Eli Drinkwitz now has an offensive coordinator on his Mizzou staff. Kirby Moore was recently hired by the Tigers, filling the vacancy left by Bush Hamdan.
Hamdan’s title was quarterbacks coach on Drinkwitz’s staff. On Dec. 14, Hamdan was introduced as offensive coordinator at Boise State.
Saturday, Drinkwitz explained that he wanted to wait until after Mizzou’s bowl game to make a decision on staff changes such as designating an offensive coordinator. The Tigers played in the Gasparilla Bowl on Dec. 23.
“I was very adamant with our coaching staff and with everybody that I was not going to make any firm decisions until after the bowl game,” Drinkwitz told reporters. “I felt like I need to have that chance to step away from the emotion of the season and really try to figure out exactly what we needed to do moving forward.”
Drinkwitz said that turning over play-calling was about doing what’s best for the Tigers. He feels Moore can make the Tigers better.
“I ask guys all the time to embrace your role and put the team first, and at the end of the day, that’s what I needed to do as the head coach, embrace what I need to do to help our team be successful,” Drinkwitz said at his Saturday media availability. “I was adamant that I wasn’t going to (hire an offensive coordinator) unless I could find someone who could do it better than me.”
Moore arrives in Columbia after 6 seasons on staff at Fresno State.
View Comments
Moore is obviously used to having a better QB than Cook, the portal, Horn or Johnson have to provide an answer for the first problem he faces.
Don’t agree, Cook was both ready to refine his game and able as the coaching snail paced him along. Cooks feet are greatly underrated but the failure to get receivers open is way under criticized., Also underrated celebrated was Cooks small interception rate. The new OC has half a year to get the qb room (probably) including a portal free agent, improved. Time for some coaches and players to show up and put the extra time in voluntarily or find a new conference to play in. All NCAA rules considered, this miserable mess of sending Schrader at brick walls two downs per series has to get balanced.
... Drinkwitz said at his Saturday media availability. “I was adamant that I wasn’t going to (hire an offensive coordinator) unless I could find someone who could do it better than me.” ===> Please insert joke of your choice HERE <===
Classic problem for head coaches, “ I could do everything so well if days just lasted 96 hours”, just because Drink hires a good OC does not mean the equation is balanced yet. Work has to get done and college men have to want to do it and college coaches have to figure out how to get it done
I’m not convinced that a coach who averaged 30 points per game can improve fast enough to get Missouri to the top of the NCAA. This new hire has some fast improvements to make
SECOND AGO
I think Drink showed some maturity with this hire. Part of me expected him to dig his heels in and insist on calling plays, which would’ve certainly led to his firing next year. He may still be fired but at least we have some hope during the off-season.
8 wins is the minimum next year, and we darn-well better beat K-State.
He took some giant steps recently. Now can he run a program for staff and roster 365 days. Just a reminder when everybody at Missouri works together smartly you get Missouri ahead of Georgia with late in the 4th quarter.
Drinkwitz has been slow playing his hire since day 1. He's only now getting an OC because he's been forced to. He changed out of Wilks because he was forced to. Everyone else saw the problems, and you know what Drink did too. But he also knows the longer you drag out a problem before you address it, the longer the play is. We never got to see how good Hamdan was as an OC because we only saw 3 games roughly. And in the bowl game, it was painfully obvious Drinkwitz was calling the plays. Drink made the comment he wasn't going to hire an OC who wasn't better than him. Was there no janitor in the building that ever struck a conversation up with him?
I gotta say, I love this decision by Drink. I really don't like the teams that have 1 coach try to run too many things. I think Drink has a very smart offensive mindset but I feel his greatest strength is more in team building and functioning as a coach and defacto GM of sorts. He clearly made a great call with coach Baker as DC. I am looking forward to if he can catch lightning again on OC. That, plus the recruiting gains Mizzou is currently making is the way forward for this unit. Hopefully it works and Mizzou can get off of the coaching merry-go-round a lot of schools get stuck on; and then start building for the future.
I've been saying for a while, Mizzou needs to look at itself as the "new money" of the SEC. Not a prestigious brand (at the moment), not a monstrous fanbase (at the moment), but a step-by-step day-by-day builder. Mizzou's intermediate goal should be to get to top 25 perennially in recruiting and college poll. I honestly don't think Mizzou is as far from that as some people feel.
Biggest advantage; Mizzou has Stl, KC, Springfield to recruit from (they need to become the exclusive destination for players from these areas). Also much of southern Illinois, parts of Arkansas, etc. Mizzou needs to become a top 25 team to start gaining more fans and also to ensure it has a place should a mega-conference form. Or it could risk becoming something like an Iowa State or Oklahoma State... good programs, irrelevant nationally... and likely to never join the megaconference.
Also, it's time for a new stadium MU. Faurot is weaksauce for a "new money" school. Just saying. Miami is talking about building an NFL grade stadium. This is the new college football whether people like it or not. Back to the original point, a good GM-style coach with good coaching staff is step one. I think we've got that now.