Candidate profile: Eliah Drinkwitz
After firing Barry Odom following four seasons in Columbia, Missouri is looking for a new head football coach. Throughout the process we have brought you a more in-depth look at candidates by profiling them during the search.
Current position: Appalachian State head coach
Age: 36
Head coaching experience: One year
Salary: $750,000
Buyout: $1.7 million
For the first few days of Missouri's coaching search, there was a wide net of speculation cast on candidates. It eventually centered on Blake Anderson, Jeff Monken and Skip Holtz. Those three names were presented to members of Mizzou's administration and met with skepticism. At that point, reset was hit on the search and Jim Sterk hit the road again.
In that process, Appalachian State's Eliah Drinkwitz has emerged as a potential target for Missouri's opening. Drinkwitz has been the App State head coach for just one season, but it was a whale of a season. The Mountaineers went 12-1, won the Sun Belt title and are ranked 21st in the country with the final College Football Playoff rankings set to be released today. That season included wins at both North Carolina and South Carolina.
Drinkwitz began his coaching career as a 22-year old assistant at Alma High School in Arkansas. He then spent four years at Springdale High School before getting his break into college football as a quality control assistant at Auburn under Gene Chizik.
After his stint at Auburn, Drinkwitz became a full time assistant for the first time at Arkansas State under Gus Malzahn. When Malzahn got the Auburn job, Drinkwitz stayed on staff under his successor Bryan Harsin and then followed Harsin to Boise State. He spent 2014 as the wide receivers coach, then was the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach the following year.
In 2016, Drinkwitz was hired as the offensive coordinator at North Carolina State by Dave Doeren. In three years in Raleigh, Drinkwitz was part of a staff that went 25-14 and played in three consecutive bowl games. The Wolfpack offense improved every year he was there, from 27 points per game to 32 to 33.8. The attack was led by three-year starting quarterback Ryan Finley.
Following the 2018 season, Drinkwitz was named the head coach at Appalachian State, succeeding Scott Satterfield, who left for Louisville. Coincidence or not, the Wolfpack went from 9-4 to 4-8 and scored 11 fewer points per game, though Finley was gone as well. The Mountaineers, meanwhile, won 12 games for the first time in school history.
Drinkwitz has been widely viewed as one of the up-and-comers in college football. PowerMizzou.com was told that he was the runner-up to Lane Kiffin for the Ole Miss job that Kiffin got on Saturday. He is viewed as one of the brightest young offensive minds in college football.
The skeptics with Drinkwitz will point to the fact that he has only been a head coach for one year and that he did not build Appalachian State's program. That was done by Satterfield, who went 37-14 in four seasons before getting the Louisville job.
Drinkwitz has worked at every level of college football in a variety of roles. He is green as far as head coaching experience goes, but has been around successful programs. While there is some unknown and risk around the hire, there could also be a significant upside.
The athletic director at Appalachian State is Doug Gillen, who worked at Mizzou under Mike Alden. Perhaps ironically, one of the coaches quoted on Drinkwitz's bio page on the App State website is the coach he could potentially be replacing, Barry Odom:
"I've gotten to know Eliah over the past few years and am so impressed by his vision, work ethic and ability to relate to all. His abilities show through in the ways his team plays. He sees the big picture and will put his kids in a position to be successful in every area of their lives."