Iowa kicker calls out Missouri following cancellation of Music City Bowl
It’s not every day you get to see a kicker talking trash.
Be that as it may, following Missouri’s COVID outbreak that forced Eli Drinkwitz’s team to back out of the upcoming Music City Bowl, Iowa senior kicker Keith Duncan shared his thoughts on having his season end sooner than expected.
“People don’t understand that we’re used to not seeing our families on holidays. I haven’t been with my family for Christmas in five years. We stayed in town while they went home. If you didn’t want to play in the bowl game you should’ve just said so,” Duncan posted online.
Based on that reaction, Duncan appears to be indicating that Missouri knew ahead of time they wouldn’t be playing in the Music City Bowl.
It’s unclear if Duncan blames Missouri for making him miss the previous four Christmas’s with his family.
Either way, Missouri’s coach did address the negativity he’s already seen online following the official cancellation of the Music City Bowl.
While some have directed anger towards Missouri’s players, Drinkwitz says that’s uncalled for.
The coach also added that any negativity should be directed towards him.
“I do want to say this, if there was anyone to blame for this, it would fall on my shoulders,” Drinkwitz said on Sunday. “As the head coach and leader of this organization, it is by no means our players’ fault or our organization’s health care or protocols. We have followed those stringently since they have become inception and we have done everything possible but if there was an easy way out of this predicament, the virus, I think this country would have already handled that.
“And so, for us to be belittled or beleaguered on social media, for our players to be challenged because they went home for Christmas is unfair. And if they want to direct that, ultimately as the head coach, you can place that blame on my shoulders. But our players didn’t do anything wrong. It’s just unfortunate that we are going through an ongoing pandemic.”
I agree with the Iowa player. Mizzou has been inexcusably incapable of keeping the team in the clear.
Inexcusably incapable of keeping players from getting a virus that 20,000,000 people in this country have tested positive for? Neat. They don’t live in a freaking bubble. And this dude is a joke. They nearly had to cancel on their end.
20,000,000 of those other cases aren’t D1 football players. These players know (or should know) how to protect themselves from exposure, yet week after week after week, this team has had half the team out due to covid.
If they wanted to go to Xmas that bad then Mizzou shouldn’t have signed up for a bowl game. Simple as that. Drinkwitz made a pretty dumb decision letting them go home.
So all those other people are just stupid and don’t know how to protect themselves? Many people got it without ever leaving their homes. Terribly stupid people they are. And have you paid attention at all to any other program in college football? Almost all of them dealt with the same issues. Unless teams would have gone the NHL route and completely isolated there’d have been no way to avoid it.
Many people got it without leaving their homes?? Huh?
I assume that’s not what you meant to say, cuz that is pretty stupid. Covid doesn’t just magically appear in your house.
You’ve been sitting in your basement since February and you have 14 day protocol on anything your family transfers to you (food, necessities) in place don’t you. You must make Biden look like a floosie.
You know you can look this stuff up before you reply to avoid making your idiot hole deeper, right?
Guinny, you must have put too much rum in your eggnog because your comments today are nonsensical and obnoxious. Sober up and come back tomorrow
TD, no one’s disagreeing with me but you. Modern coaching is balancing your team and not losing them. Pinkel was the alarm call to all other coaches, shame it was him. Our team was teetering and worn out. Family might just be more important to these boys right now. You know Pinkel’s pitch was that Mizzou was a family. You’d hear the players say that as well. That’s what Drinkwitz is doing. We weren’t going to play for a chance at the National Championship, or that last leg. He made a call, I don’t disagree with it. Hope you had a good holiday with your family.
tigertd, do you have some insider information that none of the rest of us have? Where do you get off saying “Mizzou has been inexcusably incapable of keeping the team in the clear.”
Where is your proof? Blaming Mizzou for people testing positive is ridiculous.
I don’t need proof when they publicly admitted that they let the team travel home to see Memaw on Christmas.
These kids live everywhere from Texas to Florida to New York. What the hell did they think was going to happen?!
They’ve traced the origin back to their trip to Starkville. Just stop man.
Ok… so they got covid in Starkville and brought it home for Christmas. I don’t see how this fact helps your argument. Makes you seem even dumber,honestly. Now gramma is going to die.
And tracing it back to Starkville doesn’t suddenly mean that it’s ok to let your entire team travel to 100 different places across the nation a week before your bowl game. Just not smart.
If’s and but’s, guy. You can what if every little thing those guys do. What if a cook had it during a team meal? What if a guy picked it up at a gas station when he went to grab a soda? What if a guy got it in class? We can do that all day. At least you’ve gotten off the Christmas trip as being the reason for the “outbreak.” You should look into politics the way you swung so hard there when your original point was blown up.
Sorry, no.
Yet, Mizzou kept playing with only about 50 scholarship players available. Many other teams called their games off when they had much more personnel available. Get your facts right lil fella
that’s because Missouri doesn’t know how to play football.
Iowa and the rest of the big ten should be grateful to Mizzou and the SEC. If not for us playing this season and shaming the big 10 they wouldn’t have had any season at all. What a bunch of whiners.
Missouri who? Alabama’s and Nebraska’s jock strap lickers that’s all they are worth.
“It’s unclear if Duncan blames Missouri for making him miss the precious four Christmas’s with his family.”
This. This is why I love being in the SEC.
Previous*
That’s Big 10 math for you. 1=5.
I would have been happy with 5 games. Duncan is an idiot, and he did what idiots do.
He’s just disappointed and still a little immature. He was looking forward to Nashville. I’ve been to the Music City Bowl, it’s a good time. That said, in the SEC it’s an okay bowl, means you either won 6 games or 8 games (never seems to be 7). And I’m not slighting the bowl, just look over the records of the teams that have played in it. I was going and now I’m not.
“He was looking forward to Nashville.”
His one chance to play football in an SEC state.
Iowa shut their facility down last week, didn’t play a full season, and haven’t played since the 12th. Dude needs to check himself out.
If they wanted to play in the bowl, shouldn’t have let kids go home. That is stupid.
Gotta make sure if I visit that glass of lemonade you’re serving isn’t just a glass of piss. Hope you had a wonderful Christmas with your family and I’d love to see you guys go 11-1 next year :)
Once this guy comes off his high, he’ll be asking “I said what?”
a kicker what a joke. The game should have never been considered or any other bowl game. Play the semis and final and everything else cancels. We are in the middle of a pandemic football isn’t important. I have had 3 men I went to church with died from covid 19 it is very serious.
What position did you play in D1 football? What college did you attend? Ya. I didn’t think so.
I agree with the Iowa kicker. If Vandy’s girl kicker said this though, people would be backing her up and would be applauding her for standing up for her thoughts. Oh the hypocrisy in this world and double standards.
Going to be exciting in Nashville these next couple of years. You guys might be the darkhorse. Congrats on Clark Lea.
I can certainly understand the sentiment of the Iowa kicker. It is frustrating to sacrifice holidays spent with family and in the end have nothing to show for it. That is a perfectly valid response.
I would suggest, however, that the issue is much more nuanced. Clearly this is a most unusual year, and thus the decisions made by young men and coaching staffs may not necessarily always be to the benefit of the program. I would certainly applaud those who chose to stay in the bubble and avoid the virus, yet in turn I would find it impossible is to condemn the young men (a small percentage of whom have any chance of making it to the pros) who decided that their priority in this most difficult year of recent times is family.
In the end, this year will end, this bowl will not be played, and life will go on. While I will be disappointed to not see my Tigers play once more, I will find solace in the fact that next year is a new year, and with it the hope of a better year for all.
I would argue that football players already know that if they make the post- season, you won’t be home for Christmas. And that’s during a non-pandemic year, hence the Iowa playing commenting about not seeing family on Xmas for the previous few years. But during a pandemic, NOONE is supposed to be traveling or getting together in large groups. That’s why this is inexcusable in my opinion. I didn’t see any of my family on Xmas this year or last year, because I love my family enough to not be a selfish idiot.
Have fun counting the dead. Guess we all have our hobbies.
Hi TigerTD,
‘I would argue that football players already know that if they make the post- season, you won’t be home for Christmas.’
Very fair point. I might still argue that it is a weird year (like you I decided not to travel back home, though it was a very disheartening decision, miss the States!) and I understand wanting to be home, even if it is just with parents, but I completely get where you are coming from.
A kicker!?
I think by Friday or Saturday it was probably too soon for the outbreak to be due to going home for Christmas. It looks like contact tracing is actually pinpointing the trip to Starkville for the MSU game.
Now, it’s probably likely though that they could have spread it to their families by going home for Christmas, hopefully not though.
Yep! That fact seems to be escaping all the geniuses defending their trip home for the holidays.
Agree that I’d like to have seen Missouri stay at school and isolate themselves but that didnt happen. I looking forward to this game would’ve been a uphill battle for Mizzou against Iowa.
“uphill”? Really, Iowa’s 8 opponents lost 33 games. Only one of Iowa’s opponents had a winning record. The big ten had almost half the practice days this year that the SEC had. Stop smoking sportswriter’s socklets.
Iowa is a good team and would have been favored by most. Yea, that is a useless statistic that has no relevance.
5-5 garbage team missouri lol Iowa would’ve blew them out worst than they did against USC last bowl season. 5-5 shouldn’t be even playing.
You need to go re-examine why you are on here. You have no say in SEC conversations.
That was meant for pu$$y black and gold