Tiger Talk Notes and Quotes: Aggies Edition

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Eli Drinkwitz returned to Harpo’s Tuesday for Tiger Talk following Mizzou’s historically dominant win over Florida.

Quarterback Austin Simmons and cornerback Sione Laulea also joined Drinkwitz and Mike Kelly to talk the win, the Tigers’ upcoming matchup with Texas A&M, and more.

Here are the highlights of what they said:

Head Coach Eli Drinkwitz

• Drinkwitz had a theory on why the crowd skewed older than usual for this particular show: “Well, some people have got to start taking tests. It’s midterms at some point; these people have got to quit drinking and start studying, you know?”
• On the win over Florida: “We needed it. Our team responded after a very disappointing road loss, and so I was really proud of the guys, of the way they came out and handled business. I thought they played really steady, even when we faced some adversity there. Obviously, they scored first, we answered. We got a big stop, didn’t get any points. They went down and scored to tie the game up, and I thought our offense really started clicking. Obviously, we went 17 points in the swing eight, which was huge. So, you know, really proud of those guys. When you hold a Heisman front runner, I guess, to 13 yards rushing, it’s a pretty good day on defense.”
• On refocusing after a big win: “Like Bill Belichick used to say, ‘Hey, we’re on to A&M’, you know, and that’s really what practice was all about today was focusing on A&M, but finding ways to improve. The best football teams are constantly working on improvement. They’re not riding emotions; they’re not riding ‘Hey, we’re motivated because of this or that.‘ It’s ‘Hey, we’re working to improve because this is our craft and we love to do it every day.‘”
• On shifting Sterling Webb out to defensive end against Florida: “Just another great example of the brotherhood doing whatever it takes to find a way to win. We utilize this line a lot: there’s a way to win every game, you just have to find it. And I credit our coaches, [defensive tackles] coach [David] Blackwell and [defensive line] coach Chop [Harbin] and [edge rushers] coach [Brian] Early for finding a way to … we have the depth at d-tackle, so let’s slide Sterling out into the boundary and let him do the things that we need to do front-wise in order to stop the run. And then for him to get a transition to a sack was pretty big. It was pretty awesome.”
• On the timeline for Langden Kitchen and Darris Smith’s returns: “We talked about it today. The reality of it is, you’ve got to be smart. It’s a long season, and if you try to bring them back too early, you’re just going to set them back and you’re gonna hurt your team worse. So, you know, we’ll see. I think the bye week’s coming up, and that’s probably more realistic for everybody.”
• On Jaden Jones stepping up at edge rusher in their absence: “He had blood clots in April and wasn’t able to do anything until — really July 7 was the first day that he could work out again. So we’re starting to see him come back because he’s finally getting that two months or three months of workouts that you need, and so yeah, he’s improving. I know we can count on him. He played an excellent game.”
• On the improvement seen in special teams over the last few weeks: “Man, if we’ll just strain a little bit longer, we’ll dial into the details a little bit more, we can create some game-changing plays. And then you’ve got to credit our specialist. I mean, when Brunno’s on and he’s kicking, that’s a weapon. We’re pinning guys inside the 10 consistently; that’s huge for us. So there’s a lot of positives there, and I give a lot of credit to our team and our players for handling the criticism in a positive way and responding,”
• On special teams coordinator John Papuchis: “I’ve known JP for a while, even when he was at North Carolina and I was at North Carolina State, and I’ve respected who he was and as a coach for a long time. It was just a situation where he needed or wanted a different opportunity, and we needed a different voice, and so it worked out really good. His wife is actually from Blue Springs, so they had a connection to get back closer, and I think it’s worked out great for everybody.”
• On the first 11 a.m. kickoff of the year: “It doesn’t faze me a bit. Just tell us when to play. We’ve got a routine. You know, in fall camp, every practice was at 11, so it’s not really anything that we’re nervous about. You’ve just got to get up and get yourself ready to roll.”
• On Texas A&M quarterback Marcel Reed: “He’s done a really good job of playing the game the way he needs to play it in order to win. You look back at the game versus South Carolina when they’re down 29 points or whatever. He throws the ball very efficiently. He understands game plans. He can move the ball. I remember when he came in and beat Arkansas in 2024. I mean, the guy has played a lot of football and a lot of winning football, and so I have a lot of respect for him as a player.”
• When asked to tell fans something about Simmons, Drinkwitz revealed that his QB texts him in slang and he needs to look it up sometimes to figure out what it means: “He’s got his own type of language that he texts me, you know, and he keeps me hip.”

Quarterback Austin Simmons

• On keys for the offense against Texas A&M: “I think just staying neutral, you know, as far as like preparation goes. And also staying in front of the sticks — staying out of third and long situations, because Texas A&M’s really big on these exotic looks on third down. So just staying in front of the sticks, staying short on third down.”
• On the moment where he hyped up the crowd at the end of the third quarter: “Being from the state of Florida, beating Florida has always been my biggest dream. I used to have some relationships with that school as well in my recruiting process. That whole game by itself was just really circled on the calendar the entire offseason. So it felt great walking into the fourth quarter with that much of a lead.”
• On the culture difference at Mizzou: “I came from a program that used to have a whole lot of transfers and a whole lot of newcomers coming in, so it was nothing really new for me. But as far as like the connection goes, I’ve never seen anything like it before. I’ve talked to guys I’ve never thought I would speak to before; I’m really close with the specialists, I’m really close with defensive players like Sione. And as far as friendships go, I think I’m gonna have friends that last a lifetime.”
• Simmons said he goes out to dinner with his offensive line each Thursday during game week: “It’s just been special for me. They know that we’re on the same page on and off the field, and we’re just going to keep on going from there. ”
• He also mentioned that he loves hearing the MIZ-ZOU chant after each first down: “It’s probably one of the coolest experiences I ever had at the UAPB game.”
• On who he leans on when he needs someone to be real with him: “My quarterback coach [in Ft. Lauderdale] and also my mom. She’s always kept it real with me since day one, and she’s an islander — like, [Sione Laulea] can tell you how islanders are. They’re going to be stern with you, they’re going to be honest with you — sometimes brutally honest. She’s kept it real with me since day one, and she’s really nurtured me. She’s grown me into the man I am today.”

Cornerback Sione Laulea

• On the Florida win: “Obviously coming off of a loss, [we] kind of took that to heart. Coming in with a chip on our shoulder, took deep into the game plan, and you’ve got to respect the Southeastern Conference, knowing that every team is respected, every team’s great, and we just kind of bit into the process, into the game plan, and handled it well.”
• On the improvement in tackling: “Tackling was something we took in big coming away from Mississippi State, and we harped on extremely, and we tackled pretty well. We only missed five tackles in the game, and that’s something we’re harping on to continuing for this upcoming game. We feel like you tackle the ball, you run the game early, and you stop the run.”
• On accidentally pushing Florida’s gunner into Drinkwitz, causing him to fall over: “I’m guarding him going up the sideline, I’m getting kind of close. I’m thinking about driving him out, and then I take a peek; I see coach Drink by the visor, and I tried to stop. By that time it was too late, I hit him. I said sorry, he forgave me because it’s football.“
• On the challenge of playing in the SEC: “Every week is a battle. There’s no one you can look at in our conference where it’s like, ‘Okay, we’ve got a week off. This isn’t the Big 10.‘ At the end of the day, we are playing a great team week in and week out.”
• On the moment he fell in love with football: “My mother put me in pads when I was four. I was kind of uninterested in all the physical contact and whatnot. But all it took was one time getting hit; I cried, got up and hit someone back, and that was when I fell in love.”
• Some fun facts we learned about Laulea over the course of the show:
  • He has his realtor’s license in Oregon and is working to get one in Missouri, too
  • He plays the guitar, piano and ukelele
  • He has a dog named Uno
  • During his free time (and if others players are also free), he likes to go to AMF for bowling
• Laulea said that running back Malae Fonoti is the best bowler in the team and has something like five bowling balls. Simmons added: He’s a tryhard, bro.“

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