Eli Drinkwitz Asked & Missouri Fans Listened | Mizzou Football Podcast

there's a real case Murray State is much better than the tigers are expecting this season in fact we've got a great example you only have to go back to the opener of last year so let's talk about all that and more right now I'm locked on maou you are locked on missou your daily podcast on the Missouri Tigers part of the locked onast podcast Network your team every day hey all you true Sons and Daughters I'm John Miller your mou mafioso and the central scrutinizer of Missouri Tigers football and basketball on today's program I want to discuss why it might be easier to win on the road this season than ever before also I got a question if Missouri is hand waving Cody sher's loss in the back field field a little bit in terms of 2024 production before I start the show let's talk about game time today's episode is brought to you by Game Time download the game time app create an account and use code locked on college for $20 off your first purchase terms apply download game time today what time is it game time and indeed if you're going to make it to Murray State tomorrow you're going to have to use game time because the game is officially sold out Missouri sellout streak is alive Eli dritz asked for it and Missouri fans delivered they really did impressive stuff tiger fans I'm proud I I genuinely am that's a it's a big statement for Missouri into this kind of season and sure there'll be you know Tennessee fans out there who plug in a 100,000 people in Knoxville week in and week out who might chuckle at this a little bit but really for Missouri especially opening weekend it just shows the wise move that it is to move the game to Thursday I would say as well just really tough for not only the students who often head out of town on a Saturday early for this long labor day weekend here but of course all the all the lake people as well often like to get down there but you know what let's talk about this actual Mur State game a little bit and again with all of the unknowns that drink wits talked about out for the racers a new head coach basically an entire new roster or at least a majority of the roster quite literally is new for the racers this season so I learned a bit of a lesson last season because well actually let's let's actually get into the comment here from an everyday or Todd Alexander he pointed out that last year Missouri's week one opener South Dakota was a good FCS team I'm pretty sure they went to the quarterfinals or semies and FCS Murray State is lucky to be Fielding a football team on the other hand maybe difference in competition for the point discrepancy in other words I'm pointed out last season hey the Tigers played South Dakota State and only won 35-1 so that was part of my case for why I would definitely stay away from giving the points giving the 46 A2 as we sit here actually 47 and A2 now the line is back up as I look here at FanDuel sports book so regardless I'm not giving either one of those totals for Missouri here that that's just too many points but you know what I was going to respond to Todd Alexander and say you know what I actually think you're thinking of South Dakota State who won the national championship last year and is the preseason number one in FCS football but in fact my listener Todd was exactly right South Dakota had a good season last year and our pre-season number five currently in the FCS poll which genuinely came out of nowhere and that's something that may happen a lot more in FCS football these days if you think that well rosters at the FBS level at the power four level of become transient well apparently that's nothing compared to FCS and the ability to follow all of those rosters and all that good stuff it's definitely a lot harder than than it used to be frankly I have to update my script a little bit because I was saying hey South Dakota last year not South Dakota State South Dakota a team that had zero votes in the FCS poll coming into last season I just completely wrote them off and assumed oh this will be a massive blowout well that didn't exactly end up being the case for multiple different reasons so again to my real Point here I think Missouri obviously rolls against Murray State I don't think there's going to be a big issue here but you never know Missouri State could be a more quality FCS team than we're aware of or they could be quite a bit worse too I think the unknowns Eli drinkwitz if anything undersold how much of an unknown this roster truly is and while I am officially nervous now we're a day before the season I'm officially nervous for Missouri football I'm certainly not nervous for the Murray State game of course but for the rest of the season and all I know is this is my final episode of the off season we've made it folks I absolutely cannot wait now Missouri obviously has some tough road trips this season for all the talk about its relatively weak schedule the Tigers going to need at least one Victory I'd say in College Station or in Tuscaloosa Alabama of course against Texas A&M or Bama respectively and what I'm starting to wonder is maybe it's going to be a little bit easier for teams including Missouri of course to win on the road in 2024 because now guys can look instead of looking at the sidelines for the call on offense and on defense by the way well they have little walkie-talkies in their headset the Green Dot on the back of the helmet much like you see in the NFL each and every week of course Nick Bolton on defense usually has the Green Dot as the middle linebacker for the Kansas City Chiefs Chuck Hicks seems to be the designated walkie-talkie guy on defense right now and naturally as you expect the quarterback is your Green Dot guy 100% of the time offensively so obviously this is going to help both sides of the ball in terms of communication so why would it make it easier to win on the road in 2024 specifically for Missouri well my theory is that this does help the offense a little bit more in terms of Communication number one there's just more adjustments I believe that the offense can make pre- snap offenses dictate and defenses react that's just the nature of the sport and because of that I think there is more information to get out pre- snap whether it is just just the call itself or maybe just a helpful hint from your offensive coordinator right before the ball is snap so I do think this is going to be on the margins a little bit easier for the offense so really if anything I don't know if it's about winning on the road being easier in 2024 I think scoring on the road may be a little bit easier in 2024 and a special shout out to you every dayers like my man Todd in the early part of the show there and I have to say if you are an everyday or you've probably heard me ad nauseum talk the last couple years about how I believe inis rraw and Chris Abrams drain were the real keys to the success of the Missouri defense the past couple Seasons under Blake Baker and Eli drinkwitz well last week just in case you thought I was hammering that point a little too hard or maybe you disagreed with me drinkwitz himself told the media his biggest concern for this season you guessed it replacing two NFL quality cornerbacks so I may have been on to something there but you know what I can't congratulate myself just yet in terms of thinking Missouri's running game is going to be okay I think we'll be okay at the running back position this year not saying we'll be as good as we were last season with Cody shrer but I think a lot of people are starting to go wait a second here Cody Shrader led the SEC in rushing by an actually pretty huge margin really by about 450 yards or so so how can we just assume that the Missouri running game is going to be okay am I just ignoring this this particular variable well I'll tell you why Sher is not one of my biggest concerns personally coming up here in just a little bit but as I said before with the Missouri Murray State game sold out you're going to have to go to game time to get your tickets but the good news is plenty of amazing deals with game time and game time has a new feature called Game Time picks that makes it easier to get tickets for your favorite live event game time picks filters out the fluff to show you only the incredible deals on great seats you don't have to waste time searching through thousands and thousands of tickets for example I just pulled up some great tickets a great value right now section 124 for the game tomorrow row 63 just 24 bucks Allin that includes fees and everything else just be sure to toggle that Allin pricing option all you got to do is take the guess workor out of buying tickets with Game Time download the game time app create an account and use code locked on college for $20 off your first purchase terms apply again create an account and redeem code l o c k d o n c o l l e g e for $20 off download game time today what time is it game time and you've heard me talk a ton about FanDuel America's number one sports book well I've got a different kind of deal for you now through September 22nd all FanDuel customers can bet $5 and get a fre week free trial of NFL Sunday Ticket from YouTube and YouTube TV then with a YouTube TV base plan you'll be able to watch every regular season Sunday afternoon out of Market game all you need is a Google account and a current form of payment and you can cancel at any time and by the way if you're going to be playing Missouri Murray State I've said stay off of the spread if there's anything I would endorse though not full-throated Le to be honest with you I don't feel that strong about this but I could see going the under 57 and a half that's more of a gut feeling and a general bias for me towards the under than anything but again regardless of what you're into you got to visit fuel.com lockon to download America's number one sports book college football is back and it's officially back for Missouri fans tomorrow but there's still plenty of time to catch up with the locked on college football previews of the SEC ACC Big 10 and Big 12 this is the kind of stuff that locked on is the best at check it out locked on college football podcast part of the locked on podcast Network your team every day and I almost feel bad about assuming too much about Cody Sher I really do because obviously shraer one of the great Tigers of all time certainly in recent history the guy was a what six or seventh in in the Heisman Trophy voting had over 1600 yards rushing in the SEC by the way nobody else last year had 1,00 he had more than 1600 nobody else in the Southeastern Conference got to 12200 so yeah that's a pretty dog on productive season for a guy who used to play at Truman State and was a walk- on for the Tigers it's worth being said for the millionth time it really is but when you take a little bit closer look under the hood at Cody shraer well first of all you have to wonder if he's so great if he was the best running back in the SEC as I've seen some people in my comments say certainly he was the leading rusher in the SEC that's just a fact but is he the best running back in the SEC well that's a subjective opinion of course and certainly there's 32 subjective opinions in the NFL as well but I will say this Cody shrer was waved earlier this week by the San Francisco 49ers in probably about as good of a spot as I think he was going to be in however I will say this he found another spot with the Los Angeles Rams who also fit to me his talents the outside Zone type running scheme from the beginning I actually pointed to San Francisco and Los Angeles and the Kansas City Chiefs by the way as teams that fit sher's running style and by the way the fact that he didn't clear waivers and returned to San Francisco as a practice squad player well that's actually a good sign that shows that he was more in demand by more teams than just San Francisco obviously so that is a good sign hopefully for shers future but again with all that out of the way you take a little bit close of a look under the hood you look at his Advanced running statistics and quite simply his broken tackle percentage compared to the rest of the runners in the SEC was below average his yards after contact were below average and those are running back stats those are stats you give to the running back and I'd also point out that his yards before contact were well above average among the best in the league which is not a knock on Cody Shrader by the way it's just simply a credit to his offensive line and the scheme and the offense in general but I also think it's really good context as well to me if you watch shider last year closely as I did not only while watching the games but going back looking at the film as well shrer did a tremendous job of getting the yards that were there and even if there weren't very many yards there sh good did a good job of just simply pushing forward and running in a phone book and getting the two to three yards that were there he also had one fumble on the season and he never had to come off the field either the stamina the durability those are probably the two biggest secret sauces of his of his running game last year in my opinion so again this isn't to knock Cody Sher it's just more to say if the if the biggest part of his game was finding the yards that were there and also stamina and durability that does sound like we can replace that with say two quality running backs and I do think Missouri thinks they have two quality running backs so again not trying to take anything away from C Cody shrer and what he did at Missouri last year whatsoever but running back you know I think it's been a little bit underrated of because of how the NFL has treated the position but there's no doubt that relative to many other positions like quarterback and pass rusher offensive line for example it is easier to find a replacement level and quality running back than it is at many other positions now I have to admit not all of my viewers and listeners agree with me in fact YouTube commenter supporting truth says our Run game will keep us from winning a championship of any kind this year drink doesn't recruit backs with the size and talent needed to win championship games drink gives one back far too many carries leading the team to more three and outs and fewer touchdowns in the Red Zone drink will give Nate Noel a 195 pound back most of the carries and that will cause us to lose at least two games on the regular schedule well frankly I don't know that running back is going to again just the difference between Nate Noel and Cody Shader or some combination of Nate Noel Marcus Carroll Jamal Roberts and and whatever the running back room ends up being in the share of carries and snaps there I I just don't think the difference is going to be that massive is it quite possible that Missouri's production at that position doesn't match what Cody shrer does sure that's not a crazy thing to think whatsoever I just think the idea that it will cost us at least two games I I think that's going a little bit too far personally Maybe I'm Wrong feel free to disagree with me there as to your idea that drink is going to give Nate Noel The Lion Share of the carries maybe that's true we're just going to have to see how it plays out and one of the things tomorrow against Murray State I'm going to be most interested in is seeing exactly not only the split in terms of number of snaps and Carries and touches but how these two players are used and if Jamal Roberts for instance is truly a part of this running back rotation this year I assume Marcus Carroll is probably going to be your guy in the game when it's third down and one I assume Nate Noel will probably G will probably be in the game on more of a passing situation when it's third and seven third and eight I assume Noel is going to start the ball game get the first series other than that I'm not really sure what to expect and I'm very curious to see how this used plays out for the Tigers and it wouldn't be Missouri game week without a uniform reveal so you know what that means it's time for another rip roaring edition of project Run play the greatest uniform segment in the history of Missouri football if I do say so myself so we got to talk about the getups and also I want to take a little bit of the temperature from some of the programs on the Missouri schedule been meeting up with my fellow lock on hosts lately I'm getting a little bit of an idea on how some of those fan bases are feeling so let's talk about that here coming up first of all though it is 5H Hour Energy and that's how I'm going to power through this last segment because with a lot of stuff on my schedule these days I've got daughters I've got a podcast I've got stocks to trade heck I've got a a commercial building that I'm trying to get get up in the air too so what do I need 5H Hour Energy you need to grab a 5H Hour Energy Shot anytime you need to stay alert and watch all your favorite football games this Saturday for example or if you stayed up too late and need to see that last minute Pack 12 rip game on ESPN take a 5H Hour Energy Shot in the morning so you can start your day and 5H Hour Energy is the brand hard work people like you have trusted for more than 20 years to give them the The energy they need to get through a busy hectic day so go to 5our energy.com that's the number five hour energy.com and get some 5our energy product today you can use my promo code locked on CFB to receive 20% off your order this offer is only valid until September 30th on one order and cannot be used with other promotions the code is not good on subscription orders go to 5our energy.com today normally a Missouri player or two or three is a part at least one is a part of the Missouri uniform reveal but yesterday number zero a nameless and faceless number zero got on top of a horse for Missouri's uniformer reveal so I got to assume that was a stunt man for this particular case Eli dritz taking no Chances with his roster getting on a large animal probably for the best to be honest with you but the uniforms revealed were the all black getups and most notably here of well the the helmets the let's see the power tiger inside the oval that version well really the most notable thing as forecasted as sort of telegraphed by the NCAA video game college football 25 I should say no pants no stripes on the black pants this year much like the white pants last year for the LSU game no stripes on said pants this season and I got to say I like it I think it's a clean look I'm okay with it makes it a little bit less busy again I understand there's going to be a lot of disagreement with here but maybe not as much disagreement as I saw with for for example listener Sean Curts who said I just want back those 2013 2014 helmets and pants both of those were so good especially the power Tiger logo so a lot of people agree with Shawn I got to imagine most of them are probably people in their 20s and 30s having Nostalgia for that particular era heck I'm a I'm in my 40s I've got I've got Nostalgia for that particular era as well I totally get it but I will say the one thing I don't have Nostalgia for as others pointed out in the comments I'm glad that the anthros site era of Missouri basketball and football uniforms is over in other words the gray that was sort of shoehorned into Missouri's color scheme a few years ago I'm glad we're moving beyond that because in particular the anthy or gray shoulder pads that Missouri had on their White Road uniforms remember if you when you see Missouri's highlights of beating Georgia back in 2013 well those gray shoulder pads definitely stick out like a like a sore thumb so again if you missed my show yesterday I'm all for bringing back those 134 era jerseys the big Power the big tiger logo all that good stuff I think it's good for a oneoff it's just not something I would go back to sort of like how I loved the 977 98 era Larry Smith Corby Jones you know I love that era of missou football uniforms too but I don't think they really fit in 2024 quite honestly again bring them back for a oneoff I think that'd be really cool but is your weekly getups I think they're probably best left in The Times They Came From Now tomorrow in your locked on missou feed I do believe correct me if I'm wrong here if this up being wrong but I'm 99% sure and on Thursday in your feed you're going to have an episode including me but it's going to be a lot of different coaches in the SEC hopefully this is going to become a weekly thing here in fact that is indeed the plan here on the locked on network but this has given me a good opportunity to get a little bit of the temperature of some of my fellow hosts figure out where I think those fan bases expectations are and of course this time of year for the most part you know fans like me are optimistic and you know Zack blackerby over at locked on Auburn Missouri's opponent for homecoming well quite honestly he's about the only one who is optimistic at least truly optimistic about Auburn right now I don't know that Zach has the Tigers beating our tigers in Colombia I don't know that he's quite that optimistic he does have Auburn going eight and four though I have to say a lot of mockery was coming Zach's way for for that particular prediction based on what I've heard I still think Auburn's probably a year away from really making some noise in the hu free era now of course with the Alabama Crimson Tide I think there's a lot of confidence the tide are going to be really good offensively once again defensively I think that's where most of your question marks are which has not really been the case other than perhaps maybe last season really under Nick Sabin so an interesting turn there for Alabama as for Arkansas we're basically we're basically looking for a new Arkansas coach already John neighbors is doing it that's all he talks about is who's the next Arkansas guy gonna be is it gonna be Barry Odum that was his big prediction so who the heck knows there again those are those are probably the most pertinent observations I can make so far other than also the Texas and Oklahoma coaches they're very much they're they look giddy at this point they're very much in the glow of oh my God I'm not only looking forward to another football season but there is something really special and just unique as somebody who's been through it before Missouri fans know it well if you were old enough to remember at the time of course when Missouri entered its first season of SEC football played its first SEC game that was a wild surreal moment for sure and definitely felt like a leveling up for sure and I'm sure sure it will for Oklahoma and Texas too so those hosts I don't know that they even know what they're getting into yet I know I know that the Texas is confident right now ow you less so but I think they're just ready to see it all happen and I'm certainly ready to see it all happen too thanks for joining me as always here on locked on missou like I said look for that locked on SEC special edition in the feed tomorrow on Thursday I plan on doing individual episodes my usual locked on missus game recap on Friday and we'll talk more about the game on Saturday as well so until then I am John Miller and this has been locked on maou