Eli Drinkwitz jokes about defensive scheme questions, Liam Coen

The Missouri defense has struggled at times this season, most notably in last week’s 49-39 loss to LSU.

Tigers head coach Eli Drinkwitz was asked earlier this week about any scheme changes or personnel changes that may be coming for Saturday’s matchup against Kentucky.

Drinkwitz joked that he wasn’t in a hurry to provide any of that information to Kentucky offensive coordinator Liam Coen.

“Did Liam just text you and ask you what our game plan was this week?” Drinkwitz said laughing. “Um, I don’t know that there’s like this quick fix, like ‘OK, we’re going to go put in a brand new coverage.’ We’ve gotta do the little things better. And that starts with coaching. That starts with us coaching the little things better. That starts with meetings — are we teaching it the way we need to teach it? Are we drilling it the way we need to drill it? Are we putting them in situations at practice that show up in the games?”

Missouri surrendered 533 yards of total offense last week against against LSU. Jayden Daniels passed for 259 yards and three touchdowns on only 21 attempts, while LSU also rushed for 274 yards. The defensive performance left Eli Drinkwitz and the Missouri coaching staff searching for answers.

“I think our coaching staff understands that we start first with us. It’s on us. And I think all of us in this building, in this organization, are looking at ourselves first. What are we not doing to get the results that we want? That’s where it is,” Drinkwitz said. “There’s not some magic coverage or any scheme. It’s how do we do our jobs better? And right now we’re not doing the job that we need to do. And quite honestly, I don’t think there’s a single coach on our staff who’s going, ‘OK, I’m coaching at the highest level possible right now.’ Because we see things on tape that we know we’ve got to do better.”

Drinkwitz added that there are some simple fixes that will allow the 5-1 Tigers to rebound from Saturday’s loss to LSU. Kentucky is looking to bounce back, too, after getting smoked by Georgia last weekend.

“We know that in order for us to be successful, we’ve got to take penalties off the table. We know for us to be better, we’ve got to be better on third down conversions and reducing third down conversions. We know we’ve got to be better at forcing takeaways and not turning the ball over. We know we’ve gotta be better in coverages,” Drinkwitz said. “We’re not looking at our players like, ‘Oh my gosh, it’s their fault.’ We’re sitting here going, ‘We’re winning in spite of the things that as coaches we need to do better, so let’s figure out how we can do them better.’ That’s going to be our focus as long as I’m the head coach here.”