Missouri Tigers football coach Eli Drinkwitz said one of the worst things possible in a competitive SEC environment, where he was previously a candidate for vacant jobs from the Florida Gators, LSU Tigers, Auburn Tigers, and Arkansas Razorbacks:
Making the College Football Playoff isn't all that matters for a program in this day and age.
"We gotta get out of this ‘Oh man, it’s playoffs or bust,' If the season only counts for 12 football teams, and we got 127 D1 football teams, that math’s not gonna math very well... There’s a whole heck of a lot to be proud of," Drinkwitz said.
On second thought, maybe Drinwitz should just stay at Mizzou.
At a minimum, recent national champions in the past 20 years like Auburn, LSU, and Florida should not think about Drinkwitz ever again after this statement. While the sentiment is true in a nutshell, and most schools aren't playing for the CFP and still have plenty of meaning to their season, that's not the thing to say right now unless staying in CoMo is his prerogative.
Staying locked in on the current season is one thing, but you have to dream big in this conference. Even when the talent gap between the best of the Big Ten and the best of the SEC is widening in the B1G's favor these days.
Drinkwitz was already UF's Plan B if Lane Kiffin didn't end up there. He was already a Plan B to Jon Sumrall for Auburn. Drinkwitz was a distant thought in LSU's process, all told. Any school hiring him is admitting that winning the CFP every year isn't the most important goal. So why spend the most money? Why not invest in basketball instead?
For AU, this sounds like Gus Malzahn 2.0, with soft-spoken natures and accepting good, but not great. For Florida, it's a Dan Mullen-like SEC retread from a less historically relevant school.
Perhaps these schools, plus Mizzou, have the clarity needed on where Drinkwitz belongs.