Missouri (5-6) will be looking to defeat Arkansas (6-5) for the Battle Line Trophy and clinch bowl eligibility in week 13 when it hosts the Razorbacks. Mizzou head coach Eli Drinkwitz met with local media on Monday afternoon in advance of that game. Here is a full transcript of the press conference.
Opening statement
First off, I’d like to say Happy Thanksgiving. Obviously, it's a great holiday. For me, its one of my personal favorites just because of the opportunity to gather with friends and family and no pressure of gifts and all the other things just being with people and spending time with those you love. This week always reminds me of how many things that I had to be grateful for. So thankful for my family, my wife, for daughters, and the opportunity to live here in Colombia. This is an unbelievable community that's really supported my family and me over the last three years and we love being here and being associated with this university and being the head football coach for not only this city but also this state. And what a tremendous honor that is and a blessing, you know to be surrounded, be thankful for the young man to play for us, you know, the 21 seniors that we were able to honor last Saturday and all the other kids that have families that have committed to play for us and be here with us on this journey.
Core value No. 4 for us is to enjoy the journey and that's what we're doing with the guys that are on this football team and got a wonderful working environment with the staff that is here. The support through the athletic administration. And, again, just so grateful for the opportunity to be here and really reflect on that this week.
I’m very thankful to the fans. We got a great fan base Saturday night. Those who stuck out in some really tough conditions. We got people that didn't work shirts, the entire game. Need to check on those guys this week and make sure they're healthy but I’m just really appreciative of them and our fan base and the support. We really need them to rally this week. Got a very difficult challenge ahead of us with rivalry week and the Battle Line trophy versus Arkansas and we need a big home-field advantage. Our student section has been that for us. I know they're on Thanksgiving break but don't eat too much turkey get over the trip to fan, get here for Friday's game, and let's make sure that our student section is rockin' that would allow on third downs and we give our team a huge advantage with the environment that we play in.
Obviously, coach Sam Pittman has done an excellent job at the University of Arkansas and they've got a really good football team. They've had a lot of consistency in their coordinators and have maintained the same three coordinators for three seasons. You can tell that they play fast within their schemes.
Offensively, the quarterback is the engine that makes them go and this will be the third time that we've played against him. I hope he's graduating or going pro or something because he is an unbelievable player. He is able to really throw the football extremely well. He's a physical runner, but I think the thing that separates him is his ability to read defenses and then even when protection breaks down, make the first defender miss whether they're on him or not, and then extend plays. The play he made against BYU before half that led to a touchdown drive is as special of a play you can make at quarterback and I just have a lot of respect for KJ (Jefferson) as a player and I know that he's also a man of high character, so it's going to be a very difficult challenge for our defense.
Raheim Sanders is a tremendous running back and has great patience. They do a really nice job with their schemes to get him the ball in space. The transfer Jadon Hazelwood is a dynamic wide receiver that they use a lot like they did with the Treylon Burks last year, so they have a very good understanding what they're trying to do. Defensively, they're very multiple in their scheme. Bumper Pool, the linebacker that's been there for as long as I can remember, same with Hudson Clark, are very good players. Very good on the front and they were able to reload some transfers on the defensive line. Cam Little, their kicker, is really good and special teams coach Scott Fountain does an excellent job, so we’ve got our hands full.
Eli all the guys some of the guys that were banged up on Saturday, I mean, were those situations where in a different game they would’ve been available and then what's Barrett Banister’s status?
Yeah, the only injury update that I have for sure that would be limiting for this week is that Xavier Simmons had a non-contact knee injury on the kickoff team and he'll miss the remainder of the season. I really hate that for him as we were playing him in one of his four games. He had a Lisfranc injury when we first got him on campus and it took him all the way until August to get back and he really made some progress. I was excited for him to get his opportunity. But he's going to be out for the rest of the year.
The rest of those guys 一 it's just Monday. We haven't got to practice yet. We have meetings today at 1 p.m. and then go to practice. So, we'll have more of an update when we release our injury report. I think yeah, absolutely some of those guys 一 if they could play they would play, but the athletic trainers and us decided for that game and those situations that they didn't need to return. We'll get those guys healthy and we'll see who can play and if they can't play then it's next man up.
How much does the focus and message kind of shift to bowl eligibility?
Yeah, the only thing we're focused on is it's a rivalry game and it's trophy week. That's it. None of the other stuff matters. The most important thing to us is that they have a trophy and we want it and the only way to get it is to play our best game and to prepare the way that we know how to prepare and to play with unbelievable effort. That's the focus and that's why we did senior week last week. This week is all about rivalry week, Arkansas and the Battle Line trophy. And whatever happens after that happens. We're just focused on trying to win that trophy.
Coach, how do you guys manage Thanksgiving?
Well, we got some big guys quite a bit. It is a little bit difficult on our players and our team, especially with the game being on Friday. We will have a Thanksgiving family dinner with our team immediately following our fast Thursday and then we will give them a couple of hours to go be with their families if that's what they choose to do. But we'll be in the hotel on Thursday night like we would normally do pregame. So, it's one of the sacrifices that college football players have to make in college athletics and it's difficult but it is what it is.
What does KJ do that gives teams the most trouble?
Well, I think everybody under undervalues his ability to throw the football. He's very accurate. He reads the defense's really well. But the thing that makes him special is that he creates with his feet. He's able to call a normal pass play. It's not there, even if protection breaks down and somebody gets to him he can shed that defender and get the first down. He’s very similar to Hendon Hooker and what he was able to do against us and there were several times that we had a free defender on him and he was able to shake them off and then go get extra yardage and that's the guy you're counting on making the tackles. So, that's probably his secret weapon.
Arkansas’ pass rush leads the SEC in sacks right now. What kind of challenges is that group present?
Yeah, they have a great scheme that creates havoc on because they're coming from multiple angles and they're really not attacking gaps they’re attacking space. And they put you in a lot of different one on ones. So, that's going to be a challenge. Obviously, we've got a few guys who have experience and we got a true freshman. So, we're going to have to really make sure we narrow the focus of what we do and make sure that our guys can execute it.
How do you feel true freshman Armand Membou has held up at right tackle the last two weeks?
He's played very well. Obviously, there are things that he can improve on and there are specific fundamentals that we've got to continue to work on, but for the most part, he's held up his end of the bargain at that position. The future is extremely bright for him. I think every time he steps on the field, he gains more and more confidence. When you play with a high level of confidence with as big and as powerful as he is. That's special.
The fact that they have had consistency coordinators with Briles and Barry, not that it makes it easy, but is it more familiar when you're getting ready for them or has their systems changed much?
No, I think their systems evolve. I think all three of them, including special teams, who have gone to a two-man shield on punts. Everybody's going to evolve, but you can tell there's a similar framework, similar teachings and similar structure. So, there's more volume of defense that they carry or more volume of offense, but there's still a base identity of who they are. You can tell like guys like Bumper Pool, Hudson Clark, Simeon Blair or Myles Slusher are guys who have a lot of experience in what they're doing. So, in a short week, they're going to be able to pick it up and be ready to play.
Is there one position group or player that's really got to make sure they have a good game and that they’re doing all their responsibilities this week, so nothing big happens?
Yeah, that's the beauty of the game is that all 11 people on the field have to do their job at a high level for you to have any chance of success. If one person doesn't there's a hole in the defense, or a hole in the offense and there's going to be an issue. So, everybody's got to win their one-on-one matchups.
Barrett was out there for Sam Horn’s drive in the fourth quarter. Is that just trying to have that leadership veteran guy on the field?
Yeah, he's kind of our glue and on-the-field coach and felt like he could get everybody lined up and make sure that the plays were executed. Sam tried to throw to him on the first two passes. So, there's a lot of comfort there, too.
I know you'd move everything up in a short week. Is there anything that when you have less time to prepare that you drill into your guys to make sure they're ready on a short week?
No, I think the biggest thing is making sure the only people that need to feel stressed about it being a short week are the coaches. You want to try to get your players into a rhythm and a routine. So, today is Monday and y’all world but when we go to team meetings it will be toughness Tuesday. They'll be ready to go and their mindset will just be a Tuesday practice. We'll go from there. You know it balances us all up. You know some people have Sunday off and practice Mondays. When you only have a six-day workweek. Everybody has to have the same sort of schedule. So, that's a good thing.
Progress and improvement of a program go beyond what the bottom line says. So, where specifically do you feel like you guys have made a lot of improvements this year over where you were last year? And then the second part, how important is it that progress shows up in these next couple of games in the final record over how it did a year ago?
When you're talking about success, everybody believes success is linear and that It's always pointing up. I think you got to understand the trajectory of what you're trying to accomplish. Obviously, taking over this program, there was a lot of challenges when we first started starting with NCAA sanctions for two years and then COVID and and now dealing with a transfer portal and NIL. So, we're navigating all those things in the middle of probably the most uncertain time in college football history.
I think the things that we have done well is we have been to back-to-back bowl games, which only two other coaches in school history have done. We've recruited at one of the highest levels that this program has ever seen. We've drawn fan attendance back to one of the highest levels that it's been since pre-2015. We’ve built a brand new indoor facility and raised money at a high level. You're seeing progress on the defensive side of the ball, which had not been where we wanted it to be the previous season.
Offensively, we are not where we want to be as far as the number of yards and points but we are dealing with a pretty young football team when you're starting a redshirt freshman center. Your starting quarterback hadn't played a whole lot you, maybe your best two offensive weapons are a true sophomore and a true freshman. So, the future to me is really bright. We're starting a true freshman right tackle. We had a redshirt freshman make his first career touchdown catch at tight end.
So,I think we're improving the talent. I think we're improving the way we go through the process. So, I see a lot of growth and see a lot of things to be excited about. Football is all about gaining momentum and confidence as you continue to build and look forward to what lies ahead. I think there are a little bit more favoring schedules that maybe allow for an opportunity to gain a little bit more momentum and confidence as we continue to build this program and I appreciate our administration for realizing that it's all those things working together in sync to really have a program take off.
We all want to have it to be straight-up linear. But very rarely in my life has success looked like that. It's always been a process and building and there are days you stubbed your toe but it doesn't mean cut your toe off, you just keep going and go back to work. That's frustrating for fans and it's frustrating for people, but it's not frustrating for me when I see the vision of what we can accomplish and the vision of where we can go.
There is a report that Bush Hamdan is calling plays now. What went into the decision to have him do that?
Yeah, you know, I think there's a lot of talk about play calling and all that stuff. I mean, we have offensive staff that puts everything together and we go through all the situations and then you know, whoever is dialing up the plays at that time 一 it’s a collective effort anyway, so don't get caught up in too many sources and all that different stuff. Bush has done a nice job taking the lead on some of it but you know, Marcus Johnson has done a nice job, coach Curtis Luper has done a nice job coach Jacob Peeler has done a really nice job of some ideas here and there. So, I think it's a little bit overblown but appreciate Bush in his leadership. Absolutely. And, you know, just honestly felt like 一 maybe that was something that would spark us.
How have you seen those younger guys that you mentioned kind of grows with the ups and downs of the season? Maybe mindset-wise on the field?
Yeah, I think it's maturity. I think when you're young and you're disappointed with the result, you kind of make it about you but you realize it's a process and you got to continue to grow and develop. I think that's really where we're seeing some growth is. We have some young guys with talent, but it's got to be consistently displayed and we're doing that. We're starting to gel and we are getting better.
With a season with so many close losses and frustrating losses. Is there any sort of extra incentive to get a win in the final regular season game to get that record to where it maybe should be?
I haven't put any thought process into the season overview. All I'm focused on is this game this week being 1-0 and stacking that up and after the game on Friday, then I'll take 48 hours and kind of reflect on where everything is. Right now my mindset is not on reflection or doing all tha. My mindset is on rallying this team over the next five days to be prepared to play our best game because that's what we need to do good teams play better each and every week. And I felt like with the way things ended against Tennessee, I thought it was really important for us to bounce back.
Offensively, to score on our first three drives, to score on this opening series of both the first half and second half which was the first time we've done that all year 一 there was real growth there to convert some big third downs and we converted the fourth down. I was really pleased with that mindset.
Defensively, I thought to force two turnovers 一 to get the pick-six, to force pressure to limit their explosives to really make them drive the ball which is not something we had done the previous game to give us some momentum again, I thought that was really important to build for this week. I'm not really worried about close losses or blowouts. That doesn’t have anything to do with this week. This week's about us playing our best game to try to win a rivalry game and that's what matters to me.
Sam Pittman said this morning or this afternoon that he's not sure if Bumper Pool plays this weekend. So I know that the scheme doesn't change based on who's in there necessarily but when there's such an impactful guy like that, I mean, does that change what you guys do during the week?
I hadn't heard this.
I literally saw it on Twitter five minutes later.
Thank God for you being on Twitter. Thank you, Elon Musk. Well, I think Sam is just throwing out rat poisoning. I think Pool’s a tremendous player. He's a tough young man and he plays his guts out. I would be shocked if he doesn’t find a way to play in the rivalry game. But I mean they've got capable players and they play really good football and you know he's had to miss some games are not games but time just because of injuries. So they've got capable players behind him and we'll have to figure that out.
Do you have any sense of what December 5 is going to be like when the transfer portal opens?
It’s going to be a madhouse. The FCS portal opened up and it's completely crazy. I don't think there's any reason that it’s going to be different. Be careful what you wish for. Yeah, I don't know. I want to try to be measured with some of the things just because I think this stuff always gets to be put back on you and all that stuff. I think back to the question talked about growth. Very rarely in life, whether it's the story of bamboo, bamboo grows very little for six years and then in six weeks it sprouts six feet. Whether you're talking about a father-in-law who's a farmer 一 you don't plant the seed and it grows the next day, you got to go through a spring you got to go through rain, you got to go through the mud and you got to go through heat. And then something great comes in and bursts to the ground for that.
I think we're in such an instant gratification era, including myself, I'm not putting this on anybody. It's the entire world we live in, that we're trying to skip the step of adversity and growth and you're never going to be able to skip that in life. You're always going to face it, whether that's in your marriage, whether that's in your job, whether that's raising kids and I know what's happened. We want to as parents and older people, we want to help the young so the next generation does not have to face some of the hardships that we faced. Man, the greatest generation in the world is the greatest generation because they face the Great Depression and they faced World War II, you know, and they figured it out.
I just worry there are going to be players who leave our program, and I love them dearly, but maybe they're not excited about their role or they're frustrated because they don't feel like they're being utilized the right way. Sometimes you just got to grow and sometimes the grass isn't always greener on the other side. Sometimes you're just trading one set of problems for another.
I don't know if you guys know this, because this is the first time you've really been through it. But how much had coaches talked about between Saturday and December 21, teams are going to potentially have bowl games, Signing Day, transfer portal opens, and coaching changes. I mean, how do you prioritize that and kind of manage the time in those three weeks?
Going back to the transfer that we just talked about that was just for people that are not necessarily happy, then you're going to have the other factor that people want to negotiate a better deal because of NIL and that other stuff. I don't know nobody's prepared for this because we've never faced it before. But you're going to have the issue of players going into the transfer portal, do they get to finish out and play in bowl games or do they not? Players will declare for the NFL Draft. Then you're going to have the fact that you got some players that are redshirted, and so your rosters a little bit limited on who actually can play and can't play going into a bowl game. So, there are a lot of challenges to that plus you’ve got to sign a recruiting class. Plus you got to recruit your roster. Then, you’ve got to advise players who have NFL potential on whether or not they should come back or should go. So, there's a big challenge there. And we will step up to the challenge. Whatever that may be, whatever that may look like.
But one thing I'm focused on right now is that we've got a 1 p.m. team meeting and I need to make sure I'm at my best for that and I need to make sure our team is focused and ready to go for a rivalry game.
So, with all that everything's going to happen in December and everything that's happening already. What has stayed the same, like is there anything that you still feel rooted in that isn't changing?
The direction and vision of this program. I think the biggest thing that I've tried to make sure that our administration and hopefully our fans know is that stability and discipline in an uncertain environment is a recipe for success. I clearly know what we're trying to accomplish here and how we're doing that, how we're encouraging young men to chase their dreams of a life with football and life outside of the game, and that's not going to change. We want them to maximize their ability as a football player. We want to surround them with everything they possibly can have to chase that dream of being the best football player that they can be, but we also understand that at some point football ends for everybody.
We want to make sure they have a world-class degree so that they can be a positive influence on our society. We want them to produce leaders in a world that desperately needs people of character in leadership. And that's not changing here. They know that every day they walk in this building we're going to require that they always compete, that their job is to be better today than they were yesterday, that we build trust and respect and that we trust them. We respect the time and amount of energy they put in. They respect that we're experts in our field and they trust that we have their best interests at heart. We're always going to say you got to do more than what's expected. Alright, if you do the same thing as everybody else, and they're in front of you, they're staying in front of you, that's a life lesson they’ve always got to know and then enjoy the journey.
So, when everything else is uncertain, you can know that that's what this program is built on. And that's what this program is going to be about. You know that Ryan Russell is going to develop you with an elite edge every single day. You're going to be required to have energy, you're going to be required to have details, grit and emotional consistency. And that ain't changing. You know that our defensive coordinator is going to be here and we're going to have a great defense. You know that I'm going to be the head football coach here. And that vision for our programs is changing. We know that our academic department is going to help you grow and have a great academic success rate. You know there are going to be great opportunities for NIL and that's been demonstrated throughout the commitment to our team from our fan base. And so those are the things that are known quantities, and that's what you're choosing to either join or leave and at least you know what it is.
Have you found another running back to take some of the load off of Cody Schrader?
Cody had his best game of the year. as consistent as he was last week. This is a rivalry game. And this is going to be players making plays. And it's going to be kind of like game seven of the World Series. If we’ve got to put a right-hander in for this play and we’ve got to put a left-hander in for this play 一 whatever we got to do to win this game. So, I'm not really worried about who's taking it off of him. Whatever we got to do to win, whatever players got to play to make a play. If we need speed on the edge we got to get that running back in there. If we need a downhill run we’ve got to get that running back in there. If we’ve got to line up in something else that gets the best player the ball, that's what we're going to do. So, we'll worry about all that other stuff this spring. All worry about trying to find a way to win this game.
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