Eli Drinkwitz cries about roughing call on punt

Head coach Eli Drinkwitz is emotional about his Missouri football program losing its seventh game in eight tries to Kentucky.

Despite his offense only picking up 232 yards and converting just twice on 13 3rd-down attempts, Drinkwitz used his time at the podium to throw a temper tantrum about the roughing the kicker call late in the fourth quarter. Down 21-17 with 2:25 to go, Kentucky’s long snapper sailed it over punter Colin Goodfellow’s head, rolling down to the goal line. Goodfellow sprinted to pick up the ball, turned and somehow got the kick off.

In the process, the Missouri linebacker Will Norris destroyed Goodfellow on a tackle, resulting in a penalty — and the UK senior being carted off with a serious injury. Mark Stoops explained after the game that because the ball stayed in the tackle box and Goodfellow remained inside when getting the punt off, he’s still protected.

“Really fortunate by us. Not a good snap. Not a good play. And then he made a great individual play,” Stoops said. “Unfortunately for him, he is hurt bad. The other part of that that we are fortunate on, is that the snap stayed in the tackle box. Because if he exits the tackle box and runs, you are no longer protected, so a couple of things fell our way on that.”

Drinkwitz disagrees. In his mind, a punter shouldn’t be protected so far down the field and his players wouldn’t be aware of the rule in the heat of the moment. Their instinct is to tackle assuming it’s a live ball.

“How a guy can still be a protected punter 50 yards down the field and how our guy is supposed to know he can’t tackle him is beyond me,” Drinkwitz said after the game. “But I’m sure I’ll get an explanation and I’m sure it will defend (the referees).”

The penalty gave Kentucky a first down, and the Wildcats were able to run the clock down before giving the ball back to Missouri with 38 seconds to go. It wasn’t enough for the Tigers to pull off a miracle.

“They’re rewarded for a huge mistake,” Drinkwitz added. “The young man was able to kick the ball, at least give us the ball at the 30. But they snap the over his head and they rewarded them with a first down.” 

Kentucky moved to 6-3 on the year with the win, earning bowl eligibility for a seventh consecutive season under Mark Stoops. Missouri, however, slips to 4-5 overall with games against Tennessee and Arkansas to close out the season. Bowl eligibility is now in serious doubt.

The Tigers did, however, sign Drinkwitz to a two-year extension yesterday prior to the opening kick, despite the program not having a winning season since 2018 — a year before he arrived in Columbia.

So that’s good for them at least, right?