Up 17, still swinging

Missouri led Kansas 38-21 in Lawrence with seconds left. A few kneels would have ended it. Eli Drinkwitz did not want a few kneels.

The kneel he refused

He sent backup quarterback Matt Zollers to throw at the end zone. The pass missed, and Xai'Shaun Edwards ran 6 yards short of the goal line to finish the game.

A message for Leipold

Drinkwitz said the call was aimed straight at the Kansas head coach, not at the scoreboard.

“I just wanted to let (KU coach Lance Leipold) know, like, 'Dude, what are y'all doing?'”

Older than the football

The Border War goes back to the Civil War era and Bleeding Kansas, when people from both states raided across the line over slavery.

Kansas sold right versus wrong

Kansas built its promotion around that history, posting a video on social media about 'Right' and 'Wrong' and playing it pregame inside David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium.

Unity on a 9/11 Friday

Drinkwitz called the video uncalled for and pointed at the date, saying the country needed the opposite of what Kansas put on the screen.

“This country needs unity now more than ever”

Embarrassed, so he answered

He said the shame he felt watching it is exactly what drove the final play call.

“I was embarrassed for him to be honest. And that's why I tried to embarrass him at the end.”

Chippy now, gone until 2031

Scuffles and small altercations ran through the whole game. The two teams do not meet again until 2031, with 2032 closing out the current contract.

“I don't really care if it continues or not.”

Left Kansas bleeding again

Asked whether the series should continue, Drinkwitz reached for the history Kansas had just invoked and turned it back on them.

“But if we want to make it deeper than that, man, like we left Kansas bleeding again.”

The sideline was in

Tigers players got loud when Drinkwitz went for the extra score. After the whistle, left tackle Cayden Green tried to plant a Missouri flag in front of dozens of Jayhawks.

Green kept it on the field

The left tackle said slavery was a terrible thing and that it has nothing to do with a football game, and that Missouri was the only side acting like it.

“So we just tried to keep the main thing the main thing, and I don't think they were doing the same.”

A second half that held

The win was not pretty, but Missouri pulled away after the break. The Tigers are 2-0 since the rivalry resumed in 2025, winning on both sides of the state line.

Then came the posting

Drinkwitz fired off four posts on X right after the game, including one aimed at the Kansas promo video, and signed off with a line built from their own word.

“Y'all are WEIRD….. Winners WIN!!!! And I know that's RIGHT!!!!!”