COLUMBIA, Mo. — At some point, Eli Drinkwitz will get to catch his breath.
A pandemic nearly wiped out his first year on the job as Missouri’s football coach before it started, then forced not one, not two but three revisions of the team’s Southeastern Conference schedule. Through the first half of a 10-game slate, the Tigers have changed quarterbacks, lost eight starters for a combined 10 games because of injury or contact tracing, played five straight favored opponents, taken down the defending national champions, snapped a five-game losing streak to a division foe, suffered two humbling road losses and engaged in a halftime brawl that led to sanctions from the conference office.