Missouri Tigers College Football Pregame Quote, 12/03/2023

SCOTTIE RODGERS: Coach, if you’ll begin with an opening statement and then we’ll go to questions.

MISSOURI HEAD COACH ELIAH DRINKWITZ: Yeah, very excited to participate in the 88th Cotton Bowl Classic. I think it’s just one of the great traditions of college football. An outstanding venue to play in. A tremendous opponent in the Ohio State Buckeyes coached by an outstanding coach in Ryan Day with a bunch of tremendous players.

Obviously, excited for our fans. We have got a large alumni base in Dallas. And I know our guys will be excited to play and excited for the match-up.

With that, I’ll turn it back over to you for any questions.

Q. Eli, Coach [Ryan] Day talked about how he has known and you respected you, and obviously two offensive-minded coaches. What do you know about Ryan Day? And what’s your relationship if you have one?

COACH DRINKWITZ: Yeah, I think he’s a tremendous football coach. Obviously, followed his career. Have a lot of respect for the way he’s gone about his business, working up from Boston College. From the NFL, having opportunities there to be the offensive coordinator at Ohio State, and, obviously, I think one of the elite coaches in college football.

Does a tremendous job offensively. He’s one of those teams that I like to watch and just see what they’re doing, because I know they’re always on the cutting edge. And then just have a tremendous amount of respect for the person that he is as well as the football coach.

Q. Congratulations on making your third Cotton Bowl now in the last 15 years. You said you have a great fan base there in Dallas. Number one, what are you expecting as far as your fan base being able to travel for this game? And number two, what are you expecting as far as participation on your team’s part in the way of possible opt-outs? Are you looking to be full strength come the end of this month?

COACH DRINKWITZ: Yeah, I think we are going to have a great representation with our fan base. I know they’re very excited. Dallas (Arlington) is a natural area for us to be at. It’s a short drive. I know our fans would be able to drive there from Columbia, really anywhere in the state of Missouri. And we also have direct flights from Columbia, St. Louis, Kansas City. So I don’t think getting there will be any issue at all.

I know the tickets are going really fast. They announced at the basketball game we’ve already sold 80% of our allotment, so I know the excitement for us is really strong.

Our team plans to play. I plan on having our team at full strength. We have a couple of injuries that could prevent certain players from playing. But in visiting with the seniors prior to the announcement of this game, it was our plan as a senior group to finish one more game together.

Q. I’m wondering when you go into these bowl games, and especially this one, do you even prepare for the opponent’s opt-outs? How do you handle that in terms of like, do you worry about it? Do you not?

COACH DRINKWITZ: No, you don’t worry about it. Coaches talk about controlling the things that they can control. We have no real control over how that’s going to play out. Each individual student-athlete has to do what’s in their own best interest.

And I think we’re all recognizing that in this game, these players have a business side to it, too. So I think as coaches, we respect that. I know as players, they respect it.

But as far as our preparation, we’re preparing to play a very good opponent. And the thing about playing a team like Ohio State is if they have a player opt out, there’s multiple players behind them that are very talented that are ready to step up.

So I don’t necessarily think you can worry so much about who is playing. You got to worry and prepare for the scheme. They have tremendous coaches. Jim Knowles is one of the best defensive coordinators in college football. Coach [Ryan] Day and Coach [Brian] Hartline do a tremendous job on the offensive side of the ball. So we’re going to have our hands full with the scheme as well as the combination of players.

Q. This will be the first time that Missouri’s playing Ohio State in 25 years. So what does this mean for your program to have this opportunity to play against Ohio State?

COACH DRINKWITZ: Again, I think it’s one of those great things about college football and one of the things that I think the bowl system is so good, because it gives a uniqueness to the game. It creates fun match-ups and creates opportunities for our student-athletes and for our fan base to have this great game.

We were fortunate to be the first announcement of the selection show for the New Year’s Six. And, man, when you see your name up against Ohio State, again, that’s a blue-blood, national brand, and to have an opportunity to play them is very special.

I know for me as the head football coach, in my wildest dreams, I don’t know that I ever thought about being able to coach in the Cotton Bowl versus Ohio State. So it’s something I’m going to be very present in and really enjoy the moment.

Q. Can you just describe what you’ve learned about growing a program this year and what it takes to do so with — I guess what I’m getting at, with leaders, Cody [Schrader], Brady [Cook], et cetera?

COACH DRINKWITZ: Yeah, I think you have to establish a trust and respect amongst your players and coaching staff. I think players have to, now more than ever, establish their trust and respect within the locker room. It’s hard to lead if guys don’t believe in you and you don’t demonstrate that off the field.

And I think when you look at our captains, Brady Cook, Javon Foster, Cody Schrader, Chad Bailey, D. Rob [Darius Robinson], Ty’Ron Hopper, our best players were also our leaders. And that’s a recipe for success.

Everybody got to see Cody firsthand battling through injury, putting it on the line, not just for himself, but for his teammates.

People got to see Brady Cook struggle through people’s doubts, through people’s criticism. And he just maintained focus. He kept battling. He kept doing the things necessary to be successful, and it paid off. And it creates buy-in with the rest of your team.

Q. Coach, it’s not built overnight, as you know. And coming into Missouri, just what you can say about building this foundation, building this culture, finding the right guys to help you get forward on a season that has been nationally well-respected for Missouri overall. Just what you can say about growing into this moment to be where you’re at.

COACH DRINKWITZ: Yeah, I think when you face challenges in life, you can decide whether or not you want to grow and learn from them, or what we call BCD — blame, complain, and defend — poor performance.

And I think, me personally, I had to choose to grow. I had to choose to grow and say, Hey, what’s best for our team is for me to no longer call plays. I think I had to grow and say, It’s best for me to hire this person as the defensive coordinator. I think it was time for me to grow in making sure that I was recruiting the right type of players that fit us.

So I think, again, as leaders, you have the opportunity to model the mindset that you want for your players and be transparent with them. And I did that with our guys. And I think our staff has been very much like that. And I think our players respected that and kind of adopted the same thing, where you look at some of our guys that came back that had opportunities to go play in the NFL that came back this year, to grow, to continue their quest for improvement.

And you’re looking at Darius Robinson and Ennis Rakestraw, Kris Abrams-Draine and J.C. (Jaylon) Carlies and Javon Foster, Xavier Delgado, Harrison Mevis, guys that all chose to give us one more season. And we’re very appreciative for that.

Q. Hey, Coach, obviously, if the expanded College Football Playoff was happening this season, you guys would have been in. How important is a win like this one against Ohio State and getting to 11 victories on the season, especially being able to do so after a season that wasn’t like this last year? How big of a stepping stone is that for your team and for you moving forward?

COACH DRINKWITZ: I’m going to echo what Coach [Ryan] Day said, “Any time you keep score in playing a game, you want to win.” And I don’t know that this one is any bigger than the previous ten. It’s just it’s the next opportunity versus a really good opponent.

And we’re not going to put any more pressure on ourselves than that. I’m not going to play the what-if game. Well, what if we win? What if we don’t? We have a process of trying to be 1-0. And this is the next opportunity for this group of seniors and for this staff to try and be 1-0. And that’s what we’re going to do. Whatever else happens outside of that is outside of my control.

Q. Something you just mentioned about how you gave up offensive play calling prior to the season. Where did you see the biggest benefit from that as this season unfolded?

COACH DRINKWITZ: We had a couple of coaches come and talk to our team, and I was picking their brains about them being head coaches. And one of them told me, reminded me, that college football, coaching 18- to 22-year-olds is 90% having your team motivated.

And I think for the previous two years, I spent so much time worried about Xs and Os that I forgot about the mindset of our players, making sure that was ready each and every week.

So it allowed me to focus more in on what was the mindset of the coaching staff and players at each practice. What was our focus going to be? What was our focus going into the game? What was our plan to win? Not just what’s our plan to get third downs, what’s our plan to win as a staff? And are we going to be able to execute that? What are the attacking spots?

There was a key point in the game this past season where we attempted a fake punt. And our special teams coordinator (Erik Link) deserves all the credit for that design. But as a coach, I was in that moment saying, Okay, let’s do that here. I don’t think as a head coach calling the offense I would have been prepared to do that.

So I think those kind of things really showed up this season. And it showed up because I was more intentional and focused on managing the game and being more present and being more focused on motivating our players and staff.

SCOTTIE RODGERS: Well, Coach, we really appreciate you joining us today. Thank you, and we look forward to seeing you in North Texas.

COACH DRINKWITZ: And I sure appreciate the opportunity. This is one of those all-time great bowl games, and it’s a dream of mine to be able to be associated with the Cotton Bowl Classic. And my phone’s been blowing up about how great of an experience this is going to be for our family and for our team and for our staff. So I’m sure appreciative of it and can’t wait to get down there and be with y’all for the week.

SCOTTIE RODGERS: Thanks for those kind words, Coach. Take care.

COACH DRINKWITZ: Thank you.

SCOTTIE RODGERS: That’s it for our head coaches call today.

A couple notes before we let you go, a full transcript along with video and audio files will be distributed via email and posted online in the Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic section of the College Football Playoff media portal. To gain access to the portal, send an email to [email protected].

Information on applying for credentials will be sent to participating teams’ athletic communications offices if it hasn’t been already.

If you have any questions, feel free to send me an email at [email protected]. Thanks for joining us today. Please stay safe, and we wish you safe travels during Bowl Season.