Everything Eli Drinkwitz Said After Mizzou's Blowout Win Over Mississippi State

COLUMBIA, Mo. — Missouri recorded its highest-scoring SEC performance since 2020 on Saturday night, winning 49-27 over Mississippi State. It was Missouri's first SEC win since Oct. 18.

The win comes off the heels of a crushing, 38-17 loss to Texas A&M that ended any chance Missouri had at competing for a spot in the College Football Playoff.

But Missouri has still found things to play for. Saturday night, part of that was honoring the legacy of the senior group playing their final game at Faurot Field.

Head coach Eli Drinkwitz recapped the win, giving his thoughts on Ahmad Hardy's 300-yard performance, the senior group and more. Here's a full transcript of what he had to say.

Opening Statement:

"All week, we talked about brothers are born for adversity. It'd been a rough couple of weeks, and for our team and our brotherhood to really stand strong, stand resilient in the face of adversity, really, really proud of the senior class, proud of those 20 men.

Really proud of Matt Zollers for the way he played tonight. Obviously started really fast, and then bounced back after the interception. Obviously, Ahmad Hardy had a career game — only the second time in school history to have a 300-yard rusher. Way for him to bounce back after the fumble. Then our defense, the goal-line stand, and then picking up the muffed field goal. Toriano Pride had a career night with the pick six, and Marvin Burks. We challenged them all week, we needed two turnovers, and they got two turnovers for a touchdown. So really, really proud of the defense."

On the offense being able to score on explosive plays:

"We had explosive runs. Ahmad had explosive runs, I think two for sure. We threw the other two touchdown throws and then we had two touchdowns from the defense. Sometimes that's the way the games play. I thought (offensive coordinator) Kirby (Moore) did a nice job calling the game. Really was efficient on our possession-and-10s, which is what we really needed to do to get our guys confident. I thought he did a good job of getting Matt going early, which was good, and then obviously Ahmad took over."

On the offensive line's performance to help Hardy reach 300 yards:

"I thought the O-line and tight ends obviously prevented penetration, allowed him to get to the second level, but then he did the rest, once the holes started. They were playing quite a bit of man-to-man, which prevents overlap in the defense and I think his speed really surprised them.

This game means a lot to him. He was a Mississippi young man, who wasn't recruited by that school, and so it was really important to him and meant a lot to him, and I'm proud of him."

On why Hardy received more carries Saturday than in other recent games:

"I have no idea about any previous game, or all that stuff, it really don't tie into any of that. Tonight, he had a great game, we blocked really well. And Jamal (Roberts) had a really good game, too, but we stuck with a hot hand, and even after the fumble, we just didn't lose faith in him, said let's keep going."

On being able to get the ball back one last drive in the first half by calling timeouts on Mississippi State's final possession of the half:

"We wanted to be aggressive and get the ball back with as much time as we could, save the timeout, just in case we needed it. Once the ball got inside the 20, then it was important for us not to give them the ball back. It was just really kind of a run it situation. Once we broke the 50, and then we hit that third down, we thought we were going to get another opportunity. Obviously, the intentional grounding calls weren't great for us, which I think forced us out of field-goal range if I'm remembering right."

On the defensive penalties in the first half:

"I think senior nights always get a little bit emotional. So, we were out of character and out of context there for a little bit. I've never seen so many first downs given to a team through penalties. But our ability to stay in the fight. We forced them to 0-3 on fourth down conversions, scored two touchdowns. That quarterback's really good at throwing the football, he does a nice job of reading the RPOs. But overall, 52 rushes for 110 yards, I mean, that's 2.5 per carry, which is pretty good defensively."

On Pride's performance:

"To have that as your senior night game, to have a pick six, have a fumble recovery for 70-something yards that led us to a touchdown. The final was, what, 49-27, so those three turnovers that led to touchdowns were the difference in the game, two pick sixes, and Ahmad was able to capitalize on that run to score off the field goal."

On being able to get Zollers to get into better ryhthym compared to the Texas A&M game;

"I like the way the game was called. I thought he had a good rhythm. It looked like he was confident in his reads."

On the offense's explosive performance:

"Individual effort by the offensive line and the running backs. I just think our guys had the will. They willed it to happen. Obviously, Donovan (Olugbode's) catch kind of jump-started the engines for everybody. But (Joshua) Manning, what a great yards-after-catch run, too. Again, brothers are born for adversity. We were playing for something bigger than ourselves tonight, and I think that showed."

On how the fans showed up for this game:

"Always appreciative of our fans to sell out and to keep the streak going. It's been awesome. They've been wonderful on this streak. We ran out of the tunnel, and it was loud. Our fans were strong for us and (we're) very appreciative."

On how Olgubode has been progressing through this season:

"I think he's been always really good at contested catches, even from the first highlight play we put for fall camp when he made the one-handed catch. It's just kind of what his area of expertise is. I think him and Matt have a lot of trust in each other, and that's kind of been really good for Matt as he's working through this. He's got somebody he can rely on."

On how the team responded to changing goals with the playoff out of reach:

"Our No. 3 team goal is compete for championships. So a couple of those championships got knocked off, but there's still a bowl game championship out there. Our trophy games are still out there.

Tonight was about getting a rock for the seniors, and it's something we're really proud of. We're 6-0 in rock games here, and it's something that our team knows. They know it's important. They know it's about playing for something bigger than yourself. Players are very competitive and they understand, like I said last week, you want to put your whole self into it, you want to believe and fight. But a warrior knows there's always more battles to fight, and this team's got a heart of a warrior.

You look at Zion Young and the way he plays, the way he goes. I think our team takes a lot of his leadership. I knew they were going to be ready to keep playing, reset, refocus.

On how Beau Pribula being listed as doubtful and warming up:

"This is about this team. We'll address that stuff next week. This is about this game, this team, what we did. All of that is future speculation. We'll talk about that next week."

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