BenFred

Posted on: December 11, 2019 at 13:04:20 CT

Q: How surprised are you that Missouri hired a football coach with just one year of head coaching experience?

A: I'm less surprised by the hire than the salary. Drinkwitz was a popular and rising name in the profession. But $4 million per season is substantial for such a short track record as a head coach. Four million dollars per season is just a little less than Lane Kiffin is making, more or less, at Ole Miss. Drinkwitz is a name football minds like a lot. He knows offense. No doubt there. However, his one season as a head coach he won with players he had not recruited. There's just a lot of unknown, and that's a lot of money. And then look at the buyout. Mizzou made a major commitment here. I think Mizzou had to pay more because of the Arkansas opening — Drinkwitz was also tied to that job — and because of the instability that showed when Sterk had his initial list of names rejected by the curators. Mizzou is attempting to do a bit of damage control on that, and I don't blame it. I'm also not buying it. Drinkwitz was not on the initial list the curators kicked back. So, he was not the first choice. I'm sure he had questions about the friction between the curators and Sterk, and I'm sure $4 million and a sign of support by the curators — some went to see him — helped ease his mind. Drinkwitz probably won't sell a ton of season tickets because of his press conference, but he could be a great hire. He also could be in over his head. Impossible to know with just one year of head coaching another coach's players at App State under his belt.

Q: It's water under the bridge now, but is there any chance those initial three names Mizzou AD Jim Sterk presented to the curators before Drinkwitz — Anderson, Holtz, Monken — were just safety valves if he could not get Drinkwitz?

A: No. My understanding is that any attempt to say that was not Sterk's first list is just spin after the fact. Those were his names. The curators pushed back. The response led Sterk and the curators to Drinkwitz. Comments made during the press conference in CoMo supported that. Anyone who is saying this was Mizzou's first choice all along was not being truthful. The curators are already trying to downplay the friction between Sterk and their board. It might be settled now, but there was friction. For sure. Nothing turns the page like success. Drinkwitz has a chance to turn the page. Some will remember that the basketball coaching search that led to former Tigers basketball coach Mike Anderson was a disaster. That was a really good hire that had a high level of success. Win, and it all fades away.

Q: If Drinkwitz gets $4 million per year at Mizzou, and Kiffin gets just slightly more at Ole Miss, why not hire Kiffin at Mizzou? And would $4 million not have landed Boise State's Bryan Harsin?

A: To get Kiffin, if he would have come, the Tigers would have had to show interest. My understanding is Sterk wanted nothing to do with red-flag options like Kiffin. I found it interesting that the AD who just called the NCAA broken seemed to steer so widely around any candidates with some NCAA scuffs on their record. The feeling among ADs was that Harsin would not talk to a school that was not offering $5 million or more per season. That doesn't mean he would have accepted $5 million per season at Mizzou