How Mizzou’s fared on road under Drinkwitz + how he compares with others in SEC

There’s no need to sugarcoat it: The Missouri Tigers, like many other college football programs, are worse on the road than they are at home. Much worse, in fact.

In four-plus seasons under coach Eli Drinkwitz, the Tigers are 35-23, good for a .603 winning percentage. But they own just a 7-14 record, or markedly lower .333 winning percentage, on the road across that same time span.

It’s no secret that playing in the Southeastern Conference is a gantlet, and every time a seemingly invincible top-10 team loses a conference road test, the truth behind the “no easy wins in the SEC” mantra is further cemented.

But how much of Drinkwitz’s road woes can be attributed to the difficulty of SEC travel? To answer that, it’s time to dig into the records of his contemporaries and where he stands amongst the group.

Drinkwitz, hired ahead of the 2020 season, finds himself tied with Arkansas’ Sam Pittman and Ole Miss’ Lane Kiffin as the third-longest tenured coach in the conference at nearly five years. Only Kentucky coach Mark Stoops (hired in 2013) and Georgia coach Kirby Smart (2016) have spent more time with their respective teams.

Stoops, the seventh-longest tenured coach in college football, has served as a model of consistency, winning at least five games in 10 of 12 seasons. His numbers aren’t stellar, though — he has an overall record of 78-71 (.523 winning percentage).

Although it took Stoops until his third season with Kentucky to pick up his first road win, he’s 20-34 on the road (.370) across 12 seasons with the program. He has had an over-.500 road record in just four seasons, but he still owns a marginally better mark away from home vs. overall than Drinkwitz.

Smart, meanwhile, represents a model of success in the SEC. Since joining the Bulldogs in 2016, Smart is 101-18 overall and 32-6 on the road; only once in his nine-year tenure has he lost multiple road games in a season — this year.

Smart’s .842 road winning percentage remains the gold standard for fellow SEC coaches, and it’ll likely stay that way until he retires.

Kiffin and Pittman have steered their programs in very different directions since joining the SEC coaching tree alongside Drinkwitz.

Ole Miss is the second SEC coaching gig for Kiffin, who also spent one season at Tennessee (2009). The Rebels are 42-17 overall under Kiffin, and their 13-9 road record with him is good for a winning percentage of .591.

Pittman, however, has struggled with the Razorbacks (the exception: a 9-4 campaign in 2023). In his fifth season at Arkansas, Pittman possesses a 28-29 record, and his 7-13 mark on the road is only one loss from matching what Drinkwitz has achieved at Missouri.

Of note, though: Eight of Pittman’s 13 road losses have come against ranked opponents, compared to just six for Drinkwitz.

Three current SEC head coaches were hired in the 2021 cycle — Tennessee’s Josh Heupel, Vanderbilt’s Clark Lea and South Carolina’s Shane Beamer.

Heupel boasts a 35-13 record with the Vols, but eight of those 13 losses came on the road. His 7-8 road record gives him a .467 winning percentage outside of Knoxville, Tennessee.

His in-state conference mate, Lea, has not enjoyed the same success. Lea has a 15-31 record, including a pair of 2-10 seasons. Lea possesses a .326 winning percentage overall as well as a .286 mark on the road, both of which are worse than Drinkwitz’s marks thus far at MU.

Missouri’s upcoming opponent — Beamer-led South Carolina — has posted a 26-21 record during its coach’s tenure, putting the Gamecocks at a .553 winning percentage. On the road, South Carolina owns a decidedly worse mark at 7-11 with a .388 winning percentage.

A pair of coaches — LSU’s Brian Kelly and Florida’s Billy Napier — were hired in 2022.

Kelly, who has had immediate success with the Tigers, owns a 26-10 record midway through his third season, and LSU’s 7-4 road record over that time span translates to a .636 winning percentage.

Napier is 15-19 overall and just 3-9 on the road. His .250 road winning percentage ranks as the worst mark among SEC coaches who have spent multiple years at the helm of their respective programs.

Auburn coach Hugh Freeze, hired in 2023, is the lone multiyear SEC coach who owns a better road winning percentage (.500) than overall winning percentage (.409). He is 9-13 overall with a 4-4 record away from home.

First-year SEC head coaches Mike Elko (Texas A&M), Jeff Lebby (Mississippi State) and Kalen DeBoer (Alabama) hardly have enough of a sample size, although Lebby and DeBoer have struggled on the road this season.

Texas’ Steve Sarkisian and Oklahoma’s Brent Venables both joined the SEC with their teams this past offseason. Neither has definitive patterns on the road yet, but early results show that Venables may fare worse than Sarkisian away from home.

So, where does Drinkwitz stack up?

Well, of the 11 SEC coaches who have spent more than one season in the conference, Drinkwitz’s .333 road winning percentage ranks ninth.

Of that group, only Vanderbilt and Florida possess worse road records under their current coaches than Mizzou. The Tigers remain in the same neighborhood as South Carolina, Kentucky and Arkansas but find themselves well behind teams like Georgia and LSU.

So, while it is difficult to play on the road in the SEC, Drinkwitz has struggled much more on the road than the vast majority of the conference’s other coaches.

Even with Drinkwitz’s road troubles, though, the fifth-year Mizzou coach has yet to lose at South Carolina. He toppled the Gamecocks 20-15 at Williams-Brice Stadium as a coach at Appalachian State in 2019, and followed that up with Mizzou wins there in 2020 (17-10) and 2022 (23-10).

The Tigers’ 2022 victory also represents just one of two ranked road wins of the Drinkwitz era at Mizzou.

So, as the Tigers search for their sixth consecutive Mayor’s Cup win, it’s fair to question whether Mizzou’s road trend against South Carolina will hold, or if Drinkwitz’s road troubles will get the best of MU again.

Fans will find out at 3:15 p.m. Saturday (Central Time) at Williams-Brice Stadium in Columbia, South Carolina.

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