Missouri coach Eliah Drinkwitz wants the NCAA to vacate wins from Jeremy Pruitt’s tenure at Tennessee, the third-year coach joked on the Jim Rome Show Wednesday.
Drinkwitz and Pruitt overlapped one year in the SEC east with the Vols easily handling Missouri, 35-12, inside Neyland Stadium. The 39-year old Missouri coach joked with Rome about needing to improve his official record, hoping a win deduction would remove one loss from his, 11-12, record at Missouri.
The former Appalachian State head coach and North Carolina State offensive coordinator did partly credit Tennessee’s administration for how they handled the violations.
“It was a little bit surprising to see the in depth nature of what was going on there but I’m sure glad that Tennessee was taking some ownership of it and we’ll see what the results are,” Drinkwitz said. “It was pretty interesting for sure.”
Most of Drinkwitz’ comments on the matter were ripping former Tennessee head coach Jeremy Pruitt and his wife Casey.
Casey was included in a number of the allegations in Tennessee’s notice of allegation, providing impermissible benefits to recruits and players.
“I have to question my wife’s commitment to winning,” Drinkwitz said to open up the interview. “I don’t know how much she’s committed if she’s not engaging in some of these things. I didn’t know that was fair play.
“Pressure does crazy things to people and there’s a lot of pressure to win in the SEC. I don’t know. That’s crazy.”
.@CoachDrinkwitz took an axe to Rocky Top today. pic.twitter.com/QBaDGrGmRh
— Jim Rome (@jimrome) July 27, 2022
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Eliah Drinkwitz is 0-2 against Tennessee with a pair of lopsided losses. The Vols have outscored the Tigers 97-36 in those two games.
Tennessee’s win in Columbia a season ago was Josh Heupel’s first conference victory and came in extremely lopsided fashion. Heupel’s offense dominated, scoring touchdowns on its first six possessions and scoring on 11 of 12 possessions.
Heupel and his staff have had recent success on the recruiting trail in the “Show Me” state, landing top 100 EDGE rusher Chandavian Bradley earlier this month.
Tennessee and Missouri face off inside Neyland Stadium this fall on Nov. 11. The game is Tennessee’s final home game of the season.
