Everything Eli Drinkwitz Said to Preview Boston College

The Missouri Tigers head coach spoke with the media Tuesday.

Sep 7, 2024; Columbia, Missouri, USA; Missouri Tigers head coach Eli Drinkwitz watches play against the Buffalo Bulls during the first half at Faurot Field at Memorial Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Denny Medley-Imagn Images / Denny Medley-Imagn Images

The No. 6 Missouri Tigers have turned the page from their week 2 win over Buffalo, now preparing for their week 3 matchup with No. 24 Boston College, setting up one of only two matchups between two ranked teams over the weekend.

To preview the matchup, Missouri head coach Eli Drinkwitz spoke to the media Tuesday to provide his thoughts on Boston College, updates on injuries and more. Here's everythind he had to say in the press conference.

Opening statement:

“This is a really, really good football team. They're battle tested with their road win versus Florida State and I think they're very polished as a team. I think Coach [Bill] O'Brien has done a tremendous job not only with the transition for taking over for Coach [Jeff] Hafley but also with the program alignment. You can tell on all three phases: offense, defense and special teams, how they play the game.

You can definitely see the imprint of Coach O'Brien on the offensive side of the ball with his development of Thomas Castellanos. SVP [Scott Van Pelt] compared him to Kyler Murray and I think that's a very good comparison. We have him at a 73% completion percentage. He's got six touchdowns and zero turnovers on the season. He’s dynamic with his feet but I think he's an accurate passer. The play is never over with the ball in his hands, and he does a really good job of playing the play. I think they have a really good offensive line and dominate the line of scrimmage. Three years ago, they had two 99-yard drives against us, dominating on the run, so we have a tremendous amount of respect for their offensive line play.

They've got a good group of wide receivers. They've added a transfer wide receiver with SEC experience in the return game, Jayden McGowan. We know him well from his time at Vanderbilt, have a lot of respect for him as a player and know that he has game-breaking speed. They've gotten several players out of the transfer portal at the running back position. Obviously, we know Treshaun Ward from our time competing against him at Kansas State; he does a really good job catching the ball out of the backfield. So offensively, they're good, dynamic, stay on schedule, create explosive plays. Quarterback can create explosive plays with his feet and his arm. I think their offensive coordinator, with his scheme design, does a nice job, and when you're talking about Coach O'Brien, whether it's been in college football or in the NFL, he's accomplished a lot. Deshaun Watson's best years were with Coach O'Brien as his head coach and quarterbacks coach, so there's a lot of respect for how he approaches offensive football.”

“Defensively, they're led by a veteran defensive coordinator with a lot of time in the NFL and various leagues, Tim Lewis. They're very good at the line of scrimmage, returned four starters on the defensive line and their middle linebacker, so they're strong in the middle. They're good at stopping the run and creating a surge at the line of scrimmage. Their linebackers play downhill. It's a difficult matchup in the secondary; nothing's easy back there. They play a lot of variations of coverage.

It's going to be a challenge for our offense and defense. We're going to have to play better than we have the past two weeks. We'll need to clean up penalties, play fundamentally sound football and find ways to create explosives in the pass game. We'll need to be a lot more physical at the line of scrimmage, sustain blocks without holding. So, a lot of things we need to improve on to compete in this game.”

On the 2021 Boston College loss being a “low point”:

“That game was hard for a lot of different reasons. I didn't think we played particularly well. There was a lot of noise around the game for comments I made, so I learned a hard lesson as a head coach. Then there were emotional swings. We came back, tied it up, they scored in overtime, and we threw a pick on the first play. It was the first time I had to deal with the crowd rushing the field and trying to navigate off it. So, a lot to it.”

On the growth of the program since that loss in 2021:

“I try to stay in the moment and understand that it's special to be at Faurot Field in front of a sold-out crowd. I've acknowledged that to a couple of coaches who've been with us the whole time. I’ve told them, ‘Man, we've come a long way since we first got here.’ Boston College is a really good football team. They were good in 2021, and it’ll be a difficult matchup. It'll be a good game.”

On how the new coaching staff has put Castellanos in position to succeed:

“I think the biggest thing is the maturity of the quarterback position. The game slows down for you the more reps you get. Offensively, they're taking more advantage of him. I think they kind of put him in a box last year, creating a dynamic run game and play-action pass for him. Now, they're treating him like the good player he is at the quarterback position and letting him grow in different ways.

Last week, they went empty quite a bit and let him throw the ball vertically. That's a lot of growth. There haven't been a lot of quarterback-designed runs for him so far. They're taking what the defense gives and establishing the line of scrimmage, which is always the quarterback's best friend.”

On Boston College’s use of running backs in the passing game:

“It’s difficult. It dictates what you're going to have to do from a coverage standpoint. You can try to play man-to-man and spy him, but your spy has to be good enough to tackle him. Or you can play zone, but when you do that, you're typically down a man in the box, allowing them to define the run game the way they want. It's a chess match. You can't go in with one plan and hope it works; you need multiple options and see which one plays.”

On the resurgence on the defensive side of the ball:

“I think it's player-driven. The resurgence on the defensive side has always been player-driven. Even three years ago when things started turning, you had players like Darius Robinson, JC [Carlies], Ennis [Rakestraw Jr.] and KAD [Kris Abrams-Draine] building that standard. Now those guys are gone, but players like Kristian Williams, Joseph Charleston, Johnny Walker, Tristan Newson, Dreyden Norwood, Marvin Burks Jr. and Tre’Vez Johnson know what that standard is. They’ve got to play at a high level to not let their teammates down.

You have to combine great players with great schemes. I think Coach [Corey] Batoon has done an excellent job figuring out what our defensive players can do well. They play with great effort, but they play within the scheme. We’ve added depth, so there’s not a big drop-off between what you call starters and backups. We call it the first wave and second wave of defense. Our leading tackler, Champ [Corey Flagg Jr.], is in the top three, and he doesn't even run out there first, but he's a really good player. We've got waves of players, whether defensive tackle, linebacker or corner, and there’s not much fall off.”

On the growth of Johnny Walker Jr.:

“He’s a guy who came in at 205 pounds and now he's 255. He consistently rushes the passer with will. He's taken different techniques and styles from different coaches and added more tools to his toolbox. Being voted captain, he's taken on a leadership role. He's done a really good job with Will [Nwaneri] and Jaylen [Brown], making sure they understand that developing is a process.”

On playing Walker and Joe Moore together in the boundary:

In fact, in our third down prowler package, we actually put Joe and Johnny in there at the same time. I think that's (linebackers) coach (Brian)  Early and coach Batoon. You have your best players, but then you have players who are better at specific things. (Coach Gus Malzhan) ised to always say ‘he's better at other things,’ you got to figure out what they're good at and then use them in those strengths. I think Coach Early and coach Batoon figured out real quickly that these two guys have really good pass rush moves and really do a good job containing the quarterback in their pass rush. That allows us to do a lot of different things within the prowler package.”

On offense taking what defenses give them, remaining patient:

I think that's a sign of growth and maturity from all of us on the offensive side of the ball. We all want it now. We're instant gratification. We all want explosive plays. You'd be rather be on Sports Center for that than three yards and a cloud of dust or five-yard hitches. But the reality of what we're figuring out is that teams don't really want to give up explosive plays versus our wide receiver core. So we have to be willing to make them defend us in a different manner. I think our offensive staff in the first two games has done a really good job of figuring out what the defensive plan against us was and then even having to come up with stuff that maybe wasn't in the game plan that we know defeats this or defeats that. 

[Offensive coordinator Kirby] Moore does an excellent job on the offensive side of the ball with his group and able to communicate with the quarterback, able to calm those guys down. I think, there's a little bit of impatience with the offense. We went three-and-out at the end of the first and we missed a field goal. We're not really where we want to be. But I think he [Moore] did a really good job of settling them down and the  first drive of the second quarter, getting them in the end zone and then just calming them down like 'Guys, it's going to be a little bit of a grind. It's going to be a little bit of a grind it out style for us right now.' 

What lessons can be learned from facing dual-threat quarterback Jayden Daniels when preparing for Castellanos:

In fact, there was a conversation with me and [defensive end] Joe Moore yesterday in Monday's practice about the lesson that we learned, there was a 3rd--7 when we had the lead in the fourth quarter. And we talked all week about level-rushing the quarterback. You can't rush past the quarterback, especially with a guy who will take off. There's a lot of different things that occurred in that game. There's a lot of new players here, but some of the guys who played last year can obviously understand some of the mistakes that we made. Obviously, the game plans are totally different. It's a different style offense on both sides. Boston College huddles, which they did show no little last week, but Boston College typically huddles and plays a little bit more out of 12 personnel, and we'll play 11 and 10. LSU played 11. 

What we've tried to do is obviously 'Champ' [Corey] Flagg and Eddie [Kelly] played against the quarterback last year and so tried to take, 'okay, what did y'all think about him? What were some things that he did from a player standpoint that you can let the rest of us know so we can get a little bit of an early scouting report?'  Both were consistent saying that he's as fast as any quarterback they've ever played against, does a really good job of extending plays. If you don't have a specific plan for containing him then it's gonna be a long day.

Injury updates:

Luther is I would say probable. Theo [Wease] is probable. Brett Norfleet will be questionable and he'll practice today. We'll see kind of where he's at. Cam[‘Ron] Johnson's questionable. We'll see, he should go out there [practice]  in a green jersey [non-contact jersey].

On how Ja’Marion Wayne would help out in corner depth:

Ja'Marion Wayne has really been dinged up with his hamstring. He practiced yesterday. I hope that he can go this week. I don't know where to define that. It's probably still questionable. That's a guy who hasn't been able to play and help us at the corner position.

On what Missouri offense has to do to clean up penalties:

Quite honestly, the alignment penalties are just embarrassing. As the head football coach, that's on me. That's undisciplined football for me to allow that to happen. We had alignments wrong in the first game and to have it again in the second game. That's on me. So that's got to get corrected, get taken off the tape. We took a five minute period yesterday with just alignment to make sure we don't have too many guys on the ball, or not enough guys on the ball. That's got to get corrected. 

The holding penalties, we got to learn to let go when the ball's got leverage,  just when a defender is broken away, we cannot continue to engage the jersey of the defender. There were three of those that were clear calls, easy calls that are something that we have to correct. You appreciate guys playing with effort and energy, but they got to know when it's across the line.