Mizzou football presser notes: Music City Bowl

Dec 29, 2024 | Uncategorized

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Missouri defensive coordinator Corey Batoon exits the field before a game against Alabama on Saturday, Oct. 26, 2024, at Bryant-Denny Stadium in Tuscaloosa, Ala. (CAL TOBIAS/ROCK M NATION)

Eli Drinkwitz, Kirby Moore and Corey Batoon spoke to reporters ahead of Monday’s contest against Iowa.

While the Music City Bowl wasn’t quite what Mizzou had in mind as a postseason destination before the 2024 campaign, the Tigers still have a shot at meaningful history. A win over Iowa on Monday would clinch their second consecutive 10-win season for just the third time in program history.

The contest will likely be a tough one; despite Iowa star running back Kaleb Johnson opting out, Mizzou will have to face a vaunted Hawkeye defense without two of its best players in Luther Burden III and Armand Membou, both of whom opted out as well.

MU head coach Eli Drinkwitz, offensive coordinator Kirby Moore and defensive coordinator Corey Batoon spoke to reporters ahead of the clash in Nashville. Here’s what they had to say.

Eli Drinkwitz | Head coach

Opening statement: “Bowl games are still a great experience for our student-athletes and for college football, and this is an outstanding bowl game, and we tip our hat to Nashville and everybody who hosted.”

“You watch these bowl games. It’s going to come down to turnovers and takeaways, tackling, and penalties. We’ve got to be clean in those areas to give ourselves a chance. One of the Hallmarks of Coach Ferentz’s football teams is they just don’t beat themselves. They force the other team into mistakes, and we’re going to have to do a nice job of playing sound football.”

On the seniors: “There’s a ton of construction going on in Faurot Field right now, and right before we left they had already tore down all the bricks in the north end zone. It was just a reminder of all the hard work that this senior class has done. I told those guys before we left that none of this would be possible if it wasn’t for them, their resiliency, their toughness, their commitment to seeing it through. So I have a lot of appreciation for all of them, whether it’s guys who have been here the whole time, whether it’s Drake Heismeyer, Mitch (Walters), Will Norris, Brady Cook, or whether it’s the transfers who believed in us, Joseph Charleston to Kristian Williams, Johnny Walker (Jr.), who was here the whole time. All of those guys. Nate Noel, coming this year. All of those guys hold a special place in Mizzou football history.”

On building a consistent program: “I think in order to have the sustained culture you have to have a foundation. Each year you have to relay that foundation.

“I was talking to Coach Ferentz last night. When you look across college football, I think our two programs have done a really good job. We’ve had two opt-outs I think on both sides because of potential NFL futures and careers, and we totally understand that, but the rest of the senior classes are wanting to play, and they want to play together for the brotherhood.”

“That was something that D-Rob and Kris Abrams-Draine and those guys, J.C. (Jaylon Carlies), started last year, and I think it’s something that Johnny Walker and Brady Cook want to continue. I know those guys’ leadership will continue to exist with the next generation coming, the next group of players.”

On a recent ruling that allows players who transferred up to the junior college level an extra year of eligibility: “I’ve come to the point that I realize my opinion really doesn’t matter. Until there’s somebody actually in charge of college football, our opinions are just a wasted breath, and people take those opinions and twist them and turn them however they want to. They either use it against a coach, or they use it to prove their point on social media. It’s really a waste of time. I think for me and for our program it’s about utilizing the new rule change to try to benefit your program to the best way possible and be adaptable, like I said. I’m not going to get caught up in making bold statements and all that. I think at the end of the day for me it’s just about whatever the rules are.”

“I said this in COVID. There’s a scene in Apollo 13 where they’re trying to figure out how to get the three-man crew into the shuttle, and they take this bag of stuff and they dump it out. All right, guys, you have to figure out how to get this filter to fix this. That’s kind of what we’re doing with the NCAA. Right now we just take a bag and stuff and say, here are the rules, and we have to figure it out. We do that.”

On what it would mean for Mizzou to win 10 games in back-to-back seasons: “I’m not really caught up in the outcome of that. I think obviously for us it’s an opportunity to play for a championship, and that’s the single focus for us. It’s an opportunity to play for the TransPerfect Music City Bowl Championship. The long-term effects besides that, I’m not caught up in SEC versus Big Ten. I’m not caught up in any of that. This is really a stand-alone game. It’s really different than what you had at the end of the season because of the free agency period that occurs. So for us — I hate to be like this, but it’s really an exhibition game. For us, it’s an opportunity to go take our players and play one last time together. If you are fortunate enough to win, it catapults you into next year. If you don’t, then you came up short and you fly back home and celebrate the new year, and you start all over. I don’t know that it carries more significance than that.”

On players that might step into bigger roles against Iowa: “Marquis (Johnson) and Josh Manning are going to step up into bigger roles this game. With the injury to Brett Norfleet, it allows Jordon (Harris) and Tyler (Stephens) and potentially Jude James to have a bigger role. On the defensive side of the ball, there are some younger guys. Nick Rodriguez and Jeremiah Beasley, [who] should get more reps.”

On listening to a story from a famous country music songwriter: “One of the songwriters had moved to Nashville. She had been here for nine years. When she first got here, she had no idea what it would take to become a professional writer. You don’t just walk up and get hired. You have to work, and you have to survive. You have to sustain, and you have to go through some tough times. She actually started a dog-sitting business. I’m not going to use the word, but she had this dog-sitting business. She would go and babysit dogs of famous country music city artists, and she would follow them and pick up their business in the grass. She’s, like, I’m chasing my dream doing this, right? She’s a wildly successful writer who has had three No. 1s in the last two years, and it was just for me a reminder that I wish my players could hear that story because there’s no such thing as an instant success. Whether or not you are recruited based off your potential, no matter where you go, you have to develop. You’ve got to get better. You see all these guys jumping in the portal after six months of being on campus, and that’s just not real life. That’s like a country music writer or star. You drive up and down Broadway, and there’s people playing in every single bar, and they’re extremely, extremely talented. There’s 132 Division I football teams, and everybody has talent. Talent is not enough. You have to work hard. You have to face the tough stuff and keep pressing forward … just because you’re not where you want to be right now doesn’t mean that door is closed. It just means you have to keep knocking.”

On Iowa’s defense: “There’s a consistency to what they do. You know fundamentally they’re going to be really good. You know the front six is a veteran group. They’ve played a lot of football together. Their two safeties know exactly where they’re at in the fits. They can play man-to-man out there on the corner positions. They’re going to win one-on-ones. They make you earn every inch. It’s a really challenging scheme to go against. It’s why they’ve been wildly successful, but they have program alignment. Their offense complements their defense. Their defense complements their special teams. You know what they’re trying to do in order to win the game. It’s a real challenge. You have to beat the whole team. You can’t just beat one person. You can’t just beat one matchup. You have to beat the whole team in order to have a chance to win.”

On Brady Cook: “What a wonderful example of sticking to it of fighting through adversity, ignoring the outside noise, and just focusing on getting better. He’s a young man who from day one wanted to be here and has had to endure, whether it’s been injuries from shoulder, whether it’s been injuries this season, he’s always put the team first. He’s always tried to improve. He’s always tried to be a leader. I think back to the South Carolina game. X-rays his wrist. It still shows a break. It’s his call. It’s 100% his call. Can you play? It’s up to you. We would never put you in jeopardy. As long as it was his call, he was going to play. That’s rare these days. For him to be out there this week with so much bright future ahead of him, he wouldn’t miss it because it means something to play with his teammates. It means something to put that Missouri Tiger uniform on. That’s the college football that we all know and love and believe in and are excited about.”

On the recent transfers that Mizzou has acquired: “I think the first thing is they’re not really playing for me. They’re playing for us, and they’re playing with our brotherhood. It’s never going to be about me. It’s going to be about our university, our brotherhood, the environment that we create, and the opportunity that we have. I think we’re not for everybody. We’re very selective in how we approach the recruiting process, the transfer portal. We recruit a specific style and a specific player. We were able to get the right guys.”

“People can like me all they want, but if I don’t pay them, they ain’t coming. I don’t mean that like that. If they don’t have NIL opportunities, then they’re not coming. So you have to have the competitive NIL market. Sorry, Marcy (Girton). I know that’s going to get me in trouble.”

On Kristian Williams: “When you talk about a guy with an elite E.D.G.E., he’s got the same energy every day. He focuses on details. He takes notes. Every meeting he’s going to have his notebook out writing notes.”

“During fall camp he sleeps in the building, and he’s gotten other defensive linemen to do the same thing. He wears his shoulder pads to the team meeting. He comes fully taped to every team meeting so that he’s prepared to go straight to practice from meetings. It’s just his mindset, his E.D.G.E, and he’s consistent every single day.”

On Corey Batoon: “It’s been a great working relationship. I think the defensive staff has grown with more and more synergy and understanding of each other in what we’re trying to do. We have a saying. Low ego, high output within our coaching staff and preference versus performance. I think Corey has done an outstanding job of being exactly that, low ego, high output. What’s best for our defense? What’s best to put our players in a position of success? It’s not about what anybody prefers. It’s about how do we get the best performance out of this group of men that we have? We’ve had some deficiencies throughout the year, and I think our defensive staff has done a really good job of masking those deficiencies, playing to our strengths, and getting the best out of our guys to put us in a position to play in this bowl game.”

Kirby Moore | Offensive coordinator

On younger guys who could step up against Iowa: Up front, Mitch Walters. Drake (Heismeyer) has done a great job down the stretch. Within the tight end group, Tyler Stephens, Jordon Harris, and then at receiver, Marquis Johnson, Josh Manning, Daniel Blood. James Madison (II) is going to get some time out there, and Logan Muckey. Really excited to see those guys go out there and compete.”

On year two at Mizzou: “I’m very appreciative of our guys’ consistency, doing the work, having belief, working through adversity, the offensive staff being very collaborative, solution-oriented. There were a couple of games there we didn’t play our best, but then adapting, adjusting, and improvising and finding ways to win.

On younger guys that have grown throughout the season: “Josh Manning, from the start of the season to where he is at right now, has done a tremendous job of growing, playing faster. A huge part of our offense when Mookie (Cooper) went down, Daniel Blood is a glue guy. We can move him around at different positions throughout the offense. James Madison has grown with the extra practices going with the first and second group, rotating in. Then Logan Muckey, a guy who has played a ton on special teams, who we will use within the offense in this game.”

On Luther Burden III and Armand Membou: “Very appreciative of those guys buying into the offense. Consistency I know overall as an offense, that’s one thing that really grew throughout the season last year, carried into this season … the emotional consistency that they showed. It’s hard within the realm of college football right now. There’s a ton of ups and downs, and they stayed the course and continued to work and were a huge part of our success.”

On Brady Cook: “Really want to finish the right way for Brady Cook. Just extremely appreciative of what he has done for me … He’s a winner. He has been consistent, emotional consistency. Just his ability to win 20 games in the last two years.”

Corey Batoon | Defensive coordinator

On his first year at Mizzou: “I spoke to some of the seniors the last true meeting we had, and was so appreciative of through the transition their buy-in. I think that that really helped us not fall back in a transition year. Super appreciative of those guys, the work they put in. Things that I was really happy about this past fall … I thought, again, like Kirby said, the amount of close games that you play, one-score games. You talk about the camaraderie and the brotherhood, the belief in one to the other. Those are things that I’ll cherish as I look back on this season. Being able to win those tough games, and really, you’re one possession away from being in a great situation, but super appreciative of those seniors and what they mean to us and our program.”

On young guys who could step up against Iowa: “Nick (Rodriguez) .. and (Jeremiah) Beasley … Both those guys, you know, will springboard into bigger opportunities with the after amount of seniors that we have walking out the door at that position. Every opportunity, every practice, every inside drill, every skelly, buying in and really trying to bonus those reps is going to help with their momentum going into spring as they compete for a different role in next fall’s team.”

On what the seniors have meant to the program: “I think the continuity that they bring, there’s a couple of new staff members. There’s always change in the locker room, especially with the portal, but those veteran dudes have been a bridge for us from what’s expected to what becomes in terms of the transition piece. Their ability to come in to work every day regardless of situation, good, bad, coming off a win, coming off a loss. Every day is the same day, and I think that consistency is huge. That’s what we’re going to miss, right. As this next group transitions in, high school transfers, that’s going to be another opportunity for the rising seniors to establish that role. It’s always cool to see that, right? There’s that void that it’s neat to organically see those guys fall into those roles, but the guys leaving, just so thankful for the type of work and mindset that they carry in that building.”

On Kristian Williams: “Kristian is awesome. He is different. He sets the tone on our defense in regards to attention to detail. He’s the first dude in the building. He’s down in treatment, a model of how to do things the right way and be a pro about your business. I think he’s helped these younger guys transition-wise, what it’s supposed to look like, being able to model those things. Tremendous leader. Tremendous in regards to just being able to actualize those things that as a coach you try to hold them to a standard, but the peer leadership that he demands I think has been awesome for him.”

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