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COLUMBIA, Mo. — Eli Drinkwitz wrapped up Missouri’s spring practice and went right into talking season mode.

That’s the void on the calendar between now and the Tigers’ football season opener Aug. 30. Sure, there’s a transfer portal window and high school recruiting to do, but there’s a lot of grandstanding, lobbying and generalized yapping in the forecast.

Drinkwitz, now in the run-up to his sixth season at Mizzou, took that act one step further during a recent appearance on the Paul Finebaum Show.

“This is a bold statement,” Drinkwitz said March 20, “but I would say this is the most talented football team that I’ve had since we’ve been here at the University of Missouri.”

Must have been some nice spring practices, eh?

It is, as Drinkwitz prefaced, a bold statement. His 2020, 2021 and 2022 teams are a very clearable bar from a talent perspective. But the 2023 and 2024 MU rosters had multiple first-round NFL draft picks, an additional handful of players who either have landed or will land at the next level, and some of the more accomplished players in program history.

To say that he could have a better offense without the likes of wide receiver Luther Burden III and some experienced offensive linemen or a better defense without the tandem of corners from 2023 that both went to the NFL? It’s something.

But it’s also impossible to say, right now, whether he’s right or wrong. Spring practice access was minimal for the media, and the individual development emphasis of those training sessions might not have yielded any observations of note anyway. Drinkwitz is one of the few people currently positioned to evaluate his team’s talent with any sort of accuracy.

It’ll be the actual football season — complete with another favorable path through the Southeastern Conference, like last year — that provides a clear retrospective on comments like these. Can talent be measured in wins and losses? Maybe. An SEC slate that sees the Tigers host South Carolina, Alabama, Texas A&M and Mississippi State while traveling to Auburn, Arkansas, Oklahoma and Vanderbilt should contain a good number of wins for a talented team.

Taking advantage of that schedule, which isn’t easy — this is still the SEC — but certainly looks gentler than what some other schools in the conference will face, would help prove Drinkwitz correct.

Individual players will have to do their part, too. Drinkwitz’s assessment may have been in the aggregate, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t key players whose talent will be under the microscope.

Beau Pribula will need to play as a better quarterback than Brady Cook did, assuming that the Penn State transfer beats out Sam Horn for the starting job. Drew Pyne, last year’s backup, entered the transfer portal on Tuesday.

Cook’s best season was 2023, when he completed 66.1% of his passes, throwing for 3,317 yards, 21 touchdowns and six interceptions — plus 319 yards and eight touchdowns on the ground. Can Pribula beat those marks? Sure, but it’s another unknowable thing. Pribula has thrown 94 passes in two seasons. He and his talent are unknowns.

Defensively, Mizzou loaded up this offseason at defensive end, bringing in two key transfers in Georgia’s Damon Wilson II — the highest-rated edge rusher in the portal — and App State’s Nate Johnson. Getting back the likes of Zion Young and Darris Smith, who missed last season with a knee injury, ought to make that group fearsome. There’s certainly the potential for the Tigers to have more pass-rushing talent than they’ve had recently, even considering what Darius Robinson in 2023 and Johnny Walker Jr. in 2024 accomplished.

The secondary is where MU could make some big gains after a lackluster 2024. Another year of development for the cornerback trio or Dreyden Norwood, Toriano Pride Jr. and Nicholas Deloach Jr. — plus the added competition of Stephen Hall — could improve that group. Three safeties transferred in during the winter window.

Some underclassmen contributing at a high level would also fuel the team’s talent level. Running back Ahmad Hardy, a portal arrival after a 1,350-yard freshman season at Louisiana-Monroe, looks the part of an RB1. True freshman Marquise Davis could be a factor there, too. True freshman Javion Hilson could be part of the aforementioned defensive end discussion. Linebacker Josiah Trotter, a West Virginia transfer who will be a redshirt sophomore, already has a Freshman All-American entry on his resume.

The high-level transfers will need to hit, too. Wideout Kevin Coleman Jr., inbound from Mississippi State, will take over Burden’s position and jersey number. He might not have the first-round pick buzz that Burden did and does, but Coleman can certainly match or exceed Burden’s production.

That’s the part where the players don’t have everything to do with proving Drinkwitz’s assertion correct. Coaches — particularly coordinators Corey Batoon and Kirby Moore — have to use the talent they have. That seemed to fall short at times in 2024 with Burden’s talent in particular.

Regardless of whether the Tigers’ current talent level is the best Drinkwitz has seen at MU, second-best or somewhere else, it might not matter if Missouri’s scheme doesn’t make the most out of what it’s got. Consider Mizzou’s talent this year to be what its schedule has been recently: a key ingredient in both potential and pressure.

Drinkwitz understands that. After making his most-talented claim on Finebaum, he continued: “To whom much is given, much is required. I’ve put a lot of pressure on our coaching staff to get the most out of this team.”