Missouri doesn’t have much time to recover from its gut-punch of a loss at South Carolina last Saturday.

The Tigers (3-2, 0-2 SEC) travel to face at No. 1 Alabama (6-0, 3-0) at 7 p.m. ET on Saturday, and coach Barry Odom is well aware of the huge challenge in front of his players. He touched on the matchup during his portion of the SEC Coaches Teleconference on Wednesday, most notably commenting on the Crimson Tide’s tendency to build early leads and quarterback Drew Lock’s performance this season.

You can read Odom’s comments from the teleconference below.

Opening statement:

  • We had a good week of prep up to this point. I’m a firm believer that you learn and grow from all your experiences … and make sure you learn from the good and bad. (It’s) a tremendous challenge against Alabama this week.

On getting off to a good start against Alabama:

  • I know they will, no doubt, be ready to play, just looking at their games. The first play of a few games, they’ve taken it to the house. No. 1, it’s a great gameplan. They have excellent players and they execute. We have to do the same. We have to be able to take the first punch, so to speak.

On the importance of returning players from injury:

  • We have injuries and things happen, and the next guy has to be ready to play. Emanuel Hall is still out; he’s coming back from a pulled muscle. Nate Brown, who has been in the program for a long time, he is still limited in his action. Cam Scott and Jalen Knox continue to get better to step up and fill that void.

On asking Drew Lock to not do too much:

  • The thing with Drew, and it’s different in the building, Drew took the loss to South Carolina hard, as our locker room did. At Purdue, we won a fourth-quarter game. Georgia, we had our opportunities, and the South Carolina game came down to the final moments, but Drew hasn’t been in those games. Last year, Purdue had us beat at halftime, same with Georgia, South Carolina had us by around the third. … If we can get these games to the fourth quarter, we will lean on our experiences … but some guys don’t have that yet, and Drew is one of them. He is one of the best competitors I’ve ever been around. … He knows the challenges out there this week and the opportunity. … The challenge for all of our guys is to take the game one play at a time.

On Drew’s comfort with the new offense:

  • He’s comfortable. We’ve run for 300 yards last week, so that’s where we learned. The monsoon that came in, that allowed us to. … The passing game wasn’t there anyway. We had two, maybe three touchdown drops. … An inch here or there and the narrative (of not throwing touchdowns) isn’t there.

On the nine-game SEC schedule:

  • I think it’s the greatest league in college football and honestly, I don’t think it’s close. The strain and the competition each week, the passion; you can go anywhere in the world, and if you are talking college football, the SEC is going to come up. … I have faith in the leaders of this league. They give me the schedule and we go out and play.