Tiger Talk Notes and Quotes: Florida Edition

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Eli Drinkwitz joined Mike Kelly at Harpo’s Tuesday night for Tiger Talk after Mizzou’s first loss of the season on the road against Mississippi State.

They talked about the defeat alongside the Tigers’ next game Saturday on Homecoming against Florida before defensive tackle Marquis Gracial and left tackle Cayden Green hopped on during the second half of the show and provided some interesting anecdotes — plus some funny stories, too.

Here are the highlights:

Head Coach Eli Drinkwitz

• Drinkwitz again paid for drinks for the bar, and did so with a nod to the history of Homecoming at Mizzou: “Chester [Brewer] wrote letters, I’m buying beers.”
• On the loss in Starkville: “The bottom line is you can’t start as slow as we did on either side of the ball, offense or defensively, and you can’t finish as poor as we did on offense and defense. We had a chance at the end of the game, didn’t finish. Execution, we had a chance to stop them, didn’t get it done, and had a chance to score and didn’t get it done. So, you know, a lot of lessons to be learned. We’re a football team that’s got to learn from every lesson. We’ve got guys that can obviously play at an elite level, but we’ve got to execute at a higher level throughout the game. So, you got to learn that lesson, and you know, learn the lesson, leave the event, and that’s kind of what we’ve done.”
• On what he saw in practice Tuesday: “We had a couple of guys getting into it during inside drill and during gotta have it period, which was awesome. That’s what you need, you know? And look, you got to have a bounce back factor in the SEC. It goes from one week of wars to another week of wars, and there’s no time to feel sorry for yourself or get down. You’ve got to learn your lessons, you’ve got to move on. And, you know, we’re beat up. We had to go out there and still be physical today. That’s part of it; that’s the game. We’ve played a third of our season, and we’ve got two thirds left, and we’ve got to fight for every inch that we have left.”
• On Florida: “Coach Sumrall’s done an excellent job at Florida. You’ve got to tip your hat to Scott Stricklin and that crew for hiring the perfect match, energy-wise and scheme-wise, for what they want to do. They got a tremendous run game, they’ve got an explosive pass game, their quarterback’s playing well, they’ve got a really good defense highlighted by Jayden Woods, a kid from Kansas City who’s an outstanding football player. They’ve got really good special teams, you know, and they’re playing well together as a group. So it’s going to be require our best effort as a team, as a coaching staff, as a fan base.”
• On tackling issues early in the season: “I think one of the disappointing things from last week was our inability to get the first guy to get the ball down. We had way too many missed tackles that led to leaked yardage, and that’s been two weeks in a row. So we have got to get that off the tape if we want to have an opportunity in this contest.”
• On the status of Langden Kitchen and Darris Smith: “Both are questionable. You know, we kind of have a policy that you have to practice by Thursday in order for us to feel confident that you can execute in the game plan. Last week, you know, Darris just was not able to really get going. He’s been walking around the building, he’s doing everything he can to get going … hopefully we’ll make some progress tonight and tomorrow, and we’ll see how that goes.”
• On Daeden Hopkins and his recruitment: “A lot of credit goes to (former special teams coordinator) Eric Link. That was Eric Link’s area. He did a tremendous job recruiting him, and really the number one thing we saw was the length that he had and athleticism. He played tight end, basketball. I remember going to the Hermann gym and watching him play basketball and [he] had a dunk in the game. You know, his mom was a Division I volleyball player at Nebraska, so he comes from great genes and traits. But he’s got an unbelievable work ethic, and he’s a guy that we knew fit Mizzou.”
• On Brunno Reus and his impact last Saturday: “It took us a while to get started, and him pinning them down inside the five really jump-started our team, so maybe they’ll let us start with punts instead of kickoffs, huh?”
• On his connection with Florida offensive line coach Phil Trautwein: “I actually tried to hire him when I first got this job. It was us, and he actually accepted the job for about 12 hours, and then took the Penn State job. So I’ve got a ton of respect for Phil. He’s a tremendous football coach, and so those guys you can tell have kind of figured out what their run game identity is going to be.”
• On Marquis Gracial and Cayden Green: “Both of these guys went with me on this trip to Jamaica last year and were just outstanding representatives to the university. Me and Marquise got a chance to pass buckets back and forth for a while, that was awesome. You know, Cayden has been one of those guys that has been an outstanding leader. He’s a guy that came back home, made a commitment to the University of Missouri, and I think his defined commitment, to me, has been how quickly he’s battled back from injury. And that, to me, shows not not just how much he loves the University of Missouri, but how much he loves his teammates.”
• Continued: “There’s a lot of times where people don’t come back quite as quick because maybe it’s not good for them; man, he came back because it was best for our team, and I will always have a ton of respect for him for that. And then Marquis, man, Marquis has really, really worked hard to put himself in this position, has bought into our development, you know, to Coach Russ, to Kennedy and the nutrition, he’s put together like a Greek god.”

Defensive Tackle Marquis Gracial

• On how the defense can improve: “We have to improve in tackling. That’s definitely one point of emphasis that we’ve been really looking at this week, just from last game. But I think we’ve got solid players, and I think we just need to execute in those ways. And when we will, we’ll be right where we want to be.”
• On how he dropped weight in the offseason: “I used to eat a lot of McDonald’s, but now it’s more Chipotle, things like that. But really, just when I was eating, also like drinking plenty of water. It’s really the simple stuff; it’s really no secret to, you know, trimming down. You’ve just got to do it.”
• On the relationships built through football: “Not only do you get to play with guys and have fun with them in that way, but just after the game of football, you’ve made friends that may come to your wedding. So it’s bigger than ball, for real.”
• On how he fell in love with football during middle school: “Just being able to tackle people and not get in trouble for real — (pause for laughter from crowd) man, that’s really what it was. Yeah, I used to get in trouble when I was younger a little bit. Got into sports and it was cool: I could be aggressive, take it out on the field, and chill when I go home.”
• On his message to fans after Saturday’s loss: “We’re a team that don’t give up, and we’re a team that flushes it. We went out, had a good practice. We’re gonna go out, have a good practice tomorrow, and that’s what we can focus on is just right here, right now. We can’t really worry about what happened last game.”

Left Tackle Cayden Green

• Green mentioned that his fiancee, Alyssa Hurt, was in the crowd and also celebrating her birthday. Mike Kelly prompted the crowd to sing her ‘Happy Birthday,’ and the bar was more than happy to oblige.
• On how the offense can improve: “Up front it takes five playing as one. But even to go deeper than that, when you talk about the core, you talk about the running backs, the tight ends, the 0-line. We’ve all got to be on the same page so we can get this running game going because that’s going to be big for us in the next few weeks.”
• On his senior year: “Time’s definitely flown by. I mean, the challenge always is taking things one day at a time, one moment at a time, and just enjoying everything, not looking to the next moment. So I think that’s been the big challenge for me.”
• Green said that Luke Work, who is from Sommerville, Tennessee, put him onto country music and he’s been listening to it a little bit recently. He didn’t say what artists or songs have stood out, unfortunately — maybe something that will get asked the next time Green talks at the mid-week press conference?
• On his decision to transfer to Mizzou: “During that year at Oklahoma, it just didn’t really fit me. So when I had the chance to come back home, it was a big deal to me. It was something I had to jump on, and I don’t regret it for one second.”
• On what it means to play on Faurot Field: “Coming out to the new end zone is actually really cool. But I still remember the first game I ever ran out of that tunnel when I was a sophomore playing against Murray State. I knew from then it was something special.”

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