Drinkwitz: No surprises on opening day of signing period

After eight days on the job, Eliah Drinkwitz welcomed his first recruiting class to Mizzou on Wednesday. Or at least part of it.

The Tigers signed ten players on Wednesday. All ten were holdovers from the commitment list before Barry Odom was fired.

“What we were trying to do was ensure that the spots that we knew were necessary to rebuild those relationships and make a connection as quickly as possible to make sure that they were committed,” Drinkwitz said in a small gathering with local reporters on Wednesday afternoon.

The new coach said it is “nearly impossible” to form new relationships with players that you don’t have a prior connection to in a week. He said he did not considering poaching the commitment list he had assembled at Appalachian State. So the first signing day was far more about protecting what had been assembled before he got here than it was about adding anything to it.

“Tuesday night after my press conference, myself and the recruiting department stayed up here until whenever we got it done and evaluated everybody that was committed to Mizzou or everybody we were still actively recruiting and see if we thought it was the right fit and how we thought they might fit into our schemes moving forward,” Drinkwitz said.

The staff spent the next three days on the road recruiting, visiting as many of those committed prospects as possible. They then hosted 13 official visitors on campus last weekend. That group included all ten players that signed with the Tigers on Wednesday. Recruiting coordinator Jake Breske remained with the program and even went on the road. Assistants Brick Haley, Ryan Walters and David Gibbs were also part of that continuing effort. Walters and Haley are officially staying on and it sounds like Gibbs is likely to do the same.

“Whatever they did in the past was what they did in the past is the past,” Drinkwitz said. “What I value is the ability to keep continuity within the scheme, because every time you start a new learning process, you take away the ability to play fast for a player.

“It wasn’t whether they’re in the building or not in the building, it was the continuity that we could keep within the framework of the scheme.”

They also knew more about the current commitment list than Drinkwitz did given that they’ve been on Missouri’s staff as the Tigers were recruiting all of those players. Not only was identifying the players that were being prioritized to keep part of the process, but so was identifying those that Drinkwitz wasn’t quite ready to commit to.

“Anything we were unsure about, let’s not rush and take the wrong person or the wrong fit,” he said. “We should be patient and then when the whole staff is here then we’ll finalize that in the second signing period which is the purpose of having both these signing period.”

Running back Dominique Johnson pulled a signing day switch and Inked with Arkansas. Defensive lineman Kevon Billingsley remained committed to Missouri, but has not signed to this point. Defensive linemen Robert Wooten and Jalen Logan-Redding and offensive lineman Ray Curry ended up signing elsewhere. Whether that was the player’s choice or Missouri’s isn’t necessarily known, but none of what unfolded on Wednesday came as a surprise to Drinkwitz.

“There really wasn’t any surprises one way or the other,” the coach said. “There wasn’t any highs and lows. With it being eight days, really the next signing period for me is going to be really where we gotta hit the mark. Today was kind of a free throw.”

And now the heavy lifting begins. PowerMizzou.com will take a look at what the Tigers will try to do moving forward to February later today.