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How Has Missouri Benefitted From Eli Drinkwitz Giving Up Playcalling? · Buckeyes TomOrrow Morning

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  Welcome to Buckeyes Tomorrow morning for Sunday, December tenth. I'm your host,
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  Tom Moore. The Cotton Bowl game is in nineteen days. The game agaets
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  Michigan in three hundred and fifty six days. Hey, Today we're doing a
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  show we have been trying to get to all week long, and stuff just
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  kind of keeps popping up. Had so many these things to talk about this
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  week. We've done some bonus episodes. Today we're finally going to be hearing
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  from Missouri head coach Eli Drinkwitz. He had a press conference the day that
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  the Cotton Bowl matchup against Ohio State was announced. Today you're going to be
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  hearing some of his answers from that kind of an interesting guy, a little
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  bit of an interesting story as well that I'm guessing Ohio State fans probably have
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  not been following Missouri football all that closely this year. So I'm going to
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  get to get to know coach Drinkwitz and the Tigers a little bit better on
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  today's show. So let's start with the relationship between Ohio State head coach Ryan
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  Day and drink Woitz. They talked about the fact that he's known drink wits
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  for a while. They haven't really worked together, but they've kind of followed
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  each other's careers for a while now. So here's what drink What's had to
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  say about Ryan Day. I think he's a tremendous football coach. Obviously,
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  have followed his career, have a lot of respect for the way he's gone
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  about his business, you know, working up from Boston College, you know,
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  from the NFL, having opportunities there to be in the offensive coordinated at
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  Ohio State, and obviously I think one of the elite coaches in college football,
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  does a tremendous job offensively. He's one of those teams that I like
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  to watch and just see what they're doing because I know they're always on the
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  cutting edge. And then, you know, just have a tremendous amount of
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  respect for the person that he is as well as the football coach. We
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  are just about a week out from when this game first got announced, and
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  we still have not really heard much about opt outs for Ohio State. Obviously,
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  guys like Kyle McCord and Ship Brain, him and Julian Fleming are in
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  the portal, they're not gonna be playing. But what about guys on the
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  Missouri side. This question actually starts with a comment about the fact that there
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  are lots of Missouri alums in the Dallas area and what drink which is expecting
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  in terms of fan turnout for the Tigers, but also does he have any
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  idea on opt outs for the Tigrids yet. I think we are going to
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  have a great representation with our fan base. I know they're very excited.
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  Cat Dallas is a natural area for us to be at. It's a short
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  drive. I know our fans would be able to drive there from Columbia,
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  really anywhere in the state of Missouri. We also have direct flights from Columbia
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  Saint Louis, Kansas City, so I don't think getting there will be any
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  issue at all. I know the tickets are going really fast. I think
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  they announced at the basketball game. We've already sold eighty percent of our allotment,
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  so I know that the excitement for us is really strong. Our team
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  plans to play, and I plan on having our team at full strength.
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  We have a couple of injuries that could prevent certain players from playing, but
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  in visiting with the seniors prior to the announcement of this game, it was
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  our plan as a senior group to finish one more game together. The realities
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  of modern bowl games that are not college football playoff games is you probably are
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  going to see some opt outs from at least one of the teams, maybe
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  both drink. What's obviously not expecting many on the Ohio State side, we'd
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  be pretty surprising if the Buckeyes were at absolutely full strength of this game.
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  So, when you're game planning against Ohio State in Missouri spot right now,
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  how do you game plan around possible opt outs that could really change who and
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  what you're facing from the Buckeyes. No, you don't worry about it.
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  I mean you control. You know, coaches talk about controlling the things that
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  they can control. We have no real control over how that's going to play
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  out. Each individual student athlete has to do it's in their own best interest,
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  and I think we're all recognized that this game, these players have a
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  business side to it too, and so I think as coaches we respect that.
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  I know as players they respect it. But as far as our preparation,
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  we're preparing to play a very good opponent. And the thing about playing
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  a team like Ohio State is if they have a player opt out, there's
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  multiple players behind them that are very talented, that are ready to step up,
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  and so I don't necessarily think you can worry so much about who's playing.
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  You got to worry and prepare for the scheme. They have tremendous coaches.
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  You know, Jim Knowles is one of the best defensive coordinators in college
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  football. Obviously, Coach Day and coach Hertline do a tremendous job on the
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  offensive side of the ball. So we're going to have our hands full with
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  the scheme as well as the combination of players. This Cotton Bowl matchup is
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  going to be the first one between these two teams since nineteen ninety eight.
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  That is, in fact, twenty five years. I went back and counted,
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  Yes, we are all getting very old. Okay, So first time
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  in a quarter century that Ohio State and Missouri are going to face off since
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  the two teams played a home and home back in nineteen ninety seven and nineteen
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  ninety eight. So what does the opportunity to play a program like Ohio State
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  mean for the Missouri program? Again, I think it's one of those great
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  things about college football and one of the things I think the bowl system is
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  so good because It gives a uniqueness to the game. It creates fund matchups
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  and creates opportunities for our student athletes and for our fan base to have this
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  great game. You know, we were fortunate to be the first announcement of
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  the selection show for the New Year six. And man, when you see
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  your name up against Ohio State again, that's a blue blood national brand and
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  to have an opportunity to play him is very special. I know for me
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  as the head football coach, in my wildest dreams, I don't know that
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  I ever thought about being able to coach in the Cotton Bowl versus Ohio State.
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  So it's something that I'm going to be very present in and really enjoy
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  the moment. Drinkwitz has had quite a story this season. He started the
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  season on a lot of hot seat lists and now he's ending it in the
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  New Year six. So what has he learned this year about building his program?
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  When you face challenges in life, you can decide whether or not you
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  want to grow or learn from him or what we call BCD blame complaining defend
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  for performance. And I think me personally, I had to choose to grow.
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  I had to choose to grow and say hey, what's best for our
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  team is for me to no longer call plays. I think I had to
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  grow and say, hey, it's best for me to hire this person as
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  the defensive coordinator. I think it was time for me to grow and making
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  sure that I was recruiting the right type of players that fit us. And
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  so I think again, as leaders, you have the opportunity to model the
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  mindset that you want for your players and be transparent with them. And I
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  did that with our guys, and I think our staff has been very much
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  like that, and I think our players respected that and kind of adopted the
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  same thing. Where you know, you look at some of our guys that
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  came back, they had opportunities to go play in the NFL, that came
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  back for this year to grow, to continue their quest for improvement, and
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  you know, you're looking at Darius Robinson and Ennis rag Shaw and Chris Abrams,
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  Drain and JC Carlis and Javon Foster's Abridel Gatto, Harrison, MeVis,
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  guys that all chose to give us one more season, and we're very appreciative
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  for that. There are a lot of Ohio State fans who can't wait to
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  tell you how little this game means for the Buckeyes. Just check the replies
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  to just about any tweet about this game on Twitter dot com and you will
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  find those folks who cannot wait to tell you that. But that's a little
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  different for Missouri. This is potentially a very big game for the Tigers,
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  could be their eleventh win of the year Cotton Bowl Championship. The win over
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  Ohio State isn't potentially. As we mentioned in the previous question, you know,
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  what would that all mean for Drinkwitz and his program. You know,
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  I'm going to echo what coach Day said anytime you keep scoring playing a game,
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  you want to win. And I don't know that this one's any bigger
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  than the previous ten. It's just it's the next opportunity versus a really good
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  opponent. And we're not going to put any more pressure on ourselves than that.
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  I'm not going to play the what if game. You know, well,
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  what if we win? What if we don't? Like we have a
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  process of trying to be I want to know, and this is the next
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  opportunity for this group of seniors and for this staff to try and be one
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  to er and that's what we're going to do, and whatever else happens outside
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  of that is outside of my control. Now, you may have heard Eli
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  Drinkwitz's mention a couple of questions back that he gave up offensive play calling before
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  this season. Now, there is a little bit of subtext there that I
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  probably don't need to spell out too much for an audience of Ohio State fans.
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  But there's another coach in this game who talked about giving up offensive play
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  calling this time last year and who is still calling plays. So where did
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  Eli Drinkwitz see the biggest benefit from giving up play calling this year? You
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  know, we had a couple of coaches come and talk to our team and
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  I was picking their brains about, you know, them being head coaches,
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  and one of them told me, reminded me that college football coaching eighteen to
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  twenty two year olds is ninety percent having your team motivated. And you know,
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  I think for the previous two years, I've been so much time worried
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  about x's and o's that I forgot about the mindset of our players making sure
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  that that was ready, ready, each and every week. And so it
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  allowed me to really focus more in on what was the mindset of the coaching
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  staff and players in each practice, what was our focus going to be,
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  What was our focus going into the game. What was our plan to win,
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  not just what's our plan to get third downs? What's our plan to
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  win as a staff and are we going to be able to execute that?
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  What are the attacking spots? You know, there was a key point in
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  the game this past season we attempted a fake punt, and our special teams
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  coordinator deserves all the credit for that design. But as a coach, I
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  was in that moment saying, Okay, let's do that here. I don't
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  think as a head coach calling the offense, I would have been prepared to
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  do that. So I think those kind of things really showed up this season,
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  and it showed up because I was more intentional and focused on managing the
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  game and being more present and being more focused on motivating our players and staff.
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  We will be back with more coverage of the Cotton Bowl coming up a
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  little later on in the week. We're expecting to talk to Ohio State players
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  and potentially coaches this week to get a little bit of some updated thoughts on
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  the game, potential opt outs, much much more that'll be coming up later
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  this week, but we'll have plenty of coverage of that, plenty of coverage
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  of recruiting. As we're just over a week away from early signing Day,
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  I'm sure the transfer portal is not completely done giving and or taking from the
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  Ohio State football program. We'll be covering all that stuff for you at Buckey
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  huddle dot com. Find all of our full team there, Tony, Kevin
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  and I covering the team, Mark covering recruiting, Ross and Mickey and Devin
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  and Justin covering exus and o's and making you a smarter football fan. All
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  at buckey huddle dot com. That will do it for today. Thank you
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  guys all for joining us. Have a great day. We'll talk to you tomorrow.