CBS Sports graded Eli Drinkwitz hire at Missouri a B-

I’ll be honest, I hate grading coaching hires before the guy has been on the sideline at all. It’s strange to me that you assess and grade something that has no foundation or evidence at this stage. Yet here we go, from CBS Sports:

Missouri did OK for grabbing its fourth choice, or maybe fifth choice, in Drinkwitz. None of that is the coach’s fault. The search became public, and the board of curators got involved shooting down names (Skip Holtz, Blake Anderson, Jeff Monken). Drinkwitz appealed to curator chairman Jon Sundvold, an ex-basketball star at Mizzou who wields a lot of power. Drinkwitz makes quite a leap from NC State offensive coordinator (2017) to Appalachian Statecoach (2018) to SEC coach. Somehow, the fact that he took Scott Satterfield’s players and won the Sun Belt became a criticism. The opposite of winning with someone else’s players is losing. Missouri football needs to become exciting again. The former assistant under Gus Malzahn (Auburn) and Bryan Harsin (Boise State) has the personality and offensive chops to do it.

Mizzou was at least in the winners column, ahead of Boston College, Appalachian State, UNLV, Memphis, Fresno State, Old Dominion, Arkansas, and UTSA. All of whom were in the “Jury is still out” category. While Colorado State was given a “losers” category to themselves to recycling Steve Addazio.

Mizzou was at the bottom of the winners column with Lane Kiffin, Greg Schiano, Mike Norvell, Danny Gonzalez at New Mexico, Jimmy Lake at Washington, Jeff Scott at USF, and Willie Taggart at FAU.

If I were going to give Mizzou a grade for the search, I’d give them a D-. It got ugly and public, and a short list of names got leaked and Missouri fans hated all of them (despite Blake Anderson being a perfectly solid choice). They also spent a lot of money (and guaranteed money at that) on an unproven quantity, in Drinkwitz. The hire itself isn’t something we can grade. Drinkwitz resume is too short, and while I like the choice for it’s riskiness and boldness, it IS still risky.

So as much risk as Missouri incurred with Drinkwitz, I’m not sure how they were blow some of these hires. As interesting of a move as Lane Kiffin is, we’re somehow expected to believe he’s not risky as hell?

And Greg Schiano was very successful coach at Rutgers before trying and failing in the NFL. But sometimes it’s really hard to go back to your roots, and while Schiano was successful there before, Rutgers is in complete disarray and in a much tougher league, in the Big 10.

UW hired a guy with no head coaching experience, but that’s an A?

I don't know. Hiring a new college football coach is always risky. Unless you’re signing up Nick Saban or Dabo Swinney, there’s a good chance it doesn’t work out. We should keep that in mind as we watch things unfold with Drinkwitz. He’s going to need some time to build things up the way he wants, and even though it’s not the rebuild some think, it’s still a job with little margin for error.

Also, we have a new co-offensive coordinator!

Missouri offered Luper’s son the other day which was probably a sign Drinkwitz was going to add Luper to the staff. Luper’s kid is a 2-star receiver out of Texas and a Boise State commit who did NOT sign a NLI with the Broncos. Probably signaling the Tigers have a shot to land both father and son. Luper (the senior) has an extended coaching history and will probably work with Running Backs as well as handle the Co-Offensive Coordinator duties with the head coach.

Yesterday at Rock M

• Eli Drinkwitz doesn’t view Mizzou as a rebuild
• Building 2020: Missouri’s Defensive Roster (for now)
• Hoops Preview: Illinois is experienced, physical and itching to get back Braggin’ Rights

Quick note here, if you aren’t reading Nate Edwards and Tim Bussen’s post season pieces, you’re missing out. They’re terrific. Tim is breaking down Eli Drinkwitz’s offenses in depth, and Nate has deconstructed everything over the last few weeks.

More Links:

• Ian Kinsler is retiring:

• The next SEC on CBS contract has fallen through with CBS walking away. This likely paves the road for the SEC to get more Disney money from ESPN/ABC, which means more money for Mizzou... and everyone else in the league.
• If Mizzou is to beat Illinois, they’ll probably need a few three’s from Mark Smith.
• It’s been a struggle for Robin Pingeton’s Tigers, the Mizzou Womens Basketball team dropped another non-conference game, this time at home to Illinois. The Final was 58-51, and the loss drops the ladies to just 3-10 on the season.
• It’s Bragging Rights day, so we’ll have a Notebook up shortly, and a game thread early since the game itself is at Noon central time. The line is around -3.5 towards the Illini.
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