Eli Drinkwitz reveals why he made a Connor Stalions joke ahead of Ohio State matchup

Missouri Tigers head coach Eli Drinkwitz has never shied away from making a joke. Ahead of the Cotton Bowl matchup against Ohio State, that included a joke about Connor Stalions.

Drinkwitz made the joke back in December while making an appearance on ESPN’s selection show for the Playoff and New Year’s Six bowls. There, he picked up his phone and pretended to take a call from Stalions. Now, while making an appearance on the College GameDay Podcast, Drinkwitz explained why he chose to make the Stalions joke and what went into it.

“I have to apologize because you [Rece Davis] snorted on live television,” Eli Drinkwitz said. “I feel like, for me, when it’s over and I’ve got like 24 hours left and people are coming into see me, I’m gonna remind them, ‘I made Rece Davis snort on live television.’ That may go on the tombstone.”

Connor Stalions quickly became one of the biggest storylines of the 2023 season when, as a staffer at Michigan, he became caught up in a sign-stealing scandal. Naturally, one of the teams that this seemed to impact the most was Michigan’s rival, Ohio State, who Missouri just so happened to be playing in the Cotton Bowl.

“Honestly, I was sitting down in the chair and I had my cellphone in my chair, and I was like, ‘If the opportunity presents itself.’ It was because we were going against Ohio State too. I’m dropping a Connor Stalions. I’ve got to,” Drinkwitz said.

“And it just kind of happened to work out that way.”

Eli Drinkwitz went on to point to figures like Jerry Seinfeld, Dave Chappelle, and Nate Bargatze as comedians whose work he likes. Somewhere in those comedians’ influence, Drinkwitz is finding his humor in.

As for the game itself, Missouri went on to beat Ohio State Cotton Bowl by a score of 14-3. It was an incredibly impressive defensive effort to end the season by the Tigers and gave Missouri something to build on going into the offseason. On top of that, it also contributed to the much higher expectations that Missouri is now entering the 2024 season with.

Still, as Eli Drinkwitz knows, every season is a new one and his Missouri team will have a new identity.

“All that success was last year, and we can celebrate it,” Drinkwitz said. “And if you’re on the team, you can enjoy it. But every year is a new identity. And you have to build that identity. And you can’t just assume well, we had great leadership last year, so we’ll have great leadership this year. No, it’s a whole new team. It’s a whole new chemistry. We got new coaches. So you have to fight for this team this year.”