The significance of many bowl games has been diminished in the current college football environment. But Missouri coach Eli Drinkwitz, whose team faces Iowa on Monday in the Music City Bowl, says such contests “are still a great experience for our student-athletes and for college football.”
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Seated on a small makeshift stage in a partitioned segment of a Gaylord Opryland ballroom, Missouri football coach Eli Drinkwitz seemed to be of two minds regarding the game he’s about to coach.
His Tigers, at 9-3 overall, 5-3 against Southeastern Conference opponents and ranked 19th by the College Football Playoff selection committee, meet Iowa (8-4, 6-3 Big Ten) in the Music City Bowl at 1:30 p.m. Monday.
The buildup to the game is mostly ceremonial and intended to be celebratory. Drinkwitz and Hawkeyes coach Kirk Ferentz received acoustic guitars emblazoned with their teams’ and the bowl’s branding. But this type of game — which really is more of a series of events ending with a football game — is drifting toward antiquated status.
When Drinkwitz opened his pregame news conference inside Nashville’s extravagant resort, he assumed — in semi-scripted remarks — the traditional tone toward playing in a bowl.
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“Bowl games are still a great experience for our student-athletes and for college football,” the fifth-year MU coach said, “and this is an outstanding bowl game.”
Ferentz, when his turn to talk came around, echoed the notion.
“A lot is written about bowls and said about bowls, and these are changing times in college football,” Iowa’s longtime coach said. “But each one of these games is significant.”
Lately, however, Drinkwitz has been speaking more bluntly about the foundational mechanisms of modern college football, such as the transfer portal, NIL and more. So when the Post-Dispatch asked him about the value of a bowl game, he called it like it is.
“This is really a stand-alone game,” he said. “It’s really different than what you had at the end of the season because of the ‘free-agency’ period that occurs.”
Two quick interjections before his money line. First, he said end of the season — not end of the regular season. Intentional? Maybe not, but telling nonetheless. Second, when he says free agency, he means the ongoing transfer portal cycle — which he has compared to pro sports’ free agency in the past.
“I hate to be like this,” Drinkwitz continued, “but it’s really an exhibition game.”
Shots fired? It’s hard to disagree. The chance to play in or win the Music City Bowl is not worth the risk for Mizzou’s Luther Burden III and Armand Membou, plus Iowa’s Kaleb Johnson and Jermari Harris. All four, who would’ve been the best players on the Nissan Stadium field, opted out to protect their health ahead of the spring’s NFL draft.
With other absentees because of outgoing transfers — namely running back Kewan Lacy, wideout Courtney Crutchfield and defensive ends Williams Nwaneri and Jaylen Brown — plus an injury to starting tight end Brett Norfleet, the Tigers will be without more than 10 players.
Yet exhibition or not, the Music City Bowl is not entirely devoid of significance and value.
A win over Iowa would be Missouri’s 10th of the season, a milestone that the program has reached just seven times before — in 1960, 2007, 2008, 2010, 2013, 2014 and 2023. And as that list reflects, a bowl victory would give MU back-to-back 10-win seasons for just the third time.
“I’m not really caught up in the outcome of that,” Drinkwitz said.
He can say that, but financially, he very much is.
Drinkwitz is due a $150,000 bonus this offseason for bringing the Tigers to a so-called Pool of Six bowl game — the better group of non-playoff bowls with SEC tie-ins. And winning 10 games in a season earns him an extra $25,000.
How much is that to a coach whose salary, before any bonuses, was $9 million? About a quarter of a percent, to be exact. But his staff would benefit from getting to 10 wins, too.
Offensive coordinator Kirby Moore and defensive coordinator Corey Batoon have secured $20,000 bonuses for making the bowl, but they could each take home another $15,000 for getting to 10 victories this year.
There are unique on-field opportunities available to players, too. The Music City Bowl will be a send-off for a senior class that includes team captains quarterback Brady Cook, wideout Theo Wease Jr., defensive end Johnny Walker Jr. and defensive tackle Kristian Williams.
Some young players will get playing time that wasn’t present in the regular season — especially at wide receiver and linebacker.
Second-year wideouts Marquis Johnson and Joshua Manning are “going to step into bigger roles,” Drinkwitz said, with Burden and Mookie Cooper out. Freshman James Madison II and long-time depth receiver Logan Muckey are “going to get some time out there,” Moore added.
At linebacker, where Chuck Hicks was Missouri’s only non-portal or draft-related opt-out, young ’backers Nicholas Rodriguez and Jeremiah Beasley are expected to “get more reps,” Drinkwitz said.
The bowl could, abstractly, set the mood heading into the offseason — but even that idea is punctured by the fact that portal commitments have been rolling in and out of the team facility for a few weeks already.
All in all, the bowl seems like the sort of thing that the winner will say matters and the loser will say won’t — and in the meantime, Mizzou has hedged its philosophy as to which it will be.
“If you are fortunate enough to win, it catapults you into next year,” Drinkwitz said. “If you don’t, then you came up short and you fly back home and celebrate the new year and you start all over. I don’t know that it carries more significance than that.”
Mizzou football coach Eli Drinkwitz speaks with the media on Wednesday, Dec. 18, 2024. (Video by Mizzou Network, used with permission of Mizzou Athletics)
