Fall Camp Kickoff: Eliah Drinkwitz press conference recap
Missouri coach Eliah Drinkwitz met with the media for the first time as a Fall Camp kickoff on Sunday. Here is a quick rundown of what he talked about.
Here is the full video of the press conference if you prefer to watch it.
The coach entering his sixth year with the Tigers opened with thankfulness.
“Every year is just a little bit different and a little bit more exciting and a little bit more fun,” Drinkwitz said. “You know, very fortunate for us to have been able to carry over our coordinators and our culture staff with the first floor. I think that’s really helped us get acclimated with the new players.
The Tiger roster is loaded with transfers and incoming freshmen, so that continuity has been a key this offseason.
“This is the most transfers we’ve been able to bring in since we’ve been here,” Drinkwitz said. “Which I think is kind of the new norm for college football. But I do think continuity has been a little bit of our secret sauce. So again, really excited about that.”
Drinkwitz then thanked the Missouri Board of Curators and President Mun Choi for the extension of his contract that was recently announced.
Continuity
With the amount of transfers joining the roster, the Tigers’ focus on continuity needed to be based on enduring culture, Drinkwitz said.
“I think the biggest thing is every year, your team starts over and you have to start over as a coach,” Drinkwitz said. “… From establishing the norms of your team, the rules of your team, the culture of your team. I think every year you just have to understand it starts over and you repeat the process. And as a coach, you know, who’s been here six years, you can’t get bored with that. Like, ‘Well, we’ve done that for six years, I’m sure the guys are tired of it.’ A lot of them are new to hearing it. So I think that’s probably the biggest thing that I’ve learned.”
Quarterbacks
Then Drinkwitz got into what everyone was waiting to hear about. The quarterback competition.
“I think this is the fourth year, going into the year that we’ve had a quarterback competition,” Drinkwitz said. “And so we’re familiar with it. Hopefully, with that experience comes a little bit more wisdom. But absolutely, you know, when the quarterback’s ready, he’ll show himself to the team. I think we’ll all know who it is and when that is, we’ll tell you. I don’t plan on having, you know, waiting to announce because of a perceived advantage. Neither one of them has played that much football, so there’s not going to be anybody to scout. And it’s not going to help you see it one way or the other. And if it’s undecided, we’ll let it go into the games and play it out as long as we need to.”
Drinkwitz said reps between redshirt juniors Sam Horn and Beau Pribula will be pretty equally split opportunity-wise in the early going. He said the focus will be on efficient and consistent decision making.
“I told them straight up, you know, one bad day is not going to decide the competition. But two might,” Drinkwitz said. “There’s going to have to be a consistency of your approach. And if you’ve had two bad days, then that may push you in a position where you’re behind the eight ball. So you’re going to have to be able to go in there. And if you’ve had a bad practice, you got to shake it off the next day and bounce back. If you had a bad set, you got to shake it off and bounce back. That’s what quarterback is, that’s how you play the game.”
But with all that said, Drinkwitz emphasized the talent he has in the room this season.
“I do not mind saying this, I hope it doesn’t offend Ryan Finley and Brett Rypien, but this is the most talented quarterback room I’ve ever been in,” Drinkwitz said. “And I’m really, really excited about the competition. But I’m also, somebody said, what’s keeping me up at night? I’m going to have to tell somebody they’re not the starting quarterback.”
Offensive line
Drinkwitz said the left tackle positional battle is even more important to settle quickly.
“The good news is Connor (Tollison) is going to be playing next to Cayden (Green) and so there’s some camaraderie there,” Drinkwitz said. “And so now the left tackle is not necessarily on an island. Obviously, Jayven (Richardson), Jayven is coming back, he only played 67 career snaps not counting junior college. So there’s some things to be desired there. Johnny Williams will start that competition over there at left tackle and then Whit Hafer’s moved from tight end that summer, so he’ll be the third one right there.”
At right tackle, Drinkwitz said Keagan Trost is still the starter, with backups Jack Lange and Brandon Solis behind him.
He said Jaylen Early is going to start the competition at the right guard competition to keep him comfortable.
“He’s got about 350 snaps in his career at guard and I don’t want to make it too uncomfortable early,” Drinkwitz said. “… We’ll just see how he’s competing for the job.”
Tight end
The Tiger tight end group has added a lot of talent recently, but the actual production on the field hasn’t increased much year to year. Drinkwitz said he has high hopes for that group this season.
“What I like about those guys, the size of that room has dramatically changed since we first got here to now,” Drinkwitz said. “Obviously, Brett (Norfleet) and Jordon (Harris) have played a big role as those guys started as true freshmen and kind of established their roles and now they’re the vets. But that’s a position that in this league is a premium. You’ve got to have long guys who can really handle playing on the edge and provide support there when you’re going against elite pass rushers. As far as in the pass game, you know, we would love to see those guys be more involved, especially down the field. But sometimes coverage dictates that, too. So we’ve got to create match ups.”
Mock road game in fall camp
The Tigers struggled on the road the past two years. So Drinkwitz made some changes.
Missouri won’t go on the road until October, so the coach wants his team to be ready when the opportunity comes.
“We’ve got four straight weeks at fall camp,” Drinkwitz said. “So how do you keep it fresh and keep it relevant? Accomplish the things you need to. … Obviously, the first two road games last year were putrid for us. And so how do we make sure our guys are ready to play fast and get ready to go?”
The Tigers will head to Lindenwood for a weekend practice during fall camp to simulate a road environment.
Click here to discuss everything Drinkwitz said in the story thread.
