Mizzou’s trip to Oxford has plenty of familiar faces attached to it, but Eli Drinkwitz keeps pulling the focus back to the same place: the game itself.
Yes, Austin Simmons is headed back to Ole Miss. So are Cayden Lee and Chris Graves Jr.
The storyline is easy to see, especially with 13th-ranked Mizzou set to face ninth-ranked Ole Miss in a top-15 matchup. But Drinkwitz made it clear Tuesday that the Tigers won’t be treating this like a reunion tour.
“I think there’s going to be a lot made about Cayden and Austin and C.G. going back,” Drinkwitz said, “but really it’s more about our team and playing well and the opportunity that we’ve created for ourselves being a top-15 matchup.”
That doesn’t mean Simmons’ path back to this moment isn’t a big part of the picture. Thirteen months ago, he was the starting quarterback for a Mississippi team headed toward the College Football Playoff national semifinal. Then an ankle injury changed everything, and Trinidad Chambliss stepped in and took over as the Heisman Trophy contender.
Drinkwitz summed it up with a sharp little reference Tuesday: Simmons got “Wally Pipped.”
That’s the old baseball story of Wally Pipp, the Yankees first baseman who sat out with a headache on June 2, 1925, and was replaced by Lou Gehrig. In Simmons’ case, though, the setback didn’t push him out of the sport’s spotlight. It shaped what came next.
Simmons didn’t hide from the disappointment. He owned it, learned from it and kept going.
“Honestly, I’m actually kind of grateful for that whole thing happening to me,” Simmons told The Star at Mizzou’s media day over the summer.
He added: “It made me really understand that this game can really go away at any point.”
That response is a big reason Mizzou’s staff was drawn to him, beyond the arm strength, the poise and the football IQ. Drinkwitz said the intangible part mattered just as much.
“I think the biggest thing is he’s a tremendous teammate,” Drinkwitz said, noting the “Pipped” bit and adding, “Now you’re having to be the encourager. He (did) the same things that he does here as far as being a guy that daps everybody up when they leave the tunnel. Prepared like he was a starter if he ever got his moment.
“So, I think it says a lot about who he is as a person that he could find the emotional maturity to believe in himself. But also be a good leader and not make it about him.”
That attitude will get its latest test in Oxford, where Simmons joins Lee and Graves in returning to a place that still matters in their personal football stories. Mizzou, though, has bigger ambitions than the emotional angle. The Tigers are 5-1 overall and 2-1 in Southeastern Conference play, and they’re chasing a second top-10 win in the same season for the first time since 1978.
That year, MU beat No. 5 Notre Dame 3-0 in Warren Powers’ first game and then knocked off No. 2 Nebraska 35-31 in the regular-season finale.
For now, Drinkwitz is staying on the first step.
“We need to play our best (and) most complete game to even be in the game,” he said.
Mizzou has already shown what it can look like when the defense is locked in. The Tigers responded to their road loss at Mississippi State with a 45-17 win over No. 8 Florida, a game that was even more lopsided than the score suggested, then followed with a 27-6 dismantling of Texas A&M.
The running game has also given Mizzou a backbone. Jamal Roberts is second in the nation in rushing with 828 yards, coming off back-to-back 200-plus-yard performances.
Ole Miss will present a different kind of problem, especially in its own building. Simmons has posted an 87.5 passing grade, which ranks 13th nationally among quarterbacks with at least 100 attempts.
Lee has 42 catches for 616 receiving yards, fifth in the nation. Graves has started all six games as part of an almost completely rebuilt defensive unit.
Drinkwitz said emotions will be there, but the goal is emotional consistency. Mizzou works on that through its Elite Edge program, and one player who seems to have carried that lesson with him is left tackle Cayden Green.
Green, an Oklahoma transfer and Lee’s Summit native, has already played against his former team. For him, the approach is straightforward.
“It’s all about ‘keeping the main thing the main thing,’” Green said. “This team is too good to be caught up in all that other stuff.”
Drinkwitz also pointed to the broader movement around the two programs, including former Tiger receiver L’Damian Washington, now Ole Miss’ receivers coach, and running back Kewan Lacy, an MU transfer. It all feeds into what Drinkwitz called “the new age of college football.”
Simmons handled that reality before, and now he returns to a place that helped shape the player and person he became.
“We talk about ‘enjoy the journey,’” Drinkwitz said. “That was a part of their journey that made them who they are right now.”
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