Missouri head coach Eli Drinkwitz is off to a fantastic first half of the season for 2026.
The Tigers are 5-1 and are riding high after dismantling both Florida and Texas A&M at home in back-to-back weeks.
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Drinkwitz himself has to be feeling pretty good, too, considering his team has done all of this despite missing perhaps their best player in running back Ahmad Hardy.
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Eli Drinkwitz of the Missouri Tigers lines up in the tunnel before the TaxSlayer Gator Bowl between Missouri and Virginia at EverBank Stadium in Jacksonville, Fla., on Dec. 27, 2025. (Getty Images)
Hardy was a unanimous All-American in 2025, and the expectations were for him to replicate that success this season, but a gunshot wound in May brought all of those ideas to a screeching halt.
The standout running back has since recovered and is miraculously working his way back to getting onto the football field.
Despite this, there is no definitive timetable for his return, and even though coach Drinkwitz has repeatedly said as much, the questions still persist at every one of his weekly pressers.
Ahmad Hardy of the Missouri Tigers runs the ball during the 2025 TaxSlayer Gator Bowl against the Virginia Cavaliers at EverBank Stadium in Jacksonville, Fla., on Dec. 27, 2025. (Dustin Markland/Getty Images)
I guess this week in particular was the final straw for the man they call Drink, because the exasperated head coach offered up a final statement on the matter while taking a shot at the very place the rumors about his running back likely started.
“I really don’t want to have to answer that question every week,” a clearly frustrated Drinkwitz explained. “I will tell you all when there’s an update. Contrary to what’s on the cesspool of message boards.”
Spicy!
Drink isn’t even the first coach to fire back at that subset of his own fanbase, as Texas A&M head coach Mike Elko had some comments for the TexAgs message boards after their loss to these very same Missouri Tigers on Saturday.
Elko even invoked that same “cesspool” phrase when singling them out.
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Missouri head coach Eli Drinkwitz is seen before an NCAA college football game against Florida on Saturday, Oct. 3, 2026, in Columbia, Missouri. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)
Drinkwitz is known to be a bit of a trash talker, so was this his way of getting one last jab in on A&M before moving on to planning for Ole Miss this weekend?
Maybe.
The Tigers are off to their fourth consecutive 5-1 start under Drinkwitz, and their head coach is definitely strutting his stuff on the microphone week in and week out.
Deservedly so, too.
If Mizzou pulls off the win on the road in Oxford, his postgame presser might turn into a vintage WWE promo.
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It’s Drink’s world right now, and we are all just living in it.