Everything Eli Drinkwitz Said to Preview Alabama

No. 14 Missouri has its biggest test so far this season coming up in Week 7, with the Tigers set to host No. 8 Alabama.

Ahead of the game, head coach Eli Drinkwitz addressed local media in a press conference Tuesday to preview the matchup and recap the team's bye week. Here's a full transcript of what Drinkwitz had to say.

Opening statement:

“Great to be back. Had a great work week last week with the players and staff. Really had three goals. We were focused on sharpening our edge, improvement and recovery. Really looking forward to Alabama, which is a really, really good football team and a very difficult test for us. I think coach (Kalen) DeBoer has his team playing at an elite level. Obviously, now that his team and culture is really installed, you can see why he's one of the elite coaches within college football. Got great assistants that really established their identities in all three phases. I think obviously coach (Ryan) Grubb on the offensive side of the ball, you can see his influence, the offensive dynamics. Very explosive offensively, especially through the pass game. He really does a great job of utilizing formation on the boundary early in the game to dictate what you're going to be in from a play-caller standpoint, and knows how to attack those coverages. I think his ability to do that which gets his quarterback into some really good, comfortable situations. That then allows the run game to open up. They have a really, really dynamic offensive line obviously featuring some of the best. The best left tackle in the country and one of the best centers in the country, obviously. Their entire offensive line. Running back (Jam Miller) being back has helped them control the clock and control the ground game. He does a really good job in blitz pickup. And then obviously the wide receivers are electric with their ability to utilize space, win and vertically down the field, I think their quarterback (Ty Simpson), again, is as good, if not better, than what other head coaches have been speaking about him. His ability to make off-schedule plays, maneuver in the pocket, be accurate with the football. There's zero doubt he knows how to attack Cover 2. He does a really good job at that. And they're really good in the middle-eight, so it’s gonna be a tough out on the offensive side of the ball.

Defensively, coach (Kane) Womack knows defense, knows how to defend us. Did an excellent job last year. Multiple schemes, multiple fronts, multiple coverages, disguised pressure. Has a really good feel for the game. You can tell he's been a former head coach, just as a play caller, he understands the style of game that it's going to be and how to take away your best players and how to take away what you want to do. They have elite players at all three levels. They force takeaways and protect the ball. They’ve played complementary football this year at a really high level.

And then obviously special teams. There's a lot of variety of what they do in their punt scheme and in their return games. They're very sound and create explosives. So it's going to be a challenge, one that I think our team is excited about, looking forward to. I know our fans are excited. 11 a.m. kick, will be ready to rock and roll.

Then Cayden Green will be listed as questionable this week. He did get some rehab reps yesterday. Really, the challenge will be to see where he is today and see how that progresses. Won't know for sure or for certain until the end of the week. So follow along closely the SEC availability report and Pete Thamel tweets.”

If the coaching staff used what Florida State did against Alabama in Week 1 as a ‘blueprint’:

“I don't know if it's a blueprint. You look at every game. The beauty of the bye week is to look at every game that they played from last year, really starting with us, and how they tried to defend us and did an excellent job. And then you look to see if there's common themes that people have tried to exploit.

Obviously, coach Malzahn has his own type of system in place, which creates a little bit of a challenge to try to replicate what he did. But I think the biggest thing is to watch the jump from Week 4 to weeks 2, 3, 4, and they're really not even the same team. The way they played versus Wisconsin and Georgia and Vandy in comparison to Week 1, it looks like a totally different team.

Obviously. I think getting the big man back in the middle, (defensive tackle Tim) Keenan, I think he is a complete difference maker for them. I think that was big for them on the defensive side of the ball.

But even just, they know who they are, and I think the offense has been a little bit more complimentary to what they're trying to do on the defensive side of the ball.”

On how both of Missouri’s coordinators have connections with Alabama’s coordinators and head coach, if they can use that to their advantage:

“Probably just creates more mind splinters than anything, because you start thinking, ‘If this, then that,’ or, you start thinking too much about it. It's going to be a player's game. I think scheme will have something to do with it, but it's going to be a player's game. Obviously have a lot of respect for what they do offensively, just because that was the style offense that we wanted to bring to here, complimentary with what we were doing in the run game. But I think if you start asking too many questions, you can go down rabbit holes.”

On if this first bye week of the season was different than the one last year where Missouri came out of the bye week by suffering a blowout loss to Texas A&M:

“I don't know. I didn't really spend any time looking at that aspect of it. I think each five weeks is uniquely different based off the circumstances of the team, what the team needs in order to continue that season. I think last year, we've already addressed it, was a little bit more having to do with the first road trip than necessarily the bye-week plan. The second bye week (last season), we came out with a little bit more spirit to us.

Obviously, got to guard against the rust. I think there was a couple of teams this past week who player after a bye week, who didn't quite have the same kind of probably sharpest that they wanted. That's why the first thing we said about our goal was to sharpen our edge, and that was to find things we needed to improve. So I mean, it was a different approach, but it was based off it being a different need for our team.”

On what Alabama’s offense was able to do well in the run game last week against Vanderbilt:

“Obviously, they do a lot of shifts and motion to try to create, uncover gaps or find a weak support player, which, if you're weak in support against that offensive line, that's a tough out. They're really big and physical. I think their offensive line coach Chris (Kapilovic) does a really good job. Obviously, the running backs got elite vision and toughness. And then obviously, I think the biggest issue is you got to kind of pick your poison. Do you want to get beat in the pass game, or do you want to be light in the box and defend from explosive passes? And Vandy was playing quite a bit of Cover 2, which is going to leave you shortshort in the run game, unless you're trapping it. And then, they were able to kind of pick apart the Cover 2 in second-and-long situations., Ty was making some throws that were pretty incredible.”

On what the Alabama offense has done well on third downs and controlling the clock:

“I think, obviously the Georgia game and Vandy, was extremely well done on their third-down plan. The quarterback makes very good decisions, not easily deceived with disguise, unaffected by pressure, ability to escape. I think those three things make it really difficult to try to game plan a quarterback on third down. You kind of have to pick your poison like, if we play zone, he’s going to pick us apart. If we blitz, he's gonna stand in there and identify the one-on-one matchup and take it. So I think that's what they've been really good at. Pretty confident he had three scrambles for a first down with his feet against Georgia. And the first two, he stared down the barrel with some blitzes and delivered. He’s really good.”

On Ahmad Hardy leading the country in missed tackles forced and yards after contact:

“I mean, honestly, we'll find out this week. He's done it his whole career, but the challenge is continuing to grow this week. He's really good at keeping his lower body churning. He doesn't have a very big strike zone, but we'll find out this week.”

On what he saw on tape during the bye week of where Missouri can in its pass secondary:

“That was really component No. 2 for us, improvement, improving in our zone cover. We've given up a lot of explosive passes in some of our zone stuff. So trying to make improvements to our zone distribution. And then, we've had, really, too many penalties in this in the back end too. And so trying to get better at not utilizing our hands in inappropriate ways.

On the injury status of Drey Norwood and Jordon Harris:

Drey was full go yesterday. Jordan was full go. The only others — Logan (Reichert)’s been long term, he's not back yet. Maybe could get him back next week, but probably not, hopefully by Vandy.”

On the explanation behind turnovers on offense:

“There's some common threads. The biggest thread on on the pick against UMass was he (quarterback Beau Pribula) pushed up in the pocket, the ball got deflected by a D-lineman, which caused it to sail right. We just got to be a little bit better. We use the term, take the space you need, but only the space you need. I think sometimes quarterbacks can be a little bit too antsy to push up in the pocket. You got to be able to just have subtle pocket movements to find the space that you need to be able to deliver some balls. And if you look at the common theme, whether it's the fumble versus Kansas or that interception, we’re pushing too far in the pocket, so just got to clean that up a little bit.

Really, really appreciate and pleased with Beau. He's one of the most coachable quarterbacks I've ever been around. He has the right mentality on trying to grow and trying to get better, and utilizes all the different aspects that he can to improve. He’s really hungry to improve, and understands that the best game is still out in front of him.

So I think coach Moore and coach Gleeson have done a really good job of not trying to overload him. You know as a quarterback, this game is too complex and too complicated to be played without some errors. You just can’t have compounding errors.”

On what’s impressed him about tight end Brett Norfleet this season:

“Obviously, he's always been a really good physical blocker at the point of attack. And you look at a lot of Ahmad or Jamal’s runs, he's been a featured person in those blocks. Obviously, he's been very consistent catching the football. He's done a really good job chipping.

But I think the single biggest, greatest growth with Brett has been his mindset in the way he talks to himself. Brett used to instill battles, like we all do, with a negative voice. Sometimes he would get down on himself instead of finding a way to just maintain neutrality and be positive and really focus on this play. I've seen him growing in that area. I think it's allowed him to play more free and to play more consistent.”

On how Pribula has improved so far this season:

“I think honestly, versus UCA, and even somewhat versus Kansas, he was a little bit more reckless with, like, just taking off and wanting to run, and thinking that was his only component, or his secret weapon. I think he's such an accurate passer, he's finding ways to just continue to throw the football, outsmart the defense, not just out tough the defense, or out physical the defense, with his skill set. And that's really the key to being a really good quarterback, is knowing what they're doing and how to attack them. So as he continues to grow in that — it’s going to get more and more challenging each week. I think, obviously we're focused on this week, but we spent some of the bye week on next opponent prep or future opponent prep, and you look at some of these defenses, we're going to face, the amount of disguise and variance and what they do is just going to continue to be a challenge.”

On how the team is avoiding rust out of the bye week:

“Well, go good on good, which did quite a bit in the bye and we did yesterday, and we’ll do today and tomorrow, so the speed of the game stays the same, the speed of decisions, the intensity. Today's ‘Toughness Tuesday,’ we’ll did a great work at the inside drill, we’ll get a great dirty show, we’ll get a great crossover, which are all game-type reps that we need, and then play football. I mean, there's a fine line between recovery and — we have a saying, we want to be tough, but we don't want to be dumb tough. And so trying to find that, walk that line, not being dumb tough, fresh horses run fast races, so we got to make sure our guys are ready for what lies ahead.”

On if Missouri’s ability to control the time of possession, tempo has been due to game planning or just execution:

“I don’t know if you can plan on going into a game and saying, ‘we're going to control the time of possession,’ It's really about execution. When I see a team that's been on the field a long time, it's because they're consistently executing, and/or they're not creating explosive plays. I think for us, there's kind of two different questions there. The first question for us, we try to play with an offensive rhythm. I think 15 years ago, going fast was a real competitive advantage. I'm not sure that it's as advantageous now, because people have kind of adjusted to it. So now for us, it's the ability to get in and out of tempos, regardless of personnel, to be able to play as fast as we want to, to try to keep the defense off balance, or keep the defense from subbing. When you face a team that matches personnel, if you can get an advantageous personnel grouping, and just try to stay in it. And then it keeps the defense from finding that rhythm. If the play caller is having to, as soon as the ball is tackled, get another play call in, or doesn't get a chance to find out what personnel, watch the formation and then get a call, those are a couple of different strategy thoughts that we have with doing that. But it all comes back down to your ability to execute and stay on the field. The best laid plans of mice and men, I mean, if you go three and out, you can’t really control the tempo. So you're going to have to figure out how to convert third downs and find explosives to keep yourself on the field.”

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