Columbia - Mizzou football beat Arkansas-Pine Bluff an emphatic BLANK-BLANK to kick off its 2026 season. The Tigers have now won six consecutive season-openers under the guidance of coach Eli Drinkwitz, with the most recent being headlined by transfer quarterback Austin Simmons' debut.
Here's the three most important quotes, along with everything else Drinkwitz said to recap the win.
Missouri jumped out to a 40-0 lead by halftime. Arkansas-Pine Bluff then matched the Tigers' second-half total at 14 a piece.
"Very disappointed in the third quarter from an overall intensity standpoint, a coaching standpoint. So it was a perfect night for me to be able to be excited in the first half but really mad in the second half. So I've got a lot of things to coach on, and I promise you, the staff meeting tomorrow will not be a lot of fun when you have, you know, some of the mistakes that we made. That is a hallmark of what we do not do in our program. You know, we don't have multiple numbers on the field. We don't run into kickers. We don't do that stuff. So that was really disappointing for me. But we will work really hard to improve it, and that starts with me, and will be passed on to the coaches and the players."
Missouri was forcing plenty of takeaways in fall camp. We heard players mention Trajen Greco, Kensley Louidor-Faustin and Elijah Dotson as guys to earn takeaways. So now that the Tigers couldn't force one takeaway against an FCS opponent, there's reason for Drinkwitz to be upset.
"Defensively, I thought in the first half we limited the run... I think there was one first down in the first half, but we aren't forcing takeaways. You know, and at the end of the day, we lost the takeaway battle because we didn't strike at the ball well enough. We weren't able to win the sack battle, you know. It didn't force nearly enough pressure on the quarterback. So again, there's a lot of things that we're going to look back on and say we got to get this stuff fixed in a hurry."
Olugbode was one of - if not the - star of the game, racking up a career-high in receiving yards, touchdowns and receptions. The sophomore standout finished with eight catches for 116 yards and two scores.
When asked about Olugbode's breakout performance, Drinkwitz had a simple response.
"He's got to hold on to the football."
That indicates Drinkwitz's high expectations for Olugbode - there's room for improvement despite the strong start to the season. It's also similar to a remark he made about then-freshman returner DaMarion Fowlkes last season.
"Appreciate the fans just keeping the energy up, that was a game changer. The noise, the light show, the overall atmosphere and experience was incredible. It's great to have people back on the hill. It was awesome to have students on the hill. Awesome to have the fan base engaged, and just really grateful and thankful to our administration, to all the construction crew, to our board, to our president, and all the great continuous boosters who made that thing come alive. It was awesome. Only disappointment for the nights I didn't get to meet Sheryl Crow. So, other than that, it was a pretty successful night. You know, as far as the football, you know, I thought there were some really good things in the first half. We ended up pulling some guys pretty quickly to try to mitigate risk and injury.
"It was an emphasis for us to be able to throw the ball. I felt like Austin really handled himself well, especially in third downs. We had multiple third and longs early, with an inability to run the ball at the efficiency that we need to. But for him to be able to trust the scheme, find the throws, wide receivers to get open was really good. And you know, we overcame a sack in the first drive, and you know, so that was good and positive, and that was really on him. It was RPO that he's got a handoff if there's any weak side pressure, and he screwed that up. So you know, he was really good about bouncing back and figuring that out.
"I mean, the the big throw to Donovan - Yeah, I think it was Donovan - across the middle. You know, Jamal Roberts picks up a blitz that is coming free, and that's really the reason why the play's successful. You know, I felt like our protection really held up. He wasn't ever in danger of getting hit. He was able to just stay in the pocket and work through his reads. He wasn't perfect. There's there's you know three or four plays right there that could have been executed a little bit better, but he did get off too big for righ.t"
"He's a guy that's played football. What he did today was really what he did most of the spring. He's a guy that played multiple positions for us, and felt like he's a great tackler and a guy in space. Disappointing that that interception gets taken off the board. A captain can't do that. A captain can't have a late hit on the quarterback."
"We told Chip to run his runs and throw his throws, so we just called them all the way."
*Asked about the rhythm*
"It was good."
"I think that's one and the same. You know, I mean, we were able to create some constriction in the pocket, but we weren't able to shift blocks, and guys were going to get out and escape. So we'll have to go back and look at the tape, but there's things we got to improve on for sure."
"I think it's all predicated on what you're trying to do to the defense, and you know they were pressuring quite a bit, specifically on PNs and on first downs. And so, you know, we knew if we wanted to take shots, we needed to maximize the protection to give us the best chance. And so that's what the offensive staff did."
"Should have said I was really proud of Blake Craig coming back out. You know, I know that it's been a long year for him, and for him to hit that field goal at the end of half was really good. And I think he was perfect when I got extra points tonight. So getting him back going is going to be big for us moving forward. Yeah, relative to the sound, I mean, it was a lot louder, noticeably louder to me. Our headsets were struggling to to really communicate, and I don't know if it was the sound waves, the noise, or whatever, but it was pretty impressive for sure."
"I think we had a few good runs. I think we were. We didn't cover our second-level defenders the way we needed to. We had misidentification on the third and one that ended up letting a three technique spike and make a play. So there was a lot of I guess the best way to describe it is loose on the offensive line and tight ends in our identification, and you know those things are going to have to get fixed in a hurry if we want to be able to run the ball with the effectiveness that we know we need to, and so you know we got we got a lot of work to do."
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This article was originally published on www.si.com/college/missouri as Three Most Important Quotes from Eli Drinkwitz after Mizzou's Win Over UAPB .
