'Embarrassed for them': Drinkwitz rips Kansas for Border War 'crap'

Missouri coach Eli Drinkwitz had plenty to say after beating Kansas on Friday night, saying he was "embarrassed" for the Jayhawks for leaning into the historic nature of the Border War rivalry.

Drinkwitz took umbrage with how Kansas used division to hype up the Border War, which began as an armed conflict over the issue of slavery along the state line in the years leading up to the Civil War.

"I'm just glad that this whole right-versus-wrong bull crap that was started just got settled," Drinkwitz said after the No. 23 Tigers' 38-21 victory. "... It's a football game. It's an American football game. People love to come watch and cheer for their teams.

"It's not even deeper than that. And I get there's a past for it, but why are we stirring that bull crap up? It's 9/11. This country needs unity now more than ever. And I was embarrassed for them, to be honest. That's why I tried to embarrass them at the end."

The Tigers threw to the end zone in the final seconds, trying to get one last score, before running out the clock.

Drinkwitz wasn't done. After his postgame news conference, he continued his rant against the Jayhawks on social media.

"Man! Yall are weird. ... Winners WIN!!! I know that's RIGHT!!!!! #MIZ," Drinkwitz said in response to a University of Kansas post that painted the two programs as "right" (Kansas) and "wrong" (Missouri).

He also commented on Kansas' pregame hype video, which portrayed Missouri as "villains" while showing the discord between the two states dating back to the Civil War.

"I was disappointed in the rivalry, the turn that it took today," Drinkwitz said. "I thought that was uncalled for, and this is about two teams playing football. ... Everybody's got complicated pasts, and to make that an icon was bizarre to me."

Later, Drinkwitz said about the rivalry with Kansas: "I don't really care if it continues or not."

"If they're going to be weird about it, then what's the point?" Drinkwitz said. "... If they want to have a football game and play the football game, a great rivalry on the border, then awesome, let's do it. But if they want to make it deeper than that, we left Kansas bleeding again and call it good."

Kansas and Missouri are not scheduled to play again until 2031 and 2032.

"It's a good rivalry," Kansas coach Lance Leipold said. "And obviously we didn't win either of these two. Disappointing, but I think these are things that help make college football what it is and it's a special game."