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Missouri Coach Eli Drinkwitz Takes Shot at Oklahoma Legend Bob Stoops

After the Tigers stunned the Sooners on Saturday night in Columbia, their head coach sounded off about something Stoops said in the offseason.

John E. Hoover

Missouri coach Eli Drinkwitz
Missouri coach Eli Drinkwitz / Denny Medley-Imagn Images
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COLUMBIA, MO — Missouri coach Eli Drinkwitz took the only shot at Bob Stoops he’ll ever get: in the media.

After Drinkwitz’ Tigers somehow overcame a furious Oklahoma fourth-quarter rally and beat the Sooners 30-23 at Faurot Field on a chilly Saturday night, Mizzou’s coach wanted to clarify a topic Stoops had brought up over the summer.

“This will be real disappointing to Bob Stoops,” Drinkwitz said to open his postgame press conference, “but OU doesn't always whip Missouri's ass.”

Actually Drinkwitz, who has a 35-23 record after barely beating the worst OU team in a generation, misquoted the Hall of Fame coach.

“We beat the hell out of Missouri,” Stoops told ESPN in the offseason, “all of a sudden now we’re supposed to be afraid of them?” 

“A&M, we had them beat 77-0 in the middle of the third quarter [in 2003]. That was a long time ago. But still, have they changed that much? Have we changed that much? I don’t know. I don’t think so.”

Stoops went 8-1 against Mizzou and its own Hall of Fame coach, Gary Pinkel, with wins of 38-17 and 62-21 in the Big 12 Championship Game and a handful of other double-digit victories.

The focus of the ESPN story was about OU stepping up in competition in its first year in the SEC. Stoops and the Sooners lorded over the Big 12 for two decades, winning 14 conference championships, including plenty of wins against SEC teams along the way as well as domination of former Big 12 members Missouri and Texas A&M.

But in Year 3 under former Stoops lieutenant Brent Venables, OU blew a late lead and fell to 5-5 on the season.

For now, Drinkwitz can have the last laugh — at least until the Tigers come to Norman in 2025.

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John E. Hoover
JOHN E. HOOVER

John is an award-winning journalist whose work spans five decades in Oklahoma, with multiple state, regional and national awards as a sportswriter at various newspapers. During his newspaper career, John covered the Dallas Cowboys, the Kansas City Chiefs, the Oklahoma Sooners, the Oklahoma State Cowboys, the Arkansas Razorbacks and much more. In 2016, John changed careers, migrating into radio and launching a YouTube channel, and has built a successful independent media company, DanCam Media. From there, John has written under the banners of Sporting News, Sports Illustrated, Fan Nation and a handful of local and national magazines while hosting daily sports talk radio shows in Oklahoma City, Tulsa and statewide. John has also spoken on Capitol Hill in Oklahoma City in a successful effort to put more certified athletic trainers in Oklahoma public high schools. Among the dozens of awards he has won, John most cherishes his national "Beat Writer of the Year" from the Associated Press Sports Editors, Oklahoma's "Best Sports Column" from the Society of Professional Journalists, and Two "Excellence in Sports Medicine Reporting" Awards from the National Athletic Trainers Association. John holds a bachelor's degree in Mass Communications from East Central University in Ada, OK. Born and raised in North Pole, Alaska, John played football and wrote for the school paper at Ada High School in Ada, OK. He enjoys books, movies and travel, and lives in Broken Arrow, OK, with his wife and two kids.

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