The Missouri Tigers handled the Kansas Jayhawks with ease Friday night in a 38-21 rivalry game win. That is the story from the game itself.
The narrative surrounding the matchup goes well beyond what happened on the field. That comes after Kansas stirred up controversy with a social media post that featured a hype video for the game. The video cited Civil War-era history and how Missouri was a former slave state, while Kansas was a free state.
Citing this history led to a polarizing response and Missouri head coach Eli Drinkwitz slammed the Kansas program for the video.
Missouri HC Unloads on Kansas Following Win
The Missouri head coach spoke after the game and shared a clear statement on the video.
“I was disappointed in the rivalry, the turn that it took today,” Drinkwitz said, per reporter Eli Hoff. “I thought that was uncalled for. This is about two teams playing football, and especially on 9/11, when we need more unity now than ever.”
Drinkwitz was visibly frustrated and did not mince his words.
“To be putting some stuff on your screen, celebrating, I mean, everybody’s got complicated pasts,” he continued. “To make that an icon was bizarre to me. I’m just glad that this whole right versus wrong bullcrap that was started just got settled on a football field, because it’s a football game.”
He ended his comments by saying he was “embarrassed” for Kansas and that he wanted to run up the score on them at the end.
Reigniting a Classic Rivalry
Missouri and Kansas had an annual rivalry game until the former bolted for the SEC just over a decade ago. The two teams met up once again in 2025 and continued the tradition this week.
Kansas’ controversial video only serves to enrage Missouri fans, and the head coach of the team, and should help keep this rivalry game a heated one after such a long hiatus. Unfortunately, the two teams are not set to meet again until 2031. That sets up plenty of time for both programs to prepare new videos for the next matchup.
Missouri got the win Friday to improve to 2-0. As Drinkwitz said, his team was able to settle all this controversy on the football field instead of on social media.
The backlash from the video and the fact Kansas couldn’t pull off the win may mean the program’s social media team needs to avoid these types of bold posts in the future. Being called embarrassing by a rival head coach is never a good thing.
Missouri HC Eli Drinkwitz ‘Embarrassed’ for Kansas