Normally, Eli Drinkwitz takes the podium with a Diet Coke in hand for his weekly press conference. Tuesday, he needed something a bit stronger, opting for coffee instead.

Even by 2020 standards, it’s been an unusual week for Drinkwitz and the Missouri football team. The Tigers learned Monday that they would not host Arkansas, as scheduled, due to the Razorbacks dipping beneath the conference’s scholarship player threshold due to COVID-19 quarantines. Instead, Missouri will host Vanderbilt, making up a game originally scheduled for Oct. 17 but postponed by the coronavirus.

The change of plans meant a change of gameplan, which resulted in a late Monday night and early Tuesday morning for Drinkwitz and his staff. Hence, the coffee.

“Switched over from Diet Coke to coffee this week, just trying to make sure we're ready,” Drinkwitz said. “We’ve been going and will be going for a long time.”

Drinkwitz first learned that Missouri might not play Arkansas this weekend on Monday morning. First-year Razorback head coach Sam Pittman called Drinkwitz to let him know that the Razorbacks were hovering right around the SEC minimum of 53 scholarship players, with more positive tests expected. Drinkwitz said he “didn’t let that affect my day” and continued putting together a game plan to face Arkansas. Around 5 p.m., he got a call from the SEC offices informing him the Tigers would face Vanderbilt instead. He called an emergency team meeting at 5:30, during which he broke the news to his players.

Defensive lineman Isaiah McGuire said the news wasn’t too hard to swallow. His mindset during this unprecedented season has been “expect everything.” He said most players were simply relieved the game didn’t get canceled entirely. Had Arkansas not been able to play and Missouri idle this weekend, the Tigers would have been left with four games on the schedule and only three weekends it could play.

“Although Arkansas was postponed, we were happy that we’re still playing somebody, at the end of the day,” McGuire said.

The coaching staff was probably a bit less thrilled to hear news of the schedule change. For them, it meant completely scrapping the Arkansas game plan, which Drinkwitz said had been pretty much finalized by that point, and starting anew on the Commodores. In the six weeks since Missouri was supposed to host Vanderbilt, the Commodores have played four games and started throwing the ball much more frequently and effectively with true freshman quarterback Ken Seals, so Drinkwitz said there wasn’t much to go on from the first time the Tigers prepared to face them.

Drinkwitz said the coaching staff stayed at the football facilities until about midnight Monday. He texted Pittman, joking that “his butt better be up” since his team had caused the late night for the Tiger coaches. By about 5 a.m. Tuesday, Drinkwitz was back in the office.

Despite the short week, Missouri opened as a significant favorite over winless Vanderbilt — about 16 points. Drinkwitz did, however, say the Commodores are better than their record and that Seals is starting to come into his own. He also noted that the short week won’t be a valid excuse if Missouri can’t pull out a win.

“One thing we all know now, with COVID, it doesn’t matter, there's no excuses, the product on the field is going to speak for itself,” Drinkwitz said. “... The expectation is we gotta put a good product on the field or there’s going to be consequences.”

Prior to Tuesday’s practice, the Missouri team met, as usual. Drinkwitz asked the three players that had been pressed into duty Saturday, making their first career start in the team's 17-10 win over South Carolina, to raise their hands. Redshirt freshman offensive lineman Luke Griffin raised his hand, as did true freshman defensive back Jaylon Carlies and redshirt sophomore defensive end Cannon York.

Drinkwitz then singled out York. The walk-on had played just 16 career snaps prior to Saturday. If you’re going to start for us, Drinkwitz told York, you might as well be on scholarship. York’s teammates mobbed him when they heard the news.

“I can’t describe my reaction,” a smiling York told reporters hours later. “If you asked some guys in the locker room, they’d probably tell you I started bawling like a baby. To me, that was one of the coolest things, too, just to have all my teammates jump on top of me and congratulate me and stuff.”

York, a Lebanon, Missouri native, said he grew up a Missouri fan and started coming to Tiger games at the age of five. He said he had “some other opportunities to play football elsewhere” following his high school career, but once Missouri offered him a spot as a preferred walk-on, the decision became an easy one.

Drinkwitz acknowledged that York, listed at 6-foot-3, 235 pounds, may not have all the physical characteristics of a prototypical SEC defensive end, but he earned his way onto the field with his practice habits.

“He gives a tremendous amount of effort in everything he does,” Drinkwitz said. “He's constantly working on his craft to improve. Plays extremely hard, is a guy that we know that we can count on to do his job. Are there attributes you wish he was better at or bigger, faster or whatever? Absolutely. But he makes up for it with work ethic and toughness.”

York started against South Carolina due to Trajan Jeffcoat and Sci Martin being unavailable. He played 15 snaps — the most he’s played in a game since high school, he noted — and recorded his first career tackle while playing in front of his parents, who made the trip once they found out he might start. That made the game special, York said. But calling them Tuesday with the news that he had been awarded a scholarship, which will go into effect in January, might have one-upped the experience.

“It’s really awesome to see some of the things you’ve been working toward pay off and you be rewarded for that and have those guys be excited and celebrating,” he said. “It’s a special thing.”

Not only was Griffin one of the other players who made his first career start against South Carolina, he played a major role. The redshirt freshman played all 70 snaps at left guard and looked like he belonged. Pro Football Focus graded him the best of Missouri’s offensive linemen and the second-highest of any Tiger offensive player. Drinkwitz said Griffin wasn’t perfect, but he more than held his own with starter Xavier Delgado out of the lineup due to injury.

“I think Luke did an outstanding job of helping us win the football game,” Drinkwitz said. “He played tough, he played physical. He didn't always play perfect with technique, but I thought he did a nice job.”

Griffin said he benefitted from having extra time to prepare. He knew following the Florida game he would start Missouri’s next matchup, barring a Delgado return, and the postponement of Missouri’s game against Georgia, scheduled for Nov. 14, allowed him an extra week to work with the first team during practice. The biggest adjustment wasn’t playing more, but moving from the right side of the line to the left. He had been working at right guard prior to Delgado’s injury.

“The biggest thing for me was working on my stance, my stance and my start,” Griffin explained. “I had been used to, all season, coming out of a right-handed stance, working on my right hand, and that was the biggest thing moving to left guard was just making the jump to left guard, learning how to play out of a left-handed stance and pull out of a left-handed stance, things of that nature.”

Delgado could return against Vanderbilt — he’s listed as a co-starter with Griffin on the depth chart released by the team Tuesday — but even if Griffin does cede the starting job, his emergence is important for Missouri. The Tigers lost Dylan Spencer, who took over for Delgado when he left the lineup against Kentucky and played every snap at Florida, to the transfer portal on Monday. Spencer’s departure leaves Missouri with just 11 healthy, scholarship offensive linemen.

Drinkwitz didn’t get too specific when asked about Spencer’s reasoning for leaving the team, but he did speak highly of the true freshman.

“I think he wanted to get or wants to get closer to home,” Drinkwitz said. “Think he's an outstanding player, an outstanding person. I know we’re going to miss him. We wish he would have stayed and chose to stay, but obviously he’s got to do what he believes is in the best interest of his future.”

After scoring 17 points in the opening 30 minutes against South Carolina, Missouri limped to the finish line on Saturday. The Tigers punted the ball on all five second-half possessions, not including a couple kneel-downs that ran out the clock. Drinkwitz did note Tuesday that football isn’t supposed to be a beauty contest, that wins and losses are ultimately all that matters, but he also blamed himself for the offensive struggles after halftime.

“I think I got too conservative, I was too adamant on trying to run the ball instead of utilizing some of the same past concepts that got us going in the first half, and didn't give us an opportunity to be in manageable third downs,” Drinkwitz said. “So, yeah, I think that rests squarely on my shoulders.”

Drinkwitz specifically second-guessed his play-calling, saying he should have been a bit more aggressive in protecting Missouri’s 17-point halftime advantage. That marked a bit of a tone shift from his postgame press conference, when he wasn’t afraid to criticize quarterback Connor Bazelak. Bazelak completed 21 of 33 passes for 203 yards, a touchdown and an interception during the game.

Asked about Bazelak’s performance, Drinkwitz pointed out a decision he disagreed with and called his one interception “a pretty terrible throw” (although it is worth noting both of those plays occurred in the first half). Tuesday, he said he should have actually put more trust in Bazelak and the passing game down the stretch.

“We left our defense out on the field way too long, which showed up on that fourth-quarter drive,” Drinkwitz said. “So we got to do a better job of sustaining drives and getting the run game going, but I can’t pound my head into the ground. We’ve got a very capable quarterback and capable wide receivers who are smart, intelligent decision-makers, so I’ve got to throw the ball.”

Missouri still won’t be at full strength against Vanderbilt, but the Tigers at least appear to be moving in the right direction. Drinkwitz said the team will get three players who were unavailable at South Carolina due to COVID-19 protocols back with the team this week. He did not specify which players would return. The team’s depth chart included four names from Saturday’s list of quarantined players: defensive tackle Markell Utsey as well as defensive backs Ishmael Burdine, Adam Sparks and Stacy Brown.

Defensive coordinator Ryan Walters has returned to the team, as well. Cornerbacks coach David Gibbs orchestrated the defense in Walters’ absence Saturday. Drinkwitz also said that Sunday’s round of testing did not reveal any new positives.

“As always with testing there's another round today,” he said. “And so we won't know until we get our results Thursday on where we're at. You know, there's always a tremendous amount of nerves when you travel, and so I think we're just waiting to see how that plays out.”

One notable player who it seems will not be available this week is backup quarterback Shawn Robinson, whose name did not appear on the depth chart. Drinkwitz said true freshman Brady Cook would serve as the backup quarterback behind Bazelak. The St. Louis native has not taken a snap yet this season. Wide receiver Micah Wilson, who started his college career behind center, would be the emergency, third-string option.

As of Tuesday, Drinkwitz said Missouri would have 59 scholarship players available for this weekend, although that included several players who didn’t play Saturday due to injury. He didn’t update the statuses of every player on that list, which includes Jeffcoat, Delgado, right tackle Larry Borom and nose tackle Kobie Whiteside, but he did note that Whiteside has been cleared by medical personnel to return to the field. Whether he’s able to return to action on Saturday remains to be seen.

“He's been cleared by the doctors,” Drinkwitz said of Whiteside. “He is just working to make sure that he's comfortable returning to full speed action. When he is, he’ll be out there.”

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