Everything Eli Drinkwitz Said Reflecting on Texas A&M Loss, Previewing UMass

What the Missouri Tigers head coach said during his Week 7 press conference.

Missouri head coach Eli Drinkwitz during the NCAA college football game against Tennessee on Saturday, November 11, 2023 in Columbia, MO. / Saul Young/News Sentinel / USA TODAY NETWORK

Following a loss to Texas A&M, the No. 21 Missouri Tigers have a long list of questions to answer. The loss caused the Tigers to drop 12 spots in the AP Poll.

Head coach Eli Drinkwitz had some answers, speaking to the media Tuesday. Here's all he had to say to reflect on the loss and preview Missouri's Week 7 game in UMass.

On what needs to be cleaned up defensively:

We all take responsibility for the issues on Saturday. Schematically and execution-wise, at the end of the day, it falls on my shoulders to make sure it's better, and our focus is leading up to UMass. We make no excuses about it. Shouldn't have mattered who was playing the quarterback position. We should have been better. And we need to focus this week on stopping this quarterback and figuring out our scheme so that we can execute at a higher level.

On the team's mentality moving forward:

We haven't had to face this challenge yet this year. We're a program that I believe hadn't suffered a loss since last October. So, it's an opportunity for this team to figure it out. You got new staff, new players. I know the way that I'm going to handle it. I know the way the guys that have been here know how I'm going to handle it. The sky is not falling. We had a poor performance. It doesn't have to define us. What we have to do is respond. And how you respond is, do your job. Focus on the core values that we've instilled. Lean into your elite edge - energy, details, grit, and emotional consistency. Ignore the outside narrative and come in here and go back to work, and it's really that simple. We all have a perfection dream, but that's not reality. So, when you come up short, it doesn't have to define you. It just has to push you to grow."

On how the defense can generate more pressure:

"Obviously a lot lacking. I think it's a combination of getting better pass rush and creating better pass rush through schematics. So again, there's a lot of different things that we can do and challenge ourselves to do in order to be better, and that's what we'll do this week."

On the struggles along the offensive line against Texas A&M:

"I go back to we all accept responsibility for the issues of Saturday. There was a lot of things that went bad, our inability to get into an offensive rhythm because of our lack of execution on third downs. We were in predominantly third and long, which allows them to get into a heavy blitz package, and that contributed to the issues there. I'm not specifically concerned with any one side of the ball or the left side or the right side. I'm concerned with, as the head football coach, making sure that our team is working to improve and making sure that our schemes put us in a better position for our players to execute. I'm not pointing the finger at any of those guys."

Whether or not some of the pressure allowed was due to scheming:

"No, it's a, when unable to get into a rhythm, we were unable to run the football. We were unable to establish a back-and-forth game because of the way that we started. Which is, what I said when we opened, we didn't start very good, third downs contributed to them continually scoring and us not being able to answer that, which then allows them to pressure the quarterback, because they don't have any fear for the run game, so not pointing fingers at anybody other than myself."

On the change of the use of quarterback Brady Cook in the run game:

"The first third down of the game was a quarterback run that we just didn't quite get run the way we wanted to. But I thought Brady (Cook) did a really good job of scrambling and creating first downs. One of them was called back in the penalty in the first half for illegal formation. But, no, I haven't seen or noticed anything other than maybe we haven't been hyper focused on doing that just because we've been given Nate (Noel) and Marcus (Caroll) those carries. But I do think it's something we could see more in the future, just to give him more rhythm and get him into a better flow of the game."

On if Brady Cook is dealing with any injuries:

"Yeah, I haven't seen anything. I've asked him, and he's fully healthy."

On the energy in the locker room following the loss:

"it's always really tough in a locker room after a game, because you come face to face with something that you never expect. You don't go into a game expecting that, and you really don't go into a game expecting the way it turned out. And so a locker room's always a really tough place, but what gives me a lot of confidence in our football team and our staff is the way we handled ourselves after the game. There wasn't finger pointing, there was not assigning blame. There was no, we call it BCD; blame, complain or defend poor performance. There was a responsibility of accepting 'hey, I had ownership in this, and it starts with me, and we got to work to improve'. And that's how you bounce back. That's how you ignore the noise. You don't deflect, you don't place blame on anybody else, you take responsibility for it."

On his personal process in reflecting on the loss to improve:

"You look at everything. You look at the preparation, the travel, the practice plans. I think you have to be steady in your approach and understand that again, one bad day doesn't define a season and the people who I think run into the most trouble are the ones who jerk the steering wheel too fast. A slight adjustment can change the direction and angle of a football team. And so, I think what we have to look for is, what were the problems? Is there a deeper problem? Is there a one-issue problem? What are the problems? How do we find solutions to those? In all three phases, we identified a few problems. It's my job to enforce the accountability that those get fixed, and that's what we're going to do."

On what needs to be done to reduce penalties:

"Yep, they were key penalties. ... You do a great job of coaching the things that should be coached and ignoring the things that don't have to be coached. We have officials here on Wednesdays, and we have to do a better job of making sure that when those guys point out issues, we handle it. Offensive linemen not aligned on the line of scrimmage is a head coach issue, and so that's my responsibility, and I haven't done a good enough job of enforcing that and maintaining discipline on that. So that's on me to fix."

On if the run game will become a more focal point of the offense in the future:

"There just needs to be a more concerted effort to find an offensive rhythm. Whether or not that is creating or designing runs, we need to play with better rhythm. And looking back, whether its tempo runs, which I think we've been effective in, or design quarterback runs, it comes back to us finding our offensive identity. Which is rhythm, attack, execute, playing with rhythm, controlling the tempo of the game, having an attacking style, offense. I thought the first play of the game was very attacking. We just got to continue to capitalize on that. I don't specifically go back to the game plan and say, there should have been a more concerted effort to find runs. I think there's got to be a more concerted effort to find a rhythm for us to stay on the field."

On how the team responded in-game to adversity:

"I didn't see anything on the film that told me we had a lack of effort. And I'm keenly aware to look for that, because that would tell me that there's a deeper issue. We did not respond in either side of the ball with making the plays that we needed to, which, again goes back to 'did we put those guys in the right situations on offense or defense', which is my responsibility, and we just weren't able to land that counter punch. I thought we did, obviously, but it got taken off the board, and again, we have to respond in a better manner. I think we all see that, recognize that, take responsibility for that."

On if Nic Deloach splitting time for Toriano Pride was only a one-week thing:

"I expect more competition from every position on our football team, cause at the at the end of the whole thing, number one core value is always compete. And if we're not playing at the level we want to play, then everybody else has got to compete. We have to compete as coaches in order to raise the level that we want to play at. I thought came in in the third quarter and made a couple of really nice plays for us defensively, which helped us secure the run game. I think he and Toriano [Pride] have been done a better job rotating and competing, and I think you're going to see that more and more, because we need to compete to get the best out of our team."

On the encouraging signs the team has consistently shown to give him hope:

"I think from the special teams unit, we've consistently covered kicks really well. You look at our return, our coverage units, I think those guys have done an excellent job. I think Luke's [Bauer] punting the ball at a really high level. I think our kicking game is growing in its consistency.

Defensively, I think we've got some challenges there to bounce back from last week, and again, we'll have to decide what that is moving forward. I think we've always been a team that prides ourselves on being an attacking style football team, and we've got to get back to that.

Offensively, I know we can run the football. I know we can run the football effectively, and we've got to be able to be explosive vertically down the field. We got to figure out how to continue to run the football to force people to defend us, which allows us to create explosive pass plays. And we just weren't able to do that Saturday, and we'll get back to it."

On Luther Burden's dejection on the sideline:

"First I've heard of it. Yeah, I'll be honest. I ignore the noise. There's nobody on our team that's questioning Luther's [Burden III] motivation, drive, determination to help us win. I think everybody saw him competing for catches at the end of the game. I think we were all disappointed.

I hope they didn't have a video of me on the sideline the entire game, because my facial expressions would have shown disappointment in our performance. But again, I ignore the outside narrative and noise. Focus in on our team and what the beliefs of our team are. We believe what we believe about each other, because we see what we see every day in this environment, and we're all competitors. If we all wanted it to be different, it wasn't. We created that issue. So, it's our job to respond this week"

On UMass receiver Jakobie Keeney-James

"They do an excellent job taking RPOs, which starts with their free access throws, and then off of their free access throws, they have a lot of double moves. I think (offensive coordinator) Shane's [Montgomery] done a really good job of creating a feel where you have to feel like you're attacking the first move, and then he does a good job moving the quarterback in the pocket or building a seven-man protection and giving time. Obviously, on one of the third downs, big third downs in the first half, we bought on the double move, which created an issue down the field, which led to a big, explosive play. That's an issue that we have, and we're going to have to figure out how to take that off the tape so that's going to be a cat and mouse game for us. Obviously, we want to play aggressive, but we also can't bite on double moves and that's going to be part of the game plan this week, I guarantee it against us."

Opening Statement:

"To recap our performance from Saturday, disappointed in our performance and preparation. Starts with myself and our coaching staff, and our players, and we all take full responsibility for not playing to our full capabilities as a team, and that starts with me. Had a slow start on both sides of the ball.

Third downs were incredibly critical on the first half on both sides. Their ability to convert, our inability to get off the field, and our ability not to run the ball and or stop the run. These things have got to be corrected, and we've got to continue to work on those.

Again, it begins with me. It begins with our coaches schematically, making sure that we're putting our players in the best positions possible to be successful. It begins with us playing complimentary football. If one side of the ball is struggling, the other side of the ball needs to be able to pick it up, and we weren't able to do that. Like I said, I take full responsibility as the head football coach for everything that happens in this building, and it starts with me to identify the problems, work to correct those problems and to fix those problems, and that's what we're working on this week.

I had a very clear and direct message with our team, and I'm going to say it again here to y'all. One bad day doesn't define our team or our season, our response will. There's going to be bad days you're going to have. You're not always going to have peak performance as much as we would like to. It doesn't have to define us, but we do have to respond, and we do have to respond in a better manner. In how we respond will define who we are as a team and what kind of character we have as a program. The second thing I told them is ignore the noise. There's always going to be narratives, there's always going to be criticisms, there's always going to be opportunities to point the finger. That really doesn't have anything to do with us. Our opportunity is to respond, ignore the noise, embrace the brotherhood. The best always tell themselves the truth. You have to tell yourself the truth of your performance on Saturday.

You have to take responsibility for that, and you have to find a way to beat UMass, and that's really the focus for us the rest of this week is, how do we improve and find a way to beat UMass. And that's going to be a difficult challenge. They're better than their 1-4 record. I think Coach [Don] Brown is instilling in those guys a competitive nature. They've had the lead. In their four losses, they've had the lead in the third and fourth quarter. In the one game that they did not have the lead in the fourth quarter, it was a one-possession game with the ball in the fourth quarter. So, they're clearly learning what coach is trying to instill in them. They have talented players on both sides of the ball. Coach Brown is the defensive coordinator. His schemes have been tremendous wherever he's been, whether you're talking about Michigan, Arizona, and now the head coach at the University of Massachusetts. Very multiple in the way that he attacks. He's got multiple fronts, multiple coverages, multiple blitz schemes, and I'm sure that we're going to get the full force of that defensively. On the offensive side of the ball, Shane Montgomery is their offensive coordinator. I've known Shane. He was an NC State graduate, so got a chance to meet him when I was at North Carolina State. He does a tremendous job of keeping a balanced offense while attacking. His quarterback, Taisun Phommachanh, is playing his best football. Taisun was a highly recruited player out of the Connecticut area, signed with Clemson out of high school, was elite 11 and suffered a couple of injuries, transferred back to UMass. He's playing, like I said, his best ball. Accurate thrower, very good. I think he's their leading rusher also. So, he's a dual-threat quarterback. For us defensively, we're going to have our hands full. We're going to need to play better defensively, more simplistic, more attacking, and better tackling."Then the special teams area. I did think there were some positives from Saturday, but we got to continue to build on those positives. And like I said, we're going to have our hands full in a unique environment. Excited to get an opportunity to go to Amherst. It'll be an opportunity for us to play in a stadium that's unique from us. An opportunity to play in an area of the country that most of us have not been and so I think it'll be a cool experience and one that our players will find enjoyment and satisfaction in being able to take on that challenge."

Read more Missouri Tigers news:

Drinkwitz Confident in Mizzou After Response to Texas A&M Loss
Mizzou Defense Needs to Follow Assignments and Trust Defensive Unit
Mizzou's Season Will Be Determined by Response to Blowout Loss