Eli Drinkwitz: ‘We don’t get enough credit’ for SEC road environments
By Andrew Olson
Published:
Eli Drinkwitz came to SEC Media Days with a lot on his mind. In Tampa, the Mizzou coach did not shy from weighing in on the hottest topics surrounding SEC and college football.
In addition to providing notable updates on his Mizzou team, Drinkwitz made his feelings known on the 9-game conference schedule, College Football Playoff expansion and Big Ten scheduling.
Drinkwitz is among the conference coaches who aren’t thrilled that College Football Playoff expansion has yet to happen with the SEC adding a 9th conference game. SEC stadiums deserve credit for the conference’s strength of schedule, in the opinion of the Mizzou head coach.
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“We don’t get enough credit for how difficult the environments are that we play in. Watching the World Cup and people are (saying), ‘Man, these stadiums are awesome.’ To play in front of 80,000, they thought that was a big stadium. They haven’t been to Knoxville, Tennessee, with 106,000. It’s really difficult to play,” Eli Drinkwitz said on the SEC Network, per FootballScoop.
“Every other year you’re playing five road games in this league; you could have a damn good team and it’s going to be really tough to win five games on the road… We were told Texas was downgraded for their bad loss versus Florida. Florida had a bunch of players drafted. Have you been to (Ben Hill Griffin) Stadium? It’s one of the top 15 stadiums in the world.”
Mizzou’s conference schedule in 2026 sees the Tigers visit Davis-Wade Stadium (Mississippi State), Vaught-Hemingway Stadium (Ole Miss), Donald W. Reynolds Razorback Stadium (Arkansas) and Sanford Stadium (Georgia). The Tigers also face Kansas in a rivalry showdown.
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.
