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Columbia Daily Tribune
Is 8-4 a good season for Missouri football? Here's what Eli Drinkwitz said
- Story byColumbia Daily Tribune
- Is 8-4 a good season for Missouri football? Here's what Eli Drinkwitz said
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Eli Drinkwitz hitched a ride into the fog.
Missouri football defensive end Zion Young paraded the state-line divider that fits like a puzzle piece into the Battle Line Trophy around Donald W. Reynolds. Young let everyone who could hear him, which is quite a big range with his billowing voice, know that the trophy, after a 31-17 Missouri win Saturday on the road at Arkansas, was staying with the Tigers for a fourth straight season.
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After posing for pictures, Young put the wedge back into place and began to push the cart off the field and toward the Mizzou locker room.
As Young's trek started, Drinkwitz sprinted from the Razorback emblem at midfield, where he had been taking pictures with his family, to meet his team captain. He hit the star edge rusher from his blindside, putting a swim move the edge rusher would have been proud of to get by Young's left shoulder and to his target — the free space at the bottom of that trophy.
The newly minted $64.5-million head coach leaped onto the platform and clung to the top. He rode off in style, clinging to the top of the Missouri border as Young pushed him into the tunnel, where the smell and smoke of victory cigars drifted into the Northwest Arkansas night.
An imperfect regular season had a happy ending.
No, this season will not end at the intended destination.
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No, nothing about Mizzou is perfect, especially Saturday at Arkansas when the Tigers just about stopped stubbing their toe enough to avoid disaster.
But, cigar smoke plumed out of the locker room and the head coach affirmed that his days in Columbia aren't done.
The Tigers have navigated troubled waters and uncertainty and came out just fine.
Of course, just fine is not the goal.
But this is another stone to step on as the Tigers try to cross the river.
"And I would just tell you that I think it's a good season. It's not great," Drinkwitz said. "We had a chance to go to great, we didn't get it done. And as a team, as an organization, as everybody, you know, we've got to find those inches. And it starts with me, and then it trickles down to everybody."
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Missouri was not a great team this year.
The Tigers went 0-4 against top-25 SEC teams, which marks a second-straight winless year against that rung of teams. Mizzou's eight wins this season all came against teams with end-of-season records of 6-6 or worse.
There are offseason conversations to be had about the predictably and stagnancy of the offense. The Tigers' various special teams units have been a disaster. Defense has been the lone consistent bright spot.
But …
Missouri is a bowl win away from winning 30 games in the past three seasons. That would be as good as any three-season stretch in program history .
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The Tigers simply don't lose games they're favored in.
And Mizzou has locked down its in-demand head coach with a massive contract.
That should ease a great deal of uncertainty entering this offseason. The Tigers won't be involved in a wacky coaching carousel. They don't need to deal with the likely massive roster turnover that could have created.
Take it from two pretty important potential returners.
"Just excited," star MU linebacker Josiah Trotter said. "A lot of guys maybe questioning what could happen with his future, but seeing that and then knowing he's coming back for a lot of guys, especially those younger guys, just being happy coming back and they're not having to worry about, you know, what they have to do and everything like that."
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"All I know is he's staying," Mizzou running back Ahmad Hardy said, "so that's good for me."
Nov 29, 2025; Fayetteville, Arkansas, USA; Missouri Tigers head coach Eli Drinkwitz celebrates with defensive end Zion Young (9) and the Battle Line trophy after a game against the Arkansas Razorbacks at Donald W. Reynolds Razorback Stadium. Missouri won 31-17. Mandatory Credit: Nelson Chenault-Imagn Images
As Mizzou prepares for a bowl, we can start to prepare for some of the larger discussions. Mizzou did fall short.
But the Tigers are close. It's a luxury — the kind the likes of Arkansas, 2-10 and without a head coach, don't have — to consider an eight-win season a letdown.
Drinkwitz has called the step from "good to great" the hardest. He's right. Mizzou poured resources into this year and looks set to pour even more into it next year, as Drinkwitz listed a slew of major donors and state representatives in his postgame speech as people who have signalled support for his ongoing efforts to reach the next level on the ladder. All of that helps and doesn't happen overnight.
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Missouri wasn't perfect. Hasn't been all too often this year.
But the Tigers are leaving Northwest Arkansas with what-next questions.
That's a whole lot steadier of a platform than the what-now kind.
We're talking fourth-and-inches, not yards.
"This team has faced a lot of adversity throughout the year," Drinkwitz said. "You know, we lost a coach (Al Davis) in May, had (two) significant injuries in the first game of the year; our quarterback (Beau Pribula) got hurt in a game where we kind of got control of the game. And for our team to find a way to just stay in it, stay in the fight, I'm really, really proud of them. And you've got to salvage things, right? So you never know what kind of adversity you're gonna face. You've got to find a way to salvage it. I thought our guys really did that.
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"We've got to find a way to be better in those games. I understand that. And that's going to be those inches that we're looking for, but I'm really proud of our team. That's why I said it was a good season. I mean, we finished 8-4, we lost to four top-10 teams. Only (two) of them (weren't) a one-possession game. And so, you know, we've just got to figure that out moving forward."
This article originally appeared on Columbia Daily Tribune: Why Eli Drinkwitz called 8-4 year a 'good season' for Missouri football
