What Eli Drinkwitz said about Texas A&M possibly recognizing offensive play calls at the line
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Texas A&M coach Mike Elko gave the football-coach rendition of pleading the Fifth.
Missouri football left tackle Cayden Green indicated that Texas A&M defensive players were calling out Mizzou’s plays at the line during the Aggies’ 38-17 beatdown of Mizzou on Saturday in Columbia. Elko was asked about it during his Monday press conference.
“I don’t know anything about that,” the former defensive playcaller and second-year Texas A&M HC said.
Elko’s post-answer smirk suggested otherwise.
“I don’t know anything about that.” 🤔😂 pic.twitter.com/GO9krJ5HAs
— Carter Karels (@CarterKarels) November 10, 2025
That’s potentially a concern for Mizzou, which has stagnated on offense in the past few games. The Tigers have failed to eclipse 20 points in regulation in games against Auburn, Vanderbilt, and, most recently, with true freshman QB Matt Zollers making his first start, Texas A&M.
“A few times, I think they were starting to get reads on, like, formations and stuff, maybe stances. I don’t know,” Green said Saturday postgame. “But, like I said, that’s a really good defense.”
Now, the Aggies have one of the most aggressive, successful defenses in the nation this season, especially on third downs. There’s no major shame in losing the battle to the Aggies.
But, if Mizzou is tipping its hand on offense, that’s a potentially long-term issue.
So, Drinkwitz was asked about it during his Tuesday media availability.
“Obviously, we’ve got to do a better job with some of our signaling and communication, and obviously, we’ve got to go back and check our tendencies,” Drinkwitz said. “We came back off of the bye week and felt like we had a pretty good handle on our tendency stuff. You know, we run a lot of outside zone. I think that’s probably pretty predictable.
“So, we’ve just got to go back and make sure that we’re doing the best job we can to check our stances, check our wording and verbiage to make sure that we’re clean on that.”
One of the game-deciding plays came toward the end of the first half, when Texas A&M linebacker Daymion Sanford strip-sacked Matt Zollers and the Aggies returned it inside the Mizzou 5-yard line. Two plays later, Texas A&M scored and took a 14-0 lead into halftime.
The Aggies got pressure on Zollers seven times, per Pro Football Focus, and turned that into two sacks — both of which resulted in fumbles from the QB. Green recovered one for Mizzou, and the Aggies got the other.
Drinkwitz, postgame Saturday, detailed the cat-and-mouse game the two teams played up front between defensive scheme and protection plans.
“When we were running our seven-man protection, they were dropping the field end and overloading the weak side. So, you’ve got a four-man slide,” Drinkwitz said Saturday. “They were forcing the tailback to go to the field to pick up the double-mode linebacker and then bringing the boundary safety, which would make it a four-man side. So, we tried to counter that by going (max protection). And then they were dropping into zone. And then we went into that (12-personnel) full slide, which was effective the first time.
“And then the second time, he went odd, brought somebody from the outside, put somebody in the C-gap, and then swarmed the Mike (linebacker) to split the D-gap and C-gap area.”
That showed up on the strip sack.
Mizzou was in 12 personnel with max protection to the right, meaning two tight ends were lined up outside of right tackle Keagan Trost. Sanford swung to the field and blitzed off the outside shoulder of fellow linebacker Taurean York, and MU tight end Jordon Harris was overwhelmed with a double-team.
Drinkwitz said he gave the go-ahead to try to go for a first down on the play, which was on third-and-10. The coach added that he made a mistake and should have called a screen pass.
That isn’t necessarily concrete evidence of the Aggies recognizing the Tigers’ call at the line, but the free rusher would indicate that they saw something they believed they could exploit. And the call worked. Sanford got to Zollers essentially untouched.
Missouri faces Mississippi State this upcoming Saturday, Nov. 15, in Columbia for its home finale of the 2025 season. The Tigers’ biggest ambitions for the upcoming season are dashed, as their third loss on the year eliminated them from contending for a College Football Playoff spot.
But there’s more to play for this year.
Mizzou is still capable of winning 10 games this season, which would mark a third straight season eclipsing double-digit wins — something that has never been done before in program history.
But that won’t happen without significant offensive improvement.
“In any game I’ve ever been a part of, whether it’s a win or a loss, whether I’ve been calling plays or not calling plays; whether I’ve been a GA — I’ve never had an offensive coordinator or defensive coordinator not come in and say, ‘I wish I would have handled this situation a little bit better. I wish I could have done this differently,'” Drinkwitz said.
“And I don’t think there’s anything about Saturday that we all don’t go back and say, ‘I wish I would have done this differently. I wish I would have said we would have been in safe punt on the third down.’
“And, so, the assessments, really, for all of that stuff for me happens at the end of the year. We’re all working right now to try to find a way to improve, figure out what we can do better, how we play to our players’ strengths, and find a way to win versus Mississippi State.”
This article originally appeared on Columbia Daily Tribune: What Eli Drinkwitz said about Texas A&M possibly predicting MU play calls
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