A team with two national titles still waiting to be claimed—and the last one came 17 years ago. A team that, despite back-to-back 10-win seasons (something it’s never done three years in a row), still didn’t get a sniff of the College Football Playoff. That’s the dual nature of spring camp in Columbia. On one side, there’s the philosophy of patience. On the other, the unpredictability of a quarterback battle that feels a bit like rolling the dice.
Eli Drinkwitz isn’t in any rush. Not to name a starting QB. Not to shut down the outside chatter. And definitely not to shift from the steady foundation he’s built at Missouri over the past five seasons. And honestly—why should he? The Tigers have momentum. Expectations are growing. And Drinkwitz? He’s calm in the chaos, knowing exactly what he’s got in his locker room. He’s not showing his cards yet, and with the way Mizzou is trending, he doesn’t have to. This is Missouri football. A program hungry to take that next step. A program with history still waiting to be rewritten.
And Drinkwitz’s patience has earned him plenty of respect in the coaching world, including from ESPN’s Greg McElroy, who recently ranked his top head coaches from No. 25 to No. 11 on Always College Football. When it came time to place Drinkwitz, the Missouri boss landed at No. 15. “Eli Drinkwitz—five years he’s been at Missouri, which, by the way, feels like it’s been a little bit less time than that,” McElroy said, acknowledging the rapid transformation. “But he’s been there a while, and he is 38-24 in his five years.” The numbers don’t lie. Eli Drinkwitz’s tenure has been defined by steady improvement, and Mizzou’s are now a legitimate force in the SEC.
The stats didn’t stop at the record books. He pointed out that the Tigers have finished inside the top 25 in consecutive years for the first time since 2013-14. The program’s resurgence is undeniable, but there’s still work to be done. “He hasn’t been great against ranked competition, just 7-14,” McElroy noted. That’s the gap Missouri still needs to close—beating the teams that stand in their way of true contention. But McElroy sees the progress. “If you look at how his team has played against teams they’re supposed to beat, they’ve been quite good.” And then there’s Georgia, the gold standard in the SEC.
“Remember, he’s played Georgia very, very tight. A Georgia team that went on to win the national championship—no one played them better than Missouri in 2022.” That near-upset in Athens was a glimpse into what Eli Drinkwitz is building. Now, it’s about turning those close calls into statement victories.
@CoachDrinkwitz is high on his @MizzouFootball team in 2025:
“This is the most talented football team that I’ve had since we’ve been here at the University of Missouri.” pic.twitter.com/oijZhcdsF1
— Paul Finebaum (@finebaum) March 20, 2025
Missouri’s schedule hasn’t exactly been a murderer’s row the last two years, and McElroy knows that. “He’s had a relatively manageable schedule,” he said before delivering the challenge. “Now it’s about taking the next step and starting to knock off the teams that we expect him to start pulling the upsets against.” That’s the bar now. It’s not just about competing. It’s about breaking through.
But McElroy believes in Drinkwitz’s ability to do just that. “I think they’re close. I think they’re very, very close,” he said. And the foundation is there. “With their access to resources, his feel for the portal, and his ability to attract talent and keep great in-state talent home, Missouri’s in a real strong position for the foreseeable future with Eli Drinkwitz at the helm.”
Eli Drinkwitz isn’t shying away from those expectations. In fact, he’s leaning into them. When he joined The Paul Finebaum Show, he didn’t hold back about the talent on this year’s roster. “Very impressed with the way we attacked spring,” he said. “I’m incredibly excited about the talent we’ve acquired on this football team.” That’s a bold claim, especially considering the Tigers lost an NFL-bound wide receiver and a beloved quarterback.
But Drinkwitz believes this 2025 Missouri squad is his most talented yet. He is particularly bullish on the defense. “I think we’re going to have one of the best defenses that we’ve had since I’ve been here,” he said, before doubling down. “I think we’ve got pros at every position on our defense. I think we’re as deep as we’ve ever been defensively.” That kind of confidence isn’t just for show. Coach Drinkwitz knows that in the SEC, talent wins out, and Missouri has more of it now than at any point in his tenure.
Eli Drinkwitz lets Zen art guide Mizzou’s QB battle
Missouri’s QB1 battle is heating up, but don’t expect Coach Drink to rush a decision. With Brady Cook moving on, the race to replace him features Penn State transfer Beau Pribula, along with returning Tigers Sam Horn and Drew Pyne. But rather than setting an arbitrary deadline, Drinkwitz is taking a more philosophical approach—literally.
“You know, there’s an old saying: ‘When the student is ready, the teacher will appear,’ right?” Drinkwitz said Saturday, channeling Lao Tzu to emphasize his patience in naming a starter. “I think, the quarterback position — there is no timeline, no timetable. When the starting quarterback makes himself known to the rest of the team, we’ll announce the starter.” In other words, this isn’t a decision you force—it’s one that reveals itself.
The Mizzou coaching staff wants this spring to be about development, not pressure, so every quarterback gets a fair shot to prove themselves naturally. And while fans might be itching for clarity, Drinkwitz has made one thing clear: Missouri’s next QB won’t be chosen by a stopwatch—he’ll earn the job when the team knows.
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