Oh, hey, a new coach! Oh, hey, another new coach!

As we speed toward Christmas (and beyond), the unfortunate reality is that we’re headed out of the excitement of Mizzou football season. Sure, we’ve been buoyed for an extra week by the hiring of Eli Drinkwitz and the mad dash to hold together the 2020 recruiting class. But now we’re picking at scraps... that is in between new coaching announcements.

Lucky for us, we got two on Thursday!

Luper’s hiring was the surprise of the day for a few reasons. First, it’s been unclear how Drinkwitz would fill out his offensive staff. HCED has already said he will call his own plays, thus occupying a key role of most OCs. Luper would likely not take a job at a different university for a downgrade in jobs so... it appears the Tigers may have found their new offensive coordinator! How his role will play out in the absence of play-calling has yet to be seen.

Second, and this is based on social media chatter and light research, Luper appears to have earned quite the reputation as a recruiter. I’d be lying if I told you I could recognize any of the big names he recruited to TCU, but the word on the street says he’s quite good with recruits and their families.

The hiring also explains Missouri’s signing day offer of Luper’s son, Chance, a current Boise State commit. Chance, it should be noted, did not sign with Boise on early signing day.

In another bit of coaching staff news, the Tigers formally announced the resigning of another defensive coach on Ryan Walters’ staff.

Gibbs was an addition last season under Barry Odom and came with the reputation of a turnover guru. While the total turnover numbers didn’t quite pan out the way fans would have hoped, Gibbs undoubtedly played some role in the improvements of Missouri’s secondary.

Onto the links! (editor’s note: Thanks for your help with this, Josh. Much appreciated.)

Yesterday at Rock M

• Ryan wrote that through the coaching change, Coach Drink was able to keep most of the 2020 class together.
• Coach Tim dove into PART 4 of his Film Room on Coach Drink’s offense.
• Nate took a stab at building Mizzou’s 2020 offensive roster (for now) with the new signees added in.
• Dive Cuts Podcast time! Sam & Matt got back together for a new episode of Dive Cuts, diving deep, deeeeep (for all my Ringer Binge Mode podcast fans out there) into Mizzou’s matchup with Illinois. You can read the recap here.

More Links:

Football

• St. Louis Post-Dispatch: So much content. Hochman wrote that there was not much to work with in Mizzou recruiting class and Drinkwitz must woo St. Louisans in the future. Matter wrote that Drinkwitz scrambled to salvage a decent recruiting class. He also covered the expected hire of TCU’s co-offensive coordinator, Curtis Luper, as well as Ben Walters’ decision to stay on as defensive coordinator, AND took a closer look at the recruiting class. Gordo’s Tipsheet said that while Mizzou scrambled for talent, the SEC dominated recruiting again. Dave also held his weekly chat.
• KC Star: Souichi also looked at the expecting of Curtis Luper, who is familiar with one... Shawn Robinson.
• PowerMizzou (free): Mitchell reported that Coach David Gibbs will be retained and that Mizzou will likely hire Curtis Luper. Gabe posted a commentary on the expected casualty of a coaching change.
• PowerMizzou (subscribers): Sean Williams of Rivals put together a signing class timeline.
• Saturday Down South: Adam Spencer posted 5 takeaways from Mizzou’s early signing day.
• Fort Worth Star-Telegram: Drew Davison put a TCU spin on Curtis Luper heading to Mizzou as an offensive coordinator.
• The Athletic (subscribers): Peter Baugh said Mizzou’s recruiting class was highlighted by legacy signee, Jay Maclin, who’s signing day featured a box of Pop-Tarts, lots of hugs and talk of what number he might wear at #Mizzou. You can still get 40% off with this link.

Hoops

• STL Today: Dave and BenFred previewed the Braggin’ Rights showdown in their new Eye on the Tigers podcast.
• PowerMizzou (free): Gabe and Mitchell also put out a new episode of their PowerMizzou Podcast, previewing the Braggin’ Rights game with Jeremy Werner of 247 Sports. They also talked ESD with Sean Williams from Rivals.
• PowerMizzou (free): Cuonzo Martin had media availability today to go over Saturday’s match up. You can watch it here.
• Missourian: Brian Napier wrote about how Mark Smith’s clean eating has given him new energy.
• Columbia Missourian: Briley Eilers wrote that shooting woes plagued the Tigers in their loss against Princeton on Wednesday evening.
• Look at you, Defense!

• UPDATED (FORGOT TO INCLUDE THIS): The women’s team is back in action today at Mizzou Arena at... (checks time)... NOON? Yep. That’s right. They will be facing Illinois.

Other Mizzou Sports News

• Ziye Kelsey Tang of the Missourian wrote about the $1 million donation to Mizzou Athletics to support facilities improvement by graduate Chris Cox.

• MU Volleyball’s Kylie Deberg was named AVCA 2nd Team All-American, according to Missourian reports.
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