‘I haven’t changed my vision’: MU’s Drinkwitz focusing on here and now, not unknowns
The Missouri Tigers — and other teams across the country — took an important step in preparing for a college football season this week.
Teams were allowed to conduct up to eight hours per week of mandatory weight training, conditioning and film review starting Monday. It’s a stark difference to voluntary workouts, which started June 8, but because of NCAA rules around the COVID-19 pandemic, student-athletes aren’t required to be on campus just yet.
The workouts are proceeding in hopes there is a college football season to be played this fall.
MU coach Eliah Drinkwitz isn’t letting hypotheticals affect his team. Instead, he said, he is focusing on the Tigers’ season opener against Central Arkansas.
“I haven’t changed my vision of a Sept. 5 game and the preparation in order to play that,” Drinkwitz said Wednesday. “I’m not going to get caught up in the everyday press conference or little piece of information to try to change our organizational structure or how we go about our business.”
Missouri is currently in phase one of a plan approved by the NCAA Division I Council, a slow ramp-up period. Phase two runs from July 24-Aug. 6, when players can participate in 20 hours of athletics-related activities per week. That includes walkthroughs, in which they can’t wear helmets or pads but can use a football and receive coaching supervision.
After those weeks of training, a normal preseason camp would tentatively begin Aug. 7.
“Too much in society, we try to be a quick fix, a short answer — as soon as something happens, we make an adjustment,” Drinkwitz said. “I believe in having a long-term vision and goal. I believe in staying in the course.”
The SEC hasn’t made any announcement yet about the upcoming football season. Commissioner Greg Sankey said the conference plans to make a decision by late July.
The Big Ten and Pac-12 have already made the decision to play only in-conference games. A couple of other conferences, such as the Ivy League and MEAC, have stated that they won’t be playing at all.
Drinkwitz said that as Mizzou’s head coach — and a CEO of sorts — he’s communicating honestly with his players and others during these uncertain times.
“You appeal to their personal responsibility and their daily excellence,” Drinkwitz said. “Appeal to the mission of what we’re trying to accomplish. I think the senior leadership on our team, we’re preaching to them (that) this is their opportunity.”
Drinkwitz, who is in his first year with the program, said he’s eager to return to football activities. Mizzou went through three spring practices before the SEC shut down all sports in March.
Drinkwitz said the Tigers will pick up where they left off this spring in terms of installing his offense, a process he has said should take about six practices. Chief among his goals is gaining clarity about who MU’s starting quarterback will be. Much of the offense will revolve around the newly named starter’s skill-set.
“We know we do have pieces, it’s just a matter of those pieces coming together,” Drinkwitz said of the offense. “That’s our job as coaches, just to get those pieces all pushing in the same direction as quickly as possible.”
So far, Drinkwitz especially likes the look of his receiving corps, a position group bolstered by the offseason additions of former Virginia Tech wideout Damon Hazelton and Division II transfer Keke Chism.
Drinkwitz said he thinks Chism, who caught 60 passes for 878 yards and six touchdowns last season with Angelo State, is a future NFL prospect. He was named a first-team Lone Star Conference selection. And Hazelton was an All-ACC selection with the Hokies the past two seasons, catching 31 passes for 527 yards and eight touchdowns in 2019.
“That dude’s an absolute freaking stud and a steal,” Drinkwitz said of Chism. “We couldn’t be more excited about this young man transferring into our program and just being an unbelievable person.”