The thick stench of cigar smoke filled Missouri’s locker room shortly after the Tigers took down Arkansas 29-27 on Nov. 25 in their final game of the regular season. Coach Eli Drinkwitz bought more than 150 victory cigars for his players, telling them before the game they would be used to celebrate the team’s bowl-clinching sixth win.
Several hours later, his prediction became reality. That night, players celebrated the conclusion of another regular season, taking down one of their rivals and clinching one last game in the process. The next day, Missouri celebrated its seniors during a teamwide banquet.
The time between these end-of-regular-season festivities and an eventual bowl game is one of the more enjoyable stretches of the season for players, something they look forward to before the offseason. For coaches, it’s one of the most hectic periods that has only become more stressful in recent years.
The first thing coaches typically bring up when asked about the benefits of a potential bowl game is the 15 extra practices they receive as a team, and for good reason. These practices offer coaches opportunities to rest older players after a grueling regular season and evaluate less experienced players.
“A lot of those guys are grinding on scout team for us all year and they’re developing,” said Barrett Banister at a recent press conference, “so you get to hang out with those guys and veterans get to rest a little bit.”
Eric Beisel, a Tiger between 2013 and 2017, was one of those players. For a linebacker who didn’t see the field much until the end of his junior season, those 15 extra practices proved incredibly valuable. During his first few seasons on the team, they served as his primary opportunity to showcase his skillset and growth to coaches in a practice setting.
“A guy like me, I’m looking forward to bowl prep because I was labeled right as I walked in as a ‘special teams-only’ guy,” Beisel said. “In order for me to step up, I had to showcase some of that stuff during extra practices during bowl prep.”
Banister compared bowl season practices to coming off a bye week. There’s time to go over the game plan multiple times and repeat helpful drills in practices.
In addition to being beneficial for less experienced players, these practices are also meant to be fun. The first few weeks of bowl preparations and practices are packed with scrimmages and team bonding.
Beisel remembers teammate Eddie Serrano showing up to one of the practices dressed as Santa Claus. There were drills that had offensive linemen catching punts and others that placed defensive linemen in offensive skill positions. Off the field there were dance-offs, and at one point Michael Sam stood up in front of the team and recited King Leonidas’ speech from the movie “300.”
“Everyone’s having fun and celebrating,” Beisel said. “There’s not a whole bunch of pressure and everyone is bonding.”
For coaches, those weeks are much more demanding. While players prepare to take class finals, coaches go into full recruiting mode with National Signing Day quickly approaching. With the evolution of the transfer portal, they’re monitoring that closely as well as talking with players who are considering opting out of the game for a variety of reasons. In addition, coaches must prepare for the bowl or championship game by breaking down the opposition‘s film and self-scouting.
“It’s pretty stressful,” said Cornell Ford, a former Missouri assistant coach who worked under both Gary Pinkel and Barry Odom. “You’re juggling a lot and there’s not a lot of sleeping going on during that time.”
Drinkwitz shared a glimpse inside his life in recent weeks during a press conference Sunday. He spent weeks on the road recruiting and fit in time to attend Pinkel’s induction to the College Football Hall of Fame in Las Vegas. He talked with players one-on-one and just last weekend was in Columbia as the Tigers hosted 13 official recruiting visits.
“I haven’t had any time to sit down and reflect,” Drinkwitz said. “I think that’s both good and bad. That will allow us to put this season away and celebrate Christmas with the family once this game is over and then figure out what we need to do to continue to improve.”
As the date of the bowl game gets closer, the fun and loose practices return to intense game prep, much like any regular-season week. Veteran players slowly trickle back into full drills. Ford said the coaching staff’s goal, at least under Pinkel, was to make sure the game plan was done before stepping on the plane to the bowl site, which usually took place nearly a week ahead of the scheduled matchup. For Pinkel, that meant every play card was drawn out and every period of every practice in the lead-up to the game was planned for.
“A lot of that is why teams are successful in bowl games,” Ford said. “Some teams never win a bowl game because they don’t handle that time the right way.”
But again, at its roots, a bowl game is meant to celebrate and reward players. Back when Beisel played, players learned where they would play their bowl game when Pinkel walked into a team meeting with bowl gear — new shirts, sweats, shoes and more — and wrote the destination on a board. That’s just the beginning of the bowl swag players receive.
When the Tigers went to Dallas to play in the 2014 Cotton Bowl Classic, players received Apple TV’s, iPad’s and headphones. They spent an entire week in Dallas, where they practiced at AT&T Stadium several times ahead of the game. In 2015, Missouri played in the Buffalo Wild Wings Citrus Bowl where they stayed at a five-star hotel, toured Disney World, went to Universal Studios and had a large team dinner at Buffalo Wild Wings. This year, players got tolook forward to the warmer weather in Tampa, Florida, and a potential trip to nearby Busch Gardens Theme Park.
“I hope they never get rid of the bowls,” Ford said. “They do a lot and give great experiences to some of these kids who have never been places.”
When the Tigers take the field at Raymond James Stadium on Friday for the Gasparilla Bowl, it will be the second time Missouri plays a bowl game under Drinkwitz and the third time it has qualified for one — it didn’t play the 2020 Music City Bowl because it had too many COVID-19 absences.
As the Tigers await game day, they will take advantage of the scrimmage-filled practices and team-bonding moments that present themselves. At the same time, the real preparation is underway as Missouri attempts to win its first bowl game since the aforementioned 2015 Citrus Bowl.
“It’s a celebration for older guys,” Beisel said, “to say, ‘Hey, this is it. No pressure. I’m going to enjoy every bit of this because this is family to me and is the last time I’ll be in a Missouri Tigers uniform.’”