It's official: Missouri hires Eliah Drinkwitz as next head coach; AD, Drinkwitz release statements
The Missouri Tigers have a new football coach. On Tuesday morning, Mizzou announced the hiring of Appalachian State head coach Eliah Drinkwitz. The 36-year-old only has one year of head coaching experience, but he has a deep offensive background.
Drinkwitz becomes Missouri’s 33rd head coach in program history. Drinkwitz led the Mountaineers to the 2019 Sun Belt Championship and finished 12-1 on the season. He’s worked under Gus Malzahn at Auburn in 2010-11, and he’s proven that he can coach an offense everywhere else. Prior to landing the Appalachian State job, Drinkwitz was an assistant at Arkansas State, Boise State and NC State.
In 2019, Appalachian State finished ninth in the nation in scoring offense, averaging 39.4 points per game. Missouri finished 91st averaging just 25.3 points per game.
“I can’t wait for every Tiger to meet Eli, he’s a special guy who has a magnetic personality that people will appreciate and enjoy,” Missouri AD Jim Sterk said in a statement. “I’m thrilled to have him here at Mizzou leading our program, he’s got passion, a plan and a vision that will take this program to great heights. We went on a search looking for the right coach at a crucial time, and we found him. On behalf of everyone at Mizzou, I’d like to welcome Coach Drinkwitz, his wife Lindsey and their daughters Addison, Emerson, Ella and Parker Lynn to our family!”
Drinkwitz replaces Barry Odom, who coached at Mizzou for four seasons compiling a 25-25 overall record, including a disappointing 6-6 season in 2019.
“I’m excited for the opportunity of a lifetime to be the head football coach at Missouri,” Drinkwitz 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.”
I like this hire. I think he is a winner. Still have idiotic fans complaining. If your a Mizzou fan b!tching about this hire, stfu.
Agreed, seems like a very solid hire. Not necessarily the flashiest hire, but I’m not interest in flash, I’m interested in substance, and this guy has coached with some great people. I feel so much better about this program than I did a month ago.
All I know is if I’m Connor Bazelak I feel much better with this guy in COMO than having to play for Dooley. Maybe Connor disagrees but Drinkwitz has a clear record of success as an OC, something Dooley did not have.
Well seeing how Drinkwitz (while at NCST) recruited Bazelak chances are pretty good they’re familiar with each other. Drinkwitz finally got his QB!
Booches94, Drinkz Offense put up some pretty serious number with that Wolfpack team, I have a friend who is an NCState grad who raved about that team. If he winds up passing up Heupel this will be the best O Mizzou has had in decades.
@Tigurr, Yeah after his first year as OC there they took a huge jump in Off. SP+ from 58th to 15th, then 27th his 3rd year. Scoring went up each year. His recruiting wasn’t stellar (minus Ryan Finley) but it shows he can take what he’s got and be creative enough to maximize the talent. I also read his offenses tend to be top 50 in rushing, so he’s not just flinging it all over. And I would guess we’ve probably got better runners and more weapons already on the roster than what he’s had before.
Just watched him on Finebaums show, Drinkz seems like a smart young guy with his head on straight, have to admit I like the cut of his jib.
Well…is he going to use the Appy’s spread, run-happy offense ? It’ll take some years of recruiting the right-type of players(who do not dot Mizzou’s roster right now). Mizzou fans, you’ll need a gallon of patience to allow this recruiting time. Note: Arkansas in 2018 & 2019 when Chad Morris changed the run, run, run/HUGE LINEMEN offense of Bret Beilema. Also, he is a first-year Head Coach, who walked into a great situation in Boone(the program was built into what it is today by Scott Satterfield, now at Louisville). Time will tell on this hire, but any hire beats Barry Odom. Hopefully this hire works out, as it’s been a while since Mizzou was even relevant in SEC play.
Mizzou hasn’t been relevant at the end of the season lately but we were in 1st place in the SEC East this year after week 7.
Hard to tell if that was analysis gone awry or just trying to find a sneaky way to slam the hire as well as Odom/Mizzou? Either way, your concerns will be duley noted and you will be contacted by the appropriate people at the appropriate time.
My concern has already been “Dooley” noted, but let’s give the kid a chance to see what he can do.
Well …. they have played in just as many, or more, SEC championship Games this decade (2) as any other team in the east, except for GA.
But there has certainly been a marked decline since then. I hope this hire works out well. It’s better for the entire conference if we can get stronger from top to bottom.
Being a dedicated Mizzou fan requires more than a gallon of patience in my opinion. I don’t know if I like this hire yet, but I’m willing to give anyone a chance that can make us a winning team again.
The Wolfpack offense he ran for Doren for 3 seasons certainly wasn’t “run based” in fact the QB, Ryan Finley threw for a near school record 4k yards his final year. Dude beat UNC and UScar with players at Ap St. sounds like he knows what he’s doing.
Actually by Drinkwitz own admission when he arrived at NCST he described his offense “It’s going to start with a physical downhill run game…It’s going to be a downhill, run-the-football first approach” His run game may have not always been prolific at NCST, but even last year at App St it played out to his description by averaging almost twice as many runs as pass plays per game. He definitely runs the ball first, and isn’t afraid to run often.
It’ll be interesting if he brings any of the Offensive staff from App State. Notable names include WR Coach Pat Washington (the same coach at Mizzou 13-15), and upcomer RB coach- Garrett Riley (Lincoln’s little brother). His previous OL coach is the current interim coach of App St and an alumni of the the school. I doubt he leaves for Mizzou. It will remain interesting who he chooses to fulfill the rest of his staff.
I believe this was a great time to finish with Odom and try a new HC. Inconsistency, missed tackles, penalties for stupid attitude should have been dealt with all along. I was absolutely sick of hearing about how “we” would learn from that every failed game. And Odom dumped too many easy games.