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1) One thing has dominated the post-game talk since Thurdsay night: Quarterbacks. I get it. It's the most important position on the field. It's fairly obvious Brady Cook is the starter. I'm not particularly interested in debating the merits of that. What has most interested me is the reaction to Cook being the starter and the nonexistence of the competition Eli Drinkwitz has been promoting. First off, let me be clear that I believe Mizzou went into the offseason with a quarterback competition. I do not believe it went into last week with a quarterback competition. I do not know when the competition ended and the decision was made, but I think it was before last week. There have been quite a few people upset that Drinkwitz kept promoting it as a competition. They feel misled, tricked and lied to. And that's what I'm interested in.
The first question is did Drinkwitz handle the postgame poorly? I think we can all agree he doesn't owe it to us to tell us who's starting at quarterback. I've never bought into the idea that it gives a team a competitive advantage and I don't think it really hurts him to tell us, but he doesn't have to by any means. Anyone that is upset he made us think Sam Horn could win the starting job when it doesn't appear that's really true I'm not sure I understand where that anger is coming from. Anyway, I'm not worried about how Drinkwitz handled it pregame. We're talking postgame.
There are really two things that are drawing aggravation. First off, when asked on the field about the quarterback competition Drinkwitz said something along the lines of (I'm paraphrasing here because I didn't see it) "Brady scored 28 and Sam scored 7." He's not wrong. That does matter. It's a little flip, certainly. But I don't think it's this ridiculous thing that anybody should really be angry about. And the main reason is that I think interviews coming off the field are terrible and shouldn't happen. I get that they're part of the broadcast and the coaches are obligated to do them. But think about the most intense day of work you've had all year. Whatever your job is, you've spent months building up to this one presentation you have to give. That presentation lasts three hours after you'd put everything you had into giving it. And then, as you walk toward the door to leave the room, someone comes up to you and says "What do you think? How did it go?" And they broadcast it on national television. In other words, I just don't put a whole lot of stock into what any coach says in an interview walking off the field. At least by the time he's in the media room he's had 20 minutes to process what happened and had a talk with his SID to anticipate what questions are coming. I honestly don't ever remember getting a useful piece of information out of an in-game interview. Some are better at it than others, but none of them are worthwhile.
The second thing drawing attention is Drinkwitz's long-winded defense of Brady Cook in the last question of his postgame press conference. Go to the 14:20 mark
The first important thing to note here is that Drinkwitz was asked a question about Cook's leadership. He launches into a long dissertation about how Cook just wants to win, what's best for the team, etc. This is when he said the line about wanting Cook to date one of his daughters (this is a huge nothing burger; this is the equivalent of a coach saying "He's the kind of man you hop your daughter brings home to marry one day." A million coaches have said that and there's nothing creepy or wrong with it).
After his answer here, the reporter follows up with "It sounds like you have your quarterback." He says no, then launches into his bit telling the media and fans that their opinions don't matter and he doesn't care about them. First of all, he's right. We all know our opinions don't matter. None of us is asking for a vote. This isn't a democratic process. I didn't take any offense to what he said, but some have. I don't really think anyone should be offended, but I also don't think it's something he needs to say out loud. So while I don't think there's any reason for anyone to be all that upset at how Drinkwitz handled the postgame--and I don't think it's in the top five of silly things he's done or said in front of a microphone--he could have handled it better.
2) The second question, and the more pertinent one, is does it matter?
Honestly, not really. If he wins eight or nine games this season, he'll be able to stand at that very same podium and tell every one of us to go f--- ourselves and even the people who are upset with him right now won't be bothered a bit. The reaction to the postgame comments I think have largely been driven by people who are frustrated that Missouri football hasn't been very good under Drinkwitz and didn't show us any clear signs on Thursday night that it's going to be better this year. Winning coaches can't say anything wrong and coaches that are doing anything less than winning at what is deemed an appropriate level can't say anything right. So ultimately I don't think it really matters what Drinkwitz said or how he said it.
However, I do understand the point of view that his comments after the game added up to making it seem like he is in Cook's corner in this competition and, as a result, against Horn. I know enough to know that's not the case. But I can see why some would take his comments that way. Ultimately, as long as Horn and his family and his teammates understand that's not true, it doesn't matter what we think it seemed like. The only issue is if there's a perception in the locker room, and particularly at Horn's locker, that it's true. I don't really think there is, but obviously I'm not in the locker room so I can't say for sure. Drinkwitz doesn't owe any of us an explanation. But at some point in the last 72 hours, he does need to have made sure that Horn didn't take his comments the way a lot of the public has. If he's done that, he's fine.
3) Of course, this is all part of a larger picture. This is not the first time Drinkwitz's words have come out without being fully vetted. It is not the last time his mouth will get him in trouble. As I was talking to a friend over the weekend explaining why I didn't think the coach's comments after the game were out of bounds, my friend brought up a good point: Every time something like this happens someone has an explanation and we're always hearing about how what he said was taken out of context. But if you have to explain everything he says with context it gets old. Maybe he could just stop saying things that require so much explanation.
And I think that's fair. From a media perspective, Drinkwitz is great to cover. You never know exactly what he's going to say. He provides us good material. Sometimes it's a one-liner, sometimes it's a longer rant against something, sometimes it's flippant and sometimes it's thoughtful. But the man isn't boring and doesn't rely on coachspeak. So from my perspective, I'm all for it. But from a fan's perspective? Or from another coach's perspective? Drinkwitz doesn't tend to make many friends outside the walls of his own building with his comments.
He has the potential to be Steve Spurrier from a media and public perspective. The difference is Steve Spurrier won a whole lot of football games. Drink hasn't yet. The right to be that guy is earned and he hasn't earned it yet. Drinkwitz has made a lot of headlines over four years, but not many of them have been for winning football games. He's talked over and over about needing to tone it down and let his football team do the talking. Sometimes he even manages to do it for a while. But eventually he can't help himself. He sees a microphone and starts rolling and then we're all on message boards debating for three days why he says what he says. In a perfect Mizzou world, he'd stop doing that. But at this point, I don't really think he can. This is who he is. Either the wins will catch up to his words and we'll all view it as funny and endearing while other fanbases absolutely hate him or they won't and Missouri fans will join fans of pretty much every other team in saying "Man I'm tired of that guy running his mouth and going .500 every year."
Fair or not, that's the absolute truth. Because of what my job is, I'm good with Drinkwitz continuing to be himself and talk. But looking at it from a Mizzou (fan or admin) perspective, I'd sure like him to give boring press conferences and say nothing until he's got an eight- or nine-win season under his belt.
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