The Morning Commute for Monday, September 22, 2025.
Welcome to the Morning Commute
Today, we’re going to do some brief analysis on Eli Drinkwitz’s post-game press conference from Saturday night. We’re a little more than a day removed, but I think there’s a lot of good stuff in here that’s worth following up on.
“I was really proud of [Cayden Green after a ‘minor medical procedure’ on Friday.] He said some really cool things to our team about this opportunity.”
It’s good to hear that the staff doesn’t expect Cayden Green to be out long term, though it sounds like there’s a good chance he could miss the Alabama game. It was also encouraging to hear Drinkwitz praise Green’s ability as a leader after he was screamed out of Norman for making the decision that was right for him and his family. That kind of thing can hang over a young player’s head — if you don’t believe me, troll around some Mizzou fan forums after Green suddenly was listed as OUT this week — and it sounds like he’s been nothing but solid gold for the Tigers as a senior.
“[Ahmad Hardy]’s running through people like he’s a dump truck.“
New Drink-ism, book it.
“When we watch the tape tomorrow I’m going to be on some secondary coaches’ rear ends, because this is getting ridiculous how porous our pass defense is and that’s gotta get shored up in a hurry… We’ve got way too many holes in our zone cover, we’ve got bad eyes in the backfield, I’m not getting negative, I’m not getting negative. But, uhm, yeah that crap’s gotta get corrected.”
Hear, hear! It was refreshing to listen to Drinkwitz speak with so much candor about an element of the Tigers’ game that, in all honesty, almost cost them a victory. The secondary was extremely poor on Saturday night, and they’ve only got two weeks before a blue blood comes to town. Time to buckle up and start chipping away at those flaws.
“[Jayven Richardson] took every snap as a starter in spring and three weeks of fall camp. And ultimately we made a tough decision to slide Cayden out. And he could’ve done a lot of different things… what he did was, he came in every day and went to work… ultimately we had a ton of confidence in Jayven Richardson. Because he’s a great young man who works hard. And when his moment showed up, he was there for the brotherhood.”
The Mizzou offensive line didn’t take much of a step back without Cayden Green this week, which was extremely reassuring for the next few weeks. Richardson didn’t have the best of games, but he did enough to keep the left side of the field an option for the run game, which balanced Mizzou’s attack. Losing your best offensive lineman is never a positive, but it helps to have an experienced swing tackle waiting behind him. And Drinkwitz’s comments suggest Richardson has prepared himself well, which should give us all a bit more confidence.
Yesterday at Rock M and Rock M+
Landing Chronister should also fortify MU’s depth on the wings, assuming the Tigers bring back Annor Boateng and Trent Pierce next season. Chronister should also prove a nice complement to Boateng, a fellow Arkansan, who is more of a power wing and keen to attack in straight lines. On paper, MU would still have another vacancy on the wing, but the presence of the Natural State tandem would mean coach Dennis Gates would likely find himself shopping for an affordable depth piece.
If you follow our basketball writers, you’ll know they still firmly believe that building depth from high school recruiting is still a vital part of program sustainability. And Gates is out here killing this cycle.
Drinkwitz has always fashioned his teams as a little risk averse. Play sound football, don’t make many mistakes, run the ball, etc, etc. It’s methodical football.
When you have Ahmad Hardy and Jamal Roberts, that offense becomes plodding. It’s not exactly three yards and a cloud of dust like Iowa, but it’s low and impactful, and it wears you down.
We’ll have to wait a few more weeks to find out if he’s right, but something tells me Mizzou is going be hard to beat regardless of who they match up against.
It’s been a while, hasn’t it? I’ve had a really busy start to the school year, trying to juggle grading for my very large online class along with editing for the site and putting together my gymnastics previews. Anyway… no more excuses. When I don’t have gym content, I’m going to try and get these out more often. And, as you’ll see, there’s a helluva lot of good going on in CoMo.
If you’re at all interested in Mizzou olympic sports, you’ve gotta bookmark this weekly post. (Editor’s note: I hope it’s weekly-ish, especially while we wait for the return of Majority Rules)
One of Mizzou’s biggest strengths all year has been its defense. While the block has been suspect at points —it was much better this weekend!— the attack receive has always been on point. That was showcased once again in Illinois, as the Tigers finished the weekend with 156 digs. The team had 73 in the Valparaiso match alone!
Defense wins championships applies to volleyball too, right?
It is hard to stay positive after playing your heart out for 90% of the match and losing it in the last minute, but this was a good showing for the Tigers. The defense largely shut down one of the best offenses in the SEC, but they need more than five shots from their attack to truly compete.
Yeah… five shots won’t do it. But it was a fantastic defensive performance for the Tigers.
- Over at Rock M+, we’re talking about the PFF grades from South Carolina, an impactful injury for SEC Hoops and, in case you missed it, True had a lot of good recruiting information about who was in town this weekend.
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Category: General Sports
