Everything Eli Drinkwitz Said Previewing Auburn, Reflecting on UMass

All that the Missouri Tigers head coach had to say ahead of Week 8.

Nov 24, 2023; Fayetteville, Arkansas, USA; Missouri Tigers head coach Eli Drinkwitz looks on during the first quarter against the Arkansas Razorbacks at Donald W. Reynolds Razorback Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Nelson Chenault-Imagn Images / Nelson Chenault-Imagn Images

Missouri Tigers head coach Eli Drinkwitz held his weekly press conference Tuesday, to reflect on the team's roadtrip to UMass and look ahead to the Week 8 matchup with Auburn.

A victory would continue to put Missouri back on the right path after falling 41-10 to Texas A&M in Week 6. Here's what the head coach had to say ahead of the Week 8 game.

Full Transcript

Opening Statement:

“Excited for homecoming week, awesome to be a part of such an awesome tradition that started in 1911 with Coach Brewer and what has now become homecoming, which is celebrated across high schools and colleges everywhere in the United States. So, really fortunate for us to be a part of this game and have the opportunity to experience all of those great traditions this week.”

“To recap last week's game, really proud of our team and the response that they had, I thought that they came out and started fast on both sides of the ball. Showed their commitment to each other and playing for each other and not playing for work external factors, whether that was crowd size, stadium size, or anything like that, those guys came out, started fast defense, three-and-out offense scored touchdowns on the first three drives, and then they responded throughout the game, after the fake punt, with Corey Flagg's interception and turning what would be offensive points for them, into offensive points for us. And then really proud of the young guys who got the opportunity to play for the way that they came in and contributed a lot of first for a lot of those guys.”

“Got a very difficult challenge this week. I think Auburn is a very dangerous football team. When you look at the statistics that they have on both sides of the ball, there's really only one glaring weakness that they've had, and it shows up in all their losses, which is turnovers. Other than that, they've played well enough to win football games, and I think they’re very talented on both sides of the ball. Offensively, they got elite wideouts. They got an elite running back. They've got talented tight ends. On the defensive side of the ball, they got elite defensive linemen, linebackers. Eugene Asante stands out as probably the best linebacker we've played so far this year. I think he's an elite player. And so it's really going to be a challenge for us this week. I've challenged our team. It's really about our consistency and preparation, our urgency, our daily progress, and trying to improve our fundamentals, our ability to play fast and aggressive in the face of uncertainty of what they're going to do. It's really about us, which was our focus last week, and trying to carry that over and really try to be consistent in how we approach this week's preparation.”

“We have had some adversity, and we'll face some adversity this week. We've lost Joe Moore for the season due to injury. He will be out the rest of the year, and then Khalil Jacobs suffered a season-ending injury during the UMass game. We're certainly going to miss those guys and their contributions to our football team and our brotherhood. They're still part of who we are this season, but we will not be able to utilize them on the field.”

On how true freshman linebacker Nick Rodriguez performed against UMass: 

“I think Nick did a really nice job of responding to the opportunity. Obviously, Tristan (Newson) was out. We should get Tristan back this week and plan on having him back. But Nick came in prepared well all week. Was named Defensive Player of the Week for his performance. So I thought he did a really nice job. We've been utilizing him on special teams to try to prepare him for this opportunity. I think there's several young guys that we've felt like we needed to get them going, and he's certainly one of them and he’s done a nice job.”

On how the win over UMass will provide the team with confidence:

“I think anytime you lose, the number one thing is shaken is your confidence. The only way you get your confidence back is through preparation and execution. I think our guys can rely on the way that we prepared last week and then how we went out and performed from an execution standpoint. I think it was one of our cleanest games from an assignment standpoint. And so now we've got to carry over to a whole new challenge, very difficult schemes on both sides of the ball. (Head coach Hugh) Freeze's RPO game is really good. Coach (defensive coordinator DJ) Durkin's multiplicity on the back end, three safety, defense, odd structure, four-down structure, multiple pressures is extremely challenging for our team, and so for us, we got to go back to ‘Okay, this is how we prepare so that we can execute.”

On the rotation of Mitchell Walters at right tackle and left guard against UMass:

“I think we're going to see more of Mitch Walters throughout. We just feel like, from an offensive line standpoint, we got to create competition to get the best. I mean, (left guard) Cayden (Green) rotated and ended up grading the highest and was made offensive lineman of the game, so he responded well to the challenge. But, Mitch can really play three positions for us. He can play right guard, and rotates with Cam(‘Ron Johnson), he can play left guard, and he can play right tackle. So he provides really a lot of position flexibility. He's a big body who's played a ton of football in this league. He gets great movement at the line of scrimmage.We've used him quite a bit in our 12 personnel sets as an extra offensive lineman. So he's somebody that we definitely see rotating in the game.”

On if there’s anyone else he expects to be rotated in along the offensive line:

“Not at the moment.”

On the usage of two tight end sets against UMass:

“Just depends on the matchups. We just felt like there were some things that we saw in preparation that depicted some better run game for us. It's the first time really both Jordon (Harris) and Brett (Norfleet) and Tyler (Stephens) have all been healthy at the same time, and so we felt like that room's always been a weapon for us, but it just hasn't been healthy the way we wanted it to. So that's a part of the game that we can get into if we need to create matchups.”

On if Brett Norfleet scoring his first touchdown of the season was an encouraging sign:

“Absolutely. Going into that drive where Josh Manning scored, I got on the headsets and told this offensive staff that we weren't going to run the ball again. I wanted to see us develop some chemistry and continuity within the past game. I didn't anticipate we'd score in the first play, which was great, but also disappointing, because we were wanting to really just kind of continue to work out the kinks. That next drive, well actually that next drive was a punt, and then the next drive, we were able to get some throws. And whether it was Brett or whoever, it was a concept design that I think they ended up playing cover two, and we took the middle of the field. So it was just great that the players and the quarterback were on the same page and connected on it.”

On wide receiver Joshua Manning earning more opportunities: 

“I think he’s played a lot. The Texas A&M game, on that morning, he felt like his hamstring was really tight and couldn't give us what we needed. He was actually supposed to start as the kick returner in that game, and because of the tight hamstring, wasn’t able to go. I think he only ended up playing five snaps so that was an injury issue. But I think he's played with a lot. We rotate a lot of wide receivers, and we get criticized for playing too many wide receivers because Luther’s not on the field now we're wanting other guys to get more. I can't make everybody happy on that, but I would say Josh has earned what he's got and he does a great job with this opportunity. And I think the only people concerned with that stuff are outside the building. I think within the building, our guys really were fired up for both Brett and Josh and their opportunities and they all know that they got plays within the game plan that they're designed for and take advantage when they get them.”

His thoughts on the continued rotation with Toriano Pride and Nicholas Deloach:

“I liked it fine.”

On if the secondary is doing enough to help create pressure on defensive line: 

“Not the way we went to the game. Obviously there was a couple of third downs that they converted where we were bringing pressure and we weren't able to — we got to time up where we get the pressure there, and the coverage is tight — there was one on the field goal drive where we brough pressure and we were trying to punch out and we gave up a boundary glance, which is probably the staple of coach Freeze’s offense, so that was really concerning. So no, the timing of those things are not where we want to be, but we'll go back to work.”

On what he’s appreciated about Luther Burden III that doesn’t show up on stat sheet:

“I would say the first thing I've appreciated about Luther is that he does whatever we need him to do in order to win the football game. He's contributed in every game significantly. Although the game against A&M, the play gets wiped out for 75 yards because of the penalty, I think he was effective in what his role was. You look at the statistical part of the game, at the end of the day, there's been three of the six games where he has played minus six quarters, so a game and a half. So I think there's a lot of people being, whatever it is what it is, but he hasn't played in six quarters, maybe even seven of those football games, which is going to leave a little bit to be desired from a stat standpoint. But when he's played in the games and been consistent, we've been consistent, consistently targeting him and trying to get him to affect the game.”

On Marcus Carroll stepping in for Nate Noel against UMass:

“Yeah, tough blow, part of the deal with traveling sometimes, especially with football players, you just don't, you never know what those awkward positions do. So, tough to have that injury. Tried, tried really hard to go. But yeah, I thought Marcus did a really nice job. Obviously, having three touchdowns. Jamal Roberts had some nice carries in there. I thought it was great to see T-man (Tavorus Jones) at the end of the game. Kewan (Lacy) got valuable reps. So I thought that the running back room did a nice job.”

On Auburn’s offensive skill position players:

“Jarquez Hunter is as good a running back as we've gone against. I remember playing against him several years ago down there. I think he's dynamic, gots good speed, is hard to bring down in the hole. Several players, whether it’s Georgia or Oklahoma — the linebacker from Oklahoma, the really good one (Danny Strutsman), had trouble in the hole with him too. He's proven he's a really, really good player with really good vision, really good quickness, really good speed. We're going to have to bring our feet with our tackling, and we’re going to have to challenge ourselves to tackle better.”

“(Wide receiver) KeAndre Lambert Smith, the transfer from Penn State, talented player. Really excels in the jump ball, excels in the back shoulder, which has been areas that we've struggled with in the DB position, so that's a point of emphasis for us. He's a guy that the quarterback, Payton Thorne, really feels confident in and throwing the trust throws to, and so that that will be a challenge for us to to defend.”

On if Khalil Jacobs will be eligible for a medical redshirt:

“I don't know if we could apply for a medical that will have to come back, because it was, I think, the first quarter of his fifth game. I was going to make a joke about the NCAA, but gonna

make a joke about the NCAA, but they make themselves.”

On what he learned in his two years as a quality control coach at Auburn: 

“When I went there, I thought coaching college football was easy, we went 13-0, and you just get the two best players in college football, and you put them on your team and you win. That's what (quarterback) Cam Newton and (defensive tackle) Nick Fairley did for us. But outside of those two, there was a really strong team spirit.”

“I thought Cam Newton was one of the best, is one of the best leaders that I've ever seen in the locker room of holding the team together. We faced a lot of adversity. He faced a lot of personal adversity, whether it was criticism of play in his first couple of games or even with the other stuff that occurred throughout the year, but he stayed steady, performance kept improving, and I thought he did a really nice job of making sure everybody enjoyed playing with him.”

“As far as building a team, I thought coach (Gene) Chizik, (offensive coordinator Ted) Roof, (offensive coordinator Gus) Malzahn, as coordinators, really did a nice job working together — low ego, high output approach and a lot of the foundational stuff that we do in our program now, I learned from Coach Chizik and coach Malzahn, that was a great season.” 

On similarities between Buffalo linebacker Shaun Dolac and Auburn’s Euguene Asante:

“I think where both of those guys had a lot of strength is in their blitzing. They do a really nice job of using Asante in their blitz packages, which Buffalo did too. So we're gonna have to figure out if we want to use five-man protection to try to get the fifth guy out and make them cover, or do we keep him in the backfield and match him up on the linebackers. So there'll be a little bit of cat and mouse game just because of the odd front structure that coach Durkin uses, allows us more to identify the stand-up players and utilize offensive linemen picking them up, whereas in a four-down structure, you can get some matchups on a running back. So I think there'll be a little bit of cat and mouse to see who adjusts first, and kind of what each other's plan is to mitigate (Nate Noel’s) rushing ability.”

“I think the game within the game though is really going to be Jalen McLeod versus Nate Noel, former roommates at App state. It’s pretty interesting. I know App State is not where they want to be this year as far as their football program, but two of their best players are playing in the SEC right now and that's one of the struggles of the transfer portal. So that to me, is the game within the game, Nate versus Jalen. Both guys committed to me when I was at App and now they're at Auburn in Mizzou. We couldn't get Jaylen to come on a visit. We were recruiting him in the portal, and Hugh got him down there, and they got him locked up before he would come on a visit with us. Guess that commitment to me didn't mean much.”