Against Alabama, Missouri and Eli Drinkwitz can earn the national respect they already deserve
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Eli Drinkwitz might not have a “black hoodie of death” to wear on Saturday when his No. 14 Missouri Tigers take on No. 8 Alabama, but what he does have is a heck of a football team.
In case you haven’t been paying attention — and judging by the preseason SEC media poll, the current AP and Coaches’ Polls, and the lack of College GameDay in CoMo this weekend, you probably haven’t — Missouri has managed to win a few games (26 of its last 31 since the beginning of the 2023 season, if you want to get super technical about it), quietly building one of the most consistent programs in college football.
SEC fans, and yes, media alike tend to ignore Mizzou’s ascent to the top echelon of the SEC, as if Eli Drinkwitz has been operating with the secrecy of Marty and Wendy Byrde, building their Ozark empire.
No matter. Missouri keeps winning.
Drinkwitz didn’t want to dwell on the lack of outside validation for what he’d built at Missouri much Wednesday, when I asked him if Mizzou relished in being underrated, underdiscussed, and underappreciated.
“We aren’t going to spend much time on what we’ve accomplished here,” Drinkwitz said. “Our players know what we’ve done but we’re only as good as our next opportunity and our players are focused on the challenge ahead of us. We can’t dwell on what happens beyond that or worry about what people outside of our program think or don’t think about us.”
That’s a diplomatic answer, and ahead of a formidable opponent like Alabama led by a man in a black death hoodie in Kalen DeBoer, a sensible one.
But if Drinkwitz won’t dwell on what Missouri has accomplished, perhaps it’s worth revisiting, at least briefly.
The Tigers haven’t lost at Faurot Field in 2 years and are 2-1 against ranked opponents at home under Drinkwitz, with the lone defeat coming to eventual Heisman winner Jayden Daniels and LSU in 2023. That was their last home loss. Drinkwitz is 5-5 against ranked opposition since 2023, which gives him as many or more wins against ranked foes in that span than Lane Kiffin (4-3), Brent Venables (3-6), Brian Kelly (3-7), Billy Napier (4-11), and Josh Heupel (4-6), among others. That’s a rough data point for the “Drink doesn’t win big games” crowd.
This year’s Missouri team features the nation’s third-ranked rushing offense, fifth ranked rushing success rate offense, seventh ranked scoring offense, and the SEC’s highest-graded offensive line through Week 6, a nod to both Drinkwitz’s wisdom as a roster builder and his wise decision to give up play-calling after early stumbles in Columbia. Missouri features a bona fide Heisman candidate in Ahmad Hardy, the nation’s leading rusher, and the nation’s top ranked run defense. Dating back to Tim Tebow’s Florida in 2008, the last 4 teams to lead the SEC in both rushing and rushing defense won the SEC Championship Game.
Let’s not get ahead of our skis.
Drinkwitz rightly acknowledged that Alabama’s defense will be an altogether different test than anything the Tigers have faced to date, even in the friendly confines of Faurot. There’s also the scary scenario for Missouri fans where the Tigers establish the run, quarterback Beau Pribula hits a few shots down the field in play action, and the Tigers still can’t score enough points thanks to a leaky secondary that, despite high-profile transfers like former All-SEC safety Jalen Catalon and productive Clemson corner Toriano Pride, has struggled over the top, surrendering 5 explosive pass plays of 30 yards or more and 3 of 40 or longer. Against a confident quarterback playing as well as Ty Simpson and a loaded Alabama receiving corps, that could be the difference in the football game.
Still, just like David Koechner’s Champ Kind was down for a newsman street fight in Anchorman, you can bet Drinkwitz and his staff will be ready for whatever DeBoer and his Death Hoodie offer. Okay, maybe Drinkwitz won’t pull a Brick Tamland and take Ty Simpson out with a trident.
But Brad Pitt’s bare knuckle boxer Mickey O’Neill, sans the impossible accent, certainly comes to mind when you watch Missouri fight.
There’s no backdown with Mizzou.
“We embrace physicality,” Missouri center Connor Tollison told me at SEC Media Days. Tollison, in keeping with our theme, has quietly graded out as the SEC’s second-best offensive linemen since the beginning of the 2023 season (Jake Slaughter, Florida), an anchor of leadership and production despite consistently being left out of the end-of-season accolade conversations.
“I think we embrace the opportunity to show what Missouri football is about on the field. We aren’t blind. We’re aware (of not being discussed much among the SEC elite). We embrace the fight to prove it on Saturday.”
If Missouri proves it come 11 a.m. local time Saturday against Alabama, the Tigers will be firmly in control, not only of their College Football Playoff destiny, but of their SEC Championship Game destiny as well, unbeaten with a daunting stretch of at Auburn, at No. 20 Vanderbilt, and a home date with No. 5 Texas A&M all on deck over the next 30 days.
Lose? Well, when you are picked 12th in the SEC a season after winning 10 or more games for the second consecutive season, it’s clear what folks expect from Mizzou, no matter how often it does the opposite.
For a while, Missouri fans didn’t expect to win these types of games, either.
It was all reminiscent of when Steve Spurrier went to South Carolina and, early on in his tenure, had to admonish the Gamecocks faithful for applauding the team after a narrow loss.
“Please don’t clap,” Spurrier, a patron saint of southern sidelines said, “when we lose the game.”
Faurot Field used to feel like that, a place where hope was the main feeling about winning, not expectation.
That won’t be the case Saturday, even if it takes a blur of early morning Boone’s Farm.
Missouri’s fan base will be ready for Alabama. The team will, too.
Another chance for the SEC’s most underappreciated program to prove it on Saturday.
Neil Blackmon covers SEC football and basketball for SaturdayDownSouth.com. An attorney, he is also a member of the Football and Basketball Writers Associations of America. He also coaches basketball.
