Midweek Notes and Quotes: Louisiana

Eli Drinkwitz says the team still has a long way to go despite last week’s win

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coach Eli Drinkwitz and some of the top Tigers performers from the Border War game assembled Tuesday to talk to the media ahead of the team’s game with Louisiana this Saturday.

Here’s what they had to say:

Eli Drinkwitz

On Louisiana: “Defensively, the strength of their team is with their defensive line; and with as much pressure as we allowed, sacks that we allowed of our quarterback, and our inability to gain short yardage in critical situations, I think it’s going to be a real challenge for our team to improve in that way. Their offense is led by their two running backs. I think both of those guys are really good football players, and we know there’s good running backs in the Sun Belt – we have one now that started his career there (Ahmad Hardy) – so we know that those guys really talented.”

On being the self-proclaimed “dorkiest guy in college football”: “That stuff is fun; I realize with the glasses and the persona, that’s just part of who it is. I think embracing who you are and being authentic is the key to being yourself. And if it works for you, it works; if it doesn’t, it doesn’t.”
On the cause of some of the coverage breakdowns on Saturday: “Their shifts and motions, combined with too much in the gameplan, created a situation where we had confusion. That’s on us as a staff to get that fixed; that’s where it starts. When we played man-to-man we were pretty good; we were attached to our players. When we got into our zone coverage, we had communication issues and eye issues and discipline issues, and that stuff’s got to get taken off the table.”
On Jamal Roberts: “He’s been a guy that has contributed in a lot of different ways. We’ve always known he’s been an explosive player. Primarily a third down back last year, but had the game winning touchdown versus Auburn. So we’ve got a ton of trust in him and faith, and I think his balance with Ahmad works out really well.”
On Luther Burden’s first game and Cody Schrader getting picked up by the Jaguars: “We’ve talked about chasing two dreams, and helping guys realize their dream is really the fulfillment of our jobs. Me specifically, wins and losses are going to come and they’re going to go, and they’re going to be fleeting. And you can have a big win Saturday, but by Sunday, you’ve already mad, moving on to the next thing. But when you watch guys fulfill their dreams, and see all their hard work and perseverance pay off, I think that’s really when you find satisfaction in the job.”
On the illegal punt which led to a public reprimand of the officials: “I just wanted to see if we could. It’s like asking your parents if you can do something that you know they probably shouldn’t let you do, but sometimes they get it wrong.”
On if anything was said about it during the game: “Yeah. I know we told them they screwed up a lot of stuff in the game.”
Continued: “Kudos to coach [Erik] Link; he asked if we could do that just because we’d seen them pregame really struggle with the sun and fielding punts, and knew that was only allowable after a safety – that’s the only time you get a free kick. Other than that, you can either drop kick it or use a tee. They said yes – what were we supposed to say?”
On Donovan Olugbode: “He’s been able to carry over practice execution with game day reality; we’ve seen those style of catches before. I think for Beau to have the confidence to throw him the ball in that spot, really when he was double covered, I think shows how the quarterbacks felt about his route running and his ability to make tough catches.”
Drinkwitz said that Robert Meyer’s field goal range is roughly 52 yards, and the team would have let him kick the field goal on the drive that resulted in Brett Norfleet’s fourth quarter touchdown if they hadn’t gotten within two yards of the line to gain on the third down play.
On his conservative approach with Meyer: “A young guy’s confidence can get shaken really early, and I feel like that way our drives, especially against UCA, had stalled out in that mid-30s to 25 [yard-line], I didn’t want to put that on him for his first couple of kicks. Sometimes you need to see that three-foot putt go in the hole before you back it up to the 12-footer.”
On positives from week two: “I think our execution on fourth down was critical; I thought our ability to respond in a challenging situation was good.”
Continued: “Defensively, we held them to three yards rushing. I don’t know if I’ve ever been part of a game where we outrushed somebody by 258 yards and it was that close a football game.”
On the cornerbacks: “There’s still some communication and settling down, and making sure that, again, 11 acting as one on the defensive side of the ball. I don’t want to be that coach that gives out grades; that got one coach in trouble (likely referring to Dabo Swinney in week one), so I’ll just say there’s stuff that we’ve got to improve on before we get that final exam.”

Jamal Roberts

On the coaching staff’s approach to running backs: “They really rotate us a lot at the back position, just really take care of us with our legs and stuff like that. And make sure we know our full potential when we run the ball.”
On the on-field dynamic of him and Ahmad Hardy: “I feel like me and Ahmad have a lot of similarities that they see. There’s not a lot of weaknesses, a lot of things that me and him both can’t do.”
On why he was drawn to Mizzou: “I’m just close to home, that’s one thing, and it’s SEC ball. Everybody dreams to play in the SEC. I’d seen the vision that coach Drink had built here, and I wanted to be a part of that, just to change the game.”
On his game-sealing touchdown run: “First thing I want to do is just to congratulate my line and the perimeter blocking from my receivers; it wouldn’t happen without them. But I [saw] that we had got the edge, and I just got north and south. Once I got north, it was on after that.”
On Kevin Coleman Jr., who also went to St. Mary’s: “Kevin just [drove] me as a person to get to the next level, and showed that it’s doable, you can get there. And I did follow in a lot of his footsteps in high school to get where I needed to be today, and just to get him back here at Mizzou, it’s so impactful.”

Chris McClellan

On the run defense in the Border War: “I think after the game we were all pretty hyped in the locker room. We [saw] they had like three rushing yards, so that was a big deal for us. But it was awesome to do that, just to play with that type of physicality, and I want to continue it on to this week.”
On the depth of the defensive line: “I feel like it gives us the ability to just go out there and play our hardest for three, four, five snaps max and sub. And know that you can kind of relax having somebody out there that the game level of play is not going to drop off.”
On Zion Young: “He’s the big energy guy, not just for the defense but for the whole team. And he’s normally one of the guys that gets us going. He’s just a fun guy to be around.”
On what makes the Mizzou offense difficult to defend when it goes up tempo: “They kind of go out there with a certain swagger to themselves, and it’s like, yeah, we know what we’re capable of, we know what we’re about to do.”
On areas for improvement: “That would be scary if we were this early on in the year playing perfect, because it would mean we kind of hit a ceiling. There’s a bunch of little stuff that we’ve seen that we got to take off the tape from last week. And we’re just gonna go out there this week and try to play 1% better this game.”
On the linebacker group: “They’d be flying through those gaps; Trotter was like a freaking missile on Saturday, coming through and shooting the gap. So it made me feel a little better about taking on those double teams when you know you’ve got somebody coming through making those big plays.”

Dominick Giudice

On the offensive line’s performance: “The biggest thing that we’ve been focusing on, from the first game, is just improving every week. That’s something we’ve talked about as a team, but as an 0-line, getting the guys to gel more and more as the weeks go on. And that’s something that we pride ourselves in is spending a lot of time together, really making sure that we’re on the same page. And that’s what we’re going to continue to focus on.”
On getting the line to gel: “Five playing as one, everyone has to have the same set of eyes, communicating pre snap, and even some of the non-verbal communications of being able to see the same things of passing off twists and things like that. I think that just continues to work its way out as you practice.”
On Ahmad Hardy and Jamal Roberts: “They make our job pretty easy, honestly, with the backfield that we have. We just try to do our best for those guys; we love blocking for them, and they make us all look good.”
On Beau Pribula’s effectiveness in up-tempo offense: “He’s just dialed in; the way he prepares is top notch, and I think that obviously shows out on the field. And he’s just an elite player.”

Damon Wilson

On the run defense’s performance against the Jayhawks: “Dominant. It was like two yards or three yards, I don’t know, something really, really low. So when you don’t have more than 50 yards, it’s really hard to win the game. Running the ball is one of the biggest factors in winning the game; if you can’t control the time of possession, you’ve got no chance.”
On preparing for Louisiana’s running back duo: “They have the ability to break out at any time, so we’ve just got to be ready, stop the run again. Just play physical, same mindset.”
On Josiah Trotter: “He’s explosive, and I can just tell he loves football. So if he makes a mistake, I know he’s gonna come back two times harder to prepare the right way. I’ve been really watching him, and he’s been doing great things. And I just know that his career is gonna take him really far.”
On the defensive tackle group: “Our communication has definitely improved, and I think that’s been a big factor is just being able to get the call and or just being able to get our feet set. I think that was one thing that we worked on, that’s what we’re focusing on, and it’s definitely helped us.”
On Zion Young: “He’s 265 [pounds] coming off the edge with speed and power. That’s just a great player to play with, knowing that you got someone on edge who is coming off just like you. He’s not coming off the ball slow, he’s trying to go get the quarterback. It’s a good feeling to have.”