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The Missouri football team came away with a 42-31 win over rival Kansas on Saturday. Not everyone believed that the Tigers would get the job done.
One Mizzou student picked the Jayhawks to pull off the upset. Safety Daylan Carnell mocked his schoolmate after the fact.
Zach Sweet, a Missouri student and beat writer for the Columbia Missourian, predicted that the Tigers would fall to their bitter rivals, 30-27.
That prediction appeared to be coming to fruition soon after the opening kick. Kansas jumped out to a 21-6 first quarter lead. Missouri battled back to tie the game by halftime.
From there, the two sides traded blows before the Tigers took a late lead with four minutes left in the fourth quarter. They’d later add another score to push the advantage to 11 points.
Missouri football player blasts schoolmate.
My apologies, @daylancarnell. I’ll own it.
One thing must be made clear, though. I promise you and anyone watching this that there was no cheering for KU. I’m a #Mizzou student, and I look forward to actually being able to cheer on the Tigers after this year.
MIZ pic.twitter.com/hueOucdvk1
— Zach Sweet (@ByZachSweet) September 7, 2025
Safety Daylan Carnell called Sweet out after the game. He told Missouri students to stop cheering for the Kansas Jayhawks!
“Can I start off by saying something?” he asked in the postgame presser. “That was a terrible take. Please don’t disrespect the backend (of the defense) no more and stop cheering for KU. You’re a Missouri Tiger.”
Sweet had fun with the cold take, which also caught the attention of head coach Eli Drinkwitz.
Thanks @CoachDrinkwitz pic.twitter.com/oa2NDEleNJ
— Zach Sweet (@ByZachSweet) September 7, 2025
The back and forth sparked a college football debate.
Beat writers are supposed to be unbiased, no matter their affiliation with a team or school. Zach Sweet offered his honest opinion of how the game would play out. He was wrong.
Was he deserving of being chastised for a lack of loyalty after the fact? That’s a topic now being debated on social media.
Sure, accountability is important, but student reporters should be able to say the school they attend might lose a game without having to 1) get chastised for it and 2) apologize and reaffirm their loyalties to that school. Especially 2 https://t.co/gZuTfdJJAC
— Henry Greenstein (@HenryGreenstein) September 7, 2025
Sweet says that despite the prediction, he was not actively rooting against the Tigers. He simply did not believe they would win the game. Some believe it was a clarification that was unneeded.
He probably did not expect to see the negative reaction from his own university. Sweet owned it after the fact. It was a bad take. He got mocked for it by the Missouri football team.
He might think twice about picking against the Tigers next time around – whether that’s right or wrong!