SOUTHEASTERN CONFERENCE FOOTBALL MEDIA DAYS

July 17, 2025

Zion Young

Missouri Tigers

Press Conference

ZION YOUNG: I want to first thank God for everything. I want to thank Coach Drink and my university for giving me a chance to represent them in the correct way, playing football, the game I love.

Q. A lot of schools in this conference get a lot of attention. But look at what you guys have accomplished the last two or three years. Do you feel proud about that?

ZION YOUNG: I feel great about what we accomplished. I feel like there's more to come. I feel like another double-digit season is on the way. I feel good, man.

Q. You're an Atlanta guy. Is it extra special to be back home to represent Missouri?

ZION YOUNG: Yeah, it feel good, Atlanta native. I'm no more than 17, 20 minutes I'm right out of Westlake. Feels amazing. You know what I mean? That's why I'm keeping this smile on my face.

I can't believe I'm here right now. I just got a question from Mr. Kelly, how does it feel being here. I told him it feels unreal because I didn't know I was going to be here. I didn't. I never thought of them picking me for this.

When I got it, it was more so of whoo!

Q. We just had Daylan in here, and he singled you out as one of the more vocal leaders on the defense. Is that just your natural way?

ZION YOUNG: That's me. That's me a thousand percent. I come from a big family. I've got 10 other siblings. Me being at the youngest, I've seen it before. I come from a very vocal family. My dad is ex-military. My mom is more laid back. But that's my mom, I'm a momma's boy.

I come from a very structured family. I've always been the youngest. I'm loud. I want to be heard. And over time it just became me. That's me.

Q. What is it about your coach that players respond to?

ZION YOUNG: I've got a good impression of Coach Drink. Well, there was one time in practice, it was a long day. It's about 90 degrees outside. Coach Drink, I don't think he was liking the way we were working out. And he said something.

Now, he never said nothing the whole workout. He waited until we were done. He got up. This is my boy, I don't want to say his name. He was like, Elias! You're 250! Just going crazy. It was Coach Drink.

But I was more so fatigued, him yelling, crazy he got on my boy, Marvin! You're last at everything! He was going crazy. That's the memory I won't ever forget. You only get memories nothing but once. I'm going to forever remember that.

Q. You guys kept throwing around the term like "alpha males" in your locker room and within your team. Is that a thing or can you elaborate a little bit more on what that means?

ZION YOUNG: Would you rather date like -- if you were in -- I'm going to do an animal example. If you're a tiger, would you want to date a cat? No. You don't want to date a cat. Of course, it's a tiger; the cat is a the bigger version of it. It's the cat.

But you don't want to date a cat. No. So that's the difference. It's more so, like, alpha male, that's who we're recruiting. That's who we're standing on, guys as alpha males, guys are where their feet at, guys that are very vocal and want to compete, have an edge on them.

That's more so being specific. You don't want to date a cat. You'd rather want to date a tiger or a lion, something more manly.

Q. You talked about bringing death row defense back, that motto, what that means to the unit. What is that unit all about and what can fans expect from you?

ZION YOUNG: A gritty unit. The depth is unreal. Like you said, we're really establishing a death row defense. I know you've all seen a lot of that last year and the year before that. But the best is yet to come and it's on its way, yes, sir.

Q. Obviously you had that fumble recovery for a touchdown against Oklahoma last year. Where does that moment rank in your football career as just highlights? And what do you expect from this year's match-up being in Norman?

ZION YOUNG: That's the number one football memory I would ever have. Scoring in front of that, I never scored, football -- I was a running back back when I was 12 years old. Of course, you wreck ball, coaches wants to put biggest guy at running back, run the ball, get us through.

But being in college being able to say I scooped and scored a football to win a game, that's once -- you don't hear that a lot. You don't hear that a lot.

For that, I don't know when the last time Oklahoma and Missouri played before that because Oklahoma re-entered into the SEC or entered into the SEC.

But I'll never forget that. I'll never forget that. That's a moment I'll never forget. I thank God for that. I thank God because we never stop talking about it. You feel me? Any interview I went to, that's all we talk about is the scoop and score. Of course, that's the number one memory.

Q. Daylan shared some memories of the come-from-behind win against Auburn last year. You were on the ropes. Brady Cook comes back from the hospital and leads the fourth quarter comeback. Your memories of that game?

ZION YOUNG: That was a dogfight, too. That was a dogfight. I feel we left it all on the field from the first to the end of -- we went overtime in that game? No, we won the game. We just won the game.

I feel like, yeah, it was a dogfight. I played my ace quarterback Payton Thorne, that's my boy. We had to work, man, and we won the game. We came out on top.

That was a dogfight. It wasn't easy winning the game. Shout-out to our quarterbacks, Brady and Drew. Drew did his thing as well.

Q. I love the energy you have today. Is this the same level energy you bring on the field and in the locker room?

ZION YOUNG: Every day. This is me every day. I can't rehearse that. This is me every day. This is me every day.

Q. Going to Kyle Field last year, what do you remember about that game? And how much are you looking forward for maybe some redemption this year in Columbia?

ZION YOUNG: What do I not remember from that game? You feel me? They beat us bad. But, like you say, we'll see them later on this year. They got the best of us last year, but good luck to those guys this year.

Q. What do you remember about going up against their offense and how they work?

ZION YOUNG: Everything, big man. Specific, they established their run game on us. With them doing that, that kind of opened up the offense. It makes them more than one dimensional.

And once the team's not one dimensional anymore, the game can go either way. They kind of made us more so -- we couldn't stop what was going on death row defense, but (indiscernible), ain't got to be explained.

Q. Coach Drink once talked about how there's 20 different guys on this team have experience starting in a college football game. How important is that experience to be able to lead to success and wins this season?

ZION YOUNG: With playing football, you don't know the expect if you haven't your feet wet, if you haven't got a guy who got his feet wet -- when you've got a guy that played in the game, started a game often, solidified himself more so in this league we're in, or not so much this league but in college football, period, it kind of makes you feel better about what's about to happen because it's just like a fight. I don't want to put you against Floyd Mayweather, you feel me? I wouldn't do that.

Q. What can you tell us about the rest of the defensive end group and the defensive line this year from Missouri?

ZION YOUNG: We've got a tremendous D line, big man. We've got a tremendous D line. Chris McClellan, Darris Smith, Damon Wilson, Javion Hilson, we got Daeden Hopkins -- we've got a lot of guys.

Like the lady said at the beginning, there's a lot of alpha males in that room, and the competition, everything is howling. Everybody understands, I don't want to share time, you know what I mean? So I mean I don't mind sharing time, but, hey, you feel me, I want to stay out there. With those guys coming in, looking -- you know what I mean, lot of fire a couple of things.