Everything Eli Drinkwitz said about South Carolina football

OPENING STATEMENT: Homecoming week at the birthplace of homecoming. I believe our theme is first and finest, which is an awesome theme. And I know not only is our university community very excited about it, I know our Columbia community is very excited.

I know my family is very excited about the parade. And our team is excited to play on Saturday at a sold out Farout Field. Very thankful to our fans. What an awesome thing for them to continue to respond and show up at Farout and give us a home field advantage.

We obviously know we’ve got a difficult challenge on Saturday. You know, I have a lot of respect for South Carolina and their program. You know, they haven’t had the results they’ve wanted. I believe there’s a statistic out there that they may have faced the toughest schedule in the country as far as teams with winning percentages.

And we know that they’re a very good football team with some very elite players. They have a premier quarterback in Spencer Rattler who is playing at an extremely high level, throwing the ball very well. His pocket presence is very good. He’s very comfortable. I think Dowell Loggins, the new offensive coordinator, has proved to be very impactful and influential in their offensive system and is doing a really good job. Xavier Leggett has come on as, you know, last year he was a very dynamic special teams player and now he is a complete wide receiver who is very difficult to match up just because of his size and speed. So we have a very difficult challenge ahead of us.

You know, defensively they’re always challenging. I think Coach White does a really good job utilizing his scheme and talent within the scheme. He always has a few different wrinkles that you’re not quite prepared for, and so our team is going to have to do a good job. Our quarterback and our offensive line is going to have to do a good job with that. Pete Lembo, their special teams coordinator, is outstanding. They always present multiple challenges through fake punts, through going for two, through onside kicks, through multiplicity of returns and blocks. So, you know, they do a really good job of getting the most out of their team and making it real difficult for your team. You know, but for us and our team, it’s really got to be about our process and being process oriented.

You know, we can’t be an emotionally driven team that relies on the emotional ups and downs of the team. I really challenge our guys to refrain from searching out the praise on social media and becoming numb to improvement. You know, we really have to improve, and I think what happens is, you know, you go looking for pats on the back instead of being critical or hard on yourself and saying, I need to be uncomfortable to continue to grow, and that’s really what our team needs to do to have success this week.

You know, you look back at the (Kentucky) game, we didn’t play particularly well in a lot of areas, you know, defensively, a really slow start, you know, did not fit the run well, did not adjust to motions well, did not have our eyes in the right opportunity or in the right places, and, you know, things that have to get fixed there. Offensively, you know, we started extremely slow, turned the ball over, didn’t run efficiently throughout the game, had to settle for field goals, didn’t capitalize on takeaways. You know, special teams, we had the field goal block. So, when you look at the totality of the tape, you realize that we can’t be satisfied with just winning. We’ve got to be focused on improving.

And I’m not taking anything away from our win. We did some really, really good things, and I’m really proud of the fight that we showed, the second and third quarter middle eight, the forcing of takeaways, all of those are great. But we’ve got to improve. And I think for us it’s a big focus on focusing on us and controlling the things that we can control. I cannot, nor can our team, control what South Carolina is going to do from a schematic standpoint. All we can focus on is improving our techniques and fundamentals and making sure that we’re seeking growth opportunities and not becoming comfortable with that win.

So, with that, I’ll open it up for questions.

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Q: Eli, have you kind of seen, you know, kind of more of that that you’re just kind of shedding with improvement? Have you seen your captains kind of take that mission, you know, Brady and Cody and Sean and Darius? Is it kind of a challenge for you to be critical?

DRINKWITZ: Yeah, I think those guys have been outstanding leaders. And I saw it yesterday in our film session. I thought those guys really were attentive to detail, attentive to the things that the coaches are asking them to improve upon. I think you saw it in the play that both D-Rob (Darius Robinson) and Johnny Walker had.

You know, Coach Peep’s (Kevin Peoples’) one area of improvement over the last six weeks was affecting the quarterback to create pressure and forced takeaways, which I think showed up in that game. So, I know our guys are doing that. But we’ve got to make sure that not only from the coaching staff to the players to everybody, we’ve got to continue to find ways to improve.

Q: What do you think it says that you’re 6-1 in the position you’re in? And I think you would agree, you probably haven’t really played a complete game yet.

DRINKWITZ: Yeah, I’d agree. I think, you know, and it’s hard to play a complete game. I mean, I think back to my head coaching career, I can think of maybe two or three where a team completely played complete for four quarters. There’s always going to be ebbs and flows and ups and downs. But I do think that there’s still a significant amount of improvement that we can make as a football team. And I think, you know, one of the things that Coach Malzahn used to always preach when I was with him is, great teams get better every week. They find a way to get better every week. And, you know, I think we’re in the middle of that part of the season where you can either choose to be tired and choose to let the grind get to your mind or you can choose to improve. And that has to be a choice. And I can say it all I want, but we have to choose it as a team.

Starting with toughness Tuesday, we’ve got to choose to go out there and practice the right way. You know, winning doesn’t negotiate. I mean, it costs what it costs to win football games. And, you know, we’ve got to pay the price. Is that where, you know, some of the examples that Brady (Cook) has said early this season, I’m sure D-Rob, still had a power of troops and stuff. I mean, are those examples really powerful this time? Absolutely. And I think at the end of the day, you know, there’s a lot of guys on this football team who have gone through a lot of adversity here and seen in the past teams not fulfill what they’re capable of. You know, and so I think that sits in the back of our minds. So I think we’re all conscious of it, but we’ve got to sometimes remind ourselves what we need to do in order to have success this week.

Q: Coach, have you been getting what you want or need out of your linebacker group so far?

DRINKWITZ: You know, I think we’ve got a lot of things that we can continue to improve on. I think the reality of it is with our defense that, you know, we’re predominantly a single gap defense that has overlap with the safeties and the star position. So sometimes the gap integrity can get, you know, messed up. I think one of the things that happened in the Kentucky game was they were changing our split flow rules based off who was coming back on the duo play and stuff.

And so that was dirtying our eyes up a little bit. You know, we’ve had some inconsistencies with having to rotate players back and forth with Chad and Chuck and Day Day. I’ve been very pleased with Tyron Hopper. I think he’s developing into a very consistent, durable WILL linebacker who’s being more effective in the game than maybe he was even last year. I think last year he made some really good plays, but we were blitzing him a lot. Now he’s having to play football and play in a complete WILL linebacker position. So I am not dissatisfied, but I do know that we all believe that we can play better.

With that question, I would like to update. Chad Bailey will be out this week. Just feel like that he’s not where he needs to be from a health standpoint and need to give him a week to, and hopefully really give him the two weeks with the bye coming up to try to get his core injury better. Not feeling like he can play to the level he wants. Ennis Rakestraw will be questionable this week. We’ll see what he can do in practice the next two days and make a call towards the later part of the week. Cody Schrader would be questionable this week. Wasn’t able to finish the game with the quad. And I think that’s really all I have from an injury update.

Q: We’ve been talking about third down defense. First half, you guys went 10-7, you hit 4-7. In the second half it was 1-7. How do you guys kind of keep up the consistency and bring up that third down defense from the second half to this week?

DRINKWITZ: Yeah, I mean, I think you hit the nail on the head. I think third downs are going to be a critical juncture in this game for us. I’ve already challenged both coordinators that we need a really good plan. I think we’re both about statistically even on how we offensively what we are, defensively what they allow, offensively what they are, defensively what we allow. I think one of the issues was we were able to consistently create pressure in the second half, but not have to sell out to zero blitz to try to create the pressure and still create some coverage opportunities for us. I think also having them further down in distances. Our havoc rate was actually what we wanted it to be this week, which is only the second time it happened in the seven games. So, winning first and second down makes third downs a little bit easier.

Q: When it comes to plays like the big punt, I mean, you’ve spoken to having the right situation, the right scheme of the situation. How much of those is also the demeanor, the mindset within the program to want to look for those situations and scheme to it for lack of better grades to take chances?

DRINKWITZ: Yeah. I mean, I know I’ve said this phrase before. I’d heard it a long time ago. We want to attack success. We don’t want to fear failure. And in those situations, you’ve got to be willing to attack it, knowing that you give it your best shot and sometimes it’s going to work and sometimes it’s not, and you’re not afraid of whatever the result’s going to be. In that game, in that situation, we know we had scouted the situation. We know we had practiced it well, and we knew we needed a spark. And our guys stepped up and delivered.

At this moment in our program, we’re going to choose to believe in our players and let those guys go make plays. And if the result’s not the result, I’m more than happy to blame myself. And when it is what it is, then we’re going to shower those guys with the praise. We’re going to attack success here.

Q: What did you think of Brad Northley in his first start? How do you see the reps kind of working at that position going forward?

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DRINKWITZ: I mean, I thought he ended up with what, career high in targets and career high in receiving yards. I mean, the only challenge I had for him was he’s got to find a way to score on that, that wide open play. I thought Cody did a nice job trying to play forward and block for him. I don’t see a whole lot of deviation from what the plan was Saturday.

Q: Turnovers have been a topic of conversation for you on Saturday. How do you kind of continue that trend as you move forward here in the next couple weeks?

DRINKWITZ: I think it’s just a focus on, we’ve got to focus on the ball. It’s got to be on our mind. You know, I thought the one that I was really proud of was Philip Roche’s sack, because not only did he sack it, but he forced the ball out. And, you know, that was just a, it’s a constant theme for us that we have to be cognizant of that. We spent extra time. You know, last week, we spent extra time on takeaways and we spent extra time having officials come to practice to monitor and reinforce the discipline. And I thought both of those things showed up in that game. So, again, we can’t pat ourselves on the back and seek the comfort of the praise. We’ve got to go back and continue to recreate that process so that we continue to get the result we want.

Q: You had a pretty big game on Saturday, but just how important has McGuire’s role for this team since his return been this year?

DRINKWITZ: Yeah, I mean, obviously a guy who’s been voted two-time captain, so there’s a leadership quality that he presents to our team. But he’s also an incredibly talented player with God’s gift in him with size, speed, explosiveness. And, I mean, again, tribute to Coach Peoples and his development as an edge player.

And I think we all knew it was going to take a little bit of time, but you were seeing flashes in the K-State game and the Memphis game of him playing at a really high level. And I think the last two games we’re seeing it, you know, he’s becoming a player that we believe he could be.

Q: Last week, the secondary and pass coverage had arguably its best game of the season. This week, you’re going up against a higher passing attack with South Carolina led by Xavier Legette. How are you planning on limiting him and his explosiveness?

DRINKWITZ: I don’t know that there’s a specific plan that’s going to take shape. It’s not necessarily just a combination of taking him away. You’ve also got to affect the quarterback. You also have to decide what runs are you willing to give into so that you can create double-team opportunities for the wide receivers. When are we going to play the man-to-man and not provide help? I think it’s a combination of all those. But, you know, defensively, we kind of set the tone. I think one of Coach Baker’s strengths is he kind of sets the tone and makes offenses react to him. So, I don’t sense that he’ll do anything a whole lot different. T

Q: Talking about the secondary, a lot of snaps for Sidney Williams and Trevez Johnson on Saturday. Looking back at the tape, how’d you evaluate their performances?

DRINKWITZ: Yeah, I think one of the things that we were critical of ourselves of was just not letting our… You know, we have a lot of depth there. And maybe we’re playing some players just too much. Not from a, they weren’t getting a job done. It’s just sometimes you play better the fresher you are, both mentally and physically. And, you know, we really believe in Sidney and Trevez. And both of those guys have been playing a lot at a high level and have been playing multiple positions. So, I thought, you know, everybody had some good and some bad that they got to take off the tape. But they’re proven to be guys that we can trust to put on the field in multiple situations.

Q: Eli, with Luke Bauer, how do you handle a kid who loses out on a position by a lot of camp or only one guy’s gonna play? How do you keep him engaged? What did you see out of Luke, you know, knowing that, hey, you might need him even if he wasn’t a starter before?

DRINKWITZ: Yeah, I mean, I think, you know, we have two signs in our team room. Improve every day makes us better. And embrace your role, put the team first. And I think those two signs kind of describe exactly what Luke did. You know, just because you are denied at that moment in time doesn’t mean you’re denied forever. You gotta just go back to the process of working and improving. And when your opportunity’s called, you take advantage of it. And I think, you know, that’s the growth of our football team. It has really shown is that multiple players are doing that with their roles. You know, I’ll say this. Luke didn’t, on Tuesday, Luke didn’t punt worth a darn. In fact, we yanked him out, put Riley in, yanked him out, put Blake Craig in there and was trying to challenge everybody, you know, that we’ve gotta be better. But we didn’t lose confidence in him and he didn’t lose confidence in himself and understands that you’re gonna face trials and tribulations and you gotta be mentally strong and you gotta focus on your technique and fundamentals and deliver in the right moments. And that’s what he did.

Q: Coach, what’s the impact you’re starting to see from this group of freshmen? Well, there’s a play. Midway through the, I think it was the second or third quarter, I think we had six freshmen or five freshmen on the field. You know, so I think this class has been very effective. They’re made of the right stuff. I’ve been very impressed with their mentality, whether they’re on the scout team or getting reps. But, I mean, I think the foundation’s really strong and I think we’re clearly identifying guys that we know can help us. You know, recruiting has shifted so much from balancing how to build a roster with high school transfer and junior college plus your own player retention and I think we’re trying to, starting to kind of figure that match out. We knew in this class whether, it wasn’t ranked very high because we didn’t take a whole lot of high school players. But when you looked at the individual players alone, we knew we had some really, really talented guys and that’s showing up. I mean, I think we’ve played eight already that aren’t going to red shirt and I anticipate there’s probably three more that will get that many, you know, plays that make it worthwhile.

Q: South Carolina’s schemes…

DRINKWITZ: Offensively their scheme is multiple. It’s pro-style offense with a little spread flavor, I think. Dowell’s kind of adopted the best of what he’s been around. He’s got his NFL background with Adam Gase and he’s with Kyle Shanahan and so he’s got some of the outside zone, some of the drift concepts. He’s got some tempo with Adam Gase and then you see blends of what Briles did at Arkansas, some of the best plays from Arkansas, too. I think he’s really impacted the quarterback’s technique and fundamentals. It’s comfortable, being comfortable in the pocket, knowing what his progressions are. And then they’ve got dynamic playmakers. I don’t necessarily think it’s a specific scheme.He’s not necessarily married to one specific idea. I think he’s got a lot of really good plays that he runs in multiple ways that really challenges your rules and your eyes on the back end.

Defensively, Coach White is very multiple. And he presents things that look the same, but they’re different. He’s got multiple coverages. He’s got three safeties that are interchangeable, whether it’s the nickel, free safety, or field safety. And then his defensive line can play both odd and even fronts and get after you in a lot of different ways. So, you know, again, I think it’s the multiplicity of what they do that creates the challenges.

South Carolina ranks, I believe, last in passing yards allowed in the nation. What factors are causing them to struggle in that department?

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DRINKWITZ: Yeah, I don’t really look at the statistics. Like, I don’t get caught up in statistics. I just watch the tape. And, you know, look, on just about every play, there’s not very many times when players are just running wide open, right? Sometimes it’s the quarterback from North Carolina makes an unbelievable throw, or they make a great catch, or, you know, there’s two fourth downs in the last drive of the game that Florida throws balls that are well short of the down marker, and they just miss tackles. So I think it’s a combination of, you know, some of those players making great plays, playing against really talented quarterbacks. And we’ve always said there’s no defense for the perfect throw, but it’s also sometimes yards after catch opportunities. And again, they have played one of the most difficult schedules in the country. I mean, they played two top 10 teams, right? They played at Georgia. They played a neutral site game versus North Carolina. Played a top 20 Tennessee team. You know, just played Florida. So it’s not like they haven’t been challenged by elite players. So I don’t think they’re that far off. So again, I don’t, our team doesn’t care about statistics. We don’t care about the record. We judge them individually for who they are and what they’ve done, and they’ve got good schemes and really good players.

Q: When you looked back at the film on Saturday, was Kentucky really kind of going in and saying, taking away the big play? And what’d you learn about their offense, that they were able to, you know, do what they did despite not having a ton of explosive plays on Saturday?

DRINKWITZ: I was proud of the way our guys responded to the adversity of not being able to be as explosive as we would like to have been offensively. And I think, you know, we as a staff challenged ourself. Maybe there were some things that we needed to do better in the game planning preparation or in some things, again, internally that maybe aided in that factor. So I think, again, proud of our team, I think, again, proud of our team, proud of our staff for finding a way to win and overcoming those challenges, but also took it as a learning opportunity for us to say, okay, there’s some things here that we didn’t do that we can’t allow to happen on the road again. And so, yeah, I would think that it’s kind of a combination.

Q: You mentioned that Luther (Burden) has matured a lot over the last year. Are you kind of seeing that in his response to not his best day on Saturday?

DRINKWITZ: Yeah, I mean, honestly, what does it mean like not his best day, like, what do you mean? He didn’t have 100 yards? Again, we don’t get caught up in statistics. We get caught up in winning and losing football games. And if we win, that’s everybody’s best day, right? And then you go back and look at it, but it’s not like he didn’t do everything he was supposed to do. He was impactful, he had two runs for positive gains. The run he had on third and sixth might’ve been the best run he’s had all season. It only gained seven yards, but he had to make two guys miss, stiff-armed one. He had the two catches right before half that got us into… You’re not always gonna have a 100-yard game as much as we would like for it to be. So, and other players step up. And I think, yeah, so as long as we win, he’s very excited.

He’s the least selfish player I know and have been around. I think he was more excited for Theo Wease catching the touchdown ball at the end of half than anybody. He was running on the field when Marquise caught the fake punt. So, yeah, I don’t see that he didn’t have his best day. Other people stepped up.

Q: How do you kind of continue to improve and work out that run game and kind of establish it as you get to the bottom of SEC?

DRINKWITZ: I think, again, it goes back to the very first thing I said, where, you know, in my opening statement, where I don’t think we actually played that well. You know, but we won. But we have to go back and be critical of, we didn’t maybe have our best stuff schematically or didn’t necessarily put our players in position or we didn’t finish blocks the way or didn’t create the right angles. So, we gotta go back and take a look at it. A lot of that is a tribute to them and their style of defense. I think last year, I went back and watched that game and it was an abomination. I think we had like 237 yards against them. So, you know, I mean, they’re pretty good. And when you play a good team on short fields a lot, you know, we didn’t have to drive the ball a ton. Good thing, because we didn’t really drive it consistently very much. You know, I mean, it’s gonna happen. But when we needed to run it at the end, we found a way to. But, yeah, we gotta improve.

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