Missouri finds defensive coordinator, hiring former NFL head coach
How desirable of a position was the open defensive coordinator spot in Columbia?
Based on the coach Eli Drinkwitz hired to fill the role, it was a very desirable position in the coaching world.
According to multiple reports, former Arizona Cardinals head coach Steve Wilks will be Mizzou’s next defensive coordinator. This news was first reported by Pete Thamel of Yahoo Sports.
Wilks did not coach during the 2020 season, with his most recent coaching experience coming as defensive coordinator with the Cleveland Browns during the 2019 season. He served only one season as Arizona’s head coach back in 2018 when the team went 3–13.
Wilks has a wealth of experience coaching in the NFL, serving as a defensive assistant coach with the Carolina Panthers, San Diego Chargers and Chicago Bears. His last college job was with Washington back in 2005.
Mizzou had an opening at the defensive coordinator position after Ryan Walters left the program to serve as Bret Bielema’s first defensive coordinator at Illinois.
Hmm…
Hmmm is right. As the HC his 2018 Cardinal team was 3-13 worst in the NFL. As a DC his 2019 Browns D was 20th in the league with a terrible pass defense. He was so well thought of he was out of work for 2020. I hope Coach Drink knows what he’s doing. This guy looks like a retread to me.
Wilks is probably a decent coach but definitely not a “go big” hire and he really doesn’t have much of a track record at any one place except Carolina, which was McDermott’s defense until 2017 when he left to coach the Bills, so it’s a peculiar hire imo. This feels more like a “hey you’re an App State guy too!” hire. Not that Walters left big shoes to fill but I think this was a great opportunity for Drink to make an upgrade… hopefully it’ll turn out that way.
Wilks has a history of coaching defensive backs more than anything so I wonder if Gibbs will even stick around now.
Dline
Interesting, wonder what if any factor his hire played on Brick Haley leaving. Brick was certainly not a bad D-line coach, Wilks would probably want to bring in at least a couple of his own position coach hires. At least Wilks has some experience running different looks and has seen plenty of high level passing offenses.
Brick was not a good slime coach either. IMO, the best thing he did was bring Elliot with him from Texas. Kuligowski had a knack for developing players that Brick did not. The sack and draft numbers bear that out.
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12 years NFL experience, played under both Sparky Woods and Jerry Moore at Appy State. This guys has more eskimo brothers than eskimos. There’s a reason we’re seeing more and more NFL guys coming back to CFB and it comes down to sitting across from a young man deciding on schools.
Only real takeaway I have at this point is, Drinkz is a very smart guy, he has to know how important this hire is for his career. We’ll see if Gibb’s stays, Smith is Eli’s hire so I expect him to stay on the LB spot.
If Wilks works well with Eli, he’ll have job security at the least, even if he has to go back to the grind of college recruiting. I’m still drinkzin the koolaid for now.
I think Drinkwitz has enough eskimo brothers in coaching that coaching changes are normal for him in his thinking. We’ll see but I suspect he Sabanesque in that manner. Or it will be a complete CF.
This would be good, I would much rather have coaching turnover due to success than the moribund level of stagnation seen with Pinkel and his subordinates that nobody really wanted.
We lost Walters and Haley, two Odom holdovers. Wish them both luck but not worried about it. If anything Drink is generating excitement and excitement brings participants.
Hot dang!
Well, it reads like a strong hire. Time will tell.
With the head coaching turnover at other SEC East schools, it seems Mizzou has a clear path to becoming a an even greater contender in the division. Will be interesting to watch.
In hindsight, had Mizzou’s D been up to snuff you could have counted on 7 wins this season. Imagine that with the so called local media “experts” predicting 2-3 wins. Drinkz came very close to being the SEC CotY. With this season being a “pass” on his body of work, not that he needed it, he has the luxury of 2 to 4 more years to show what he can do.
That’s the SEC East. A lot of good stories out there with each team. Depends on who shows up at the race to be number one.
Not so much “good” kind of stories coming from Rocky Top and even Florida these days though. Vols are about to see what taking short cuts can do, they may become the SMU of the SEC. Florida has a coach nobody likes, even much of their own fanbase.
Ever notice when they’re doing the pre-season, they blow alot of smoke on how everyone is going to do great (except for Mizzou) and all the positives? Tennessee’s next year will be how they managed to hold together a core and how they’ll find success that will lead to success, etc, unicorns and chocolate chip cookies etc. Our NCAA violations were suppose to set up back for decades. Trust me, unicorn and chocolate chips next pre-season plus some skittles to boot.
Interesting choice, he’s definitely got a nice resume. He knows defense so hopefully his system works at Mizzou.
I just hope he’s not one of those coaches that insists on using a specific system even if his players aren’t really capable of executing it. We’ve seen enough of that at Mizzou too.
Earlier this morning I watched a bit of his presser from when he was hired as HC in Arizona. He said his system adapts to the players and their strengths, and I agree that’s exactly the best kind of coach.
He’ll have plenty of decent DBs to work with (feels weird to say that as a Mizzou fan). I think we’re OK at LB too, but the D-line is a big question mark.
Wow, that is awesome to hear, thanks!
I think ALL of our D-line is returning including our ALL SEC DE. Unless you are referring to the coach rather than the players. Also take a look at Mehki Wingo, he is a high motor little big man, sort of a smaller version of BIG SHEL. I wouldn’t count our defense out at all.
Sometimes repairing the dilapidated barn make zero sense, rather burn it down & build a new one. In my opinion that is true regarding college football coaching as well. This hire will go a long ways to developing defensive consistency, something we have sorely missed. Stopping LSU on 4th & goal is overshadowed by getting our a$$es kicked by MSU.
I agree with you that the d fell apart at the end of the season but I really think the lack of depth at almost all positions on the d had something to do with the collapse vs MSU.
Mizzou was barely even able to play that game the D had so few eligible players. A few more tested positive after the trip and the Bowl Game had no chance, the season was over.
Having a former NFL coach also helps with recruiting 4 stars+.
Drink and Wilks will hire Tosh Lupoi to replace Brick cause papa don’t take no mess!
…or a reasonable facsimile thereof.
Drinkwitz is smart coach who will get smarter. I don’t think he can coach everything yet by a long shot. I do think he is a good judge of whether a player or a coach are grasping a concept and performing as his coaches prescribed.
I don’t know if they were hold-overs or incoming but Missouri seemed to have some lazy soft coaching and monitoring of the roster this year. What’s the common problem in all these?????: Losing to Tennessee that turned out to be a weak SEC program. Losing to a well coached Mississippi State that looked weak early then finished stronger than Missouri. Looking weaker against Georgia than Alabama. Having a not so good first half against Florida then a terrible second half. Part of it has to be toughness. Smart and Leach and Pruitt told their boys they could out-tough Missouri. Mullen said it at half-time out on the field. How does a college football not teach tackling, (sheesh) big foam doughnuts, even average high school coaches can teach tackling. If Drink cut the worst coaches and brought better ones, they were only somewhat convincing. Drink needs to grow assistant coach i.d. and hiring skills a little faster, i. m. opinion.
What position coaching has to be a lot better?: Receivers, Quarterback, O-line, D-line, Punt receiver (omg), D-Line, Pass Coverage, Kick Coverage
A tackling ‘lesson’ plan in football looks like martial arts practice by the way. It’s doesn’t have to put athletes at risk of injury.
The only way you can really evaluate tackling is in real tackling drills be it one on one, oklahoma drills, or live scrimmage. And there is inherently more risk of injury in these drills than just tackling giant foam donuts rolling down the field. One of the main reasons mens football isn’t played by girls, except in the heads of ridiculous sports writers who haven’t been involved in anything tougher than beer pong.
Im just curious as to why you didnt just type the “n” and the “y” when you were saying iN mY opinion. you typed the “.” twice so why not just type the actual letter instead?
Tennessee played the way they always do. They start the season strong, get high expectations, screw the pooch, and play soft the rest of the season. We had the benefit in the past of playing them at the end of the season. Now we’ll be getting them when they’re fired up. Which in the end, will be a good test as to where Mizzou is at the beginning of the season. We beat Tennessee on the front end (barring they become bad), we’ll know we’ll have the opportunity to truly contend.