Everything Eli Drinkwitz Said to Recap Week 2 of Fall Camp

Missouri Tigers head coach Eli Drinkwitz addressed the media Saturday afternoon after the team held its second scrimmage of fall camp.

Drinkwitz gave updates on the starting competitions at quarterback, cornerback, plus some changes the coaching staff will be testing along the offensive line in the next week of practice.

Here's a full transcript of what he had to say.

Opening statement:

"Good one today, I don't really know how many plays we're at, or I don't have any stats on me right now, but a lot of situtation work, opened up with backed-up and then went red-zone open field, finished right there with a game-ending drive.

Really, it's tough to evaluate. Saw some really good things and saw some things that frustrate you. I think the biggest takeaway for me was zero turnovers. Quarterbacks didn't turn the ball over today, which I thought was good.

Defense did a really nice job in backed up. I think they had two safeties, which I thought was really good.

Red-zone was pretty even. I thought the defense got the better part of them in the open field, for the most part. Right there at the end of the game, Sam (Horn) gave his group a chance with the field goal, and field goal didn't convert. But then right there, Beau (Pribula) took them down and scored a touchdown. So it was a good job by both quarterbacks. So, it was good by both quarterbacks. Was really looking to see some separation today, and I honestly just didn't see it. They're both playing really good football right now. So, we'll go into next week and keep the battle going.

Held out several guys today. Nobody's holding out because of contracts. Precautionary, head-coach decision. Connor Tollison has played four years as a starter. Didn't feel like that was worth the risk. Jalen Catalon got over 4,000 career reps. Didn't feel like that was worth the risk there. So few guys on each side of the ball, we held out just to be smart.

Tomorrow's an off day and be into execution week next."

On if there were any noticeable improvements from the first to second scrimmage:

"Yeah, the three's got a first-down. The previous scrimmage, they didn't get a first down. And honestly, they were really bad on third downs, offensively. But saw some big-time improvement in that area specifically.

And several touchdown drives in the red zone or open field with both quarterbacks. So definitely improvement there.

Defense, it's going to be frustrating didn't get any takeaways, but I thought their ability to stop the run early was good."

His thoughts on the offensive line in the second scrimmage:

"I didn't feel like we had nearly as much pressure as the first scrimmage. We're still trying to figure out the best five, and with Connor out that kind of throws in a whole other lineup. So, hopefully we'll get a little bit more stability for that next week."

On if Jayven Richardson is "closing in" on the starting left tackle job:

"No, we're gonna make a change next week and see. We're gonna make some adjustments next week and see if we can find — the goal is to get the best five. And so we still got two more weeks to get there. So next week, we'll make a change and we're going to see if we got a different starting five next week to see what it looks like."

On what "separation" between the two quarterbacks would look like:

"Consistency in decision making and consistency of scoring drives. There was just too many lulls in the middle by both of them, I felt like. So, we just got to clean that up, the execution end. Neither one of them were very effective in the backed up situation, which could occur. So we gotta clean that up."

On the hiring of Gaurav Verma as the program's director of football strategy and finance:

"I just want to make it clear, he's not a GM. So everybody saying, 'Oh, it's de facto GM, that's not even kind of what we did. We hired a director of football strategy and finance. He's in charge of cap administration, revenue sharing, what those caps look like, how we're going to orchestrate it, 'what's the contract numbers going to be? How do we slot players?' So what's the third running back's value, with the guys trying to sign the second-year contracts right now, 'what does that put us into for recruiting opportunities?' So it's really roster construction, so he doesn't have the ability to fire me."

His thoughts on the tight ends, how to get them more involved in the pass game this season:

"Those guys are big-time weapons for us. I thought Jude (James) and Brett (Norfleet) had several big catches. One of Brett's bigger catches got called back because of a sack. Those guys have got to be weapons for us. We got to utilize them. They're just too good in the run game that we got to be able to utilize them down the field. But they did a nice job today."

On Khalil Jacobs' vocal leadership:

"I think he did a great job today on first and second down, that's really where we challenged him to make impact plays — on first and second down. When he plays downhill, he's a difference maker, and he did that today. But he's always got great energy and juice, and he's got command of the defense because they see how much work he's put in."

On the development of the defensive tackles:

"Justin Bodford had a big safety, I thought Bralen Henderson had a TFL, C7 (Chris McClellan) always is pretty good in there. So yeah, that group's really kind of stepped up. Appreciate what coach (David) Blackwell has done with that group."

On Pribula and Horn's ability to extend plays with their legs:

"I mean, it's an important factor. It's hard to tell what that looks like without being live. But, both of those guys do a good job playing that way."

His thoughts on the running back room so far:

"Held Ahmad Hardy out tody. He proved us in the last scrimmage, we don't have to tackle him live again. Jamal (Roberts) was really good. I thought he was downhill. T man (Tavorus Jones) had some great reps, but then, yeah, Marquise (Davis), I thought stole the show with his effectiveness

On his thoughts on the competition for the second starting cornerback spot:

"We'll have to look at the tape today. I think Stephen Hall and Toriano (Pride Jr.) and Drey (Norwood), all three of them are really, in my mind, are starters. Those guys have played a lot of football and been effective in coverage for a long time, so it's really a luxury that we have."

On if that position might rotate as much as it did last year:

"Everybody wants to go out first, and I want people who want to go out first. But at the end of the day, we don't play with just 11 guys. We play with 20, 25, if we're playing really good defense. And I think we got the ability — I feel strongly about 18 right now. Daeden Hopkins, the way he played day, he's gonna play himself into a role real quick. That was impressive stuff today.

On his thoughts on Daniel Blood's fall camp so far:

"I thought Daniel has been consistent. Today, I didn't see the consistent Daniel Blood. And quite honestly, I think he can perform at a higher level. We need him to. We need him to perform at a higher level than he did today. Too many drops. He's got to be more explosive with the ball in his hand. He's capable of being a dynamic player in this league. And, today felt like last season, where he's up and down. Can't be up and down. Gotta be consistent."

On how Toriano Pride Jr. has grown since last year:

"I think confidence is probably the biggest thing. I think he's just got confidence in who he is as a player. And I think that grew over time. Last year, there was some setbacks in Week 3 and and 4 that I think kind of shook his confidence. And I think now he's got it back and playing good ball."

On what the transfers have to do to acclimate to the SEC:

"I think hopefully, the way we practice. Hopefully the way that we prepare. But end of the day man, the SEC is rigorous that it's week in and week out. And every week you're going against somebody that's getting drafted, and that's not the case in other leagues. You might play a one first-round draft pick in an eight-week span. We're playing a first-round draft pick at each position. That's a different type of of ball game for coaches and players."

On how the young players responded to his dissapointment in practice effort last week:

"I've been really pleased with the response. And not all of them are there, but Brendon Haygood, I thought had some really good stuff today. Obviously, Marquise has been a lot better (compared to last week). Daeden Hopkins, Javion Hilson. You got to give it to Keiton Jones. I think he's been doing some really good things. Matt's (Zollers) figuring it out. Dante McClellan is a guy that we're going to be able to count on at linebacker. Jason Dowell's a guy we're going to be able to count on at the line. So I've been very impressed with the progress over the last week.

But again, we got another week, execution week, I think is really going to be important for everybody, because now we find out who's going to be consistent, who's going to be able to stick to it. This is kind of rigor, getting ready for the SEC."

On his standouts for the scrimmage:

"Well, I thought for sure, Daeden Hopkins and Khalil Jacobs on the defensive side of the ball. I mean, Daeden felt like he was in our backfield pretty much all day with his group reps. Khalil, I thought in the backed up, did really good stuff. So those guys stood out. Mose Phillips III had some big-time hits, I thought he really played and popped for us, I'll have to go back to the tape.

I thought Donovan Olugbode, Marquis (Johnson) with the one-handed touchdown grab, that I thought was pretty sporty. Josh Manning in that two-minute drive on the big time catch, getting forward. So I thought there's a lot of guys. The biggest key for us offensively is being consistent. We got to narrow it down to who's in and get some consistency there. It probably starts more with the offensive line than anything else."

His early impressions on the punt unit:

"I thought today he (punter Connor Weselman) had two really, really good reps. I thought John (Butcher) had a good kick too. That's honestly the biggest area of improvement, especially right now, is our punt coverage. I think we've done a really good job emphasizing our punt-return team, and those guys have done really well. And with Kevin (Coleman Jr.) back there (at returner), I think that's going to be something I think we could be really good at."

On the benefit of the scrimmage to the coaching staff:

"We'll visit tonight, kind of see where we feel like that live stuff is. Traditionally, this is the last time we go live, but we'll see, we're always evaluating. 'Do we feel like we've got the right kind of tackling base, and do we feel like we're missing a bunch of tackles?' I didn't see a bunch of missed tackles today, but, I'll see if we need to do that.

Honestly, though, I got to see if we can break tackles too. I didn't see enough broken tackles offensively. So there's a fine line there. I thought yesterday we had a really, really good day of work."

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