Missouri head coach Eli Drinkwitz told local reporters Thursday that transfer tailback Malae Fonoti suffered a non-contact ACL injury and will miss the remainder of the 2026 season. Fonoti, a first-year transfer who spent the first two seasons of his career at Montana, seemed to be the Tigers' second-string running back, based on the depth chart and order of appearance in Week 1. He rushed for 18 yards on three carries in his Tiger debut. Fonoti's injury, along with All-American running back Ahmad Hardy's unknown return timeline, puts Missouri's backfield a bit shorthanded. "That's probably the biggest point of concern we have right now with the depth chart," Drinkwitz said. The seventh-year MU coach took the opportunity to explain how Fonoti's injury — and Mizzou's inability to replace him and the investment put into him this season — ties back to one of the overarching problems of college football. "You build a roster in January, and unforeseen things happen, like, you know, players get hurt in game, players get hurt in accidents, and you're kind of stuck," Drinkwitz said. "And I think this is just goes back to a broader question of what is the NCAA, or college football's, management for creating some sort of parity throughout the course of a of a season. And I think we're going to continue to get more and more of these questions in this NIL day and age of how you can create competitive equity amongst the college football teams so that you can continue to keep fanbases engaged, and that a single significant injury doesn't derail a season, and all of this money that we've invested, the fans have invested in, now becomes null and void because of an injury that you have no way to to replace." Missouri coach Eli Drinkwitz addresses the media Thursday in the Hyatt Regency during SEC Media Days in Hoover, Ala.