Gig’ em, Eli.
Missouri coach Elias Drinkwitz on Thursday at Southeastern Conference Media Days took a shot at the Texas Longhorns.
“Hard hitting questions coming out of yesterday. I think one of them was whether or not the ‘Horns Down’ is going to be a 15-yard penalty in the SEC in the future,” Drinkwitz said. “So I asked Commissioner (Greg) Sankey in the hallway, and he gave me a strong rebuttal by saying no comment. So we'll see where that goes.”
Texas and Oklahoma are reportedly interested in leaving the Big 12 — where a “horns down” gesture will result in a 15-yard penalty — to join the SEC.
Missouri offensive lineman Case Cook offered a word of caution to the Longhorns.
“If you can’t handle a ‘Horns Down’ gesture I would imagine you’d have a hard time in this league,” he said.
Drinkwitz suggested the Texas and Oklahoma rumor reinforces that the SEC in the nation’s premier football conference.
“I've been trying to tell people everybody wants to play in the SEC, man,” Drinkwitz said. “If you can attract a couple of really good schools to come play, that's great. I immediately called my athletic director (Jim Sterk) and told him that if the commissioner changes and adds two games to our schedule, I think we all understand that (Associate Commissioner) Mark Womack is going to put both Texas and OU on Mizzou's schedule moving forward. So we're ready for any challenge that is thrown at us.”
“No, in all seriousness, control what you can control. That's all speculative. This is talking season, as a coach once phrased it, and speculative season, and gives you all a lot of things to do. But what we're worried about is converting third downs and scoring touchdowns. They ain't on our schedule this year, and if the commissioner decides or our presidents decide that's what it will be in the future, then hopefully Missouri employs me long enough to see that.”
Arkansas has 23 seniors and super seniors on its roster. That experience should help the Hogs improve on last year’s three victories.
Coach Sam Pittman was asked what is needed for the Razorbacks to make a big jump in victories.
“I wish I knew that. We'd jump all over the place,” he said. “Here's what I do know: It will be hard work. The weight room, the process of the program, the belief in the program. I mean, you can't beat anybody if you don't start out thinking you're going to or believing you're going to. I think that has changed over the last year.”
“But I think it's just building on what we have done and getting better and getting a few additions to help our football team. We've got enough players on our team to have a good football team as long as we buy in and we work hard and we execute.”
Some might not realize it, but the SEC’s top returning receiver is Arkansas’ Treylon Burks.
The 6-foot-3, 225-pound Burks caught 51 passes for 820 yards and seven touchdowns last season. He ranked third in the SEC behind Ole Miss’ Elijah Moore and Alabama’s DeVonta Smith.
Obviously, he was already among the SEC’s best receivers. Pittman challenged him to get even better.
“What he needed to do to become a standout, an unbelievable player, is get in better shape, and we talked to him about that,” Smith said. “Just going out there and hunting them Hogs wasn't really getting him in the greatest shape in the world, so he had to do more than just that.”
“He has done that. He's lost some weight. He looks good. He's more confident, things of that nature. He's got 5X hands. He's just a tremendous person, a south Arkansas, Warren, Arkansas kid.”
Auburn quarterback Bo Nix has had an inconsistent career.
Last season he was particularly up and down. He passed for 2,415 yards and threw 12 touchdown passes.
But he’s thrown 13 career interceptions. Seven were last year. Three of those came in a 30-22 upset loss to South Carolina.
While he aims to reduce that total, Nix said he can’t be afraid to make difficult throws.
“I do a good job of seeing coverages and knowing where the ball's supposed to be,” Nix said. “Sometimes I've just got to pull the trigger and make those tighter throws, and if they're picked, they're picked. But if not, at least I knew I tried it, and at least I knew that's where I was supposed to go with the ball.”
“I think sometimes as quarterbacks we get gun shy because of maybe not turning the ball over or anything, but if you look at all the great quarterbacks, they threw some picks and they tried to thread the needle a little bit. That's what made them good. That's what made them successful.”
Loved this.Quote:
Texas and Oklahoma are reportedly interested in leaving the Big 12 where a "horns down" gesture will result in a 15-yard penalty to join the SEC.
Missouri offensive lineman Case Cook offered a word of caution to the Longhorns.
"If you can't handle a 'Horns Down' gesture I would imagine you'd have a hard time in this league," he said.
