Everything Eli Drinkwitz Said to Preview UMass

Following a 29-20 win over South Carolina, No. 20 Missouri is looking ahead to its final non-conference game of the season against UMass.

The Tigers recently improved to 4-0 following their SEC-opening win and have a good chance to extend that record on Saturday. UMass sits at 0-3 currently and has not scored more than 30 points in a game this season.

Missouri head coach Eli Drinkwitz looked ahead to UMass after speaking with the media, while also looking back on his team's win over the Gamecocks. Below is everything he had to say.

Opening Statement

“The 114th Homecoming, the call of the columns. It's the theme for this year and this is the first game ball from the first homecoming (holds up case with golden game ball). Chester Brewer versus Kansas, 1911 score was 3-3. You can tell, there's actually a gold game ball inside of here. So pretty remarkable piece of Mizzou history and artifact. Really cool.

Obviously, Homecoming is very special at the University of Missouri, it was a tradition that started here, and it's something that we carry along and take very great amount of pride in. And so look forward to seeing all the fans and all the alumni come back for the 114th homecoming, the call of the columns.

Gutsy win by our team on Saturday. Really proud of our team's ability to really stuff the run and run the football, which ultimately was the difference in the game, and the ability to control the clock in the fourth quarter. We finally were able to go on a little bit of a run right there. Offense scoring the touchdown, getting the two-point conversion, defense going out, getting several stops in the fourth quarter, not surrendering the lead, and then special teams, Robbie Meyer finishing that off with a kick. Really proud of the overall effort from our team. A lot of things to correct.

And really, the challenge for us is really to move on to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and play UMass.

Obviously, a new staff, a new team forming, I think coach [Joe] Harasymiak’s culture is really starting to take shape. You can tell they're improving in each game and obviously, the bye week came at a great time for them. They played multiple quarterbacks, but I think information came out today. They're going to start the freshman, who appears to be the better player on tape, throws the ball with great accuracy and velocity and adds a lot to their offense. They have a dynamic slot wide receiver, I think [he] is a tremendous player, and they do a really good job on the offensive side of the ball. Coach [Mike] Bajakian has coached and been a coordinator for a long time in a lot of different places in this league, in the NFL, and has done a tremendous job in each one of those stops. He knows how to get first downs and score points defensively. A few transfers, a few returners. They are a four-down front team with multiple fronts and pressures multiple coverages. They do a really good job of stopping the run and creating issues for your coverage, for your quarterback in the coverage game. Then, special teams. Are very aggressive special teams. They attempt to block a good number of punts. They do a really good job on their kickoff cover. They got solid return units. Their punter is a transfer from Texas A&M, does a lot of really good stuff. Rugby-wise, averages, I think about 49 yards a punt. So it's a quality opponent, a good football team, and one that we have to be prepared for. I think for us, the biggest challenge, for [the] team, staff, fans, community, University of Missouri, is not to have relief syndrome. To think that because we won an SEC game, we're going to step out of conference, that you would decline in intensity or loss of focus, or complacency, and that, really, for us, is the challenge. Instead, we need to work to improve our process. You see, when guys lose, they tweet out back to the lab. We need to be back to the lab after a win. We need to be back to the process after we perform. We need to avoid any type of entitlement. We need to make sure that, as a team, dress codes are where we're supposed to be. We're in class on time, at study hall. parking in the right spots, avoiding any type of let-up. And be intense about our work. Be focused on toughness Tuesday, and that really is the challenge for our staff to set the tone and for our players to embrace that. You've heard it said before, but more people die on the descent of Everest than they do on the ascent to Everest, because there's a lack of focus and concentration once they reach the summit. By no means are we at the summit. We're just a short step, a few short steps into the climb right now. So that's my thoughts on the game.

Last thing, just on a personal level, I want to say that deeply saddened by the loss of Shawn Clark, coach at UCF, a friend of mine. Really have a heavy heart for Jonelle, Giana and Braxton and his wife and kids. I know Sean. I know his players love him. I know UCF is going through it right now. I know how good of a coach he was. When I first got to App State, we don't have that type of season without Shawn Clark really being the glue that held us together, bridging our culture with the championship culture that they had already established, and really being able to bridge that together. We were great friends. I'll miss the walks that we had and the phone calls we had. I'll never sit around another fireside Bible study that we do on Wednesday night and I think about Sean and, a double cheese from Wendy's, that’s what we had every Wednesday night, and still have one every Wednesday night, thinking about him. So praying for his family and the world. Lost a really good person and a great football coach.”

On looking back on explosive passing plays against South Carolina

“There's a couple of things. I actually think I said it maybe at halftime in our comments. The main thing is bad eyes in our zone coverage. The touchdown we gave up on the third-and-15, obviously, first off, you can't jump offsides, and then you get into a reaction of play in the play. We should have been in a version of Cover 2 that was the original call. Our safety on the divide never got off, left Toriano [Pride Jr.] in a vulnerable position. One, we can't jump offsides on third-and-15 and give a team a free play. Two, we got to play the play once the ball is snapped.

The wheel route, on the naked we were in Cover 2. We didn't have a holistic understanding of who was covering the stem route, so our divide said he wanted to cross stems. He saw one open, so he thought he needed to cover that. Didn't expand his vision and left the wheel route open. That's both a player and coaching responsibility. You got to understand the whole part whole. He understood the part but didn’t understand the whole and that's on teaching.

The third-and-1 long bomb. We were in a quarterback attacking coverage. If they were in shotgun, we were going to have a safety assigned to the quarterback in the run game. They came out under center. We didn't make the right adjustment to that. Then obviously, we didn’t to play the ball in the air very well. Those are the three that come to the top of my mind. there was a third-and-37 or whatever, quarterback got out of the pocket. We took a bad angle with the spy. Should have been eliminated, because we’d really done that the rest of the game. Khalil [Jacobs] did it right before half. Darris [Smith has done it, actually, the previous play. Then we jumped the under instead of staying deep. So there's some things that we can do to clean it up. I think one of the challenges for us is we have a lot of volume, and we need to eliminate some volume and get good at what we do. We don't have to be the best at everything. We have to be the best at what we do. And right now, we're trying to be a jack of all trades and a master of none, and that's got to get cleaned up. So good things to work on. But that's the diagnosis. It's a combination of players, coaches making sure we're on the same page.”

On what he knows about Ahmad Hardy that he didn’t before

“In the speed dating world of the transfer portal, you don't have a lot of time to get to know people's real personality and you hope you know what they're going to be like in the locker room, but you're not really sure. I didn't really know his fun, loving personality. I didn't know his ability to gather people around him. I didn't realize that he was going to be such a guy that people wanted to play with and play for. [He] does a unique job of playing with and for the line and the tight ends and the defensive players. Love him. He's got that good combination of trash talk and encouragement and I think that's been a real attribute to bringing us all together, really in the locker room and in general. You hope some of the stuff translates. You're never sure, but you know his yards after contact were really good at the level he was last year. You just weren't sure. But now you're pretty confident that's just who he is as a runner.”

On Ahmad Hardy’s Heisman buzz

“I haven't really seen much other than Mizzou people and the national people are still all caught up on ten quarterbacks. So when they start actually looking into who are the best players [are] instead of just the quarterback stats. Because right now, national writers, no offense to y'all, they just look at stats. They're not actually watching enough games to know. But we got a lot of football left. I don't think anybody's won the Heisman in September. So once you get into October and November and there's sustained excellence, we'll figure out who the best player in college football is. Right now, it's like the polls, the polls the the whatever are just for clicks and podcasts.”

On the decision to use dropkicks on kickoffs

“Well, first off, we can actually drop kick. And the rule states that you can either drop kick or kick off a tee, not actually punt. So we got that figured out.

“We're still trying to figure out our kickoff situation. Obviously, Oliver [Robbins] did a nice job [on] the first kickoff of the game, we kicked it. We knew, in a certain direction, there was a little bit of wind and Oliver might be able to get it into the end zone. But, that first return, they ran a field return and really got out. It was a great play by Nick Rodriguez. So after that, with Connor's [Weselman] ability to drop kick, we could actually line up and dictate the kick away from their return. So we knew where the return was going, and then he was able to kick it opposite, which allowed us to have a better coverage scheme. We knew that we weren't going to give up a big return at that point. We might give up some leak yardage, but with him returning it from the minus, he was a yard deep, or he was nine yards deep in the end zone versus Vanderbilt, we just knew that unless we were with the wind and felt confident about Oliver's leg, we were giving ourselves a real risky chance on a big-time return. So we felt like the best way to negate that was to drop kick and kick it opposite. And they wouldn't be able to, no matter what they did, we were going to be able to kick it. They would put Nick on the left. We would have been able to drop kick it to the right, so on. So it was just kind of a schematic advantage that we felt like he had. I've never seen anybody do it before, so there's kind of that.”

On Beau Pribula’s rushing ability

“The thing for our quarterback position, we've always said it, we want to get two first downs a game off schedule that the quarterback can create with his feet. That's kind of a criteria we have for the quarterback position, and I thought Beau really did a nice job of that. There were several plays that the design of the play or whatnot, just wasn't going to work out. He was able to have the instincts to tuck it and run and did a really nice job. Obviously, the boot, the quarterback keeper on the outside zone in the fourth was a big hit. So it just adds another dimension. We're trying to be smart about when we ask him to use his legs, but he does a really nice job. Don't like the hit he took in the third quarter, but he's done a nice job so far.”

On where Conor Weselman picked up the dropkick skill

“Something that he said he started learning in high school. And so what happened was, South Carolina showed last year versus Illinois, a look, and they drop-kicked it, and kind of caught Illinois by surprise, and we showed that to the team so that we could be prepared if they tried that. And Connor was like, I can do that. And he showed us on Wednesday that he could do it, and then we practiced it in a walk-through on Thursday. And then on Friday, he did it really well. So we just kind of had it in our back pocket, and then after the first return, I didn't feel like the way we fit it was going to be great. And just knew that if we gave that guy too many chances, I didn't know how many times we were going to be able to just feel great, that we were going to knock it down. So let's take a bullet out of their gun, so to speak.”

On Dreyden Norwood and Jalen Catalon’s playing time against South Carolina

“Drey had a little bit of a soft tissue thing pop up for him that we'll be monitoring this week. Doesn't appear to be long-term, but that's what happened with him. Catalon, I think I didn't really notice that he didn't play that much. I thought he played normal. And I know he was in on the prowler and cheetah stuff. So, we have a lot of really good safeties.”

On Caleb Flagg

“I guess I do need to make a roster announcement. Caleb Flagg has elected to no longer be a part of our program and chose to redshirt the rest of the year, so wish him the best. With that being said, we do have a lot of safeties. We get guys as many reps as we can to develop in the program. So, [I] wish Caleb the best moving forward.”

On Ollie Robbins taking kicks 38 yards and longer

“So during the week of practice, Robbie was struggling from outside of the 20 and Oliver was doing really good. We do a kicking segment every Tuesday with our group in front of everybody to try to simulate pressure and let's just say Robbie didn't have a great week in that simulated pressure and Oliver did. So going into the game, the plan was, and they knew the plan, that anything inside the 20 was going to be Robbie, anything outside was going to be Oliver.

Then we got to the last kick, and we just felt like the first kick of a young man's career cannot be for, basically, for the game-sealing kick. So I don't even know if Robbie knew it was the fourth quarter, so we just ran him out there and he kicked it. Still not sure he knew what he was doing, but it went in, so that was good.”

On what makes Damon Wilson II so effective

[That’s] why we brought him here. We knew he was an elite pass rusher. That's why it was such an important part of our off-season process. We felt like in the portal, defensively, we needed to add the ability to pressure the quarterback, and then we felt like we needed to add a difference maker stop in the run, and that's what we did with Trot and those two guys are a really good combination.

Dame's just got a really quick first step, he's got multiple moves and quickness, and he's got a lot of energy. I think the other thing that really helps him is that there's quality players around him. I mean, Zion ended up with four pressures and a sack opposite him. Chris McClellan ends up with a sack. So they were trying to chip eight. You could see they were identifying him and trying to get the chip to him, which allowed other people to become viable pass rushers. But then there was multiple times that he would beat the chip and the tackle.”

On why Ahmad Hardy was an under-the-radar recruit

“I'll be honest, I don't think recruiting is sophisticated. I think it's become copycat. I think,

no offense to the guys in here that have recruiting websites, but it's a lot of, everybody tries to be really quick on diagnosing players and tries to be the first to tell you that a freshman and a sophomore are four stars and five stars, and they discount the growth process. And I think the biggest thing is they discount the senior year. That's not what we're doing moving forward. I mean, we are adamant about seeing progression in their senior year, because the amount of investment that you're having to make into freshman players as recruits and I think he's probably a really good example of that. Small school in Mississippi that obviously, the recruiting guys didn't get out and see. So thank God ULM saw him.”

His thoughts on Missouri’s three annual opponents

“I'm just trying to beat UMass. I mean, there's so much going on right now. I mean, you're going to play everybody in a two-year deal. You play three permanents, and then you play six in 2026 and then play the three permanents, and you play the other six in 2027, so I don't know that it matters. I think the SEC has just created a meat grinder that the teams are going to be in. It's going to be a meat grinder. So whether you play those three permanents, I mean, you got to play everybody in the SEC every two years. So, it is what it is. I don't know what anybody was hoping for. There's not like there's a lot of bad teams in the SEC. Everybody's got good players, everybody's got draft players, everybody's got four and five-star recruits, everybody's got money in the portal. Then, without divisions, yeah, it'll be fun.”

On the growth of the front seven on defense

“I think you see the hallmarks, or the DNA of what we want our defensive football team to be: stop the run, have some fun. Two: confuse, harass the quarterback. And I think we're able to do that at a really high level. We've been able to stuff the run without having to add a lot of pressures or anything like that. We have a little bit of line movement, but for the most part, we're just able to control our gaps and escape and then play down those linebackers. Right now, we're able to create pressure. Saturday was our best job of creating pressure without having to bring a lot of extra guys. With him as the quarterback, we had enough speed to spy and create an issue for him to get out of the pocket and be able to bring him down. So that's what we want to be on defense.

We want to be a team that stops the run. Anytime you can stop the run, you're really never out of the game. You look at our two Power 4 games, where we've been behind or it hasn't looked where we wanted to be, we've always been able to say, well, we're going into the fourth, we will be able to run the ball, and they will not. If you cannot run the ball, you cannot get the clock, you can't run the clock out, you're going to have to give us more chances. Ultimately, that for us, if you look at the formula for us winning one-possession games or whatever, it's our ability to stop the run and run the ball, it gives us a chance in all those opportunities.”

On if the game has slowed down for Ahmad Hardy

“I see a young man who's still hungry to grow and develop, who understands that each game is a new opportunity to do better. I was really proud of him. He had a really good red zone blitz pick up on a corner that, to be quite honest, in fall camp, he would have totally missed. But he's getting better. I think that's when he says the game is fast. I don't think it's fast for him with the ball in his hands. I think it's fast for him with all the other stuff outside of the ball being in his hands. I think coach [Kirby] Moore does an excellent job of utilizing the backs in the pass game. So that requires a thought process and knowing where to line up, what the route is. We were chipping every single time we were out last week to the defensive end. So that's fast. They have multiple blitz pickups. Obviously, it's totally different to go from backers to corners in BPU. So I think all of those different things contribute to the game being fast. It will continually slow down. But I think he's hungry to try to master the game, because there's a lot more to playing running back than breaking tackles, although that's a big part of it, fun part of it. Being able to do the other things, like protect the quarterback, be available in the past game.

It's not like Kirby just lines him up in the backfield at one spot all the time. I mean, our running backs line up at wide out, they line up the tight end, they jump and move. There's a lot of variation of what we're asking them to do, so that takes a little time to get comfortable doing it. Obviously, he's done a really good job doing that.”

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