Eli Drinkwitz, Ryan Walters issue statements after Mizzou DC is officially hired at Illinois
The Missouri Tigers are in the market for a new defensive coordinator after Ryan Walters left for the same job on Bret Bielema’s Illinois staff.
Coach Eli Drinkwitz kept Walters and much of the defensive staff on board when he took over the Tigers program after the 2019 season.
After the Illini made Walters’ hiring official, Drinkwitz released a statement wishing his former assistant well:
— Mizzou Football (@MizzouFootball) January 7, 2021
“I’d like to wish Ryan, Tara and his family well as they begin a new chapter in his coaching journey,” Drinkwitz’s statement reads. “Ryan is a coach of great character, work ethic and leadership. We are grateful for his contributions to Mizzou and we wish him and his family well in the future. M-I-Z!”
Walters expressed his gratitude toward the Tigers, too, in a statement after being officially announced by Illinois:
“I’m thankful and grateful for the opportunity that Coach Bielema is giving me to coach with him at the University of Illinois,” Walters said in a statement released by Illinois. “Coach B is one of the most respected defensive minds in college football, and, as a young defensive coordinator, this is an opportunity I can’t pass up. Coach B has a proven track record of incredible success in the Big Ten, as well as his years working in the NFL, that will put our program in position to win at a high level. I appreciate the time and opportunity that I had at Missouri, but my family and I are looking forward to the new challenge in front of us as we build a championship football program.”
Can Walters help turn the Illinois program around under Bielema? If he can, he could be a head coach sooner rather than later.
“…I appreciate the time and opportunity that I had at Missouri” That’s a lot of praise for a coach whos gluteus maximus was saved during a HC transition. Bye dude, hopefully now we can get a DC who doesn’t give WR a 10yard cushion from the DB.
Agree… the Pinkel blowup and Odom being last man standing basically ushered in Walters as a DC, after the Demontie Cross debacle. It was sort of a perfect shyte storm that gave the two(Odom-Walters) the entry points for jobs they weren’t ready for. Maybe Walters will be a good DC someday, but he certainly wasn’t ready for the pressure cooker of the SEC. Mizzou has been on a bad string of coaching decisions for a while now, it’s about time everyone got their head wrapped around that and realized this is just a correction, nothing more.
Tigurr, “a bad string of coaching decisions” is what happened to Arkansas, Kansas, and some others not Missouri. Odom was not a great coach but he definitely wasn’t as bad as some programs.
Delusional, it was never Odom’s fault your school lost respect in those high schools. It was the fact they berated Michael Sam so much nobody wanted anything to do with Missouri.
It was reported that after Odom, the President, the professor, and some other people were fired lead the HS coaches in the St. Louis areas and ESL areas opened up communication again with Mizzou. Why did they all announced that soon after those firing? They were the problem!
Can’t say that I’m upset about Walters moving on. It never felt like opposing offenses were concerned about our defense bringing any pressure.
I suspect Walters moving on was his way of getting out of Odom’s shadow.
He was making $900k per year, which is a lot for a DC at Mizzou. I think he was told to find a new job or he would be fired. I don’t think he was terrible but the defense needed to be elite to justify his salary.
True. I also really never saw any adjustments during the game. Almost like “Oh the defense is getting torched, our offense will bail us out” mentality.
Where do you get your information that he was told to find a new job? Do you have some insider at Mizzou?
Can’t respond to your Auburn statement below for some reason. The Auburn game was really bad, but I’ll take that over what Wyoming or Texas did to us.
Im obviously speculating, Tony. No one willingly walks away from a $900k salary and takes a worse job somewhere else. Is it possible? Sure, but doesn’t really make a lot of sense.
What if he was offered more money? Maybe Mizzou didn’t want to meet the higher salary(if there was such an offer.) Don’t you think that’s a more likely scenario?
I just think this “He was told to find a job” theory is pretty far fetched. I saw a tweet from Rakestraw that sounded a lot like Walters was trying to poach him to go to Illinois.
You very well could be right, but I think it’s more far fetched that Illinois would offer him a million per year.
I’m sure we’ll all find out soon.
@tonytiger: More than likely Walters left because he wanted to learn more, and get better under a coach who knew something about defense. Drink nor anyone left on the Mizzou staff could fill that role or need. I don’t think it was a “forced arrangement” for Drink to keep him when he filled out his staff nor was anything forced in this departure. It could be as simple as Walters just ready for a change of scenery. It’s not like Bielema hired him because Drink forced him too either, there were others up for the job and RW simply won the interview.
Also look at it from Illinois perspective, they get a DC, a recruiter who has by and large done a very good job in StL. And if anyone doesn’t think so just look at some of our STL def. recruits and who the lead recruiter was for them the last few years, not to mention guys like Bledsoe, Gillespie Z.Lovett ect. who aren’t from StL. Bielema isn’t going to hire a guy just to bail out Drinkwitz and allow him to put his guy in there.
If Drinkwitz did in fact tell him to find another job then he couldn’t have picked worse timing than when a rival school who shares a border with STL would love nothing more than to get a foot in the recruiting door is hiring. He gave it too them on a silver platter and I think Drink is smarter and more competitive than that. I mean he wouldn’t even release who the starting QB was at the beginning of the season because “I wont give the other team a competitive advantage like that.” I get the speculation, but I just don’t see this going down that way.
Booches, the recruiting angle does concern me. Hopefully we can keep the momentum in StL. I still think Mizzou (and Drink) are far more appealing than whatever is going on at U of Illinois.
But keeping our footing on the warpath is likely to rely on who we get to replace Walters. Hoping for a homerun.
Agreed, whether he pushed Walters out or not he needs to hit a homerun with this hire. I’m just not sure promoting either Gibbs or Harbison is really a homerun, hopefully he goes and gets one.
“I suspect Walters moving on was his way of getting out of Odom’s shadow.”
lol, dude, he was flatout fired as in told to find a new job or he wouldn’t have one.
How exactly do you know that?
He doesn’t.
You don’t take a lesser lateral job for less money at a place with no future unless you are told, “pack your bags”. Not that you clowns would know anything about how it works.
You keep making statements that aren’t backed up with facts. I get that it’s your OPINION but a lot of people don’t share that same opinion no matter how much you think it’s true.
tonytiger = idiot, that’s how I know.
Tigurr your by far the dipsh!t compared to Tony.
Wish him the best of luck in his journey. Everyone wants to get better and he probably hit his ceiling at Mizzou. Excited to see who Drinkwitz brings in.
Part of me wants Steck to come back because those defenses were exciting.
“Part of me wants Steck to come back”
Why not Kuligowski since the d-line ZOU was the only thing special about Mizzou then.
I have to disagree. Our defense as a whole was better not just d-line.
I wouldn’t argue that Stec could be a small improvement over what we had, we need a larger improvement, and the truth is nothing about the D worked especially well back then, other than the QB pressure, over half the Mizzou players getting a look in the NFL came from the D-line.
Hey Brad, I guess you missed the SECCG vs Auburn where the Mizzou d didn’t bother showing up.
Only fear is that the game may have passed him by (see Pelini). I loved Steck’s defense which Odom inherited. Adressing TonyTigurrzz, we just didn’t have the same skill level that Auburn did, both at coaching and playing. Didn’t have the depth either. Which is all about the continual improvement of a team. We took off 5 years with Odom and only regressed a little from the trajectory we were on. Fixable. Now it’s up to Drink to fix it. And I want Drink to stay here forever, assuming he’s the guy. But we should have an annual contingency plan in case he runaway brides on us. My gut says he has higher sights.
Still amazed at the Zou fans that want to throw Kuligowski under the bus because he and Odom didn’t get along. The D-line Zou is why we got to ATL two years, unless you really believe Matty Mauk and James Franklin carried those teams. lol
Odom had to blow up the D-line Zou to prove he knew better how to run a defense, while he was still HC it’s very clear Pinkel didn’t just give Odom free reign to do whatever. At least Pinkel was smart enough NOT to do that.
I said I wouldn’t mind Steck because the defense was exciting to watch. I don’t think he would succeed in today’s game. I would like a DC who plays more man and can adjust during the game, which Walters never seemed to do.
@Tigurr: Because he didn’t get along with Odom? Has Kuligowski “stuck”, anywhere since leaving Mizzou? I suppose we have to assume he couldn’t get along with Richt or Saban either. I guess a great coach like Kug is at Toledo because it’s not him but always the other guy who can’t get along. Ok.
@Tigurr, I came down on going with Odom because I’d already heard Kug, while motivational, was an ass hat. Can’t say I’d met him but my source then said as much. It was Odom or Kug, that simple and the decision wasn’t with us. Either way Odom got us to Drinkwitz. Kug may have sh!t the bed earlier (or later) and who knows who’d be at Mizzou coaching now.
Not sure anyone said our QBs carried those teams so not sure where that’s coming from.
guinny, during the SECCG vs UA there was a total lack of coaching by the defense. Mizzou scored 40+ points and stayed in the game because of the offense. The defensive plan was a disaster. UA ran the ball at will and had a hat on a hat every play. We had good enough players but there was zero in-game adjustments by Steck. He was totally out coached.
@Guinny_Ire: You’re 100% correct. There’s a reason Kuligowiski has not stuck anywhere since leaving Mizzou, and after Saban booted him out it will probably be a long time before we see him coaching at the P-5 level.
So I was at that game (my now 16 yr old saw 2 SEC Championships before he was 10) and we were outplayed. Both physically and coaching. Wasn’t all on the coaching. Not saying it couldn’t have been better but we weren’t able to play with them. Had a fat Auburn gal behind us who would not STFU the whole game. Son did gain a love for Waffle House.
And I’m not calling a return to Steck, but the success he did have was part of the journey of “Mizzou Rising” (just coined that). Mizzou Rising describes the journey Mizzou made from 2000 to 2014. We need to get that ship sailing again. Anyway, we need to get a DC that brings our defense back to prominence.
When we first entered the SEC, all I heard was offense wins games, defense wins championships. I was told that to inform me as Mizzou fan we would never be more than we were. It’s funny how the mantra now is how important offense is and it’s more important than defense (same SEC friends and sources). Defense still win championships, we already know the part about offense they’ve learned. We just need to continue to improve with each day,month, and year and we’ll get there. And no more accepting being good in some years like some of our remnant fans still do. Anyway turning into an old man repeating myself.
Steck is good and those were good defenses but he isn’t coming back, he left a year or two too early on his own accord.
If defensive players could coach as well as they play, Missouri would need to look no further than former Missouri defensive end Justin Smith. He certainly could bring the attitude necessary to motivate exceptional defensive play.
But they can’t so it doesn’t matter.
Tigurr, exactly how do you know Justin Smith can’t coach? Has he been somewhere and failed? I couldn’t find where he’s coached at all. Why do you make statements like that? He may not want to coach but that doesn’t mean he can’t.
He doesn’t, he’s making that up as well.
You idiot’s being retarded isn’t my concern.
The way Coach Drink did this was 100% class and it was good for everybody.
I’m not sure he really did anything, but yeah, both are stand up guys.
You just have to see it from the inside to understand why college coaches from different programs and even at different levels want to and often do cooperate on a wide spectrum of programs issues. I don’t know if this is the best example but here goes, If an inexperienced coach needed a title for his resume, but little responsibility and he was, just for example, a quarterback out of graduate school, Drinkwitz would be a good host….. because Drink could let him go thru the motions while pulling all the strings himself. And Drink would get checklist type duties for a slightly over-paid price (ah many of us were over-paid at one point in our careers). Bielema might be sending Drink one some day. I went from Grad School directly to the top ticket selling franchise in the professional league. Somebody had to do the entry level work. In those years moving from one job to another is actually better than staying in the same place. Because learning the whole, makes it possible to go back and do part of the whole at a much higher level.
Yeah but that’s not what happened here.
Wolfman, you’ve never had a job affiliated with the NFL id that’s what you were implying.
Agree, Drinkz knows what he’s doing, the doubters here are hoping he will screw it up so they can crow about their hero’s like Odom and Walters. lol
Exactly who are the “doubters” here hoping Coach Drink will screw up? Everyone on this thread appears to like HCED and feel he’s going to make the correct choice for dc.
Morons like you.