What Eli Drinkwitz Hopes to See Monday in Mizzou's First Scrimmage

The Missouri Tigers are now a week into fall camp, but the first real test for the team comes Monday, when the team will hold its first scrimmage of the camp.

Whether it's the competition at quarterback and left tackle, or evaluating true freshmen, head coach Eli Drinkwitz believes the scrimmage will serve as a crucial point of the preseason.

"It's so hard to say, you got to actually see them play," Drinkwitz said in a press conference after practice Saturday.

Particularly at quarterback, seeing how the top two contenders — Sam Horn and Beau Pribula — can read a defense in real time and respond to errors will be some of the top traits to determine who will be named the starter.

"You gotta make a mistake and then not make it again," Drinkwitz said of the quarterbacks ahead of spring practices. "That'll be the growth that we're trying to see. Somebody making a great throw in a four-set rack, we're not gonna get real excited about. It's gonna be about how do they respond to the mistakes they make, and that'll put us on the right path."

READ: Drinkwitz Gives Thoughts on QB Competition One Week into Fall Camp

What a scrimmage also provides is the opportunity for a long string of sustained reps. For the quarterbacks, it's another test to be able to put together consecutive good moments. To Drinkwitz, the quarterback who will stand out will need not just to have high highs, but just as importantly, avoid low lows.

"There's going to have to be a consistency of your approach," Drinkwitz said of the quarterback competition at the start of fall camp. "If you had a bad set, you got to shake it off and bounce back. I mean, that's what quarterback is. That's how you play the game. Without these guys having as much experience on tape, we're going to have to throw them in a lot of different scenarios."

Consistently is the key trait Drinkwitz is looking to see out of every position in fall camp.

Including for all of the true freshmen, such as wide receivers Donovan Olugbode, Shaun Terry II and DaMarion Fowlkes. The scrimmage will provide the best opportunity yet to see how all of the freshmen might do against the level of competition in the Southeastern Conference.

"Be consistent," Drinkwitz said Saturday when asked what the young receivers have to do to see the field. "I mean the wide receiver position comes down to can you get open and then you make the catch? I mean, that's really the two jobs of a wide receiver is get open and catch the ball and if you can do that, you can play. If you can't, you won't."

READ: Drinkwitz Gives Early Review of Mizzou's Freshmen at Fall Camp

For the veterans, it's not so much the fundamentals Drinkwitz is hoping to see an improvement on in the scrimmage. Instead it's discipline. Specifically with avoiding penalties. He said the top thing he wants to see the defense do in the scrimmage is avoid penalties. In practice Saturday, the Missouri defense allowed penalties to extend two drives.

"That's the kind of stuff that gets you beat," Drinkwitz said of penalties. "It's not really technique or fundamentals, it's discipline stuff. So we've got to get that off the tape."

For most teams, penalties are a core aspect of rust that has to be worn off in the early weeks of the season. But last year, Missouri's defense wasn't called for a single penalty in either of the first two weeks of the season. Drinkwitz is hoping to create a similar result by making it a focus early.

For the offense, Drinkwitz is hoping to see the unit do a better job of avoiding turnovers and for the offensive line to do better in pass protection, especially on third downs.

Media won't be allowed to view Monday's scrimmage, but if Drinkwitz is as open and honest as he was after Saturday's practice, he'll surely provide some insight and evaluation the next time he meets with the local press.

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