COLUMBIA, Mo. – Tailback Tyler Badie scored three first-half touchdowns and the Missouri Tigers (3-3) delighted a Homecoming crowd of 46,985 with a 48-35 victory over the North Texas Mean Green (1-4).
It was Mizzou’s fifth-straight Homecoming victory and ran its all-time record in Homecoming games to 65-40-5.
After Kris Abrams-Draine intercepted a pass at the North Texas 26-yard line on the visitor’s first possession of the game, Badie got the Tigers on the board with a 12-yard touchdown run around the left side. The Missouri defense forced a three-and-out and Badie sparked another TD drive with a 50-yard run to the NT 23. Seven plays later he caught a three-yard scoring pass from Connor Bazelak.
His third TD of the first half made the score 28-7 and came on a 52-yard run to the left where he ran through a shoestring tackle and sprinted the rest of the way to the end zone. Badie finished the game with 17 carries for a career-high 217 yards. He has scored in every game this season and has scored two-or-more touchdowns four times. With 12 TDs this season, he’s just the fifth player in Mizzou history to have more than 10 scores in the first six games and the first since 2008 when Derrick Washington scored 13 times in the first six games.
Missouri’s other first-half points came on a 41-yard pass from Bazelak to JJ Hester, and a 48-yard field goal by Harrison Mevis, who also booted a 40-yarder in the fourth quarter and now has made 16 FGs in a row. The Tigers led 31-7 at halftime.
MU got its first defensive score of the season in the fourth quarter when Trajan Jeffcoat deflected an Austin Aune pass that was intercepted by freshman tackle Mekhi Wingo who took it back 40 yards for a touchdown.
Aune, though, threw four second-half touchdown passes of 34, 22, 52 and 77 yards, and ended the game having completed 16 of 26 passes for 305 yards. He also ran for 57 yards. But the Mean Green could never get closer than the final 13-point margin.
The Tigers’ last touchdown came on a 60-yard run by Dawson Downing.
Bazelak passed for a season-low 160 yards, but the Tigers rushed for a season-high 314 yards.
UP NEXT
Mizzou wraps up a three-game homestand as the Tigers host the Texas A&M Aggies in a SEC cross-division clash on Faurot Field in Columbia, Missouri. Game time next Saturday (Oct. 16) is 11:00 a.m. CDT. The game will be televised on the SEC Network.
