Everything Eli Drinkwitz Said to Wrap Up Fall Camp

To wrap up fall camp for the Missouri Tigers, head coach Eli Drinkwitz addressed the media to give his final thoughts.

Drinkwitz provided updates for where things stand at the quarterback position, what he’s learned about the team and more.

Here’s a full transcript of what Drinkwitz had to say.

Opening statement:

"Today concluded fall camp for us. That was 18 practices, and we had three goals going into fall camp. And one is hard. Number two was embrace your role, put the team first, and number three was believe in us to become a team of teams.

No. 1, by measuring stick, this was the hardest camp that we've had since we've been here. A combination of heat, good on good periods, number of periods, number of live tackling situations. And I think our guys really responded really, really well. Just finished a two-minute, four-minute deal out in the stadium, in the heat. Very impressed with the energy those guys had, the effort they had. And so, really proud of them for that.

Two was embrace your role, put the team first. The last couple of days, we've made some adjustments. Started using some show teams. Guys had to get used to it. I thought the efforts been extremely well on both sides. I think our show teams are going to give us a great advantage because of the way the guys are playing with great effort, the talent they have on both of those, and this is the deepest team we've had. We've got a lot of talent and a lot of depth, and so I'm excited about that. We've got to continue to embrace it.

The last one is, believe in us, believe in our potential, unity over self. And it's not about anybody else, but the people in this building, in this room, believing in what we can do, what we can accomplish this year, so by all intents and purposes, we accomplished those goals. The goal of training camp is to get yourself prepared for what's next. And I feel really comfortable with us being prepared for the season that lies ahead, and that starts with our preparation for UCA tomorrow. So with that, I'll take the first question on quarterback. Somebody's got one."

On the quarterback battle:

“It's been something that's kept me up every night and wakes me up in the morning. I think those guys have played really good, both of them, really well. In fact, the two-minute, four-minute just kind of sealed it in my mind, like, 'Oh my gosh, these guys both can play at a high level and win. So what that means moving forward?' I don't know yet. I just got off the field today, but we'll start UCA prep tomorrow, and we'll have a decision and talk to both those guys here in the next 24 hours about what we're going to do and make sure the team's comfortable.”

On how the effort and performances of Beau Pribula and Sam Horn have made Drinkwitz's decision more difficult:

"Yeah, you wish it was easy and that there would be something definitive that you could point at and say, 'Hey, this was the reason why.' But it's not gonna be the case. So we'll figure it out from there. They pay me to make tough decisions, and that's what I gotta do."

On whether or not there is a world in which both quarterbacks play regularly:

"You're in hypotheticals now. We'll know in 24 hours what we're going to do. We'll come back to it, but we don't really need to read any more into it. We'll make a decision in 24 hours and let everybody know."

On how many other positions on the field Drinkwitz isn't 100% certain of:

"None. I think we feel very confident in the plans we got. I think we're really confident.

There's some positions that three or four people are going to take. Linebacker could be a 60/40 split. There's so many players, there's going to be packages where this guy is getting more reps and these tackles are going to rotate through maybe 50/50. I don't think we're settling in on 22 total players. I think we know who can help us win, and what that role looks like moving forward, and how we start planning for that."

On Beau Pribula and Sam Horn's leadership:

"Yeah, I thought I challenged them after Saturday's scrimmage. And I think, man, they've been really the best they've been the past three days. Even yesterday, we were doing a game scenario. Matt (Zollers) threw a game-winning touchdown to (Logan) Muckey, and the first two guys in the end zone celebrating were 21 and 9 racing down there. I think those guys have displayed an elite level of leadership, and the last three days really quit making it about them, making it about the team, and I feel very comfortable with both those guys."

On what else Drinkwitz has learned about his team outside of quarterback:

"Yeah, I think they're tougher than I expected them to be to be honest. I think they're more resilient. Last Wednesday, we simulated a two-a-day at the end of what would have been execution week. We had never done that before. We'd only done a certain number, and we decided, ‘Let's see if we can break them.’ And we couldn't. I mean, those guys, they chewed it up and spit it out pretty easily. I was very impressed. I think the consistent energy they’ve had at practice, no matter what the scenario is, they find a way to be energetic and excited about the opportunity to practice. I think that's a direct reflection of the competition. If you have a bad edge, you can get passed up. And so I think they've all had to bring their A-game every day.”

On the team captains:

"Well, I think it was just there was a clear separation between those four and everybody else on each side of the ball. And so I think that just distinguished them as being guys who are captains.

Obviously, there's two different ways to look at it. It's on the field performance, and it's off the field leadership. And I think Connor's got this level of four-year starboard leadership that everybody knows nothing is going to rattle him.

And then you got Jalen Catalon on the defensive side of the ball (who) kind of has that same kind of experience. And then you got Zion Young who has unbelievable energy, and it's an infectious personality. Same thing kind of with Khalil. I think y'all saw it yesterday with Cayden Green leading Tiger Jacks. He has that. I think it's coming out of him right now with that leadership role put on him, so very excited about these guys. Logan Muckey beat cancer, so of course, he was going to be elected Captain. That's pretty easy."

On how the team is health-wise:

"Healthiest we've been ever out of fall camp. I don't anticipate a single person to be out for week one for injury. Not one guy on our roster. We held Greco the past two days just to try to get him 100% back from his hamstring, but that's it."

On who will start between Curtis Peagler and Tristan Wilson:

"If we started today, Curtis would be the starter, and then Tristan would come in as needed in a rotational spot. We felt like in the third series we needed to put Tristan in at either the guard position or the center position, but right now, Curtis would be our starter."

On how blocking is looking:

"Yeah, we call it perimeter drill, which is an inside drill for the perimeter side of the play. We do that every Toughness Tuesday. We expect our box players to be tough and physical on the inside, run the ball, stop the run, and we expect our perimeter players to be able to set edges and we exect our wide receiver players to be able to block edges so that we can stretch the field.

I was more involved in the BPU side of it, so I wasn’t paying as much attention to the field, but we’ll watch it and evaluate it. I think we do a really good job blocking on the perimeter. That’s something Coach Peeler’s always emphasized. Obviously, Ben Johnson’s emphasized it a little bit more, and Luther’s( Burden) kind of shined at it the last week, but I’d argue that he’s had some really good blocks for us here too. It’s not something new.”

On what makes the Mizzou culture so positive for transfers:

“Yeah, I mean, I think that's a deeper question than probably I can just answer right here. I think the first thing is, it's a brotherhood. So when anybody walks in, there's trust and respect between coaches and players and so I believe our team trusts our coaching staff. So when they bring somebody in, there's going to be an instant amount of respect given to them. Trust is earned through competency and character, but there's a level of respect that's going to be given to anybody that walks in this building because they believe that our coaches are going to pick guys that align with the values of our program. The second thing is, we have a always compete mindset, so what we bring in is inconsequential to your race and what you're trying to do every single day to be the best version of yourself. And, if we bring in a transfer, that doesn't mean we promised them anything; it just means we're giving everybody an opportunity to compete. So I think it takes a while to create that trust. I, for one, didn't do a great job early in my tenure here, creating that trust with the locker room. But I think over the course of the last four years, I think there's been a consistency to our approach, and I think there's been more trust and respect built. Then it goes back to core value number one, which is always compete. So I think guys know they get a fair shot when they come in and transfer, and I think the guys that stay know they get a fair shot. And I think that when the guys come in, they feel a sense of respect from the locker room that allows them to grow."

On how Jude James has progressed this offseason:

"Yeah, I think Jude's had an outstanding camp. He's been a guy you can count on from special teams to a tight end role to an H-back to a fullback. So he gives Coach Moore and the offensive staff a lot of flexibility about how to utilize him. But I think the biggest contribution he's going to (make is) I think he'll be a starter on three or four units in special teams, and (he) really embraces his role and will do an excellent job with that."

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