Auburn coach Hugh Freeze and Missouri coach Eli Drinkwitz became friends years ago through Gus Malzahn, who mentored both of them. Their bond has grown stronger now that they’re both in the SEC.
“We gravitate to one another in our lives, too, when we are at common places,” Freeze explained, “whether it’s SEC meetings or whether it’s the Peach Bowl Classic. I think we’re made of a similar mindset of what coaching should be about, the bigger picture of trying to keep the impacting of others as important as the wins and losses.”
That’s a generous way to think. This connection between the coaches might be why Drinkwitz and No. 19 Missouri aren’t too concerned about some comments Freeze made earlier this week that could be seen as negative.
He meant to praise Drinkwitz, but it came off as a criticism of the program: “I know everybody has their rankings of coaches and it’s based on, to me, the better talent you have the better coach you are,” Freeze said. “To me, some of the better jobs are done with those lesser rosters in recruiting.”
However, that so-called lesser roster at Missouri (5-1, 1-1) has only lost to Texas A&M this season and still aims to compete for an SEC title and a spot in the College Football Playoff. Missouri bounced back from that loss by defeating UMass last week.
Meanwhile, Auburn (2-4, 0-3) has lost three straight conference games and needs a win to turn its season around.
They will face Missouri on Saturday at Faurot Field.
“There’s really only one glaring weakness that they’ve had, and it shows up in all their losses, which is turnovers,” Drinkwitz said. “Other than that, they’ve played well enough to win football games, and I think they are very talented on both sides of the ball.”
That’s not exactly harsh criticism coming from him.
“It’s really going to be a challenge for us this week,” Drinkwitz added. “It’s really about our consistency and preparation, our urgency, our daily progress in trying to improve our fundamentals, our ability to play fast and aggressive in the face of uncertainty of what they’re going to do.”
