Mizzou’s Eliah Drinkwitz on NFL allegiances, restructuring staff and Battle Line Rivalry
While Missouri Tigers football coach Eliah Drinkwitz finished one of his first tasks as Mizzou’s top guy — the early signing period — there are no days off.
Drinkwitz plans to hit the recruiting trail, fill out his staff and other tasks before the new year and spring football is right around the corner.
Here are four takeaways from Drinkwitz’s chat on Saturday with the media before Mizzou basketball defeated Illinois for the second straight year in Braggin’ Rights.
Staff update, restructuring recruiting
Drinkwitz is almost finished assembling his assistant coaching staff. He has $5.2 million for 10 assistants as part of his contract. Officially, Mizzou has eight of 10 assistants announced. Roles will be finalized once the final two assistants are hired. Drinkwitz said he’ll conduct interviews for the last spots over the holiday break and hopes to have a full staff by Jan. 6.
Mizzou will also restructure the recruiting staff. Drinkwitz said the details will be officially announced soon as he tinkers. He’s already made one major change on the recruiting front, switching to regional recruiting compared to positional recruiting, which was how former Mizzou coach Barry Odom operated.
Drinkwitz added he also hopes to hire an athletic performance coach in the coming days.
Drinkwitz will likely keep a smaller overall staff without a ton of analysts or quality control assistants.
“I don’t believe in large organizations, everybody’s got to have a job description and we got to know exactly what they’re trying to do,” Drinkwitz said. “Large organizations create a lot of people not doing what they need to do.”
NFL allegiances
Drinkwitz, somewhat surprisingly, has never attended an NFL game. He confessed he was a “bandwagon fan” growing up, cheering for the Troy Aikman-led Dallas Cowboys. Drinkwitz also gave a nod to the “Greatest Show on Turf” St. Louis Rams.
He said, though, he has an eye on the Kansas City Chiefs and a potential trip to Arrowhead Stadium for the NFL playoffs.
“Growing up I’ve never been to an NFL game so I look forward to hopefully the Chiefs hosting a playoff game,” Drinkwitz said with a smile. “Hopefully some fans out there hears this and invites me to go.”
Positional needs
After signing 10 commits on Wednesday, Mizzou still has scholarships left to offer ahead of the Feb. 5 National Signing Day. As for positional needs, Drinkwitz said they’ll likely sign offensive linemen, defensive linemen and potentially a defensive back.
There’s also some wiggle room when it comes to grad transfers or junior-college players, though Mizzou is also looking for a “touchdown maker.”
Battle Line heating up
While the Battle Line Rivalry between Missouri and Arkansas hasn’t been as fiery, there should be more to it in coming years. Drinkwitz has connections to the area, including two years as an assistant at Arkansas State. Odom is the defensive coordinator under Hogs coach Sam Pittman, and Brad Davis also made the move from Mizzou to Arkansas.
Dominique Johnson, a three-star running back from Crowley, Texas, also flipped his commitment from Mizzou to Arkansas on signing day. That included Johnson dropping a Mizzou hat and revealing an Arkansas shirt under his jacket for the surprise reveal. Ray Curry Jr., a three-star offensive tackle from Memphis, Tennessee, also de-committed from Mizzou and signed with Arkansas.
Needless to say, after some dormant years to start the rivalry, there should be some storylines to follow when they meet at Arrowhead Stadium next year.
“Did you see signing day? Yeah, it’s gonna be a rivalry,” Drinkwitz said. “We got coaches down there that came from here. I’m from there. It’s gonna be a rivalry. We’re excited to play.”
This story was originally published December 22, 2019 at 5:00 AM.