Missouri defensive coordinator Ryan Walters is reportedly leaving for another Power 5 job
Ryan Walters’ time in Columbia has reportedly come to an end.
After six seasons with Missouri, the defensive coordinator is leaving Eli Drinkwitz’s program to join Bret Bielema’s Illinois program. Walters will fill the same role with Illinois.
News of Walters’ decision to leave Mizzou was first reported by John Brice of FootballScoop.
In addition to serving as Mizzou’s defensive coordinator, Walters also served as the team’s safeties coach each of the previous two seasons.
Walters previously served as defensive coordinator under Barry Odom and was a key part of Drinkwitz’s plan to retain several defensive coaches following his hire in Columbia. In addition to retaining Walters, Drinkwitz kept secondary coach David Gibbs and defensive line coach Brick Haley.
Walters is a graduate of Colorado.
“Reported” again? You mean like Adam reported 2 days ago?
I guess Walters is supposed to be some “ace” recruiter, Barry taught him everything he knows. Talk about not ready for a prime time coaching job, these guys were all in over their heads, looks like Drinkz has to earn that 4 mill and go big for a real DC now.
You aint getting no big time DC Tigurr and yea Mizzou is in no way a “PRIMETIME” coaching job. It did become a more desirable job when it joined the SEC but nobody is ever gonna run to the state of Missouri to coach in any sport hahaha.
Your defensive coordinator did.
And Coach Pittman did too. Do you even know who your coaches are?
Ten years old dude.
It’s not good to be that drunk this early in the day. Maybe there is an “arky exception” though.
OZARKIAN, so you’re saying that the Arkansas job is better than the Missouri job? BTW, I think Mizzou has some outstanding coaches in place. Your post gives the impression that Arkansas is a “PRIMETIME” coaching job. I’d say it is no better than Missouri.
It’s not a primetime job but better than Mizzou. Better resoursces, more history, and hands down better facilities in any sport.
Really? Have you heard of Andy Reid and the Kansas City Chiefs? Yeah, Kansas City is in Missouri.
That’s totally irrelevant.
I just thank Mizzou’s lucky stars that we get to play 2nd tier Arky every year. It’s an automatic win.
Should thank that ref about that unsportsmanlike penalty and gave you the edge in momentum. Automatic win? No no my friend you’ve padded your stats against the worst coach ever in the SEC though I am glad this is actually on it’s way to being a rivalry.
P.S. who should be your DC? I think he’s gonna bring in someone nobody saw coming?
Are you gonna cry again singing that same old song “Arky didn’t lose we were cheated”? All the hogs had to do was stop the Mizzou offense with less than a minute to go and the game was theirs. But your dc and your defense didn’t. Mizzou beat your team for the 5th straight time. Like I said, an automatic W.
Cry? Who the hell said anything of the sort. Mizzou won the game far and sqaure for the past 5 years and I’ll acknowledge that unlike the others lol. Stop being a sourpuss and tell me who’s gonna be your DC? I’ve talked to a couple of my friends up tgere but they say nobody really has a feel for who or what he’s looking for.
Does anyone else find this Arkansas/Mizzou arguing uterly hilarious? You never know where you’re going to find a good coach. Sometimes it’s the big name hire and sometimes it’s the offensive line coach.
Almost as funny as our record against A&M. Last 6 annual meetings had Mizzou 5 wins vs. A&M 1. Now that’s utterly hilarious. Notice there are 2 ‘t’s’ un utterly? We also educate our athletes.
If I were to guess, Drink will look around a little and then just promote a coach already there.
Gibbs did show some chops when he took over in Walters Covid downtime absence, but now I think Drinkz is really going to pull out the stops and go all out on finding “his guy”.
He needs to for your sake. I’m not sure simply promoting Gibbs equates to “earn that 4 mill and go big for a real DC now.” Going big for a real DC would be Kevin Steele or Muschamp, but neither of them are coming to work for Drinkwitz.
Let me clarify, Drink may “go after” them, but I don’t see him landing either one.
“He needs to for your sake.”
lol, you sadly misjudge my stake in all of this.
You do not want Steele. Is this Gibbs the same guy that was HC at Oklahoma ages ago?
(I keep saying dumb things that don’t make sense. I sooo want to be part of the intelligent fb community but I really don’t know what’s going on. Oh well.)
Gibbs did do a great job but Drinkwitz may want more than that. Some Mizzou “fans” here think they know more than they actually do.
@tonytiger: Well I find it hard, if our defense is so poorly coached as some of you are determined to claim, to pinpoint exactly what ‘great job’ Gibbs did? You could have expanded on that. I can see either Gibbs or Harbison simply getting promoted to DC, not that either one of those would be huge difference makers in replacing Walters, but either one would certainly be an easy and convenient way to fill it. Gibbs has been a DC before, so if your into ‘qualifications’ at least there’s that.
Bou, he won the game even though he got next to zero help from the offense. He did something Walters wasn’t able to do. He made in game adjustments. In the end the defense he coach pulled out the win. I’m not sure he’s the man for the job long term because I feel Coach Drink knows a little more about coaching than the people posting here. He’s going to hire his guy no matter who it is and I don’t see him settling or picking someone “easy and convenient “ like Gibbs.
@tonytiger: “He won the game.” That’s certainly a good sample size. Thanks.
One game, one win. Made in-game adjustments That’s a good job in my opinion. Coach Drink will hire his guy and it may or may not be Gibbs. A lot of Mizzou fans trust HCED will pick the right guy to take Mizzou to the next level.
I would like nothing better than to see Coach Drink surpass Pinkel in terms of results because he had some pretty successful years in Columbia.
Our defense leaked like a siv, not sure who that is on, but a change of pace will be beneficial for at least Mizzou, maybe Walters. Living in Illinois (unfortunately) I can get tell you there is much lower pressure job, but this is certainly not a move upwards for Walters, much less a lateral move. And with how quickly they canned Lovie Smith may not have any more longevity to it. My guess is the writing was on the wall and this at least saved his dignity.
@jdhart0858, a lot of folks don’t seem to understand how the “coaching community” works. It happens this way in a lot of fields, college coaching is no different. You don’t just fire a guy summarily to try and show him up, you give him a chance to find a new spot first, if it works so much the better for everyone involved. Looks like Walters may get out without being fired, this works best for everyone, easier on him and better for Mizzou to accept a resignation than go through the firing process. They may have the same agent as often is the case so these things can work smoother than some imagine.
Drinkz most definitely already has a short list of candidates in mind, at this point anyone who is questioning Drinkz needs to cool out for a while and realize the guy has at least 3 years to get it done.
Yeah, I understand how the business works and agree a smooth transition is best. Illinois can take him, I have faith in Drinkwitz, he’s a good judge of character and talent, he’ll find the right guy for the job.
I very well could be wrong, but I do not know of a coach that Saban has just out and out fired without them having a place to land.
I don’t know where people come up with this “give a guy time to find a job first instead of firing him nonsense.”
Tigurr, unless you have some inside information you should go look up the word “poached”
Ask the new S Carolina coach about it.
Lovie Smith was HC at Illinois longer than any Mizzou HC in between Powers and Pinkel, and just as long as Odom, and less successful than Odom.
A lot of my friends here who are Illini fans were a little dumbfounded that they fired Lovie, not even so much that he was let go but that they turned around to hire Bielema. To which I have to agree, his success at Wisconsin seems to be a fluke more than anything.
The big football is an old power game conference, I don’t think it’s a fluke, Bielema just knew how to play that brand of game fairly well. When Mizzou entered the SEC a number of teams still utilized the fullback, today not even UGA really does. Coaching is definitely about adapting, which is why you don’t want an old school blockhead that won’t change at all.
A lot of my Illini friends don’t even know that Illinois HAS a football program much less who the coach is lol
I can understand them firing Lovie in a way, but I can also understand Illini fans not being very excited about Bielema. Maybe he’ll do better back in the B1G, but I just think the game has changed since then and that’s another reason it feels like a weird hire.
So in other words you wanted to keep Odom? LOL you need to stop right there! Odom was not the answer and Drinkwitz already making huge progress with recruiting and the way he is doing with his coaching ability on offense seems to be pointing in the right direction for Mizzou and himself. The DC position should only get better for him and Mizzou. So far all his hiring of coaches have been good so far.
“And with how quickly they canned Lovie Smith may not have any more longevity to it.”
They didn’t can him any quicker than Mizzou historically does so I’m not at all sure what relevance or concern that is to Walters or anyone else. I’m also not sure how you missed the mark so terribly bad on what I thought was a pretty easy point to understand.
(I know the Mizzou HC between Powers and Pinkel don’t matter. In fact, it’s almost ancient history but I have to keep writing things that I think make me sound smart, even if I’m not. Sigh, time for some microwave popcorn.)
Lovie Smith had a 17–39 overall record and 10-33 in conference in 5 seasons. I do not call that a quick fire.
Smith was not a good cf coach. Illinois in not a cfb school.
For those thinking this is good news, last year Walters’ Defense was ranked #15 nationally; he and the staff were responsible for landing the bulk of the #20 ranked 2021 recruiting class (15 out of 22).
This year, between COVID; opt-outs; transfer; and injury Mizzou’s defense was very, very thin. By the end of the season we were so thin we had a center playing DT; a WR playing CB; and our former starting QB playing safety just to have enough players on that side of the ball.
For those thinking it’s bad news, I was never a fan of his system, lining up a yard off the line of scrimmage and playing hit-and-read.
So – did he leave or was he pushed. Given the recruiting class and the fact the program is on the rise, I’d say he was pushed and Coach Drink already has a someone in mind to replace him.
Yeah, they landed some incoming studs on the defensive side of the ball, Ford, Montgomery, Robelo all DE which we sorely need to hang on to. Carnell and Hibbler were big gets at DB. We’ll see I guess.
You’re right, HJTiger. Mizzou’s defense wasn’t bad, and some of those defensive recruits look like good players.
This is only good news if Drink told him to find a new job, which would mean he has another guy in mind. Walters was making a lot of money for a DC, and Mizzou is a better program…So it’s hard to imagine that he went to Illinois on his own accord.
Actually the Mizzou D looked lost much of the time, at an embarrassing level, digging for stats to excuse such poor coaching is the practice of losers.
No, the Mizzou D looked like it was suffering from a lack of bodies due to Covid 19. Our defense won some games for us this year (LSU, Kentucky, SC). Our offense wasn’t good enough to win most of those games, in fact it was defensive performances that we owe our 5-5 record to.
No one is saying that Walters is an elite DC. But he’s also not as terrible as some of you guys are trying to claim. The facts are simply not on your side. He’s pretty good, and that’s all we’re saying.
COVID only hit Mizzou’s D and no other schools? lol, just more excuse making, giving up 50 points all over the place and the place kicker won the game after the offense took over, that’s not a defensive win. Facts aren’t your forte so don’t claim their support. Walter actually never proved he was “pretty good” but you believe what you want there lil buckaroo.
Yeah it’s hard to imagine this was purely performance based, because the performance wasn’t bad. If this is a push-out situation then I think Drink just wants “his hire” on staff, or there was a philosophy difference that came to light over the past year. Of course there’s also the possibility this wasn’t a push-out situation and after a year Walters just wanted to get out.
I am guessing you didn’t see the defense that gave up a lot to teams that had good passing offense. That is where it was needed to be fixed. Drinkwitz also might be looking for someone who is familiar with the NC/SC and the surrounding areas. Not much for the State of Texas. Might be heading to that direction.
@TrueLefty: Holy cow you’re a complete disaster. If Drinkwitz is no longer interested in recruiting the state of TX then that would be one of the dumbest things a P5 coach can do. I’m sorry, but there’s no possible way this is a move to recruit North Carolina more and Texas less. Lol, just no.
(If I keep picking on true lefty I’m going to sound a lot smarter than I am. Hehehe)
The performance wasn’t bad! Hahaha! It was unbelievably bad in 7 of 10 games. That D gave up 148 points in the last 3 games.
Tony Tiger, you mean the defense that resorted to placing offensive players like our former starting QB at Safety because the roster was so depleted from COVID?
Yeah, it’s really not that surprising the defense gave up a bunch of points when you have QBs starting on defense just to have bodies filling vacant spots. Not to mention our best player, Nick Bolton, was clearly not 100% healthy and played like a 3rd stringer.
I have to agree with some other people who routinely point out the stupidity of Mizzou fans on this site. It’s honestly embarrassing.
@tonytiger: How about you look at the available roster in those last 3 games if the last 3 games is the hill you’re willing to die on.
Boo and Tiger TD, every team had Covid opt out issues. The defense had a couple of epic stops during the season but overall played poorly by SEC standards. Their red zone defense was awful. If Mizzou wants to compete with the better teams it starts with coaching. RW was never going to be that guy. Brick Haley needs to be a lot better or he should follow RW out the door as well.
Tigertd, there’s no proof at all that Drink told him to look for a new job. In real life including cf, most people aren’t told by their bosses to “find a new job because you’re about to lose yours here .”
If he left it’s probably because he got a better offer or he wasn’t getting along with Coach Drink.
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.
Odom and Pittman are friends and their relationship playes a pivotal role. Pittman had already bought his retirement home here and wanted the job more than any other and after we wiffed on the Matt Campbell I understand why they picked him. He brought in a good staff and that showed by the way others tried to poach our staff. So yes, I do know my coaches.
Pittman impressed everyone last year, and Odom is an awesome DC. Arkansas is in good hands right now. I suspect that if Odom’s defense is as good again next year he probably wont be in Arkansas for a 3rd season. He’ll get a HC job somewhere, probably in the G5.
“Odom is an awesome DC.”
Wyoming agrees.
Walters was the DC when we lost to Wyoming, Dipsh!t.
Ha so now Walters isn’t that great after all? Which is it? We already know Odom was really in charge of the D.
You really might want to learn how to move on from the idiocy of trying to protect average and substandard coaches, just because they were in COMO. Or don’t.
I guess that makes Drink the OC who couldn’t solve a Mike Leach defense… Isn’t cherry picking fun?!
“If you’re very, very stupid…how can you possibly know that your very, very stupid?” – John Cleese
Tigurr, I hate to be the one to tell you…but you might be too dumb to know how dumb you are.
Don’t worry TD you won’t tell anyone anything, since you aren’t capable.
Odom was a good defensive coach, but I wouldn’t rate as great. It’s hard to be a defensive coordinator in the Power 5 in today’s game. I am curious why he would go to Illinois unless is was to make him co-headcoach.
By he, I meant Walters, not Odom.
Did he have a choice? I do not think so. Drinkwitz wanted to make the changed for the better. It is proof that Drinkwitz wanted someone else that will make it work as a recruiter and stop good passing offense teams.
Fortunately Drinkz isn’t as retarded as most Mizzou “fans” that love mediocre to poor coaching.
If you want to ruin your career, go coach under Bielema (too many vowels in that name). Hates to recruit, loves to eat.
I half expected him to wind up at Iowa St after it was clear Harsin was headed for bigger greener pastures. He’s a coach that needs to do well with the coordinator hires or he will be done sooner than later.
What is wrong with you guys? Pinkel did it with talent not brains. Odom didn’t have talent or brains. Drink is going to have talent and will grow a bigger brain, then will have even more talent. He needs to upgrade his staff slowly but surely to prevent having recruits bolt who were recruited by some of these coaches. The fact that Drinkwitz did this well with this staff in year one is either a testimony to the men he brought with him or to his ability to coach coaches. Odom likes one postion and over-coaches it. He is completely brain dead about every other position on the field. (good guy though, no doubt, truly interested in his athletes well-fare, but …. aahhh…. you can be a great football coach and genuinely like your players at the same time.)
(Wow, this wolfman guy said Drink will grow a bigger brain. That doesn’t make ANY sense. Thank goodness wolfman’s here. Makes even dumb me sound smart.)