Missouri curators meeting, MU news conference set Tuesday to approve Drinkwitz hire
The final step in officially hiring Eli Drinkwitz as the Missouri Tigers’ next head football coach has been set. The Missouri System Board of Curators will meet at 8 a.m. Tuesday to formally approve a seven-figure contract for Drinkwitz.
Mizzou will then hold a 10:45 a.m. news conference to announce the hire and introduce its new football coach at the Show-Me club in the south end zone facility at Memorial Stadium. The public is invited to attend, with parking available in Lot C (attendees are asked to enter through Gate 6W).
Drinkwitz, 36, earns $750,000 annually in his first season at 20th-ranked Appalachian State, according to a USA Today database on coach salaries.
He’ll be getting a major pay raise to come to Mizzou, where he’s reportedly set to earn in the neighborhood of $4 million annually, according to the Columbia Daily Tribune. The length of the deal is unknown.
That $4 million figure is nearly $1 million more than what MU paid former coach Barry Odom, who was fired Nov. 30 after compiling a 25-25 record in four seasons. Odom received a contract extension a year ago that bumped his salary up to $3.05 million annually, but that figure was still tied for last place in the 14-team SEC among head football coaches’ salaries.
Sterk has said he expects the Tigers to be a perennial Top 25 program. If Drinkwitz’s new contract indeed pays him around $4 million per year, he’d become the eighth-highest paid coach in the league — another significant investment by MU into football following its recent completion of a $98 million south end zone renovation at Memorial Stadium.
Mizzou must pay Drinkwitz’s $1.7 million buyout from Appalachian State. Odom was bought out of his MU contract, too, for $2.85 million. All of Odom’s assistant coaches are still under contract with Missouri; any not retained by Drinkwitz would get their own buyouts from the school.