Missouri is used to the disrespect. Eli Drinkwitz will have the Tigers in the Playoff picture anyway
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Over a decade into their SEC adventure, the one constant for Missouri football is disrespect.
The disrespect might not be shared by the coaches who continually lose to or have to claw tooth and nail to beat Missouri, but the contemptuous disregard of Missouri football and its fans as “outsiders” who “aren’t up to the challenge of competing in the SEC” is nothing more than fan fiction. Any reasonable look at the numbers demonstrates that Missouri not only belongs, but belongs in every conversation about the SEC’s most consistent football programs.
Since joining the SEC in 2012, the Tigers have played for 2 SEC championships. The Tigers have been invited to 9 bowl games in 13 seasons, a greater rate of bowl invites than 7 other SEC programs in that span. More recent history is even more favorable. Missouri has won 21 games in the last 2 seasons, equal or better to every SEC program except Georgia and Texas. Yes, little old Missouri has as many wins as mighty Alabama in the past 2 years. The Tigers have 2 more wins than fellow rising program Tennessee (19) and a boatload more than storied SEC programs Florida (13) and Auburn (11).
Still, the narrative that Missouri is a pretender in a league of contenders persists.
How else to explain the fact that a 10-win team returning 15 starters was picked to finish 12th in the SEC? For perspective, South Carolina, returning just 12 starters from a 9-win outfit, was picked 5th. Auburn, returning 14 starters from a 5-win group that spent bowl season hunting and fishing, was picked ahead of Missouri, too.
If that level of disrespect happened at a blueblood program like Georgia or Alabama, a trove of local beat writers and Twitter trolls alike would sound the alarm for an entire summer. When it happens to Missouri, it’s largely a non-story.
One could advance the argument that this is about the quarterback position, not a predisposition of media folks to forget Missouri at best or smugly dismiss the Tigers at worst.
Let’s engage that argument in good faith, because it certainly makes sense to ask serious questions about a team with no proven answer at the most important position in sports.
Let’s note, for example, that Alabama, picked third in the SEC, is starting Ty Simpson, who has 30 career completions, at quarterback.
Gunner Stockton and Arch Manning, the presumed starters for the two programs picked ahead of Alabama in the SEC, have a combined 3 career starts.
But sure, the fact that all 3 of the SEC’s presumed favorites have either inexperience (Arch Manning) or full blown uncertainty (Gunner Stockton, Ty Simpson) at the quarterback position doesn’t negate the questions Missouri has, right? It only amplifies the reality that other programs have questions, too.
The 2 candidates fighting for the starting job at Missouri are Sam Horn, a former 4-star recruit coming off an elbow injury suffered playing baseball, and Beau Pribula, a longtime backup at College Football Playoff semifinalist Penn State who has more career completions and 9 more career touchdown passes than Ty Simpson. Head coach Eli Drinkwitz is confident in either player, praising both as camp has progressed.
With Pribula, Drinkwitz tells a story similar to the one being sold about Simpson in Alabama. Like Simpson, the talent has always been there. It’s just a matter of opportunity.
“I don’t think when you watch the tape, there’s an inability for Beau to throw. He just didn’t have the opportunities,” Drinkwitz told Saturday Down South at SEC Media Days. “I’m as confident as ever that Beau is a very talented passer. I don’t really have any reservations about that.”
Meanwhile, Horn has built on spring ball after his return from Tommy John surgery and Drinkwitz said this weekend that the junior has looked “great” in camp and there is “no separation” between the 2 candidates.
There’s an old football adage that if you have 2 quarterbacks, you have none, but that’s what makes Missouri returning 9 starters from a defense that ranked 17th in total defense, 18th in success rate defense, and 20th in SP+ defensive efficiency so valuable. Corey Batoon’s group should be salty enough to keep the wheels on while the Tigers figure things out.
Missouri’s front, led by SEC transfers and NFL prospects Chris McClellan (Florida, now in his second year at Missouri) and Damon Wilson II (Georgia), should improve on last year’s rather pedestrian pass rush and havoc numbers, which saw Missouri rank just 56th nationally in sacks and 10th in the SEC in defensive havoc rate (pressures, tackles for loss, sacks, hurries per overall plays). Wilson should seamlessly slot into the role left by Johnny Walker Jr. last year, who is off to the NFL after finishing 4th in the Southeastern Conference with 9.5 sacks in 2024. If that happens, a salty back end, led by All-SEC candidate Toriano Pride at corner and former All-SEC standout Jalen Catalon at safety, should continue to give Missouri one of the best pass defenses in college football (31st in 2024, 12th in success rate!)
The schedule also helps.
Missouri won’t leave the friendly confines of Faurot Field until October 18, opening the season with an absurd 6 game homestand that includes a bye week before Alabama comes calling on October 11. There are 3 winnable tune ups before SEC play opens with South Carolina on September 20. In other words, Missouri has time to sort the quarterback situation out before the meat of the season hits in late September and October.
There’s also the matter of Eli Drinkwitz.
A compelling argument could be made that he’s a top 3 coach in the SEC right now. He’s certainly one of the best in close games, with a record of 17-7 in one possession contests since taking over at Missouri. Only Kirby Smart (22-9) is better among SEC head coaches.
Drinkwitz mostly gets acclaim for his one liners and sense of humor, but he’s increasingly being viewed in the industry as one of the sport’s best roster builders in the NIL and portal era. In 2020, Drinkwtiz began his tenure at Missouri with a roster ranked 50th in the 247Sports talent composite. Through shrewd portal evaluations and a focus on in-state and St. Louis area recruiting, Drinkwitz will be fielding a second consecutive roster ranked in the top 20 overall. This is the type of sustained program building that is rare in the NIL and portal era and a testament to the fact that when Drinkwitz openly calls the 2025 Tigers his “most talented team,” he means it.
Missouri was essentially knocked out of Playoff contention last November when it lost at South Carolina late last season.
It’s instructive about where Drinkwtiz has the program, and just how high the standard at Missouri is at present, that it would feel disappointing for the Tigers not to be in the Playoff hunt again come November.
A third straight 10-win season feels possible, especially if the quarterback questions are resolved by either Pribula or Horn cashing in on immense talent. All the most difficult games are at home, save Oklahoma on November 22, and no SEC team gets Missouri off a bye week with the Tigers also playing on shorter rest. In other words, the SEC office did Missouri, a program constantly told it doesn’t belong, a few favors.
Astute SEC observers could do themselves a favor, too, and not sleep on Missouri.
Missouri, though, couldn’t care less either way.
“I think we know what we’ve built at Mizzou,” center Connor Tollison told SDS at SEC Media Days. “We are used to hearing about other programs, for sure. I don’t think much of the talking matters once we play football on the field. We are going to play fast and play physical. It’s been a good formula.”
It’s been one of the best formulas in the SEC.
It seems disrespectful to think it won’t be again in 2025.
Under Drinkwitz, Missouri is almost as used to disrespect as it is to winning.
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.
