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Transcript

Eli ±á´Ç´Ú´Ú:ÌýHi y'all, and welcome to this week's chat. Apologies for the late start today — our practice viewing window happened to be right at 11, but I'm settled in now to answer all of your questions. Straight to it, then!

Tom O: I find it interesting the limited exposure Drink allows the press to his program. I remember when our former coach Barry Odum was urged to give more time to local media to increase coverage of the team.

I am watching the Netflix show on The SEC and had to laugh at the interview with the Florida coach if it bothered him that the alumni had raised $27 million to buy out his contract. It seems to me for many coaches even getting fired can be a good thing.

Any updates on the quarterback battle?

±á´Ç´Ú´Ú:ÌýI'll go in reverse order there. No changes to the QB battle. Drinkwitz did a radio segment with a station in Norman, Oklahoma, this morning and said there's been "no separation." Sounds like Pribula has been better some days and Horn has been better others. I'd still give Pribula a 60-40 lead, but even that's not especially concrete. 

Re: coaches and buyouts: Any gig where you get paid millions not to work sounds pretty good. Hard to find much sympathy for people who get that kind of money if they get canned. 

And re: the media access... Drinkwitz is pretty transparently about attracting national media attention. He knows he has a local base who will show up to everything, whether that's a full practice (which we don't get to see, to be clear) or 45 minutes of nonsense. What's his incentive to open up more then? He and his players are also constantly, constantly, constantly online, searching their names. So they don't like to see bad practice clips of themselves surface. For example, one player was unhappy this week after a rep in which he got beat did the rounds on Twitter. Now that we've all got video cameras in our pockets and can get that video online in a matter of seconds, coaches are more paranoid than ever. 

I think access would look different if we didn't all have phones and social media. If someone wants to report something that happened at a practice, it'd be better for everyone involved if they had to think for a minute and write it out versus just blast it out there. I joked with a PR staffer today that I'd happily put my phone in a locker for two hours if it meant I could watch more practice and learn something. Because right now, all we're getting are some meaningless visuals for TV crews to capture B-rolls and J-School kids to try to get social media clout. It's better than nothing but doesn't mean much more. Rant over. 

¸é³Ü²õ²õ:ÌýGood morning, Eli. I saw in The Athletic that Mizzou was one of the SEC programs that didn't participate in NetFlix's Any Given Saturday documentary. I must say I was a little surprised. With Drink's tendency to bring attention to the program, I would've thought this was right down his alley, so to speak.

±á´Ç´Ú´Ú:ÌýIt's about control. Mizzou, for example, has put out the "mini movies" after games and even done some serialized storytelling out of spring ball. I believe the creative staff is working on a similar series for fall camp. That stuff is all done in-house. If Drinkwitz doesn't want them to show which quarterback threw the pick that makes it onto social media as a defensive highlight, they won't. They can pick and choose soundbites more. I'm not sure what the editorial process behind the Netflix series was or what promises were made, but I'm sure those programs had less control than what they do over their own in-house media. Coaches don't believe all publicity is good publicity anymore. They'd much rather play it safe and let who they control behind the scenes. 

³¢³Ü:ÌýHey Eli, thanks for all the work you've been putting in keeping us satiated. I typically hate these type of questions, so feel free to bend it any way to make it more interesting.... What does another 10 win season do for Mizzou's brand? Of course we won't be considered a blue blood next year, but would this be a sort of stepping stone in that direction?

±á´Ç´Ú´Ú:ÌýI'm of two minds. Regardless, it certainly wouldn't be a bad thing. The "big deal" part of me would point out Mizzou's never had three 10-win seasons in a row, so it would confirm this is uncharted territory for the program in a very good way. There's a good chance 10 wins comes with a CFP bid, but I won't dig into that and instead just focus on the 10-win aspect. The "not a big deal" part of me would argue that another 10-win season at face value wouldn't change all that much. People who don't think Mizzou belongs in the SEC, at this point, aren't changing their minds. (Who changes their mind on something nowadays anyway?) The same questions about sustainability will stick around. I don't think the program's credibility with recruits/transfers would change all that much, since it's about money now anyway. Maybe I lean toward it not being as much of a needle-mover by itself. But a playoff appearance is far more of a program-changer and would honestly be even more of a statement than 2023 was. 

´³´Ç³ó²ÔÂá314:ÌýEli, re the QB competition, what if any pressure does Drink have to play Pribula over Horn bc of his seven figure NIL money? Shouldn’t matter but the ones paying the $$$ could exert some political pressure.

±á´Ç´Ú´Ú:ÌýI don't get the sense that money will be a factor, for a couple reasons. First, while Horn might not be making as much as Pribula (and no, I don't know the exact figures for either), I know Horn isn't playing for free. It's not like all of MU's QB money is tied up in Pribula. Second, Drinkwitz has a track record of playing the guys he wants to play, not the guys he pays. Look at the freshmen last season. Williams Nwaneri was making some really good money for a freshman and hardly sniffed the field. I'm sure Crutchfield and Lacy were in similar boats. And evidently even after losing them to the portal with no return on investment, Drinkwitz still got the money he needed to hit the portal aggressively for this season. 

To add to that point: the Mizzou assistants/position coaches don't even see the contracts that players sign, which is deliberate to keep a boundary between the money side and the playing side. They probably have a rough sense of what the guys in their room are making, or who's making the most, but that helps keep playing time decisions independent from cap management ones.

The only way in which I see QB money being a factor is if it's quite literally a dead heat between Horn and Pribula, in which case the latter probably wins out more because he's got two years of eligibility that he'll use whereas Horn is likely off to the Dodgers farm system next year.

²ÑÂá³ó³Ù¾±²µ±ð°ù:Ìýinteresting article on the QB situation and the affect on the offensive strategy at Mizzou today. Do you have any insight on how the players feel about Horn and Beau

±á´Ç´Ú´Ú:ÌýThanks! Here's that story in case anyone missed it — some good thoughts from Drinkwitz and Kirby Moore on the schematic implications of the QB battle and a really fascinating stat I found about Mizzou's record with running quarterbacks...

As for the players, I have absolutely no idea. They're media trained not to say anything interesting about the QB battle. I don't even ask about it. What are they going to say? One guy's terrible? One guy's a jerk? And I'm not even sure how much they notice who's throwing them the ball. They're probably far more worried about the route they're running, who they're blocking, who/what they're covering than to analyze the quarterback's form, zip or placement. The QB competition is all-consuming for us, but not for the players. 

´³´Ç³ó²Ô³¢:ÌýYoung Man-Any feel for the Confidence levels of the 2 QB's? Any traits that stick out? Do they walk-the-walk? Please advise.

±á´Ç´Ú´Ú:ÌýI get the sense Mizzou would be comfortable with either Pribula or Horn starting any given SEC game. If Drinkwitz et al didn't, they would've gone portaling for another competitor. Drinkwitz has commented a few times about how important he's realized it is to have a backup you can trust and that regardless of who's named the starter, he'll have a QB2 he's quite happy with. I get the sense he's wanting to be wowed by one of them in camp before he names a starter. 

I've mentioned this before, but the way Horn throws passes really stands out. It's exactly what you want a throwing motion to look like. But I just haven't seen reps against a defense that tell me who's more accurate in the ways it counts, who has deep passing touch, etc. So unfortunately, I've got nothing to give you there. You'll see other people come up with takeaways from watching Pribula and Horn throw against air. That's got all the substance of cotton candy, so I'm not going to spin flavored air for y'all. 

¶Ù°ä³Ò:ÌýEli: Count me as one who is hoping for Horn to win the job. I anticipate Mizzou once again developing a punishing run game, and I think the best complement to the that is the ability to push the ball down the field in the passing game. Cook's limitations with this beginning really with the second half of 2023 turned the offense into one that had to grind out 10+ play drives to score, and it takes just one mistake to get off schedule and derail such drives. I think the fact that Horn's arm is big enough to hit 20 yard routes loosens things up for Norfleet as well. I just think he brings more options to the passing game, which offsets whatever advantage Pribula has with his legs.

±á´Ç´Ú´Ú:ÌýI'll point-counterpoint this. In support of what you're arguing, it feels like Mizzou has wanted to be the kind of offense that slings the ball all around the field, especially since Kirby Moore came in. MU got that going a bit in 2023 when the sail pattern stuff really clicked and leaned into it last year, but Cook's footwork was off and then he was hurt and the game plan had to change. If Horn allows them to do more of that stuff, I can see the appeal.

The counter, based mostly on a stat I put together yesterday while writing the QB battle-scheme piece. Since Moore took over, Mizzou is 12-0 in games with a QB rushing touchdown and 6-0 in games with at least 50 QB rushing yards. That's wild to me. Having a quarterback who can run might actually be the real bottom line of the competition, at least based on this offense's track record over the last two seasons. (The quotes from Moore and Drinkwitz in that piece, linked above, add to that theory too.)

Now, it's not like Horn can't run or Pribula can't throw. Maybe Horn gives enough of a running/scrambling/improvising ability to keep that as part of the offense. Maybe Pribula's strength in the intermediate range extends to 20+ yards downfield. That's just stuff we don't know. Just adds to why this decision is so compelling for us observers. 

Matt L: What’s the outlook on the o-line? It’s always important, but with a new QB it will be even more critical to give him time and establish a run game.

±á´Ç´Ú´Ú:ÌýPositive, I think, with the by-now-tedious asterisk about me having seen nothing to let me form an independent opinion on O-line quality. I've seen zero live reps of O-line vs. D-line. Tollison and Green are two of the best at their positions in the country, so that ought to be solid. Keagen Trost won the RT job very quickly, which tells me he's got a lot of trust — this staff errs on the side of opening competitions vs. declaring starters, so ending that quickly means something. Same goes for Giudice at right guard. Left tackle's the question mark and will be going into the season. I think it'll be Jayven Richardson there (and I become more confident in that every day), but what his level compared to SEC edge rushers is, we just don't know. Mizzou should have a good idea by watching him against any of the edges it has on the roster, at least. That's the upside. The downside is the most important spot on the line being theoretically the riskiest. 

°Õ²¹³ó²¹°ù³Ù27:ÌýGood day to you Eli--hope all is well your way. I'm wondering if you have heard anything about Gary Pinkel since his arrest a few weeks ago now I think it's been on the DUI charge?

±á´Ç´Ú´Ú:ÌýIt's been about a month, and I still don't see a complete charge in online court records, which is odd. I haven't heard from his legal team or anyone else on whether charges are expected or not, and there still aren't public details about what happened or led to his arrest. I'm obviously hoping all is well with him personally, and we'll see what happens with the legal proceedings. 

°Õ²¹³ó²¹°ù³Ù27:ÌýEli, If Fine baum hasn't had you on his show by now, it's a bleeping disgrace. But I don't know if he ever has or not? And if you are ever going to be on, will you be sure to alert us of it ahead of time?

±á´Ç´Ú´Ú:ÌýI went on with Paul once last football season. I think it was right before the Vanderbilt game. And I was on the radio-only version last month when he was out of town and a fill-in host invited me to join, but that was far from the same experience. I'll be sure to announce on Twitter if/when Paul invites me back. Often, they line up guests the same day, I've found. 

°Õ²¹³ó²¹°ù³Ù27:ÌýI've never really understood what those strange-looking helmets are all about that the players use in practice. My guess would be they are made of some softer material to discourage hard hits that have the potential to cause concussions?

±á´Ç´Ú´Ú:ÌýThey're called "guardian caps," and yes, they're intended to soften blows and prevent concussions. A small group of NFL players even wear them in games now. It's worth Googling them to learn more... I've heard split things on whether they work, but nothing empirical enough for me to give a verdict. 

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