Florida. The 6-foot-1, 203 pounder is ranked the nation’s #19 dual-threat quarterback and the #94 overall prospect in the state of Texas, attending Cornerstone Christian in San Antonio.
Coley is the second quarterback commit in the class for Arkansas, joining Landon Rogers of Little Rock, a 3-star prospect that committed to Coach Pittman shortly after the Hogs extended an offer in mid-April.
Arkansas’ program also dipped into Tulsa, Oklahoma to pick up a highly-sought after running back, as four-star A.J. Green picked the Razorbacks over offers from Oklahoma, Michigan, Oklahoma State, and Baylor, sharing his commitment via Twitter.
Green is the 11th commitment for Coach Pittman, and now the highest-rated, pushing running back Javion Hunt to the Hogs second-highest rated commitment slot.
Staying in the SEC, Alabama has its first five-star commitment for 2021, as IMG Academy standout J.C. Latham said yes to Coach Nick Saban and the Crimson Tide. At 6-foot-6, 305 pounds, Latham is ranked the #5 offensive tackle and #17 prospect overall in the class by 247Sports. He chose Alabama over offers from Auburn, Florida, Tennessee, and Texas A&M. He is the 7th commitment for Coach Saban in the 2021 cycle.
Kansas State’s football program has enjoyed a successful and fruitful recruiting week, picking up three commitments this week, including that of Webb City (MO) High School senior Devrin Weathers, marking the 10th consecutive year that the Wildcats have picked up a commitment from the state of Missouri.
Weathers, as a junior, was a second-team All-State selection, rushing for nearly 1,400 yards in helping Webb City win another Class 4 state title, the program’s seventh within a decade. He is widely viewed as either a cornerback or safety at the Big 12 level in Manhattan. Weathers gives K-State 10 commitments in the current recruiting class.
On Monday, K-State picked up a commit from Gardner-Edgerton (KS) High School senior Austin Weiner. The son of former Wildcat Todd Weiner, who played for Bill Snyder in the 1990s, Austin Weiner had an offer from K-State representing his only one from the Division One level. Rivals ranks him three-stars. Later Monday, Fairview (CO) High School defensive end Brayden Wood committed to the Wildcats during a live broadcast on 9News in Denver. Wood, despite not visiting the campus in Manhattan, chose Kansas State over offers from Louisville, Washington State, Boise State, Hawaii, and Colorado State.
Photo credit – L.G. Patterson / Associated Press / Columbia, MO