Everything Eli Drinkwitz Said to Preview South Carolina

A full transcript from the press conference for the head coach of the Missouri Tigers.

Oct 26, 2024; Tuscaloosa, Alabama, USA; Missouri Tigers head coach Eliah Drinkwitz reacts after a play during the first half against the Alabama Crimson Tide at Bryant-Denny Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Butch Dill-Imagn Images / Butch Dill-Imagn Images

The No. 23 Missouri Tigers will travel to face off against No. 21 South Carolina in Week 12 for what will likely be Missouri's final ranked matchup of the season. After a 30-23 win over Oklahoma, the Tigers will look to earn a statement win and move to 8-2.

Head coach Eli Drinkwitz previewed the Gamecocks in a press conference Tuesday, here's a full transcript of what he had to say.

Opening Statement:

“Would like to announce that Connor Tollison has been lost for the season due to a leg injury. Very, very tough news for us as a program and as a team. Connor was Mr. Consistent. As good a center as we've had here. Has started, I think 34 or it might have been 35 games, started every game that Brady's been the quarterback, minus the Army game. So, really, really good football player. I know he'll bounce back. I know we'll get him back for next year. But, disappointed for him. It is a season-ending surgery or injury, and that's why I announced it. All other injuries I'll refer back to the SEC injury policy reporting procedure, which will be out Wednesday night.

"Got a really tough opponent this week. A ranked South Carolina team. Coach [Shane] Beamer has done an absolutely fabulous job this year. They're playing their best football right now. They're peaking at the right time. Went into Oklahoma and got a big win on the road and then utilized the bye week to prepare for a Texas A&M team and played really good football, both, really in all three phases, and then were dominant against Vanderbilt on Saturday, so going to be a very difficult test. Obviously, it's one of the most difficult places to play in the SEC. Williams-Brice Stadium is extremely loud. Their fans are very noisy. It's a really, really tough environment to be in, and so we got our hands full.

"On the offensive side of the ball, Dowell Loggains, their offensive coordinator, has done an outstanding job of playing to the strengths of his offense. Their quarterback, LaNorris Sellers is a redshirt freshman, who's playing his best ball. He gets better every week. Raheim Sanders, 'Rocket Sanders', who transferred from Arkansas, has been one of the best backs in this league for a long time. He's a bigger, physical back and a very difficult challenge for us. And then they have just a really, really good tight end, Joshua Simon and he is a really, really good player that makes it difficult matchups. And Dowell's history as a tight ends coach in the NFL I think is what makes him unique, because he does a really good job of featuring him in the offense.

"On the defensive side of the ball, Clayton White, this is his fourth season we've gone against him, and does a really, really good job. Very multiple on their defensive front. They have two elite defensive ends, but I think their internal players Tonka Hemingway and Alex Huntley are really their depth there. Make it very difficult. They exchange gaps, they play downhill. They're really, really stout versus the run. Their ‘will’ linebacker Debo Williams is a really good player, and then obviously they got the two safeties who are both NFL players. We've gone against a lot of these guys for the last three seasons, outside of Kyle Kennard and the freshman Dylan Stewart, the rest of those guys have played a ton of football for them, and know the scheme and can anticipate what Coach White is going to call and so they're really good. I talked to an NFL scout a couple of weeks ago, and he said that South Carolina has as many NFL defensive prospects as any other team in the SEC and so from a talent standpoint, Coach Beamer has done an excellent job of raising the talent level and developing the talent level right there on that team.

"Special teams are always a hallmark of a Coach Beamer team, and so they'll be really good in that phase too. So, like I said, we've got our hands full, and we know it's going to be a challenge. And so with that I'll open it up to questions."

On the confidence he has in Drew Pyne

“We have a lot of confidence in Drew and whoever gives us the best opportunity to win is who we're going to play.  We won't know anything on Brady [Cook] until later in the week, but I would anticipate Drew, we're going to prepare for Drew to be the starter."

Where he's seen Drew's biggest growth and improvement since fall camp

"I think his pocket presence. I think it's harder to replicate live rush as much as anything in college football, because, we're trying to be so protective of the quarterback in practice, you don't want anybody around his arm or hand, so for him to be able to see and develop, push up in the pocket vertically, I thought in the game was really a big difference. And then the timing of the throws, everything happens just a little bit quicker in the game. And I thought as he settled into the game, he was able to make some throws with more time. Thought he did a nice job handling, , we blew a couple of pressure pickups at the running back position and Drew was able to make it right just by understanding where his outlets were and knowing the concepts. And I think that's just going to be a little bit easier and easier each week, as we repeat some of the same plays. Different ways, but the same plays."

On the importance on holding the pocket against South Carolina's front

"Well, that's going to be a challenge. There's not really been anybody that's been able to keep it clean. Obviously breaking in a new center too. I think more than keeping the pocket clean, it's going to be about us being able to find a rhythm running the football better than we were in the first half last week."

On if his staff focuses on mental strength when recruiting

"Yeah, we do. We have some testing that we utilize to help us measure some of those things. To try to figure out, like, what do we think these guys have, what are some assets they bring, and what are some areas that we might need to be cognizant of to help them grow in those areas. And so I think that's something that we try to utilize. And I think Coach [Ryan] Russell does an excellent job in our off-season program and in our weight program of talking and developing an elite edge. But it's absolutely critical to have somebody who's faced adversity and can be relentless in the face of adversity."

On learning from previous games this season playing against a mobile quarterback

"Yeah, , I think that's a growing trend in college football. It's a little bit easier to get your offense going with a mobile quarterback. It doesn't require as much timing or chemistry with the wideouts, and so I think as the transfer portal and player acquirement and acquisition becomes more and more part of college football, I think you'll continue to see dual-threat quarterbacks be the lean of coaches. It's a challenge because it's hard, , to defend the box. , defenses have tried to cheat the box now with, , used to be you play eight-man spacing or cover two, but they tried to cheat it with a cover four scheme. But it really creates one-on-ones on the outside. , South Carolina has some really elite wide receivers, I think Nyck Harbor, , 6-5, 235 but is an elite 100-yard dash guy. So that really is a tough matchup problem. So now you gotta challenge yourself on what you're going to do in the coverage scheme. , other teams, and South Carolina does as good a job too, is utilizing RPOs, so when you go into eight-man spacing, they're going to read the safeties. It'll be a challenge to try to defend what they bring. The biggest thing is in the pass game, when you get to him, he's really hard to tackle because he's about 240 pounds, and so arm tackles aren't going to get it done. You have to have a hard shoulder tackle in order to get him to the ground."

On the growth he's seen from Drake Heismeyer

"Well, I think he's been preparing for it. , the thing about Drake is he loves being a part of the football team. He's embraced his role. , he's one of the best. He's on our middle shield on punt team and takes an extreme amount of pride in that. Knows all the looks, understands it. So, he's played quite a bit of football. He just hasn't played in the role that we're going to ask him to play now. , he's a very smart young man getting his engineering degree. And so it's really just going to be about stepping into that moment and owning the moment. And we have a lot of confidence in him. He had to do this a couple of times during fall camp with different injuries during the day for Connor, and I thought he did an excellent job on Saturday. He doesn't have to replace Connor. He's just got to be the best version of Drake that he can be."

On how the rest of the offense adapts to the change of a quarterback and center

"Yeah, there's a chemistry aspect of offense that's disrupted when  you've got the center and the quarterback,  that are going to be new, but I think everybody's got to do their job and have each other's backs and know that there's going to be some issues that we got to work through and not get too high or too low about them."

On his thoughts on special teams from Saturday

"Yeah, it wasn't good. Yeah, wasn't good. I don't think anybody in this building - we call special teams a team responsibility, and we understand that as a team we let ourselves down with, and I think it was five penalties to be honest with you, the poor play. Bottom line, that's what it was. Miscommunication. We were in safe punt and gave up a fake punt. So that's really disappointing when we knew and anticipated that they were going to fake a punt right there and should have had multiple players in a position to take care of that but didn't get it done. Critical penalty before half. , we're punting the ball from the 41-yard line, and they took the ball on possession at the minus 49 and they had a 13-yard return, and then 15 yards added on because of a, really just a critical error in that penalty right there. We have a kickoff go out of bounds, which is another 10 yards in field position. We have a holding call. We have a false start. And we have a missed extra point. So, , for offense and defense to play so well and for team responsibility not to get it done, it was a very challenging thing, and we owned it. It starts with me, and I've got to make team responsibility more of an emphasis and that can't happen, especially on the road."

On the decision to take an extra point at the end of the game instead of going for two "Yeah, the amount of time left to go in the game and number of timeouts that the opposing team has. So , you can go for two, which you've got about a 41 percent chance to convert. But if you'll remember back to 2020, we played Arkansas and Arkansas scored. We did that exact same thing. Went for two. We gave the ball back with 37 seconds. Three time-outs and they went down and kicked the game-winning field goal. So you really don't want to go for two unless it's going to be what you consider the last play of the game, last opportunity to win. I felt like the way our defense was playing, and as good as we were playing in the red zone, I think we had three touchdowns in the red area and one field goal, so we were 3-for-4, and they were 1-for-3, maybe at that point. I just felt like we had a better matchup. But primarily the issue was they had two timeouts and 30-something seconds left. So it didn't make sense for us, actually they may have had more, because the scoop-and-score was at 30 seconds. So they may have -- it was over 30, which is the marker that you use."

On what's been working for his team in one-score games

"I mean, they've all been uniquely different. I mean, they've all had a little bit different flavor to it. So, I think it's just all three phases of the game and needing to work together to find ways to win and being dialed in in what you're doing in those phases and not letting the moment be too big for you."

On the development of Jamal Roberts, Kewan Lacy

"Yeah, I mean, obviously I think Coach [Curtis] Luper has done a really good job. , we're kind of in this spot where we want to play Kewan [Lacy], but every moment is a huge moment and we just don't want to have a huge mistake that that cost us. So, I look for Kewan to get some more carries, hopefully in the next couple of games. And I think Jamal [Roberts] is doing good. He's just got to bounce back and hopefully Nate [Noel] continues to get healthier."

On Zion Young's leadership within the team

"Yeah, I think he's definitely earned that, right. , for us, positive, contagious energy is a really important factor in leadership. And he has that. He's always got a smile on his face. He does things the right way. He's very consistent in his approach, and then his play is consistent. And I think it's really hard for transfers to come in and start out as leaders, because they don't have necessarily the play on the field that backs it up. And at the end of the day, a group of men are going to listen and respect people, but they're really going to listen and respect people when your play on the field is elite. And he's got both of those right now."

On South Carolina DB Nick Emmanwori

"We've played him three years, so we have a pretty good feel for who he is as a player, and I think -- well, no, this will be our third year playing him, because he's a sophomore, right? Sorry, he's a true junior, right? Yeah, he's in Luther's [Luther Burden III] grade. So, , Luther has matched up with him before, Brady's [Brady Cook] gone against him. So, , we kind of have a good feel for where that matchup is. He's a really good player. I mean, he's matched up against us a lot. So, , hopefully, Drew will have an opportunity to visit with Brady and see what some of the stuff is there."

On what he's seen from Nicholas Deloach Jr.

"Yeah, development. He just keeps developing. Approaches every day with a workman-like attitude. I think Coach [Al] Pogue does a really good job with developing that entire group. They just keep getting better and better each game. And  we have confidence to put him in the game."