Eli Drinkwitz address bowl eligibility, winning for Barrett Banister

The Battle Line Rivalry showdown on Friday between the Missouri Tigers and the Arkansas Razorbacks was an exciting game that went right down to the wire. Missouri was able to overcome their SEC rival, thanks to their play in all three facets of the game. The win now means that the Tigers are bowl eligible for the third time since Eli Drinkwitz took over the program.

In Friday’s game, Missouri was without wider receiver Barrett Banister, who has a special connection to The Battle Line Rivalry. After the game, Drinkwitz addressed the Tigers being bowl eligible and what it meant to win the game for the absent Banister.

“You know nobody wanted to say, but I think there’s a lot of people that; we just wanted it so bad,” said Drinkwitz. “We wanted it so bad we tried not to make it bigger than what it was. But at the end of the day, we knew that we were playing for one more. For Barrett not to be able to play this game, everybody really wanted to win so he could have one more game and get him that trophy. That trophy means a whole hell of a lot to him and our team. Just special.”

Banister is a native of Fayetteville, AR, which is also the hometown of the Razorbacks. The senior has spent his entire career with the Tigers and has ended it, regular season wise, with a win over the team he grew up watching right down the road.

It was no easy task becoming bowl eligible, especially playing in the brutal SEC. Still, Missouri and Drinkwitz had been preparing for this ‘12-round fight’ since the offseason.

“We talked all week about it. We signed up for a 12-round fight. This is round 12, and everything we worked for; January, bleachers in the summer, two-a-days, nothing defeated us, and we weren’t letting the 12-round defeat us either.”

Drinkwitz trolls Sam Pittman following Battle Line Trophy win

The Tigers survived a close one on Saturday against rival Arkansas, beating them at home 29-27 and capturing the Battle Line Trophy . With the victory, the Tigers are now officially bowl-eligible. It is the third consecutive year under head coach Eli Drinkwitz that Missouri has qualified for a bowl game. This marks the first time it has happened since they’re run from 2009 to 2011 when they were still a part of the Big 12 conference. After the game, in his post-game interview, Drinkwitz gave credit to his Tigers for a hard-fought season and even snuck in a slight jab at Arkansas head coach Sam Pittman to close.

“Tribute to our players. They made big-time plays when they needed it,” said Drinkwitz. “Our defense; our punter punted a great one; it’s a total team win. It’s been a hard-fought 12-round fight. I told them today that if we won the fight… hey, this is for you man, Barrett Banister, we did it. We did it. M.I.Z.”

Before closing the interview, Drinkwitz used Pittman’s signature “yes sir.”