Drinkwitz Says He Will Get Fined 'Until I Don't Have Any Retirement' After Texas-Missouri Officiating Row

No. 7 Texas beat No. 18 Missouri 34-20 in Columbia on Saturday, and the game will be remembered for the calls, not the comeback. Missouri led 20-13 late in the third quarter when a ruling on Arch Manning’s apparent fumble went Texas’ way, and the Longhorns tied the game three plays later on their way to scoring the final 21 points. Coach Eli Drinkwitz refused to say what he really thought about the officiating, because saying it would cost him: “If I say what I want to say, I’m going to get fined until I don’t have any retirement.”

What happened on the Manning fumble?

Missouri had Texas exactly where it wanted them. The Tigers led 20-13 late in the third quarter, and Texas faced third-and-10 from the Missouri 39. Linebacker Brian Huff hit Manning’s throwing arm as the quarterback went to pass, USA Today reports, and the ball sailed about 12 yards in the air before landing. Officials ruled it a fumble on the field, and Emmett Mosley V recovered it at the Missouri 25, giving Texas a first down instead of fourth-and-10.

The ruling stood after a replay review, Pro Football Network reports. Texas needed just three more snaps to pull even, on a 25-yard touchdown pass from Manning to Jermaine Bishop Jr. Raleek Brown’s 23-yard touchdown catch from Manning with 5:03 left gave Texas its first lead of the game, and Missouri never scored again. The confusion on the play was visible in real time: the New York Post reports the Texas defence treated the ball like an incomplete pass after a confusing signal from an official, before the fumble ruling stood.

What did Drinkwitz say after the game?

He said almost nothing about the officials, and said it in a way that told everyone exactly what he thought. “My job is to respond to the situations,” Drinkwitz told reporters, the New York Post reports. “They have officials. They have a crew from the SEC that calls in. And they reviewed it. So I don’t know what to tell you. If I say what I want to say, I’m going to get fined until I don’t have any retirement. And I’m not going to do that, because I’m not going to blame the officials. That’d be disrespectful.”

He was careful to add the line that protects him from the charge of making excuses. Drinkwitz congratulated Texas after the game and said the Longhorns deserved the win, USA Today reports, and that the win was not due to the officiating. The restraint is deliberate: Mike Vrabel was flagged for swearing at a referee earlier this season and then joked about a reported $250,000 fine, and Drinkwitz clearly decided the joke was not worth the price.

What was the SEC’s explanation?

The conference defended the call in a statement to the Columbia Daily Tribune, part of the USA Today Network, after the game. “The ruling on the field was a fumble,” an SEC official wrote in an email to the Tribune, USA Today reports. “In replay review it was determined there was not clear and obvious video evidence that he had firm control of the ball when the hand intentionally started forward in order to overturn the call.”

That is the standard for overturning a call on the field, and it is also why the ruling has split opinion so cleanly. The officials needed clear and obvious evidence that Manning had firm control when his hand started forward, and the replay did not give it to them. The counter-argument is that the ball came out as his arm moved forward, which is what an incomplete pass looks like. Former NFL referee Terry McAulay stated on X that he saw the play as “clearly and obviously an incomplete pass,” the New York Post reports, which is the opposite reading of the same pictures.

What other calls went against Missouri?

The fumble was the loudest call, but it was not the only one Missouri fans are angry about. Before halftime, Texas kicker Gianni Spetic’s 27-yard field goal had tied the game 10-10 with 1:57 left in the second quarter, Pro Football Network reports. On Missouri’s next drive, the ball came out of wide receiver Cayden Lee’s grasp as Texas defenders worked to bring him down, and the Longhorns recovered. Officials blew the play dead, judging Lee’s progress already over, and replay let the call stand.

College football analyst David Pollack called that one a terrible call, writing that the ball carrier was clearly going forward when the ball was stripped out. The sequence of disputed calls runs longer still. Replay overturned a touchdown on Missouri’s opening drive and then took away an end-zone catch by Naeshaun Montgomery, leaving the Tigers to settle for a 22-yard field goal. A Lee catch that had been ruled complete was overturned on the opening drive of the second half, and Missouri settled for a 48-yard Blake Craig field goal. The New York Post also lists an unnecessary roughness penalty on Warren Robertson and an overturned Austin Simmons rushing touchdown. The Associated Press counted five video reviews that went against the Tigers, Pro Football Network reports, and one fan’s count put Missouri at 0 for 6 on reviews.

Did the officiating decide the game?

Nobody can say for certain, and that is the point Drinkwitz was making by not making it. USA Today notes Missouri was outplayed in the fourth quarter, but that it is impossible to know whether the pivotal review contributed to the loss. Texas scored the final 21 points, and a team that gives up 21 unanswered points has more than one problem. But the fumble ruling turned a likely Texas punt into a tying touchdown, and the game changed shape from that moment.

ESPN analyst Jesse Palmer said on the broadcast that if you were a Missouri fan, or Drinkwitz, you would be livid, because it felt like a lot of the calls were going against Missouri. Georgia and Alabama went through the same argument a month ago, when a no-call, a sideline dressing-down and fans throwing objects defined a 20-17 finish, and the pattern is familiar: one call becomes the story, and every call before it gets re-litigated as evidence.

What does the result mean for the playoff race?

It keeps Texas alive and all but ends Missouri’s season. Texas improved to 7-2 and Missouri fell to 6-3, the New York Post reports, suffering its third loss. Pro Football Network’s College Football Playoff Meter gave Texas an 84.7 percent chance of making the playoff before kickoff, rising to 93.0 percent with the win, while Missouri’s 13.4 percent chance was projected to fall to 5.7 percent with the loss. Missouri’s chance of reaching the SEC title game fell from 6.9 percent to 1.3 percent.

The stakes are what turned a borderline call into a controversy with a life of its own. The league’s officials have been under scrutiny all season, from the suspensions of two referees for player incidents to the flag-happy crews coaches have complained about, and Todd Bowles called out the league’s most flag-happy crew after the Buccaneers survived 14 penalties in Dallas. Drinkwitz will not be the coach who pays for saying so. He said the quiet part out loud, then stopped, and let the quote do the criticising for him.