Eliah Drinkwitz named as Missouri Coach
After a lot of quick hot stove conversation, Eli Drinkwitz was named as Missouri’s coach on Tuesday.
36-year old Drinkwitz, who comes from Appalachian State after posting an 11-1 record last season, was in the SEC for Auburn in 2010-1 as the quality control coach, before going to Arkansas State with then-OC Gus Malzahn and then onto Boise State and NC State as he moved furiously up the coaching food chain.“
“Coach Malzahn and I actually got together this past summer and talked and I think there was some surprise, on both sides, about how far we both evolved from those (early) points together — but we still have that foundation of our time together, too.”
He will be the youngest coach in the SEC.
“I’m excited for the opportunity of a lifetime to be the head football coach at Missouri,” he said in a statement. “This is a special place with special people. I know this is the Show-Me State, and I’m fired up to show this state what our football program is going to be all about. My wife, Lindsey, and our four girls are excited to join the Columbia community and be a part of Mizzou.”
For some, it’s the monster hire that Missouri would have wanted. They would have wanted some bigger commodity who was well-know in the Mid-West to be able to take over the St.Louis region and venture into Chicago to go head-to-head with some of the bigger recruiting schools in college football.
Under Barry Odom, Missouri simply hasn’t done that.
But after the Barry Odom miscues, Drinkwitz is a refreshing change. He’s not a big-name coach, and while the money offered – $4m per year over six years- which is considered the medium in the SEC. It’s a huge raise from the $1.7m he made from Appy State.
He’s by all accounts a brilliant offensive mind. His Appalachian State team averaged 39.4 points per game and at his spots in Boise and Raleigh his teams all put up monster offensive numbers.
He explained this in his introductory press conference: “Bryan Harsin come to Arkansas State, he came from Texas, and we were able to blend our offensive identities — the philosophy of no-huddle attack with multiple personnel, shifts, motion, pro-style concepts. And that’s really were this offense began to take root and became my own and that’s really where it’s grown from and so that’s how that transition occurred.”
Missouri fans are going to have to acknowledge that the Missouri team might not return to competing for the SEC East again like they did under Gary Pinkel, where the Tigers won two SEC East Championships for a while. There is still the ghost of Derek Dooley, who managed to make Kelly Bryant a worse QB than he was when he came along from Clemson.
The Missouri program is going to have to take its punches – particularly in recruiting where Missouri is just 52nd in 247’s recruiting standards and 12th overall in the SEC, ahead of Vanderbilt and one of the worst team in college football, Arkansas.
You expect the Tigers to try and raid junior colleges like 2019 NJCAA National Champion Mississippi Gulf Coast, Lackwanna in PA, Hutchinson in Iowa and Butler in Kansas.