Eli Drinkwitz shares lesson Joe Gibbs taught him on keeping momentum
As Missouri got off to a 7-1 record to start the year, Eli Drinkwitz is emphasizing the importance of building momentum. It’s safe to say the Tigers have done a good job of that, especially last week en route to a 34-12 victory over South Carolina.
The inspiration for that message goes back to Drinkwitz’s season as the head coach at Appalachian State. He coached Jackson Gibbs and Miller Gibbs, whose grandfather is three-time Super Bowl champion head coach Joe Gibbs.
During their conversations, Gibbs taught Drinkwitz the keys to keep the momentum rather than lose it. Those lessons made their way to Columbia when Drinkwitz took over at Mizzou, and it shows in the play-calling.
“I got to know coach Joe Gibbs a little bit when I was coaching his grandsons at App State in 2019,” Drinkwitz told On3’s Andy Staples on Andy Staples On3. “One of the things he talked about was you never really want to run a play that can cause a change of momentum if you have the momentum. So like, if you’re up 21 and you go on a big scoring run, you don’t want to do something that could potentially give the other team momentum. But when you’re in a scenario where the momentum’s away from you, he calls them momentum-changers, you wanna be ready to try to steal the momentum back.
“We try to call them momentum-changers going into the game. What are the things we have that can change momentum? We had a couple of things that we had up for South Carolina, but we were in a situation where we’re up and we didn’t really want to give them anything. We were like, ‘Hey, let’s just put that on the shelf.'”
Eli Drinkwitz: Missouri needs ‘consistent execution over the course of 4 quarters’ during tough stretch after bye week
As for whether the Tigers are keeping plays in their “back pocket,” Drinkwitz said the key to victory over South Carolina was sparking a fourth-quarter comeback. The next few games won’t be easy for Missouri. After this week’s bye, the Tigers take on Georgia and Tennessee in back-to-back weeks. They’ll also take on a Florida team that’s been up and down this season.
Drinkwitz said the key over the next couple games will be to come out of the gate fast and keeping it going for 60 minutes.
“I don’t know if we’ve got anything in our back pocket,” Drinkwitz said. “All those teams are really good at football. You’re gonna have to execute at a high level. You’re not gonna trick anybody to win the games late. The fake punt was good, and it gave us a shot in the arm. But we still had to overcome a lead. We were down to start the fourth quarter, 21-20, and end up scoring 18 straight right there.
“I don’t think it’s ever gonna be one particular play. It’s gonna be consistent execution over the course of four quarters to give us a chance in this stretch run.”
On3’s Chandler Vessels contributed to this report.