Missouri (1-1) will look to rebound from a week two loss with a win this week when they host Abilene Christian (2-0) in a week three matchup. Head coach Eli Drinkwitz met with local media on Tuesday afternoon in advance of that game. Here is a full transcript of the press conference.
Opening statement
Great to be here today. It’s a new week, a new opportunity for our team to improve. We have a lot of growth opportunities in front of us. You know, specifically from last week excited to get to practice today to improve in those areas. There's a lot of football left and a lot of opportunities left for this football team to continue to grow and improve, and we’ve got a good quality opponent this week that we have to get ready for in Abilene Christian. They’re 2-0 with wins over Lamar and Prairie View. They’ve got a brand new head football coaching staff. Keith Patterson used to be the defensive coordinator at Texas Tech, Utah State, Arizona State, Tulsa, Pittsburgh, and several other places. (I) actually worked with Keith for a little over six weeks when we were together at Arkansas State in my first job.
Their quarterback is a good player. He's got good command over their offense and does a nice job in their RPOs. He's only had two career starts, and is obviously 2-0 and made the most out of them. Their defense is very multiple, lots of coverage, lots of pressures, lots of line movements, and have the ability to get out in and out of a three down and four down front. So it's going to be a real challenge for our team. And excited to get with those guys. We get practice Sunday, and yesterday was their off day. Today, we've already had lifts and we'll be ready to roll at 1:45 for our team meeting. So with that, I'll open it up for questions.
Do you feel like that energy of this is a new week or was that kind of immediate energy that you felt in practice, and this morning as well?
Yeah, I think again, it's an opportunity for us to grow and put the things that are behind us -- behind us and move on to the future. And that's really all you can control. So, I think that's the focus of our team.
Eli looking back over the film, was there something consistent that you felt like held the offense back or was it more of one thing here? One thing there?
Yeah, there were a lot of inconsistencies. It was a lot of 11 people not being on the same page. And offensively you got to have 11 people acting as one in order to be successful. And that starts with me finding a rhythm for the offense, and that's something that we can grow in and work on.
I know every individual kind of handles it differently. What's your sense for how Brady handles coming off a rough game and the criticism that comes with that and how he kind of processes that the next few days?
Yeah, praise and blame are all the same. You can't get caught up either way. You can't read the message boards when they're good and can't read them when they're bad. The reality of it is he defines his own success by the standard that he performs in the standard that we perform as a team. And we were below that standard. But it doesn't have to define us. One game does not define the season.
And I think everybody in this day and age is real quick to want to make snap judgments and after a glimpse, we're two football games in. We’ve had some really good and some really bad.
There's an old Bill Parcells quote that talks about you know, losers assemble in groups and complain. And I would add get on Twitter and message boards and have all the answers and winners assemble as a team and find ways to win. And that's what we're gonna do. We're gonna assemble as a team and find ways to win. And we're not going to focus on the toxicity or negativity that has nothing to do with winning or producing any type of outcome for us if we want it to be. So, our focus is on how do we circle up as a coaching staff, as a player, and as a Mizzou football program and find ways to win.
Was there anything thing that stuck out in the film that maybe didn't during the game?
Yeah, there are a lot of opportunities for growth. And we addressed those yesterday and now it's time to grow today and we want to move forward to ACU.
When you look at that second half and what that defense was able to do was there anything once you were able to look back at that you liked what you saw in that second half defense?
Yeah, I mean, I thought they ran to the fight in the third quarter and obviously got put in some bad situations and played really hard. And they were able to keep us in the game for as long as they possibly could. So yeah, I thought there were a lot of positives. There are a lot of things to get corrected off the tape. As I said, after the game, we started slowly in all three phases. And it's an opportunity for us to grow this week and get better.
How important and how do you get the running game going?
There was a part in the game where we went six straight attempts without a run. Two of them were RPOs that could have been runs. So, I think we got to do a better job of getting that go on, especially on the road. It has not been a problem in the past. I don't foresee that being a problem in the future. So that's something we get back to the identity of who we are and get better at.
The feeling out of camp seemed to be that the leadership, especially from the team captains, is really strong on this team. What's their message to the team this week?
Yeah, I thought they were good Sunday, and they're gonna be good today. I think their message is the same that I'm giving to you. It;s a new week and new opportunity on an awful young season.
Eli do you still feel good about the foundation of the offense after Saturday, and that there are more tweaks that need to be done?
Yeah. No problems with the offense. We didn't get it done on Saturday. And we're two weeks into the season with a lot of opportunity for growth.
When you're taking the blame and saying you need to do a better job putting them in position. You said this summer that you needed to kind of open it up. Is that what you mean? Or is it that you got to find out what these guys do well?
Both. I opened it up. We turned the ball over too much. So, that's on me. I got to design it better. So, there's plenty of opportunity for growth, have no reservations about what we're doing on offense schematically. One bad game doesn't define who we are.
Coach, scheme-wise what can we expect defensively from Abilene Christian?
They're multiple, they played the first two games in a four-down front, with multiple coverage and pressure in line movement. But at Texas Tech, and there are a few flashes on the film of their odd three safety defense, which we struggled against last week. So, it's kind of a figuring out which one they're going to come in here and try to do, which one they feel comfortable with.
You mentioned the quarterback who was a pretty solid player. What are some other players on that team that you guys are taking extra looks at offense, defense, and special teams?
Their quarterback. He's a two-game starter. I think he does a really good job and their running back is a good player. Kendall Catalon, which is the brother of the safety for the Razorbacks is their wide receiver and punt returner and he does an excellent job. He's very dangerous in the punt return game, which for us is something that again, we've got to be better at. And so those are the three guys that really stand out to me in a positive way on film.
What are some things that you expect to see or maybe expect to learn from the team this week?
How we respond. We get to control our response. To whatever the event is you get to control your risk response and create the outcome that you want. And you can either listen to the outside noise and the criticism and believe that. It affects your mood, affects your mentality, and affects your belief in your teammates. Or you can continue on what you set out to do which is to be a team. Circle up and continue that belief in each other and continue that belief in what we're building and continue that belief in what we're trying to be for this season.
Growth is not normally linear. It's normally all over the place. And whether or not we want it to be that way or not. It's not real life. The reality of it is though, when you're in this profession in this sport, the criticism and critiques are grander and it's louder and you have to ignore it. Otherwise, you get caught up in that and it affects your mental health affects your mental well-being which is then going to result in affecting your performance. And it's nothing wrong.
It's just this is a different thing that everybody in in football, in general, is dealing with. The amount of noise on social media, whether it's Friday night on high school games, Saturday on college games, or Sunday and NFL games, the amount of noise -- half of those teams are getting drilled. And you have to figure out as a staff and as players how to insulate yourself from the criticism and still focus on what you control, which is your performance.
Give us an idea of how you tell kids to do that then because they're 20 and they live on their phone.
Exactly. The only thing I can do is pointed out. What we do with that is up to us. I've had a lot of messages directed at me and I had no idea I hadn't seen them. I refuse to let that stuff affect me right now because the best that I can be for my team is to believe in my team, believe in myself, and believe in our staff and I'm not going to let the outside noise affect us. We have a direction that we're going would we like to be there faster? Absolutely. Are we there yet? No. But we're gonna get there. We're gonna get there. And I have an unwavering belief in that. Doesn't mean that we don't confront the realities of where we're at which is a bad loss. But it happened. Now control is the response that we have. And you can either believe in the negativity or believe in the positive that we have forward and that's what I'm gonna choose.
Where do you feel like you're making progress on special teams and where are some concerns you have through two games?
Well, we're just not in sync with the distance that we're kicking the ball and the coverage that we have. In our punt coverage, we had some inconsistencies in the distance of the punt. The first punt was a 28-yarder, you know we had another punt that we cover that was kicked nearly out of bounds. And the other punt, we didn't get guys down. So, we've got to do a better job of creating ways to get gunners free. If we're going to continue to punt the ball that far. And we got to be more consistent in changing up the landmark of punt team. Our kickoff coverage -- we kicked into the wind the first time. Sean (Koetting) made a great tackle. In our kickoff return game, we had one that almost got out. In our punt return, we didn't field the ball the way we needed to. I think we lost about 55 yards from not fielding punts. So, we'll be looking to create competition in that position this week.
Every team that plays an FCS team. The message is obviously any given Saturday, anything can happen. How do you know that your players received that or when do you find out if your players received that message?
You find out today at 3:30 p.m when we go to the practice field. How do we take the practice field? How do we prepare? We have a standard of how we prepare, we have a standard of performance of how we want to prepare for every game. Don't take the opponent lightly. There's no difference between the number one team in the country and this team. There are only 12 guaranteed opportunities, and so that for us is our messaging. It's a 1-0 mentality. And this is an opportunity for us to continue to embrace a 1-0 mentality. There's really no other football besides this game Saturday period for us.
Probably easy to forget that there is a freshman (Luther Burden III) and we know that we probably don't do any services by talking about him so much… Do you look at touches and his production and expect more or do you have to remember he’s a freshman too? How do you process that?
Yeah, I've got to balance the expectations of the external noise and the realities of what we need to put on him. And Luther is a competitor and he is a good football player and we certainly need to do a better job of creating touches for him. But we also need to limit the number of plays that he plays. He played 65 plays in that game, which is probably 25 too many. And we got to understand that sometimes play designs for an X receiver — they (the opposing defense) may take away the number one option, and that happened a couple of times (against Kansas State).
So, it is a balancing act of a true freshman. The second game of the year. Expectations versus reality. Tremendous player and a tremendous competitor. But you got a lot of people that can make plays.
And you know, I think Dominic Lovett stepped up and made some big-time plays for us. Made the one catch down the field and set up the second field goal. So, there are more ways to spread it out. But we can be better at designing plays so that he specifically gets the touch. You know, we had a little end-around play doing That to him that created six (yards). So, maybe finding more of those would be good.
Everybody obviously wants the ball. But especially when you're a freshman (Burden), you know the first time you've maybe been around guys that are on your level. I mean have you had to talk to him about any frustration he's had not at the play calls --- just at not being more productive?
We're two weeks into the season. I'm not making any rash judgments two weeks into the season. I don't think any of our players are making any rash judgments two weeks into the season. I don't think there are trend lines drawn after two weeks into the season. So, my job is not to overreact one way or the other. See problems face the brutal reality of where we're at and find ways to fix them without flinching. So no, he (Burden) has not shown any signs of frustration.
You've mentioned kind of insulating these guys from social media and stuff. Are they better at that and maybe now than they may have been like players were 10 years ago, five years ago?
We didn't have social media 10 years ago. Did we? I mean, I didn't have Twitter till 2014. Facebook was invented in I don't know. Insulation is probably the wrong word. I think awareness is the right word and whether that's awareness in life in general or awareness just for college athletics. For everyone's mental health, I think there's got to be a general awareness of the good and the bad of social media.
I saw a quote, last week that our human brains are not capable of battling all the world's problems in real-time. Think about it. We are not capable of battling all the real problems in real-time. And yet, we're capable of receiving all the criticism we possibly want. Instantly. People make mistakes. That's life. Mistakes are not defining moments, right? It's how you respond to mistakes, and how you respond to things that are going to define the outcome of what you want. So, that's for me the messaging. If you get caught up in the toxicity, and the negativity, then it's going to affect the outcome that you want because that's what you believe. There's an old saying perception is reality. I don't know if I believe that. I believe if you believe perception is reality it will become reality. Reality is where you're at at that moment and how you respond at that moment.
Do you have somebody or people in your program that kind of specifically deal with with mental health and stuff?
We have several mental health counselors who do a good job of providing opportunities for that. I mean, it's very real. In college sports, you're seeing more and more people. Retire for those reasons.
How much more prevalent do you think it's become in the NIL era? Where that kind of requires players almost to have an online presence?
So, I was the head coach in 2019. My first time this is a completely different game and it was 2019. All the way around. So yeah, I'll I don't know if NIL requires it, but it certainly elevated it. And now, instead of having you know the NFL model, you have one owner. Now, with NIL there are a lot more contributors.
Talk about this story and more in The Tigers' Lair
Make sure you're caught up on all the Tiger news and headlines
Subscribe to our YouTube Channel for video and live streaming coverage
