Eli Drinkwitz shares his initial thoughts on quarterback battle following win vs. South Dakota

The Missouri Tigers dominated the first half against the South Dakota Coyotes in their season opener on Thursday night, building a commanding 28-3 advantage going into the locker room at halftime. The Tigers still won the game 35-10, but they definitely weren’t as sharp in the second half. They rode some dominant play from their defense (they held South Dakota under 200 total yards), a solid first half performance from Brady Cook, and a career-high 148 rushing yards from Cody Schrader to the season-opening win. Following the game, Missouri head coach Eli Drinkwitz was happy with the win, but disappointed with his team’s showing in the second half. He spoke with Ashley ShahAhmadi on the field after the game.

“Yeah, I mean it’s really good to be 1-0. Obviously I didn’t like in any way, not very much of the second half. Too many penalties. Sloppy football. But we got away with a win and we’ll get a lot of good tape,” Drinkwitz said.

Eli Drinkwitz on the Missouri quarterback battle

One of the biggest headlines coming into the 2023 campaign for the Tigers was that they still had not settled on a full-time starting quarterback. The battle is currently between starting quarterback Brady Cook and sophomore Sam Horn, who was one of the more highly regarded quarterback prospects in the 2022 cycle.

Eli Drinkwitz shared his initial thoughts on the quarterback battle after getting to see Brady Cook in the first half, then Sam Horn in the second half on Thursday evening.

“Yeah, I mean, Brady scored 28. Sam scored seven. So that’s my initial thoughts. We’ll go back and look at the tape and see what it was. But at the end of the day, we’re judged on who gets the team in the end zone the most,” Drinkwitz said.

Cook completed 17 of 21 passes for 172 yards and a touchdown in the first half. He also tacked on a rushing touchdown. He’s the returning starter for the Tigers and many people expect him to win the starting job soon. Judging from those comments, sounds like he’s well on his way.

The Tigers’ head man was pleased with his special teams play early in the game, but wasn’t happy at all with his kick return unit and field goal unit. The Tigers missed two field goals on Thursday evening.

“Well, I really liked the blocked punt to start the game. I thought both of our kickoff team, and our punt team were really good. Obviously, our bomb squad, our kickoff return unit was not what we want it to be. And field goals, we’ve got a lot to work on. I mean, it’s a whole different game if we execute two makeable field goals for us,” the Missouri head coach said.

Missouri moved to 1-0 overall this season. Next up, they’ll face the Middle Tennessee State Blue Raiders. That one will kick off on Saturday, Sept. 9 at 7:00 PM EST.