There’s a 44-year first coming to Columbia.

When No. 6 Missouri football faces No. 24 Boston College on Saturday morning on Faurot Field, it will be the first nonconference game played at Memorial Stadium between two teams that are ranked in the AP Top 25 since an Oct. 4, 1980, matchup between Mizzou and Penn State.

The game has sold out, per Mizzou athletics, which will mark an eighth straight capacity crowd at Memorial Stadium dating back to last season.

The Tigers (2-0) are off to an efficient start on offense, but a pair of defensive shutouts — the first back-to-back since 1935 — have been the highlight of the young season.

More: 3 under-the-radar standouts from Missouri football’s shutout start to season

More: Missouri football's Eli Drinkwitz provides availability update on Luther Burden, other starters

Boston College (2-0) upset then-No. 10 Florida State in Week 1 before pitching a shutout against FCS-level Duquesne in Week 2, taking new head coach Bill O’Brien’s team into the AP poll for the first time since 2018.

Here is a scouting report and score prediction for Mizzou’s Week 3 opponent:

What offensive playmakers should Missouri football watch for?

The Tribune has already taken an in-depth look at the major threat BC quarterback Thomas Castellanos and running backs Treshaun Ward and Kye Robichaux pose to the Tigers’ thus-far stellar defense.

More: Can Missouri football quiet dynamic Boston College QB Thomas Castellanos? Here are the keys

But who else could the Eagles turn to?

Freshman Reed Harris has big play ability at wide receiver, hauling in a 72-yard touchdown pass against Duquesne. Lewis Bond is the Eagles’ leading pass-catcher through two games with six receptions for 105 yards and a touchdown.

Jayden McGowan is a familiar wide receiver for Missouri, as he played his past two seasons at Vanderbilt, where he averaged 82.3 receiving yards per game last season.

“We know him well from his time at Vanderbilt,” MU coach Eli Drinkwitz said, “and have a lot of respect for him as a player and know that he has really game-breaking speed.”

The Eagles are prone to running 12 personnel, and have a couple strong tight ends in Jeremiah Franklin and Kamari Morales — both 6 foot 3 and 240+ pounds — to make that work. Out of that formation, the Eagles likely will look to the short passing game on crossing patterns often against Mizzou.

Coaching staff

O’Brien is off to a 2-0 start leading his hometown team, now back in college football for another stint after leading Penn State from 2012-13, earning Big Ten Coach of the Year and national Coach of the Year honors in his first season. He later worked as a Nick Saban assistant at Alabama from 2021-22.

He was the Houston Texans’ head coach for nearly seven seasons and also was a Bill Belichick assistant from 2007-11 and in 2023.

Will Lawning has been with O’Brien for most of his career, and has taken offensive play-calling duties for the Eagles.

Tim Lewis will be calling plays on the defensive side for the Eagles, which is his first college gig since coaching Pittsburgh’s defensive backs in 1994. He has since held numerous NFL positions and coached in various other professional leagues, including a stop in 2020 with the St. Louis Battlehawks.

Stingy run defense

Let’s see what Nate Noel and Marcus Carroll are made of.

The Missouri running back tandem has impressed while rotating reps against Murray State and Buffalo. Now, comes the pair’s biggest challenge in a Mizzou uniform: Getting past Boston College’s stout defensive front.

The Eagles are ranked No. 7 in the FBS through two games in rush defense, allowing a measly 40.5 yards per game on the ground, which comes out to 1.62 yards per carry.

“Man, they’ve got a good front seven,” Carroll said. … “They're a great bunch. Like I said, that front seven, they’re very good.”

Neto Okpala and Donovan Ezeiraku have been productive off the edge in a unit that returns four starters, combining for three sacks and two quarterbacks hurries through two games.

“Yeah, they're big. They're physical,” left guard Cayden Green said. “Watching that Florida State game, they really just out-physicaled them, and they’ve got a lot of draft picks on that D-line, so it'll be a good test and (I’m) excited to see where we're at.”

BC left tackle Logan Taylor returns

The Eagles’ O-Line dominated Florida State’s front in Week 1 and FCS-level Duquesne in Week 2. And the big guys up front might be about to get even better.

Boston College’s starting left tackle Logan Taylor returned from injury this week after missing the first two games.

O’Brien was a fan of that news.

“Great to have him back. Tough guy, big guy, athletic guy, really important to have him back,” the Boston College coach said. “You know, he's my type of guy. My type of guy. He's tough. Nasty. He's a BC offensive lineman. So it's really good to have him back.”

Score prediction: Missouri 38, Boston College 14

This feels like the week the Tigers’ offense kicks out of second gear. There’s been nothing wrong with how they’re playing, taking exactly what their opponents have given them and doing that effectively. But the Eagles defense’s first job is to stop the Tigers up front, and that ought to open up some passing opportunities that weren’t there against explosive-play-avoidant Murray State and Buffalo.

Mizzou will need to be efficient on defense, as Boston College’s run game can burn clock in bunches and has numerous players and paths to hurt a team. But, through two games, there’s no tangible reason to believe the Tigers aren’t up to that task.

This article originally appeared on Columbia Daily Tribune: Missouri football vs. Boston College: Scouting report, score prediction