Eli Drinkwitz reacts to Johnny Walker’s ejection against LSU

The Missouri Tigers lost a heartbreaker to the LSU Tigers on Saturday. For a large chunk of that game, Eli Drinkwitz and Missouri were without edge rusher Johnny Walker, who was ejected for spitting on an LSU player during the game.

After the game, Drinkwitz shared his frustration with Walker for his actions during the play and admitted that responding better to emotional moments starts with him as the head coach.

“That’s disappointing,” Eli Drinkwitz said. “Not representative of the way we want to play this game and we want to respond better on our players. It starts with me as the head coach.”

Johnny Walker is a veteran edger rusher for the Missouri Tigers. According to the On3 Industry Rankings, he was a three-star recruit in the 2020 cycle. He already has three sacks during the 2023 season, which is a single-season record for him.

In a game where Missouri struggled to stop the LSU offense and Jayden Daniels, having Johnny Walker rushing off the edge would have been a huge boost.

“But we lost a defensive pass rush player, a guy who’s been playing at a high level for us, and that’s something that, as a team, we can’t do. We can’t beat ourselves and we can’t let our emotions get out of control, out of check,” Drinkwitz said.

It was the third quarter of the game against LSU when Johnny Walker was ejected from the game for getting a second unsportsmanlike conduct penalty. His first penalty came after he got caught kicking a player while getting up from a pile. However, it was unclear what led to the ejection until a hot mic caught the referee explaining to Eli Drinkwitz that he got caught spitting on another player.

Prior to his day being over, Johnny Walker recorded two tackles.

Brian Kelly praised Jayden Daniels after beating Missouri

LSU quarterback Jayden Daniels had a phenomenal game against Missouri despite dealing with some injury issues throughout the game. That led to praise from his head coach, Brian Kelly, following the game.

“He’s just got a heart of a champion,” coach Brian Kelly told the ESPN broadcast crew after the game. “You don’t get many chances to coach a guy like that, and I’m just so happy that I got an opportunity to have him on my team. And then find a way to keep the points down when you’ve got a player like that.”