Everything Eli Drinkwitz Said to Preview Kansas

Eli Drinkwitz has coached in plenty of rivalry games in his career, but none will compare to the intensity that will come to Faurot Field on Saturday when his Missouri Tigers host the Kansas Jayhawks for the first matchup between the two teams since 2011.

Missouri has spent the offseason educating its players and staff on the importance of the rivalry, but this week, the focus has solely been on the execution and not history lessons.

Here's a full transcript of what Drinkwitz had to say in a press conference Tuesday to preview the game.

Opening Statement:

“First, I just want to acknowledge the passing of a friend in Mizzou. I don’t know the accurate words to describe Ben (Arnet, the KOMU sports director who passed away unexpectedly Thursday). After the game, received that news and that was difficult to move on in the press conference because of how much Ben meant to so many people, including myself. And he was a great man. A great True Son. And somebody that I know everyone in this room will miss greatly. And it seems inappropriate to just move on. But Ben would know there’s a story to tell. And the story’s not finished yet. So we’ll keep his family and friends in our thoughts and prayers and we will continue to tell the story of Mizzou just like he would.

To recap our performance on Thursday night, first thing I want to say is just how much we appreciate our fans. What an awesome way to sell out to start the season. The environment was tremendous, the students were loud, they were early and that student section was rocking. Can’t thank the administration enough for the new lights, I think the new lights and the ability to create an atmosphere was tremendous. I think the construction workers stole from their seats in the new suites and made people jealous, which was awesome. And I think the construction is just a continued sign of our commitment to growing and developing as a program. I know there was some hiccups there with the concourse and all that stuff, and I know our athletic department’s working really, really hard to fix it moving forward.Look forward to having another Saturday in Faurot and continuing the things that our fan base has built.

On tape, I liked a lot, I think a lot of things to be proud of. But more importantly, there was so much to correct and so many things that we have to improve, starting with myself and our coaching staff, and then trickling down to our players, top to bottom. And that's really the name of the game, is improvement. It doesn't matter how good you are right now, it's how much better can you be, and can you close that gap? And that's really what we're looking for this week, is to close that gap of becoming the best team that we can be.

And so there's a lot of things to improve. Offensively, at the line of scrimmage, ball security in the pocket, blocking on the perimeter, protection with tailbacks. Defensively, tackling in space, setting edges, not getting washed in the interior movement, having better spacing in coverage in the secondary. On special teams, being more physical at the point of attack, having fewer penalties that set us back, so tons of stuff to improve on. That's really what we're focused on this week.

From an injury standpoint, you love the game of football and you hate it. You absolutely hate injuries, and wish there was a way that they were not part of it, but they are.

Sam (Horn) has an injury that's going to keep him out for an extended period of time. I'm not going to get into specifics, but he will be out. Don't know how long yet, but he will miss an extended period of time. Blake (Craig) tore his ACL, he had repair surgery this morning. There was a slight hope that it wasn't quite as bad, but he has a full tear, repaired this morning, he's on his way to recovery, but he will miss the remainder of the season. What that means moving forward is we actually have added Ryder Goodwin to our football team and roster. He was a junior college transfer, so he joined us yesterday, fully cleared, practiced with the team yesterday. We also added Brett Brown. Brett was a former walk-on quarterback, actually played the spring game as the second quarterback two years ago. Brett is back. He practiced with the team yesterday, so fortunate for us that we had the space within our 105 (roster cap) and made the corrections that we needed to make, and had the ability to get these guys onto our team, and did that. 

So field goals, as of right now, will be Robbie (Robert) Myers. Place kicking will be Oliver Robinson, and Ryderl will compete to see where he is at as quickly as possible. But he did kick with our field-goal unit yesterday. Real excited that we were able to get him.

On to this week's game, obviously, it's an important game to a lot of people, and our team fully is aware of the importance of this game to our fans and this state and what it represents nationally and what it represents in historical significance. We've embraced it, we understand it, we've taught about it. We've made sure our team knows about it, we've had guest speakers. And I will say this, I have a lot of respect for coach (Lance) Leipold, for what he's done and the job that he's done. He’s a national championship coach. He went to two other previous programs and transformed them into a winning program. You can see what he's done in a short amount of time in Kansas what a terrific coach he is, his entire staff.

They've got some really good players, they did an excellent job rebuilding the roster from last year. I think their quarterback is a terrific player. He's back to his former self, I think maybe two years ago going into preseason, he was No. 2 in the Heisman preseason Heisman rankings, and he's returned to that form, in my opinion. He's got some weapons to really use, Emmanual Henderson (Jr.), the transfer wide receiver, (Cam) Pickett, I think both of those guys were league wide receivers. Henderson has got great speed, catches the ball, really difficult to tackle, is a former high school running back. Pickett, hey use him in a lot of different ways. I think he got three touchdowns in two games. So, they definitely know how to get him the ball. 

Defensively, Dean Miller, Justice Finkley, Trey Lathan, Lryik Rawls, D.J. Withers, all these guys are disruptives. I think their D-line is their strength of their football team, between Dean Miller, Justice Finkley and DJ. I think they do as good a job as anybody rushing the passer. They’ve gt great length. They chase the ball. Trey Lathan is a transfer from West Virginia, he does a really good job at playing linebacker, he was a guy that we looked at in the portal. He’s a physical player, can run really well. Lyrik Rawls is a safety. He got that interception versus Fresno (State),  really good, does a lot for them. They do a lot with their defensive scheme. They have four-down, they have odd they have three-safety, they have bear, they have a six-man front. So they're very disruptive. I think the team is very-well coached, very disciplined in how they play, and certainly will be a challenge for our program and our team because of what they do. So we got our hands full between understanding the rivalry and the intensity of the game, and understanding that the game is played on the field.”

On what he knew about the rivalry before becoming Missouri’s head coach:  

“Well, I mean, I obviously understood the rivalry. You go back to two of the big games were both ‘07, ‘08,  I remember watching those games on TV, to be honest, I wasn't in college coaching at that point, I was a high school coach. So, (I) remember coach (Mark) Mangino, his ability to turn that program around, obviously had a tremendous amount of respect for coach (Gary) Pinkel because of, at that time, Ashton Glaser (who Drinkwitz coached in high school) being on the roster. So I was aware of what Mizzou was all about. So taking the job, I understand its importance. And I’ve been to as many of the home basketball games that we’ve hosted KU. So understand it and our team and guys understand the importance of it.”

On the top messages former wide receiver and assistant coach Andy Hill shared with the team when speaking to them this offseason:

“A lot of different things talked about. We talked about the historical significance and context of the game. We talked about what it was for him, both as a player and a coach. But really, I didn't ask him if he was okay with sharing what he said to the team. So, it just needs to be known that we understand what it’s about.”

On what he wants the team to understand about the rivalry: 

“It means a lot to a lot of people. It's a privilege to wear the ‘Mizzou’ on your chest. And when you wear Mizzou, you represent six million people in this state, and that's just current, there’s past and present. I think we're Team 136. There's just a lot of importance, and this is our chance to write our part of the story. We're going to continue to play this game, so this is just one part of the story, but it's an important part.”

On how important rivalries like this one are to college football:

“I think anything that stirs the passion of your fan base is important. Especially when you're asking fans to do so much. We ask our fans to do so much from a financial contribution, from a time contribution, from an engagement contribution. So anytime you get a chance to stir their passion for bragging rights and whatever other rights that might be on the lines of this game, I think it's important that your team is ready to play.”

On what he expects it to be like to coach in a game of this intensity: 

“I would just say the biggest thing that I'm telling our team is you gotta understand it (the history). But once the balls kick, you gotta play the game. You gotta play the game of execution, of fundamentals and technique. And the most important thing for us, right now, is to improve from last week's performance, both technically, fundamentally, execution-wise.

We’ve coached in some rivalry games before. We've been a part of some rivalry games before, so I think we have an understanding of what the intensity is going to be. There's been no like, ‘Is there a certain schematic thing that we need to do because it's a rivalry game?’ Just gotta stay calm, stay present, coach the game.”

On if this week of preparation is any different considering the stakes: 

No, we've done all that. Now it's about execution. I think there's a fine line between over hyping and getting so emotional that you don't have poise and control. You want to have an energy, you don't want to be emotional. You want to have great positive energy and be excited to play, and I don't think that's going to be a problem. I think our players are going to be excited about Faurout Field being sold out. I think they're going to be excited about playing a quality opponent and testing where they're at as a team. And I don't know that on game day — like I tell the team all the time, the pre-game speech isn’t going to execute in the fourth quarter. So it's all good for ‘SEC Now,’ and to put it out there, and the mini movie is going to capture it, but at the end of the day man, in a two-minute drive or in the swing 8 or money downs, ain't nobody thinking about coach Drink said this, or this guest speaker said this.”

On his confidence in Matt Zollers being the back up with Sam Horn out:

“I feel a lot of confidence in Matt, especially after him being able to go in and perform the way he did, I thought he handled it pretty well. I think from a staffing standpoint, I think our staff has done a really good job of growing Matt while also letting Beau (Pribula) and Sam compete for the job. And we really didn't hinder his reps for performance while we were doing that. We were actually very cognizant in fall camp and summer walk throughs and during spring to make sure he was growing and developing the reps. Because make no mistake about it, Matt Zollers is the future for us at that quarterback position here. And so we knew that he needed to continue to grow and develop.

I think the maturity question, that's what I actually spoke to him about maybe a week ago, and then brought him in and talked to him about it this week. There’s just got to be a maturity and growth now. He's no longer a freshman, just having a good time and going out — of course, he wasn’t going out to Harpo’s because he’s underage, but now he's focused on what he's got to do in order to be prepared. Because at any play he could be in the game.”

On if Beau Pribula needs to be more cautious while running with Sam Horn out with injury: