Eli Drinkwitz opened his Tuesday press conference ahead of Missouri’s high-profile matchup with Texas on Saturday with a public bid to be removed from the Florida State rumor mill.
“I’m not a candidate at Florida State. I want to clear that up,” he said. “Let’s focus on the main thing, which is Texas, and let’s eliminate all the distractions and clear the clutter from that standpoint for my team and for everybody out there.”
Missouri and Texas are both 6-2 entering Saturday’s game with major Southeastern Conference and College Football Playoff implications.
Drinkwitz has been head coach at Mizzou since 2020 and was linked to openings at other high-profile programs in recent coaching cycles. He was reportedly near the top of Florida’s candidate list when Billy Napier was fired last year but did not entertain overtures for that opening or the LSU vacancy.
Instead, Drinkwitz signed a six-year contract extension with Missouri worth an average of $10.75 million annually. He’s 52-31 in seven seasons in Columbia.
He insists that’s his main focus, with priorities including slowing down Arch Manning and the Longhorns.
“You can’t just say we’re going to pressure him all game,” Drinkwitz said of facing Manning this week. “You know, Mississippi State was doing that, and then late in the game, he got a one-on-one matchup to put the game away with a dagger throw on the inside fade. You can’t just play drop coverage because he does a great job of scrambling. So you’re going to have to intermix what you do within the realm of what we do.”