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Meeting with a select group of reporters before he took the stage at the Southeastern Conference’s media days Thursday, Drinkwitz confirmed what has been a growing assumption about his approach toward high school recruiting: When it comes to allocating money on player acquisition, he’s leaning strongly toward transfers over recruits — and that’s contributing to a rather lackluster 2026 recruiting cycle.

The Tigers have 10 verbal commitments in their 2026 class, which puts them just 75th in 247Sports national rankings. That’s second to last in the SEC, and not where MU generally wants to be.

Except now, in the age of ready-made starters arriving every offseason via the transfer portal, it might not be that far off.

“I know there is some angst amongst the fan base — or at least on Twitter or X — about recruiting,� Drinkwitz said. “I would just say, ‘Relax.’ We’re building a roster. In the past, when it came to recruiting and building a roster, there was really only one way to do it and there was only one window to do it. That was why there was so much focus and media attention and so much to do with signing day. That’s not the case anymore. That’s not the only way.�

Of the 38 newcomers on Missouri’s 2025 roster, 17 are freshmen in from the high school ranks and 21 came in from the portal, Drinkwitz pointed out.

And it was as he was building that roster last December that Drinkwitz rolled out his “production over potential� catchphrase to explain why the program remained bullish on its talent despite losing some talented freshmen who’d redshirted in 2024. While the compensation players like Williams Nwaneri, Kewan Lacy and Courtney Crutchfield — three of the more noteworthy outgoing transfers— received isn’t clear, it’s likely Mizzou paid a significant amount for their signatures out of high school.

Yet that trio didn’t play much at all in 2024. Nwaneri was on the field for 38 defensive snaps, Lacy for 43 on offense and Crutchfield for 10.

“How much money can you pay to have players not playing and contributing?� Drinkwitz said. “That’s a decision everybody’s got to make.�

His decision, based on those players’ exits and the current state of MU’s high school recruiting, seems to be that those who play less will make less.

“Freshmen feel like, recruits feel like they have a certain amount of value that maybe was generated in the past,� Drinkwitz said. “I’m not sure that’s exactly going to be the value moving forward because in order to get a big-time payday, they have to be slotted to come in and start Day 1. If they’re not, my value and somebody else’s value on them may be different.�

Some schools are still willing to splash the cash on recruits. In a well-publicized recent example, Texas Tech — which is unafraid to splash the cash on anybody in any sport these days — picked up a commitment from a five-star offensive line prospect in exchange for a multimillion-dollar revenue-share contract.

With the arrival of revenue sharing via the House settlement and stricter rules on what athletes can receive through NIL deals, there’s a soft salary cap on college football rosters now. Managing that cap is part of the job for coaches, and an aspect that Drinkwitz — who relinquished playcalling duties two years ago — has leaned into.

“Now, it’s about selecting the strategy and sticking to some principles,� he said, “in how you want to construct and build a roster. … Each year, you’ve got to figure out how you want to build your team and where you want to invest your money: how much you want to invest in returning players, how much you want to invest in future players. That’s a formula that we’re working to build.�

Evidently, it’s a formula involving less on the high school front and more reliance on the portal. Hence, Drinkwitz asks fans to remain calm and cool while he waits to collect his 2026 newcomers.

“I think we’ve proven — I hope that we’ve proven — as a staff to our fan base that we know how to build a construct a roster,� he said. “Just got to put faith and trust in us and I’m confident in our process. … We’ll be fine when it comes down to putting a very competitive team on the field.�