Commute: All about Eli

With the Tigers coach inking a new deal, the expectations are about to raised.

First, the links from yesterday, staring with the news from Sammy: “Despite being rumored to be a candidate at multiple job openings like Penn State, Florida, and LSU, Missouri was able to make a commitment with Eli Drinkwitz — making him one of the highest paid coaches in all of college football.“

Then Josh had his own take on the extension: “Mizzou Football has always been built on the unseen advantages of flyover country football. Coaching up young players with raw athleticism and/or unceasing supplies of grit; building specific groups of players over years and years of development and carefully timed recruiting wins; leaping at scheduling snafus or injury crises with the precision of a hungry… uhm… Tiger. Identifying and exploiting the quirks of college football’s architecture was Gary Pinkel’s gift and a blueprint for succeeding into the future. Drinkwitz, to his credit, both followed Pinkel’s example and found ways to make it a more sustainable model of success.”

I agree with Josh in that Drinkwitz fits well at Missouri, and Missouri is better for him having been the coach. But I also think sometimes you should be careful what you wish for.

Drinkwitz has done a great job building the alignment he’s talked about in press conferences. He’s got alignment with the University, the Curators, and the community. The boosters appear to have given him more than I expected they would. And now he’s gotten the money to be a top 10 paid coach, and his staff pool consistent with the top four in the league.

I think it’s great that Mizzou is investing, and they’re investing in the guy they believe can do it for them.

But top four money in the SEC, in my opinion, should result in top four finishes. This is how it works at other schools. It’s what got Brian Kelly fired midseason in Baton Rouge after winning 29 games in his first three years. His staff was top four in the league, and he wasn’t producing top 4 results in the one season before this one and started the next 5-3.

The results in Florida were similar, and the Gators weren’t even paying their coach top four money.

I think that’s why it makes sense for Drinkwitz to stick with Missouri. The alignment he’s built will give him a longer leash. And a longer leash might be needed considering the schedule is about to pick up as the SEC moves to a 9 game league schedule.

Being a head football coach can be unforgiving, in particular in the SEC where more than half the league feels as though the College Football Playoff is their birthright. Missouri fans aren’t in that group, I think the majority of the fan base is pretty practical about the situation. But then again Missouri has never really invested in football, and it’s football coach, the way they have with Drinkwitz.

At some point the expectations are going to shift. And for Drink, he’s been really good as the head coach here. This raise, and the additional investment isn’t asking him to be merely good. Let’s hope he’s ready to be great.

Yesterday was all about Drinkwitz and his extension, but we did publish like a bunch of stories before the news even broke.

• True’s What’s the Trend for Week 13 included a defensive note:

This isn’t the first time this season that the defense — refusing to go down — has kept Missouri in the game for much longer than it probably should’ve been in there (with how the offense was playing), and Oklahoma was no different.

Why does it always seem like an offensive head coach who can hire the right defensive coordinator and just lets them cook ends up with an elite defense? The key word there being the ‘right’ coordinator, I do think it goes both ways too. With a defensive coach hiring the right O-Coordinator. Hiring a new head coach can be a mixed bag, so I do think it’s important that Mizzou has upped Drink’s coordinator pool to keep Batoon happy.

• Ahmad Hardy is one of three finalists for the Doak Award, and he’s got one last game to prove his worthiness:

Three Mizzou running backs — Hardy alongside Tyler Badie in 2021 and Cody Schrader in 2023 — have made it to the final round of the selection process in the last five years. Both of Hardy’s predecessors fell short, and no MU running back has won the award that dates back to 1990.

Hardy enters the regular season’s final week ahead of his two competitors in rushing yards with 1,403, a total that ranks second in the nation. Both Lacy and Love have the edge in rushing touchdowns, with 19 and 17 compared to Hardy’s 15, and Love’s 274 receiving yards this season put him ahead in total yardage.

It would be a great honor, he’s got some good competition though with Jeremiyah Love and Kewan Lacy. All three with deep connections to Missouri!

• Plus Nathan’s Best Bets hit the dinner table just in time, he says take the Tigers:

The bottom line here is Arkansas almost exclusively loses games and they do so almost exclusively by three points. So knowing those two facts, picking anything but Mizzou to win by at least three points would be dumb. Arkansas’s defense is really bad and the Mizzou offense is good at one thing: running the ball like crazy against bad defenses. Arkansas may finally decide to quit as well, so that’s on the table. All that stewed together makes me think the Tigers will cover here.

I don’t gamble, but if I did, I would never bet for or against a team I cheered for. I get worked up enough without money on the line.

• BOWL PROJECTIONS seem to point to Missouri and the Duke’s Mayo Bowl being a match:

If Mizzou can beat Arkansas in their regular season finale on Saturday and win their bowl game, there’s still a chance that Missouri can finish the year at the backend of the Top 25. That’s pretty much what’s left to play for at this point, so let’s check in on the latest bowl projections for the Tigers entering the final week of the regular season. All projections still have Missouri landing in an SEC Pool of Six bowl.

I wouldn’t mind seeing ol’ Eli doused with a big vat of Mayonnaise.

• The last link of the day comes via BASEBALL, yes I’m purposefully not including the K and the T because it’s about the diamond sport, Henry reported the Tiger signings:

The class includes 11 high school signees and three JUCO transfers, with half of the prospects from the Tigers’ local state.

“I’m very excited about this group of talented young men,” Jackson said. “Not only are they quality players, but they are quality individuals that truly embody our program’s core values and competitive mindset. With each class, we continue to build a roster that will allow us to be competitive in the best conference in the country, now and for years to come.”

I really hope Kerrick is able to right the ship, even a little bit.

Rock M Radio: BTBS previews Arkansas

The boys obviously recorded before the Drink news was finalized, but they still had some takes.

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