Mizzou football coach Eli Drinkwitz gives roster update ahead of season opener

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

Mizzou football coach Eli Drinkwitz held his first game-week news conference on Tuesday afternoon.

You can watch the full news conference in the video player below.

Drinkwitz said seven players will be out for the season opener due to COVID-19 concerns. Last week, Drinkwitz said there would be at least a dozen out; however, Drinkwitz said there was an error in the testing.

"There was an issue with our testing," Drinkwitz said on a Zoom news conference Tuesday. "One of the test results came back inconclusive, which deemed that to be a positive, so therefore we contact traced several players. Once that inconclusive test was retaken multiple times with PCR swabs and concluded to be a negative test, we were able to allow people to come back out of the contact tracing."

In total - there will be 69 of 81 scholarship players available for MU on Saturday. Coach Drinkwitz said it's important to be transparent about the team's COVID-19 cases because this is a public health issue. Some coaches, including Alabama head coach Nick Saban, have not been so forthcoming about their teams COVID-19 cases.

"For me, it's more important than whatever competitive advantage we feel like it might be to win or lose a football game," Drinkwitz said. "I would still cite that a pandemic is more important than that. Although - I do believe in the value of football and believe in what we’re doing and excited about the opportunity to represent the state of Missouri on Saturday."

MU is testing three times a week, so its numbers could change by Saturday. Meanwhile, Alabama is testing its players every day.

"I’m not an epidemiologist - although I talked to one last night - and just as a reminder, testing doesn’t protect you from the virus," Drinkwitz said. "It just tells you whether or not you have the virus or not, so it’s really about your personal responsibility and how you handle yourself outside of the building."

Drinkwitz added, "The problem with tests is they can be invalid the moment you get done taking the test cause you can go expose yourself to the virus if you go to Harpo’s, and there’s a bunch of people there."

Drinkwitz also gave several injury updates on Tuesday. He said tight end Brendan Scales has medically retired after a foot injury. Offensive lineman Hyrin White is out for the season with a shoulder injury. Thalen Robinson, also an offensive lineman, has opted out of the season. Defensive lineman Sci Martin is out 1-2 weeks with a knee injury.

Drinkwitz also said defensive lineman Trajan Jeffcoat has rejoined the team.

We spoke with several players on Tuesday as well. You can watch our full interviews in the video players below.

Mizzou and Alabama will kickoff from Faurot Field at 6 p.m. on Saturday.