Everything Eliah Drinkwitz said after Mizzou’s second scrimmage

Here is the full video of Missouri coach Eliah Drinkwitz speaking after the Tigers’ second scrimmage of fall camp.

Underneath I will post a transcript of everything he said for those who would rather read it.

Opening statment

Drinkwitz: “That was a good one today. I really don’t know how many plays we’re at, or I don’t have any stats on me right now, but a lot of situation work. Opened up with backed up, then went red zone, open field, finished right there with a game-ending drive. Really, it’s tough to evaluate. I thought, saw some really good things and saw some things that frustrate you. I think the biggest takeaway for me offensively was zero turnovers. The quarterbacks didn’t turn the ball over today, which I thought was good.

“Defense did a really nice job in backed up. I think they had two safeties, which I thought was really good. Red zone was pretty even. I thought the defense got the better part of them in the open field for the most part. Right there at the end of the game, Sam (Horn) gave his group a chance to tie it with a field goal and the field goal didn’t convert. But then right there, Beau (Pribula) took him down and scored a touchdown. So it was a good job by both, by both quarterbacks. You know, was really looking to see if we had some separation today and I honestly just didn’t see it. They’re both playing really good football right now. So we’ll go into next week and keep the battle going.

“Held out several guys today, nobody’s holding out because contracts. It’s just precautionary head coach decision. You know, Connor Tollison has played four years as a starter, didn’t feel like that was worth the risk. Jalen Catalon’s got over 4,000 career reps, didn’t feel like that was worth the risk there. So you know, few guys on each side of the ball, you know, we held out just to be smart. Tomorrow’s an off day and we’ll be into execution week next.”

Question: Was there any big improvements from Scrimmage 1 to Scrimmage 2 that you saw today?”

Drinkwitz: “Yeah, the third, the 3s got a first down. The previous scrimmage, they didn’t get a first down. And honestly, we were really, really bad on third downs offensively, but saw some big-time improvement in that area specifically. And several touchdown drives, whether it was in the red zone or open field with both quarterbacks. So definitely improvement there. You know, defense is gonna be frustrated they didn’t get any takeaways, but I thought their ability to stop the run early was good.”

Question: What are your biggest takeaways from the offensive line today?”

Drinkwitz: “I didn’t feel like we had nearly as much pressure as the first scrimmage. You know, we’re still trying to figure out the best 5. And with Connor out, that kind of throws in a whole nother lineup. So hopefully we’ll get a little bit more stability with that next week.”

Question: At left tackle, we saw Jayven (Richardson) out there quite a bit, is he closing in on that?

Drinkwitz: “No, no, we’re gonna, we’re gonna make a change next week and see, we’re gonna make some adjustments next week and see if we can’t find, you know, the goal is to get the best five and so we still got two more weeks to get there. And so next week we’ll make a chance and we’re going to see if we got a different starting five next week to see what it looks like.”

Question: “With the quarterbacks and separation, what does the separation ideally look like for you?”

Drinkwitz: “Yeah, I mean, consistent, consistency in decision making and consistency of scoring drives. You know, there was just too many lulls in the middle by both of them, I felt like, you know. So, we just got to clean that up, the execution end. You know, neither one of them were very effective in the backed-up situation, which could occur. So we got to clean that up.”

Question: “With the hiring of (Guarav) Verma yesterday, just what made you want to create that role and how do you think he’ll be able to help out your staff?”

Drinkwitz: Yeah, G Money as we affectionately call him. You know, I just want to make it clear he’s not a GM. Not a GM, all right? So everybody that’s saying that, that’s not even kind of what we did. We hired a Director of Football Strategy and Finance. He’s in charge of Cap administration, revenue sharing, what those caps look like, how we’re going to orchestrate it, what’s the contract numbers going to be? How do we slot players?  So what’s the third running back’s value? You know, with the guys that we’re trying to sign to second-year contracts right now, what does that put us into for recruiting opportunities? So it’s really roster construction, you know. So he doesn’t have the ability to fire me. OK?”

Question: We’ve talked about the tight ends and trying to get them more involved in the pass game, we saw them a lot today. What did you like?

Drinkwitz: “How did you see them,” he said with s smile and a laugh. “Just kidding. Yeah, no, we got to get, those guys are big-time weapons for us. I thought Jude (James) and Brett (Norfleet) had several big catches, one of Brett’s bigger catches got called back because of a safety, or a sack, but those guys have got to be weapons for us. We’ve got to utilize them. They’re just too good in the run game. You know, that we’ve got to be able to utilize them down the field. So I thought they did a nice job today.”

Question: “We talked about Khalil Jacobs before, but I feel like he’s a guy you can hear from the sidelines, he’s a loud voice, you know, how do you feel like he’s really separated himself that linebacker corps?”

Drinkwitz: “I thought he did a great job today on first and second down. That’s really where we challenged him to make impact plays on first and second down. He plays downhill, he’sa difference maker and he did that today, but he’s always got great energy and juice. And he’s got command of the team because, or the defense, because they see how much work he puts in.”

Question: “The defensive tackles there were making quite a few plays. Are they further ahead of where you maybe thought they were?”

Drinkwitz: “You’re right, I mean, Justin Bodford had a big safety, I thought Bralen Henderson had a TFL, C7 (Chris McClellan) always is pretty good in there. So, yeah, that group’s really kind of stepped up. Appreciate what Coach (David) Blackwell has done with that group.”

Question: With the ability of both Sam and Beau to extend the play with their legs, how important is that for both of them?

Drinkwitz: “I mean, it’s an important factor. It’s hard to tell what that looks like without being live. But you know, both of those guys do a good job of playing that way.”

Question: Curious what you make of the running back room at this point in camp, from first scrimmage to second. And what Marquise Davis can do for them as well.

Drinkwitz: “Held Ahmad Hardy out, what’s ya’lls nickname for him? Somebody, I saw a Twitter post, was it Horseman Hardy? So yeah, held him out today. He proved to us in the last scrimmage we don’t have to tackle him live again. Jamal (Roberts) was really good. I thought he was downhill. T-Man (Tavorus Jones) had some great reps, but then yeah, Marquise, I thought, stole the show with his effectiveness running the football.”

Question: Is he going to come out of that 77 jersey?

Drinkwitz: “He’s playing too good. Plays a lot better in 77.”

Question: With that second starting cornerback spot, has there been any new thoughts on that in this second week?

Drinkwitz: “I’ll have to look at, you know, we’ll have to look at the tape today. I think Stephen Hall and Toriano (Pride) and Dre (Norwood), all three of them are really, in my mind, are starters. Those guys have played a lot of football and been effective in coverage for a long time. So it’s really a, it’s really a luxury that we have right now.”

Question: Is that a position kind of like last year where you’d be OK with rotating guys a lot there?

Drinkwitz: “Yeah, I mean, everybody wants to go out first and I want to, I want people to want to go out first, but at the end of the day, we don’t play with just 11 guys. We play with 20-25 if we’re playing really good defense. And I think we got the ability, I feel strongly about 18 right now. Daeden Hopkins, the way he played today, he’s gonna play himself into a role real quick. That was impressive stuff today.”

Question: Seemed like a lot of Daniel Blood today. Just what have you seen from Daniel?

Drinkwitz: “Yeah, I thought Daniel has been consistent. Today, I didn’t see the consistent Daniel Blood and quite honestly, I think he, he can perform at a higher level, we need him to. We need him to perform at a higher level than he did today. Too many drops, he’s got to be more explosive with the ball in his hands. He’s capable of being a dynamic player in this league. And you know, today felt like last season, where he was up and down. Can’t be up and down. Got to be consistent.”

Question: Curious what kind of jump you’ve seen from Toriano Pride from last season to the start to the start of fall camp?

Drinkwitz: “I think confidence is probably the biggest thing. I think he’s just got confidence in who he is as a player. And I think that that grew over time. You know, last year, there were some, some setbacks in Week 3 and 4 that I think kind of shook his confidence. And I think now, he’s got it back and is playing good ball.”

Question: As far as transfers acclimating to the SEC, is there something you guys help them with doing that?

Drinkwitz: “I think hopefully the way we practice, you know, hopefully the way that we prepare. But at the end of the day, man, that, the SEC rigor is that it’s week in and week out. You know, every week, you’re going to get somebody that’s getting drafted. And that’s not the case in other leagues, you know, there’s, you know, you might play a, one first-round draft pick in an eight-week span. We’re playing a first-round draft pick at each position,you know. And that’s a, that’s a different type of, it’s a different type of ball game for coaches and players.”

Question: Last week, you talked about the need to learn how to practice for some of the younger guys. How would you assess that this past week?

Drinkwitz: “You know what, I’ve been really pleased with the response. And not all of them are there, but you know, Brendon Haygood, I thought had some really good stuff today. Obviously, Marquise has been a lot better. Daeden Hopkins, Javion Hilson, you got to give it to Keiton Jones, I think he’s been doing some really good things. Matt (Zollers’) been figuring it out. You know, Dante McClellan is a guy that we’re going to be able to count on at the D-line, Jason Dowell’s a guy, or at linebacker. Jason Dowell’s a guy we’re going to be able to count on at D-line. So I’ve been very impressed with the progress over the last week. But again, we got another week. Execution week, I think, is really going to be important for everybody. Because now we find out who’s going to be consistent. You know, who’s going to be able to stick to it. This is kind of that rigor getting ready for the SEC.”

Question: Along with Daeden (Hopkins), who kind of jumped out to you today? Who caught your eye as performing particularly well?

Drinkwitz: “Well I thought for sure Daeden Hopkins and Khalil Jacobs on the defensive side of the ball. I mean, Daeden felt like he was in our backfield pretty much all day with his group reps. Khalil I thought in the backup did really good stuff. So those guys stood out to me. Mose Phillips had some big-time hits. I thought he really played and popped for us. You know, I have to go back to the tape. I thought Donovan Olugbode, Marquis (Johnson) with the one-handed touchdown grab that I thought was pretty sporty. Josh Manning in that two-minute drive on the big-time dozen catch, you know, getting forward. I thought there’s a lot of guys. The biggest key for us offensively is being consistent. We got to narrow it down to who’s in and get some consistency there. It probably starts more with the offensive line than anything else.”

Question: Maybe more so in general than today, but how’s the punting been with Connor (Weselman)?

Drinkwitz: “Yeah, I thought today he had two really, really good reps. I thought, big-time, I thought John (Butcher) had a good kick, too. You know, that’s that, honestly, the area, the biggest area of improvement on special teams right now is our punt coverage. I think we’ve done a really good job emphasizing our punt return team and those guys have done really well. And with Kevin (Coleman) back there, that’s going to be something I think we could be really good at. But we got to get better at our coverage unit.”

Question: You mentioned last week that there’s no substitute for live reps, especially this time of year. How much does this give you and the staff this week and heading into next week to be able to evaluate and figure out where everybody is?

Drinkwitz: “Yeah, you know, we’ll visit tonight, kind of see where we feel like that live stuff is. You know, traditionally, this is the last time we go live, but we’ll see. We’re always evaluation. Do we feel like we’ve got the right kind of tackling base, and do we feel like we’re missing a bunch of tackles? I didn’t see a bunch of missed tackles today, but, you know, I’ll see if we need to do that. And honestly, though, I got to see if we can break tackles, too. You know, I didn’t see enough broken tackles offensively. So, so there’s a fine line there. I thought yesterday we had a really, really good day of work and we didn’t tackle live. And if we can keep replicating that, I think we’ll be OK.”

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