{"id":278901,"date":"2025-11-08T08:07:18","date_gmt":"2025-11-08T08:07:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/278901\/"},"modified":"2025-11-08T08:07:18","modified_gmt":"2025-11-08T08:07:18","slug":"te-brett-norfleet-shoulder-wont-play-vs-texas-am","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/278901\/","title":{"rendered":"TE Brett Norfleet (shoulder) won’t play vs. Texas A&M"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

Eli LedermanNov 7, 2025, 04:50 PM ET<\/p>\n

Close<\/a>Eli Lederman covers college football and recruiting for ESPN.com. He joined ESPN in 2024 after covering the University of Oklahoma for Sellout Crowd and the Tulsa World.<\/p>\n

No. 22 Missouri <\/a>will be without star tight end Brett Norfleet<\/a> (shoulder) when the Tigers host undefeated No. 3 Texas A&M<\/a> on Saturday in Columbia.<\/p>\n

Norfleet, a junior from O’Fallon, Missouri, has started in each of the Tigers’ eight games this fall and enters Week 11 leading all SEC tight ends with five touchdown receptions. His 26 catches on the season rank third-most among Missouri pass catchers, trailing only wide receivers Kevin Coleman Jr<\/a>. and Marquis Johnson<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Editor’s Picks<\/a><\/p>\n

Tigers coach Eli Drinkwitz told reporters that Norflett sustained a separated shoulder in Missouri’s 17-10 loss at Vanderbilt<\/a> on Oct. 25. Drinkwitz later described Norfleet as “day-to-day” during the Tigers’ bye in Week 10, and the veteran tight end was listed as questionable in Missouri’s student-athlete availability report Thursday night.<\/p>\n

Norfleet’s absence comes with Drinkwitz and the two-loss Tigers essentially facing a playoff elimination game against the Aggies on Saturday. Missouri will also be without starting quarterback Beau Pribula<\/a> in Week 11 after the Penn State<\/a> transfer dislocated his ankle at Vanderbilt. Freshman Matt Zollers<\/a>, ESPN’s No. 6 pocket passer in the 2025 class, is set to make his first career start Saturday, facing Texas A&M coach Mike Elko and an Aggies defense that ranks 18th nationally in defensive pressures (137), per ESPN Research.<\/p>\n

“For our team, it’s really about us focusing on helping Matt execute at the highest level possible,” Drinkwitz said this week. “We’re excited about Matt’s opportunity and what he’s earned. He has done a really good job in practice of leadership, stepping up, embracing the moment, embracing the opportunity.”<\/p>\n

Missouri (6-2) kicks off against Texas A&M at 3:30 p.m. ET on ABC.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Eli LedermanNov 7, 2025, 04:50 PM ET CloseEli Lederman covers college football and recruiting for ESPN.com. He joined…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":278902,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67],"tags":[399,398,396,397,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-278901","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-football","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-ncaa","10":"tag-ncaa-football","11":"tag-ncaafootball","12":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278901","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=278901"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278901\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/278902"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=278901"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=278901"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=278901"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}