‘That’s not what we’re going to be about:’ Eli Drinkwitz looks for Mizzou to cut loose
In the final moments of Mizzou football coach Eli Drinkwitz’s post-practice news conference on Monday, he got going on … the quality of the jokes he makes during practice.
“They’re all pretty good,” he said. “But I’ve got to be careful.”
Because sometimes even when he knows one was funny, well, he might think later, “Ah, maybe I shouldn’t have said that.”
“That’s the 50-50 when dealing with me, you know?” he said. “Sometimes the material’s really good, but it’s questionable. Sometimes, it’s not good.”
Which brings us to the virtual 50-50 of his MU career so far: an 11-12 record in two seasons following the 25-25 Barry Odom era.
To date, anyway, the status quo reminds me of a bit from “Seinfeld” (yes, like about anything does): George Costanza’s defensive definition of the 2.0 GPA as “not showing off, not falling behind.”
Entering a pivotal year for clarity and identity and direction of his program, though, it’s essential that Drinkwitz orchestrates some showing off lest MU fall behind once more.
And he’ll have to — or is it gets to? — do it with an intriguingly talented team that will require the head coach to galvanize and reconcile numerous moving parts: a consensus top 20 recruiting class, a four-man quarterback derby that epitomizes open jobs across both lines of scrimmage and a third defensive coordinator in three years.
(Incidentally, we appreciated linebacker Chad Bailey’s response when asked about new coordinator Blake Baker’s scheme: “I don’t know how to answer that,” he said, pausing before adding, “Man, we’re going to stop the run and we’re going to stop the pass is what I’m going to tell you.”)Then there’s Drinkwitz’s own evolution as offensive coordinator.
Time to cut it loose.
“I felt like as a playcaller, (I) kind of got into a bunker mentality in trying to outlast the other team,” he said. “And it worked some games, and in other games it didn’t.
“That’s not who I’m going to be, and that’s not what we’re going to be about.”
So there’s something happening here, like the old Buffalo Springfield song goes, but what it is ain’t exactly clear.
Still, we’d argue that Mizzou and Drinkwitz are poised for more and better after navigating two chaotic years, including implementing a program amid the pandemic and learning to harness the new world order of the transfer portal and the wilderness of name, image and likeness benefits.
Even within a group that features some 20 key returnees Drinkwitz rattled off in seconds (“Golly, I just (said) a lot of dudes,” said Drinkwitz, seeming to surprise even himself), the nation’s top receiving recruit in Luther Burden and an influx of experience in the form of a transfer class ranked 22nd in the nation by 247sports.com.
To hear Drinkwitz tell it, though, the vagueness that comes with having the most quality depth he’s known at MU is made up for by a certainty that the position battles are less “areas of concern” than a matter of “whoever emerges.”
Trouble is, it’s extra-hard to project what form this takes when there are so many jobs open, including the quarterback position that influences games like no other.
In fact, the fascinating quarterback battle perhaps makes for a great snapshot of what Drinkwitz means.
It appears to be truly anybody’s guess how the contest will shake loose among returnees Tyler Macon and Brady Cook and newcomers Jack Abraham, a 24-year-old in his fifth college program, and highly touted freshman Sam Horn.
(For the record, Drinkwitz summed up Horn’s first collegiate practice thusly: He made some Day One mistakes, but his arm talent field vision stood out. As expected, he added, “He’s just going to have to pick up the speed of the game and the understanding of the X’s and O’s.”)
When I asked Drinkwitz about the challenge of evaluating four players at once at this position, he simmered it down to this (regardless of which unit any quarterback is working with along the way):
“Do you own the group? Do you lead the group? Do you own everything that goes on? Can you direct the team? Can you get those guys in … position? Can you take ownership of the good and the bad? … Whoever the leader is is going to emerge.”
Asked earlier if he might consider a two-quarterback system, he said: “My goal is to help us win, so whatever that takes. If we feel like in the first game we need to play multiple people at quarterback, that’s what we’ll do … We’re not here to make everybody happy. This isn’t happiness camp. It’s not Club Med. This ain’t participation trophy. It’s about winning.”
So this could go anywhere from what he called “the ol’ Steve Spurrier” move of rotating quarterbacks every play to one guy seizing the role.
Much like his jokes, it seems, Drinkwitz has a lot of material to work with. And now would be a great time for him to get beyond the 50-50 and set Mizzou up for stepping forward in the years to come.
This story was originally published August 1, 2022 at 6:00 PM.