Missouri football coach Eli Drinkwitz met with the media Wednesday ahead of the Tigers’ trip to Nashville for the Music City Bowl and in the midst of Transfer Portal Madness.
Here are a few of his quotes I found most telling and what went unsaid with Drinkwitz’s answers.
In his opening statement
What Drinkwitz said: “Some of the guys who have announced that they’re entering the transfer portal have decided to move on early and have left. And then we’ve had three opt-outs. Obviously, Luther Burden, Armand Membou and Chuck Hicks will not participate in the football game. We wish them well in their careers. They left the right way. So very, you know, we will definitely miss them, but it is an opportunity for other people to step up and play. Brett Norfleet had surgery that needed to be done and so we went ahead and did that right after the last game against Arkansas, so he will also be out for the bowl game.”
What went unsaid: Most important here is just a list of who’s not playing. The two going to the draft, the transfer portal guys, Norfleet because of injury and … Chuck Hicks? That one came out of nowhere, guess he wanted to get a jump start on his non-football career since he’s already 24.
Judging by a lot of comments, it doesn’t seem like many of you guys will miss him much, but expect a lot of Nick Rodriguez in the bowl game probably.
Also no Norfleet is rough, but good to get that surgery knocked out so he’s back as soon as possible. Seems like he’s probably been playing with that early-season shoulder issue all year, which makes me question the repeated hurdles even more.
When asked about the portal changing year to year
What Drinkwitz said: "Don't be mad at the players, do not be made at the players one bit. … This whole situation is not their fault at all. Don’t have the players, hate the game. … At the end of the day, it’s the system, there is no system. And so, when there’s no system, then people will do what they need to do.”
What went unsaid: Drinkwitz hit a couple of times on the current system being a problem, which, ya this is all unsustainable at this point. But the key thing he added just about every time is there’s no one in charge of college football. There is no commissioner or higher authority to appeal to with complaints, so it’s worthless to complain.
Until there’s someone, or a group of people more likely, who are actually in charge, it’s going to be hard to make any serious changes now that the horses are out of the barn.
But a central authority likely means a lot more changes to the sport overall (like a combo super league of SEC/Big 10 or something to that effect). It’s just all crazy right now and will likely continue to be for a while.
When asked about players who leave after their freshman season
What Drinkwitz said: “You mean six months? Ya, six months. That’s my reaction, … I wish I could convince them that Darius Robinson had to wait, really, three years. There’s no such thing as an overnight success anymore. Doesn’t matter how highly you’re recruited or how lowly recruited, none of that matters. Man, just get in there and continue to do the work and that’s what I regret. I think all of, everybody, when they come into college football, faces a level of adversity that they have to overcome, but I just wish they would understand there’s no such thin as an overnight success.”
What went unsaid: Drinkwitz went on to talk about Burden removing all his photos off instagram after his freshman year and the adversity of the guys who have gone from the Tigers to the NFL the last couple of years.
It’s clear, again, that he’s not happy with the system. He was asked directly, but wouldn’t tell us what changes he would make if he were in charge, but it seems like one of them would be a multi-year commitment when you first start. Just to get guys past a year or a year and a half within the program, give them a chance to fully understand what everyone is trying to do before jumping ship.
But Drinkwitz didn’t want to get trapped into talking about actual ideas of solutions, so we can’t be sure if that’s what’s on his mind.
When asked about differences in team building in today's environment
What Drinkwitz said: “I think everybody has to get rid of that mindset and understand that we’re a six-month free agency business and every six months there’s free agency and you do the very best you can to build the roster you can with that kind of mindset or with that kind of thinking. But that, that old style of thinking, ‘Hey, I’m going to have 85 scholarships and I’m going to recruit four deep at each position and once this guy leaves, then the next guy comes,’ that’s not really realistic anymore. Our job is to build the best team that we can so that when we start spring practice … we have the best team possible. … So I would just caution everybody, including Mizzou Twitter, that it’s really going to be OK. It’s going to be OK. We value production over potential and you know, that’s going to be a key driving force for us and the decisions we make with player acquisition and player development.”
What went unsaid: The team isn’t going to stop working as hard as it can to get good high school recruiting classes, but the transfer portal has become the key to roster building. Out of the 17 guys the Tigers brought in out of high school in this year’s class, I would be surprised if more than five graduate from Mizzou.
It’s a different world now, you have to do everything you can to set up your team for this year first, then try to build for next year after that. There’s no more, ‘Just wait until our freshmen are juniors” because a lot of them might be gone by then. But the Tigers are doing everything they can in the portal to get the guys they need for 2025, then they’ll worry about the future after that.
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