Eli Drinkwitz describes Missouri's mindset with raised expectations

What a difference a year has made for Missouri Football. At this time in 2023, many wondered what the future would look like for the Tigers. Now, in 2024, they’re coming off an 11-3 record and expect to contend in more ways than one this fall.

Eli Drinkwitz spoke about the shift in goals and expectation upon his team during his time at SEC Media Days. While everything appears to have changed from the outside, there’s nothing new on the inside for Missouri. They’re still going about their work each day and week with the same approach as they did beforehand.

“Yeah, I don’t think it changes for us at all,” said Drinkwitz. “Number one core value for us is always compete to do it better than it’s ever been done before. So our mentality every single week is to always compete. It really is not about anybody else except our own internal drive and expectations to be the very best that we can be.”

“We don’t rely on exterior noise and exterior factors to provide our motivation,” Drinkwitz continued. “We’re motivated every day with, again, always compete mindset, developing an elite edge, which is energy. Details, grit and emotional consistency with how we train, how we prepare each day in order for us to play our best game on Saturday.”

That outlook is far easier with Mizzou once again have several veteran players on this roster. They bring back 33 lettermen from last year, including 14 starters with nine from the offense. That doesn’t include their 15 transfers and their varying levels of collegiate experience that are coming in.

Having been there and done that makes it simpler to understand the importance that every day has on their season.

“We have a group of experienced players. I think one of the things that helped us last year was the number of players that we had on our team with career starts. And, this year, we really have the same,” Drinkwitz said. “We have 22 players on our roster that have 12 or more starts in their collegiate career. So we have the expertise.”

“We have those letdown games in our past that really help us realize that, hey, you can’t take a Tuesday practice off. You can’t miss Workday Wednesday. You have to approach Fast Friday with a mindset of this is what it takes to win in order for you to put your best foot forward on Saturday. And, in this league, if you don’t? You’re going to get embarrassed in a hurry.”

Missouri has much to live up to after what they did last year and how that has impacted their outlook on this one. Still, while the hype is far different, Drinkwitz and the Tigers aren’t going about their preparation for it any other way over in CoMo.