Missouri head coach Eli Drinkwitz held his weekly press conference with the media Tuesday as the team moves on from its second bye week and prepares to head into the final third of the season as it hosts Oklahoma on Saturday.

I picked a few of Drinkwitz’s quotes that I thought were most telling.

What Drinkwitz said: “Drew Pyne.”

What was unsaid: Alright … sure.

I’ve been told I should have made it more clear that when I said last week that I expected JR Blood to start this week, that was my opinion based off of conversations I’d had about Brady Cook being very unlikely to play, not conversations about the plan itself.

But either way, my opinion was wrong.

So we’re almost certainly going to watch Pyne play. It was a pretty straight forward answer, just the two words when asked. A follow up about the conversations with Pyne after his performance against Alabama led to a longer answer, but there was no room for reading further into Drinkwitz’s answer to who the option is.

It’s Pyne. So get ready for that.

What Drinkwitz said: “Drew’s been relentless, been dedicated to his goals. When you face setbacks, finding ways to respond and grow from them, develop toughness and be determined to meet the standard, I think not only Drew, but JR, Brady, the offensive line, running backs, wide receivers, defensive players, I think all of us have chosen, we’re going to be relentless and continue to improve.”

What went unsaid: Aidan Glover’s name when those quarterbacks came up.

I thought this would be a good extension of the first quote. Not only is Pyne the option this week, Glover doesn’t even get brought up in the offhand comment about the guys dedicated to getting better.

That’s not to say he’s not working hard or anything like that, just that it reads to me like he’s not even coming up in the conversation of options at this point. I’ve fielded some questions about him being the option moving forward and using the rest of the season as a learning opportunity for the guy who could take the job moving forward, I think him not being included here is pretty telling about that option.

What Drinkwitz said: “Cayden (Green) got rolled up and just, he tried to go. Everybody was trying to give it everything they could to go in that game, but he was banged up and really couldn’t drive off with it. So it was an injury decision. He's trending back in the right direction, but will still be classified on the injury report.”

What went unsaid: Green is still the starter if he’s healthy. There had been some rotation at the spot with Walters, but don’t read further into the snap counts against Alabama than Green was hurt. We’ll see how that injury progresses this week, though there won’t be an update from open practice because once again there is no open practice (so it’s been since before the Auburn game that media has been allowed at any practice). He’ll almost certainly show up on the injury report starting tomorrow and we’ll just have to track it from there.

What Drinkwitz said: “We’re at the point in the season where we’re playing to win the game and if those guys are called upon to play, to win a game, both of them are in the rotation depth chart. I would anticipate both of them play this week. So not worried about that part.”

What went unsaid: I agree with the answer for Nwaneri just because of injuries along the defensive line throughout the year, though an extra year of development for him would be great. I kind of doubt we see Lacy moving forward even with this philosophy.

Also, aren’t you always at the point in the season where you’re trying to win the game? That’s every game, that doesn’t mean you’re not also planning for the future.

I think with the running backs, especially if Nate Noel is able to get back on the field, Lacy is enough of an afterthought in the rotation right now that you can maintain that redshirt. But if Noel is out again, I guess you burn it and hope two snaps a game is enough to help Lacy’s development going into next year.

Head on over to the Tiger Walk to discuss the press conference and so much more.