Eli Drinkwitz praises Clark Lea's success at Vanderbilt, declares Missouri the College GameDay 'sideshow'

ESPN College GameDay is set to take on Nashville this weekend for the Missouri Tigers and Vanderbilt Commodores‘ game. While the SEC is familiar territory for the show, a Vanderbilt home game is not, and it’s a credit to how good a season the Commodores are having.

Certainly, Missouri head coach Eli Drinkwitz noticed the job his opponent, Clark Lea has done. It would be hard not to notice, after all, and he made sure to praise Lea during the weekly SEC Teleconference.

“I think parity in college football is at the highest in the SEC,” Eli Drinkwitz said. “I think the average margin of victory is lower than the NFL. Great teams top to bottom. We’ve all utilized NIL and the Transfer Portal to be advantageous for us, and I think you’re getting great matchups throughout the season. For it to be hosted at Vanderbilt is a recognition of Clark and to Diego [Pavia], which they rightfully earned and deserve.”

The job Lea has done at Vanderbilt is phenomenal. The Commodores now sit at 6-1, making them bowl eligible in two straight seasons for the first time since the 2011-2013 run under James Franklin. It’s also their best start by record since 1950.

At the same time, Drinkwitz has also done a phenomenal job at Missouri. Since the start of the 2023 season, Missouri is 27-6. That includes a 6-1 start this season. Naturally, this game being such a good matchup is what drew College GameDay to town. After all, they want good games. However, when this was pointed out to Drinkwitz, he downplayed it, calling his team the sideshow.

“Nah, we’re just the sideshow that gets to show up,” Drinkwitz said. “It’s all about them.”

The focus of College GameDay, generally, is on the home team. Still, calling his Tigers a sideshow is a bit unfair. After all, the winner of this game is going to be feeling excellent about where it stands in relation to the SEC and College Football Playoff races.

Eli Drinkwitz downplays impact College GameDay will have on Missouri performance

One thing that College GameDay can be is a distraction. It adds almost a carnival like atmosphere around the stadium and more intense scrutiny and media coverage. However, Eli Drinkwitz has also recently made sure to downplay the impact of the show.

“Is it in First Bank Stadium?” Drinkwitz said. “Doesn’t affect anything then for us. We’re the road team. We’ll show up, we’ll go to the visitor’s locker room, we’ll walk out on the field and play the game. Whatever else they’ve got for their fans there is up to them, but it doesn’t affect us… I don’t even think they want to talk to us.”

 is scheduled for 3:30 p.m. EST on Saturday, October 25th. College GameDay gets things going a bit earlier at 9:00 a.m. EST.