Did Missouri coach Eli Drinkwitz troll K-State recruit Avery Johnson on Twitter?
.JPG "Missouri head coach Eliah Drinkwitz watches during the first quarter of an NCAA college football game against South Carolina, Saturday, Nov. 13, 2021, in Columbia, Mo. Missouri won 31-28. (AP Photo/L.G. Patterson)")
Kansas State’s second football game of the upcoming season, against Missouri, just got a whole lot more interesting in the eyes of some fans.
Why?
The answer, as is the case with most things these days, can be found on social media. That’s where you will find Missouri coach Eli Drinkwitz and K-State quarterback recruit Avery Johnson tweeting nearly identical things about coveted Lee’s Summit receiver Joshua Manning over the past 24 hours.
Coincidence? Perhaps. But some K-State fans are operating under the assumption that Drinkwitz chose his words carefully as a way to troll Johnson.
Here’s what happened:
Missouri landed Manning on Thursday night when the four-star recruit announced his intention to play for the Tigers during an announcement ceremony at his high school. Drinkwitz responded to the news by sharing a video of Missouri supporters celebrating the decision underneath a caption that read “The (heart emoji) is REAL!”
At first glance, that seems harmless enough. A college football coach is well within his rights to be happy when he convinces a big-time recruit to stay home. But look closer and you will see that the caption Drinkwitz chose was strikingly similar to a tweet that Johnson wrote earlier in the day.
Johnson, a four-star quarterback from Maize who chose the Wildcats over Oregon and Washington earlier this month, tried to encourage Manning to choose K-State by sharing a picture of them wearing purple together while on a recruiting visit to Manhattan.
His caption read: “We want you in (Manhattan), the love is REAL.” He also included a heart emoji.
There was a time during Manning’s recruitment that he appeared on the verge of committing to K-State. But the pull of playing alongside his older brother, who is a walk-on at Mizzou, and staying in his home state for college was apparently quite strong.
Did Drinkwitz make note of Johnson’s tweet and respond accordingly when Missouri won a recruiting battle for Manning against Arkansas and K-State?
We may never know for sure, but good luck convincing K-State fans that he did not.
Their back and forth might not be over.
Johnson seems to think there is still a chance that Manning will play for the Wildcats. Oral commitments aren’t binding like letters of intent. Until he signs with Missouri, nothing is official. Johnson responded to Manning’s commitment post on Twitter with one word — “flip!”
This story was originally published July 22, 2022 at 1:38 PM with the headline "Did Missouri coach Eli Drinkwitz troll K-State recruit Avery Johnson on Twitter?."