‘It’s fun, it’s a challenge’: Drinkwitz’s Mizzou assistants ready for signing day
For the Missouri Tigers’ assistant football coaching staff, it’s been a whirlwind several weeks in anticipation of National Signing Day on Wednesday.
When the Tigers hired Eliah Drinkwitz as head coach, his first priority was the early signing period, which ran from Dec. 18-20. While the Tigers signed 10 recruits, all had originally committed to play for former coach Barry Odom.
As Drinkwitz fills the remaining spots in his Class of 2020, those players will be his guys, the ones committing to what the Tigers are branding as #NewZou. That’s also where his 10-person staff comes in, hitting the road in Missouri and around the country in search of recruits.
Tight ends coach and recruiting coordinator Casey Woods said the Tigers anticipate seven to nine players signing this week.
Drinkwitz’s assistant coaching staff met with reporters for the first time Tuesday in Memorial Stadium, unveiling what the past month has been like. For the seven new coaches, they’ve yet to fully acclimate to Columbia as they’ve been on the road often.
“I don’t think there’s another sales job on earth, selling an 18-year-old boy to come play football,” Woods said. “But it’s fun, it’s a challenge, just like anything. We got a great recruiting support staff here.”
The Tigers have earned commitments from seven players this winter: one graduate transfer, one junior college prospect and five high school seniors.
Wide receiver Damon Hazelton, an all-ACC graduate transfer from Virginia Tech, is projected to be a starter next season if he signs. Defensive lineman Ben Key, a junior college prospect from East Los Angeles College who’ll become the first Australian to play for the Tigers, shores up a position of need. He has already enrolled at Mizzou.
The five unsigned high school pledges are from different areas of the South.
Name | Stars and position | Hometown |
Dylan Spencer | 3-star offensive lineman | Madison, Mississippi |
Kris Abrams-Draine | 3-star wide receiver | Spanish Fort, Alabama |
Curtis Luper* | 3-star wide receiver | North Richland Hills, Texas |
Johnny Walker | 3-star linebacker | Tampa, Florida |
Montra Edwards | 3-star defensive lineman | Lexington, Mississippi |
*son of Mizzou running backs coach Curtis Luper
As Drinkwitz said at his introductory news conference, his staff plans to heavily recruit the state of Missouri. It’s why many assistants have made the two-hour trek across I-70 to St. Louis, the home of four Tigers who signed in December.
But Woods said it’s not just St. Louis, but also Kansas City that’s a major recruiting ground going forward.
“It’s gotta be the No. 1 priority,” Woods said. “We’ve gotta recruit Missouri better than it’s ever been recruited before. I think we’ve got a good plan in place to do that. We’re gonna have all 10 coaches in the state somewhere. We are really excited about that opportunity.”
Because so much of the assistants’ time has been focused on recruiting, they’ve barely talked schemes or actual football, said Bush Hamdan, quarterbacks and wide receiver coach. With spring football starting next month, they’re bound to tackle how Drinkwitz allocates duties.
While Drinkwitz has said he plans to be hands-on with the quarterbacks, Hamdan’s role also has him heavily involved with them. They have yet to see how that works out.
“We’re itching at the bit to do that,” Hamdan said. “But in any situation, when you come in with a new team, so much of it is developing that trust early on with the players. The rest kind of follows. I think that’s been our focus.”
As recruiting settles down, it means the coaches will interact with their players more in the coming weeks. Woods said he’ll be up and early at 6 a.m. Tuesday to “get our hands dirty,” then eventually dinner with the tight ends.
Connecting with the current players has always been step one, running backs coach Curtis Luper said. While attrition and transfers will likely affect the roster in the next few months, Luper said they must continue developing those relationships.
“Recruiting our current roster is more important than recruiting the 2020 class,” Luper said. “So we started that process the minute we stepped on campus.”