COLUMBIA, Mo. — It didn’t take long for the Missouri football team to break in the sparkling new Stephens Indoor Facility. Scattered showers in Columbia sent the Tigers indoors for their first preseason practice on Monday, marking the official debut of the $33 million, 86,400-square foot practice facility located a few steps southwest of Memorial Stadium.
Unlike the Devine Pavilion, the program’s indoor facility since the 1990s, Stephens features a full 100-yard field, giving the Tigers more than enough space to hold a full-team practice Monday.
Wearing a wireless microphone, Tigers coach Eli Drinkwitz could be heard shouting instructions through each drill as music pumped through the in-house sound system — too loud for the coach’s taste to begin the helmets-only practice.