Eli Drinkwitz has perfect reaction to being called ‘young Nick Saban’
By Andrew Olson
Published:
Eli Drinkwitz knows better than to let one fan’s Nick Saban comparison go to his head.
On Monday, Mary Jo from Missouri had a memorable call into “The Paul Finebaum Show.”
“Hi Paul, I want you to start seeing Coach Eli Drinkwitz as a young Coach Nick Saban. He’s doing some of the same things, Paul, and he’s succeeding,” she said. “And we have 100% trust in our Coach Drink. I just think we’re doing great and we’re all excited and Saturday was a Chamber of Commerce day in CoMo.”
Finebaum brought up the call in introducing Drinkwitz for a Wednesday appearance, calling the Mizzou coach “perhaps the next Nick Saban.” Drinkwitz responded Saban style.
“That’s rat poison, right there. That’s what that is,” Drinkwitz said, chuckling. “I’m not going to worry about any rat poison. I’m just going to try to create value for myself on a day-to-day basis.”
After expressing appreciation for Drinkwitz’s response, Finebaum played him the call.
“It’s certainly powerful to have people believe in you, so I appreciate Mary Jo and her comments,” Drinkwitz said after the clip. “But we also understood in this profession, in this day and age, it’s a day-to-day business. You can’t get caught up in the praise. You can’t get caught up in the criticism. Just stay focused on what we’re trying to accomplish.”
What did @CoachDrinkwitz think about one of our callers this week describing him as “a young Nick Saban”??
“That’s Rat Poison, Paul!” ? pic.twitter.com/zPKhEwwzJA
— Paul Finebaum (@finebaum) October 25, 2023
Mizzou is 7-1 entering a Week 9 bye. The No. 16 Tigers close out the season with a 4-game SEC stretch of No. 1 Georgia, No. 21 Tennessee, Florida and Arkansas.
Andrew writes about sports to fund his love of live music and collection of concert posters. He strongly endorses the Hall of Fame campaigns of Fred Taylor and Andruw Jones.
