COLUMBIA, Mo. – University of Missouri football head coach Eliah Drinkwitz met with members of the media on Sunday afternoon for his weekly press conference.
Mizzou hosts Murray State on Thursday for its season opener at Faurot Field at Memorial Stadium. The game will be broadcast on SEC Network with kickoff slated for 7 p.m. The contest can also be heard on the Tiger Radio Network from Mizzou Sports Properties and LEARFIELD through the varsity app.
Eliah Drinkwitz Missouri Football Head Coach
(Ref.: Opening Statement)
“We’re excited to kick off the season. It’s an exciting time for college football and I know our team is ready to put this offseason behind us and get started on this season. It’s going to be a difficult challenge. It’s probably the most difficult opening game we’ve faced since I’ve been here. They have a whole new staff, around 60 new players they’ve acquired through high school or the transfer portal, so it’s a real challenge to have any idea what they’re going to do schematically. Whether we’re talking offense, defense or special teams.
“Coach [Jody] Wright is an excellent football coach. He does an outstanding job. He’s got experience at both the SEC and pro level and has been tremendous at all the different places and stops that he’s had before. He’s got a lot of different types of coaches on his staff so we’re trying to pull film from a lot of different places to get an idea of what they’re going to do. We’ve spent a couple extra days preparing and giving our guys as much information as we possibility can. Trying to find out what their scheme is combined with not knowing their personnel will be a really difficult challenge for our team and our staff. We’re going to have to really focus on us and our execution to make sure we’re ready to play. Make sure that we have the most excitement. Make sure that we’re focused on tackling and taking care of the football. Make sure that we win situational football. And execution is going to come down to a premium. So that’s really the challenge we have in front of us, and I look forward to seeing everybody Thursday night.”
(Ref.: On the balance between excitement and focus from the team)
“I think everyone wants to be excited to play. You want those guys to have great energy on game day. You only get 12 guaranteed opportunities and for these seniors you only get seven at home. You want them to be really excited, but you want to focus on a ‘this play mentality’. Making sure that you’re executing each play to the very best of your abilities. Don’t wish it’s the fourth quarter, don’t wish it’s the third quarter, just focus on right now.”
(Ref.: On what some of the common mistakes are during a team’s first game)
“I think if you watched college football yesterday you saw some tackling issues. Obviously last night in the game, special teams issues showed up and caused situations. Three of the four games I saw came down to the last two-minute drive. It’s trying to be prepared for all those options. As coaches we have to do a great job of making sure we leave no stone unturned, knowing that at any moment you’re going to have to be thinking about a play call or be able to manage this situation knowing who’s in the game if this guy is injured. Penalties, special teams situations and turnovers and tackling are usually the things that show up the most. And that’s typical with any significant delay in playing the game.”
(Ref.: On preparing for a team like Murray State with not much film available)
“Yea, that’s the challenge. There isn’t really a way to watch Murray State film because they’ve got brand new offensive, defensive and special teams coordinators. Plus 60 new players. You can watch their schemes from last year and try to see what their players are but they’re not going to be running the exact same stuff. Trying to figure out what your matchups are, are almost impossible. But again, it comes down to us executing our plan and our schemes at a really high level and playing with great effort.”
(Ref.: On what he hopes to see from his team during the game)
“It’s a whole different situation as far as the evaluation goes. We just want to see how we compete compared to another team. Ultimately this is the measuring stick. We’ve said it before, you practice to get better, you don’t play the games to get better. You play the games to decide whether or not you’re going to win or lose. We’ll see where we’re at after we play this game. Obviously, we want to see a down-hill run attack. We want to see an explosive offense. We want to see an offense that creates pressure through tempo. We want to see an offense that executes in situational football. Defensively, we want to see a group that stops the run, is multiple on third downs, wins situational football and is really good at tackling and taking the ball away. On special teams, we want to do a good job of covering kicks and be good in the kicking phase. All of those things are what ideally we picture it and we’ll see where we’re at come Thursday night.”
(Ref.: On returning key players while also evaluating where the team needs to improve)
“I thought we did an excellent job of not turning the ball over last year so that’s an emphasis on us to continue to value the football. We need to be better in the red zone and we can improve on third downs. Those are two areas situationally that we can improve on, and it starts Thursday night.”
(Ref.: On his thoughts on the depth at the running back position)
“We have a plan on how we want to approach it. Nate Noel will go out there first and then him and Marcus [Carroll] will rotate through. I think those guys have good complementary football skills and they know how to play off each other. I think we understand we’re probably not going to have somebody that’s going to be able to carry it as many times in a game as Cody [Schrader], so we’ll have to do a good job of allowing the starter to get into a rhythm but also make sure they’re fresh.”
(Ref.: On how he’s evaluating his team)
“It’s hard to tell until you play. I think the first part of the season is about eliminating bad football. It’s about seeing the issues on tape and figuring out how to win football games and then to slowly get those issues off tape. Figuring out the identity of your team and those strengths. Until you play in games you’re not going to know. I think we’re battle-ready. We’ve tackled live more than we ever have in any camp. We’ve got more practice reps in this camp than we had in the previous three seasons. We’ve put in more situational football time than we have in any previous three seasons but now it’s about 11 guys putting it together against an opponent who’s got a say in the outcome too. And so that’s going to be a challenge. I don’t really have any preconceived notions on what it’s going to look like until we do it.”
(Ref.: On if the coaches will be conservative with their play-calling in the opener to protect from being scouted)
“No. We’re trying to win week one. The most important game we have on our schedule is this one. Period. There’s no guarding, there’s no hiding, we just want to win. In order to win, you’ve got to call what your guys can execute and what your guys have had consistent reps at. That doesn’t mean that your playbook is going to be wide open. It means that you’re going to call what you have repped in the 25 previous practices. That you feel comfortable that in key situations that your guys can execute. I don’t think our playbook will be limited. There won’t be anything that we won’t call. We just won’t call it because we don’t have confidence in being able to executive it at a high level.”
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