Mizzou to be without starting edge rushers for clash in Columbia against Florida
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Mizzou’s challenge on Saturday afternoon apparently became a little tougher on Friday night.
The Tigers will be without starting EDGE rushers Darris Smith and Langden Kitchen for their Week 5 home clash against No. 8 Florida, according to a report on Friday night from ESPN college football insider Pete Thamel.
Thamel’s report was backed up a short time later by the Friday night SEC injury report, which confirmed that Smith and Kitchen are indeed out for the big matchup.
Mizzou (3-1, 0-1 SEC), barely hanging in the rankings at No. 25, will try to hand the Gators (4-0, 2-0 SEC) their first loss of the season in the 3:30 p.m. ET kickoff on ABC.
Smith and Kitchen are both dealing with lower-body injuries that, according to Thamel and confirmed by the SEC, will sideline them for the all-important matchup at Mizzou.
The Tigers depend on both Smith and Kitchen to get into opponents’ backfields, and they’ll have to make up for that against the unbeaten Gators.
Smith has 2.0 tackles-for-loss in 3 games this year and had 5.5 tackles-for-loss last season.
Meanwhile, Kitchen has started all 4 games this season, already piling up 3.0 tackles-for-loss and 8 pressures.
Mizzou will be up against it on Saturday, taking on a formidable Florida team in Columbia and being without some key players. Here is what the Kalshi market is currently saying about the Tigers’ potential win total for the season as it tries to simply win on Saturday:
Cory Nightingale, a former sportswriter and sports editor at the Miami Herald and Palm Beach Post, is a South Florida-based freelance writer who covers Alabama for SaturdayDownSouth.com.
