Everything Eli Drinkwitz Said After Mizzou's Loss to Vanderbilt

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — In its second road game of the season, No. 15 Missouri fell just short to No. 10 Vanderbilt. A Hail Mary pass from Missouri that could've forced overtime was caught 1 yard short of the goal-line to seal a 17-10 win for Vanderbilt.

Quarterback Beau Pribula left the game in the third quarter, sending freshman Matt Zollers in. Drinkwitz gave updates on Pribula's status, his thoughts on Zollers' performance and more after the game.

READ: Mizzou QB Beau Pribula to Miss Remainder of Regular Season, Per Report

Here's everything coach Eli Drinkwitz said after the game.

Opening Statement

"Good SEC football game. Obviously, those games come down to one or two plays. We were on the short end of it Obviously, the fourth-and-1 in the third quarter, and then the missed field goal in the third quarter proved to be big, and then obviously that last play, catch the ball on the one-inch line. So, disappointing to work so hard and come up short, but that's part of life in this league, and we'll bounce back.

Beau has no broken bones, but he did have an ankle injury that had to be popped back in. So, don't have a timetable for his return, but it could be a while, so I'll update y'all soon as we know for sure."

On Matt Zollers' performance

"Really proud of him. I thought he did an excellent job. Obviously, the one turnover (a fumbled handoff) on a mesh read. But other than that, I thought he played really big. (He had) fourth-down conversions to give us a chance, and then when they took the lead, to drive the ball down and score was really impressive. So, the moment wasn't too big for him. I got to do a better job as the head coach, bottom line."

On the goal-line stop for the defense in the fourth quarter that was originally ruled as a fumble recovered by Missouri

"That play (was) really disappointing because I thought we pretty much held them in check the entire game. They had no green room. We just put them in a bad spot on that last fumble. So, we just played our butt off, we fought."

On Brett Norfleet's status after he exited the game in the second half

"He tried to give it a go but wasn't able to get back. So, I don't know. Good time for the bye week."

On team morale after Pribula exited

"I thought our guys really rallied. I think the morale and energy got kind of taken from us, the gut punch on the missed field goal. We had the ball down there twice and (came) away with zero points. They fought back and gave us a chance in the fourth."

On Kevin Coleman Jr.'s performance

"He did a great job being big when we needed him to be big, and he was a difference maker. Obviously, the drive before half was an opportunity missed, a big opportunity missed, honestly."

On Zollers in the fourth quarter

"Poise in the pocket, finding spots, accurate throws. He did a really good job."

On his perspective of what happened to Pribula

"He was on the bottom of the pile, and somebody grabbed his leg and kind of fell on him. It was unfortunate. Unfortunate injury right there. I thought the guys really rallied, and Beau had a lot of confidence. He gave us a chance."

On the details of Pribula's injury

"It's an ankle dislocation. He didn't break any bones, we think. We'll MRI it tomorrow and see what the results are."

On Drinkwitz's message to the locker room

"Really proud of the fight. That's what this game is. They're one-play games. We're going to be disappointed in three or four plays that we had opportunities to win, and we didn't get it done. They're going to have to fight. There's gonna be a lot of negativity based off of the injuries and all that. They just got to fight it. As a coaching staff, as a group, we got to rally together and find a way to keep moving forward. There's still a lot of football left, a lot of opportunities left. The reality of it is, like I told them in there, we're probably not playing for the conference championship now with two losses, but we're darn sure playing for the playoffs. It becomes a one-game season, week in, week out. We've already accomplished one of our goals, which was to qualify for a bowl game, so now it's free football to see what kind of opportunity we have next. That's what we'll do. We'll take it one play, one game, one day at a time, and we'll see what happens. They're going to be hurt, disappointed. We're all going to be because we put a lot into these games, but they got a lot to be proud of, too."

On the team's resiliency

"I saw a ton. We rallied, the defense got stops. Obviously, the turnover stinks, and then we had the hands to the face, which was a good call we were on the wrong end of — and I'm not saying they were good or bad call — we were just on the wrong end of the flags most of the day.

We score an early touchdown, they call it tripping, right, wrong, or whatever, I don't know. It just seemed like every time we got something — we got the first down right at the end of half, we got a holding call. We were behind the yellow flags most of the day. And that stuff we're going to have to, in these close games, fix. I think coming into the game, we were the least penalized team in the SEC, and tonight we both had eight. We got to do a better job of not creating penalties, which create negatives. Again, that was a big one in the first half. That holding call was big at the end of the half."

On Jude James' performance after Norfleet exited the game with injury

"Really proud of him. It was a big-time fourth-down catch. (It) wasn't the best throw, but it was a heck of a read and (he) stepped up in big moments. He was in there at the end of the game and did some nice stuff. It was a good job."

On the approach to the bye week

"I don't know. We'll figure it out starting as soon as I get on the plane. We'll come up with a plan. We'll attack it, and Mizzou will be proud. We got a bunch of fighters in that room. Those guys are fighting their butt off and played really hard. They got a fumble on the one-inch line. It got overturned, but they're doing everything they can to give us a chance, and then the ball gets thrown to the one-inch line. So we're giving ourselves opportunities."

On what Drinkwitz heard from the officiating after the near fumble from the defense and the Hail Mary

"I didn't hear anything. They didn't tell me. I'm sure they saw video evidence."

Read more Missouri Tigers news: