Coach Eli Drinkwitz called out the preseason rankings for 'blueblood bias' and said he's using them as motivation for his Missouri team.
Going into the 2025 season, Missouri enters the year unranked. The Tigers are receiving votes and would check in at No. 32 if the others receiving votes category kept going right on down the ranking.
Coach Eli Drinkwitz has not missed that fact. Instead, he’s been sure to peek at it occasionally with his team.
“You know, it’s interesting. We have a something-to-prove mindset around here,” Drinkwitz said on The Paul Finebaum Show on Thursday. “So you’re always looking to add fuel to that fire. I kind of told the team the other day, we flashed it on the screen and said, ‘It’s not important, but every now and then you check out your ex-girlfriend’s Instagram page just to kind of see.’ So we’re aware of it.”
Missouri, of course, finished last season ranked No. 22 in the nation after a 10-3 season. The Tigers were in the playoff discussion until about midseason.
Despite that, many aren’t quite as high on the Tigers going into this year. And, while he’s using the rankings as motivation for his team, Drinkwitz said he doesn’t so much care about what others think about Missouri.
“The reality of it is, though, Paul, I don’t remember anybody’s preseason poll from last year,” Drinkwitz said. “I don’t remember anybody’s guesses about what we were going to be. I don’t remember the SEC podcast when they thought our first loss was going to be last year or this year. So it really doesn’t matter.”
Replacing quarterback Brady Cook will be one of the biggest tasks for Drinkwitz and Missouri. A couple guys are battling it out for the job, including Penn State transfer Beau Pribula.
Regardless, Drinkwitz seems confident that his Missouri team will outperform the expectations. Potentially even compete for a College Football Playoff berth.
“I think the beautiful thing about what’s going to happen in two weeks is you can put talking season aside and you can really figure out what teams are,” Drinkwitz said. “There’s obviously a lot of media bias or blueblood bias in preseason polls, but at the end of the day wins and losses are going to occur on everybody’s schedule and we’ll figure out what that means for who the best teams are.”
Category: General Sports
