Said and Unsaid: Eliah Drinkwitz at SEC Media Days
Missouri coach Eliah Drinkwitz spoke to the media Thursday morning to start the final day of SEC Media Days in Atlanta.
Here are a few of his quotes that stuck out to me and what I think went unsaid within them.
When asked about Sam Horn remaining with the team
What Drinkwitz said: “What an awesome accomplishment. Awesome opportunity for that young man to be that good of an athlete, to be able to play. … We’re so proud of him to be able to compete in two sports. But Sam has been adamant this whole time that his goal is to compete, to try to win the job in the SEC and play quarterback at the highest level. I’ve had conversations with his representatives … Sam had relayed the message, his agent had relayed the message to all the baseball organizations that he was going to play football this fall. So, nothing’s changed. … I called him after he got drafted and I told him, the day after he got drafter or the day he got drafted, I was proud of him and I’d see him at 6:30 at workouts in the morning.”
What went unsaid: Well, there’s the confirmation for why Horn fell in the draft.
There was never really a question on whether he was still going to play football this fall. But the fact his agent made that clear to teams explains why he fell all the way to the 17th round when he was graded as a top-150 prospect.
The question now is whether he’ll sign with the Los Angeles Dodgers and try to figure out a way to do both, or just hold off and pitch at Mizzou again next season, then re-enter the draft.
When asked about the quarterback battle
What Drinkwitz said: “We’ve got three quarterbacks, all a little bit different, all with some very good strengths. Obviously, Sam Horn, a guy who’s been in our system for a long time. Dual-threat player, obviously plays baseball at a high level. He’s coming back from Tommy John surgery. I thought he had an outstanding bowl prep as he was rehabbing that and really, a really good spring. And he’s really excelled in his maturation. One thing most people don’t know about Sam, he’s a Type 1 diabetic. … So he’s been able to, since he’s been in college, been able to learn to adapt and train and develop and adjust. And he’s really done a lot of good things. Understands the system.
“Beau (Pribula) came in with the right mindset, nothing given, everything earned. Works extremely hard at developing his craft. He’s a guy who spends a lot of extra time up there, has a chip on his shoulder. The right kind of chip does a really good job leadership wise. He was a guy that I got to work with a couple of days at Harmons and I’m just impressed with his ability to connect with our team.
“You know, Matt Zollers, he throws it as well as any quarterback I’ve ever seen. He’s coming back from an ankle surgery. You can tell he’s adjusting to the speed of college football, but (we’re) very excited about that room and know whoever ends up emerging as the quarterback is going to be in a really good position. Because he doesn’t have to do it all by himself. He’s going to have a really good defense. He’s got a great supporting cast around him.”
What went unsaid: I don’t think including Zollers in this answer really means anything, but I do find it interesting.
It was always going to be a question Drinkwitz would get at media days. There was no way to escape the quarterback battle.
I don’t really have a ton to add to this one. But it’s an important quote that I wanted to highlight.
When asked about the CFP format (this quote is going to be long)
What Drinkwitz said: “When I think about college football right now and think about what do we need to do, I think it really comes down to two things. What’s best for our players and what’s best for our fans? The rest of us are really only important because of the players and the fans. So when you think about whether it’s 12, 14 or 16, you know, to me, if we’ve decided to go into this expansion of playoffs and we’re trying to follow an NFLmodel, well, the NFL takes 44 percent of their teams … into the playoffs to increase the passion or keep the fan base engaged.
“If we’re talking about 12, that’s 9 percent, if we’re talking about 14, that’s 11 percent, if we’re talking about 16, that’s 12 percent. That’s really not changing the math for the fan base. So I really don’t understand about this, you know, we have a lot of complaints. Whether we’re talking about 68 teams in the NCAA basketball tournament, we’re complaining about the committee and now we, last year, we complained about the committee selections. I mean, we produced all kinds of stats and handed them out about why the SEC was so good. Well, the problem is we have a human committee that has no standard set of structure of how they’re going to select. They’re all human beings. They all have implicit bias.
“So now, we’re going to go from seven to 11 and we think that’s going to solve the problem. Until we figure out what exactly the standards are, I don’t think that’s good in my viewpoint of it. But, well, I think we should go back and try to find more ways to include teams. How do we get more people involved? Because that’s better for the players, that’s better for the player experience to have more people involved in the potential to play for a championship. And it’s better for the fan bases. I think we all would agree that the four college football playoff games at home campuses was a huge win for college football.
“We need to expand that opportunity, that energy and excitement. So my math could be wrong here, but if we did the 12, OK, and you had four automatic qualifiers. Everybody thinks that’s limiting. It’s not limiting if you think about it. You take those four automatic qualifiers and you divide that up into eight opportunities of eight play-in games. So now you’re talking the SEC is playing in for eight. You’re taking the Big 10 playing in for eight. Since we’ve expanded the bubble, the 16, give three to the … Big 12, give three to the ACC, one, one. Now you’ve got 30 teams, 30 teams. Now we’re talking about an opportunity for 30 teams, 30 fan bases to be excited and engaged. Engaged in giving revenue. Got 30 teams with players who have access to compete for a championship.
“And so, for me, I think that makes a lot more sense. Again, when you’re talking about the NFL playoff system, not only is it 14 teams, but you only have to be the best out of your four-team division. So you got to compete against four teams in order to make the playoffs. Again, when you’re at the University of Missouri, if you say, ‘Hey, you just have to finish in the top eight to have a chance to play in the playoffs.’ That’s a win every day and I’m all for that. I think that’s awesome.”
What went unsaid: Wow, that’s a heck of an answer. I think it will make the Big 10 happier than the SEC, but that’s OK.
So let’s break down a couple of parts. First, Drink is pro 4-4-3-3-1-1 format if it’s expanded to 16 teams. If we break down his math, that includes eight teams playing in from both the Big 10 and SEC, six each from the Big 12 and ACC, then the top from the G5 without a play-in and the top-ranked at-large which at that point would almost have to be Notre Dame every single year.
That would take the eventual champion to a 17-game schedule from the current 16-game schedule to win the championship and would lock in the exact number of power-conference teams every year. It would also eliminate a true SEC championship, which I find to be an interesting loss to just wave away.
I don’t know exactly how I feel about the explanation here, but that’s the most detailed reasoning I’ve seen from a coach about the expanded playoff and I’’m gald Drinkwitz really got into it, even if he didn’t want to.
He opened the quote with “Needed something to talk about huh? … This is not going to do me any favors with our commissioner.”
Here is where you can find the full video of Drinkwitz speaking.
Click here to discus this story and the media day appearance as a whole in the story thread.
