Missouri football coach Eli Drinkwitz calls out Bob Stoops as a naysayer after win against Oklahoma

Eli Drinkwitz claims to block out the outside noise. If you haven’t heard that exact phrase at Missouri football camp, wait a second.

Turns out the head coach didn’t quite practice what he preached.

Drinkwitz kept his receipts for the offseason. …including one of Oklahoma’s most successful head coaches.

“This will be really disappointing for Bob Stoops,” Drinkwitz said in his opening statement after the game, “but OU doesn’t always beat Missouri’s ass anymore.”

Mizzou defeated Oklahoma 30-23 on Saturday in Columbia. That’s barely a fraction of the story.

The Tigers scored 14 points in the final 63 seconds to send the Sooners back to Southwest Show-Me State with their tails between their legs. Defensive end Zion Young’s shot and goal with 30 seconds left sealed the win. MU backup quarterback Drew Pyne’s touchdown connection to former Sooner Theo Wease Jr. with 1:03 remaining kept MU in the fight.

More: Missouri football final score: Mizzou scores 14 points in the final 63 seconds to beat Oklahoma

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There were a total of 28 points in the final 3 minutes and 18 seconds, including two OU touchdowns, which seemed to spell disaster for the Tigers at that point.

Of course it didn’t happen that way.

Missouri (7-2, 3-2 SEC) pulled off another impressive comeback.

The game was immediately the most important game on the Tigers’ offseason slate. It sold out almost immediately as fans clamored to see the former Big 12 and Big Eight rivals back at Faurot Field.

For most of its history, it has been somewhat difficult to call the two teams rivals. OU led the all-time series 67-24-5 before Saturday.

But there were some offseason questions about how easy the Sooners’ first season in the SEC would prove to be, and that led Stoops to make the following offseason remark to ESPN reporter Jake Trotter:

“We beat Missouri hands down,” Stoops is quoted as saying. “Suddenly we’re supposed to be afraid of them now?”

Drinkwitz heard it.

“Felt pretty good,” Drinkwitz said. “I thought Coach Stoops did a good job of turning heads this summer, you know? I thought their coaches did a few things this summer where it felt like they spiced things up a little bit with a few tweets and other things. So our guys were ready.”

And the Mizzou coach was in the mood to play his licks alongside Norman’s chirps.

Pyne became the first player not named Brady Cook, who was sidelined Saturday due to various injuries, to start at quarterback for the Tigers since Nov. 26, 2021, when Connor Bazelak started in a loss at Arkansas.

It wasn’t the easiest start to life for Pyne in Colombia. Before Saturday, he had led just one scoring drive in 13 attempts in two relief appearances against power conference opponents. He threw three picks in his final game against Alabama while Mizzou was eliminated on the road.

When he was announced as MU’s starter Saturday before the game against OU, there was general applause at Faurot Field. The online discourse — both on social media and in the news media, Drinkwitz emphasized — has been less optimistic about his chances of successfully leading the offense.

“I just can’t express how proud I am of Drew Pyne, despite all the crap he’s put through,” Drinkwitz said. “You know, I feel like I’m up here all the time and I have to defend my quarterback, which isn’t great, but with all the crap he says on Twitter and all of you in this room, he goes out… and delivers in the (key) moments in the fourth quarter after the fans booed. He just goes out and delivers.”

Missouri is now 7-2 on the season, marking the second straight year – and second overall in Drinkwitz’s five seasons – that the Tigers have won more than six games. Mizzou has a 3-2 record in SEC play and is still capable of winning double-digit games for the second straight year.

Oklahoma, meanwhile, fell to 5-5 from 1-5 in league play and needs a win at home against Alabama or on the road at LSU to become bowl eligible in its first season as an SEC team.

I bet everything felt good.

“That’s what I love about this team,” Drinkwitz said. “We love you all if you cheer us on, and if you don’t, we just keep going. We are brave. We are really, really brave.”

This article originally appeared on Columbia Daily Tribune: Missouri football coach Eli Drinkwitz tweets at Bob Stoops after beating OU