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Missouri Tigers

Eli Drinkwitz breaks down 2-point play used to beat Florida

Derek Peterson

By Derek Peterson

Published:

Eli Drinkwitz pulled out a lightsaber in the postgame press conference Saturday night after beating Florida and it still wasn’t the best thing he did last weekend.

The Missouri Tigers trailed the Gators 13-9 entering the 4th quarter and, after forcing overtime, found themselves down again following an Emory Jones touchdown pass.

When Tyler Badie ran in a 13-yard score to set up a game-tying point-after attempt, Drinkwitz instead decided he wanted to play for the win and go for 2. Quarterback Connor Bazelak found Daniel Parker alone in the end zone and Missouri walked away with a 24-23 win.

The Tiger head coach was on SEC This Morning recently to break down the decision.

“That play is a 2-point play that we practice every Friday. In fact, we (also) practice 2-point plays every Tuesday because of the new overtime rule,” Drinkwitz said. “That was one that we have, it’s our go-to call. It’s designed to get Tyler Badie fast to the flat as our No. 1 option, but if they cover him then we have the H coming underneath as our 2nd under.

“About a year ago when we first put it in, the Y was supposed to be a sleeper route to come out, but there were too many people there so we said, ‘You know what, why don’t we put him on a hide route and that’ll just be a throwaway.

“I’ve run that play a long time and I’ve never got back to the hide route. We’ve always seen it come open but we’ve never done. Friday in practice, Connor comes out and runs it, works his feet, and then turns around and throws it back to the hide. I was kind of like, ‘Well, that’s interesting, I don’t know why he’s getting that rep.’ And then I’ll be goodness if it’s not exactly how that played out in the game. We say this all the time—I stole it from Coach (Bill) Belichick—’Practice execution makes gameday realities,’ and that’s exactly what happened to us on Saturday night.’

With the win, the Tigers (6-5, 3-5 SEC) became bowl eligible. They’ll look to finish the regular season strong on Friday when they travel to play Arkansas (7-4, 3-4 SEC). Kick-off is set for 3:30 p.m. ET.

Derek Peterson

Derek Peterson does a bit of everything, not unlike Taysom Hill. He has covered Oklahoma, Nebraska, the Pac-12, and now delivers CFB-wide content.

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