12d ago football Edit

Mizzou head coaches react to Laird Veatch hiring

Drew King • PowerMizzou

Basketball Writer

Mizzou head wrestling coach Brian Smith said a few curators reached out to him during the school’s search for a new Director of Athletics to see if he had any thoughts on what they should be looking for. Smith had one criterion above all.

“I want it to be my last AD,” Smith said. “I want somebody that wants to be here.”

The Tigers’ search committee may have found its man in Laird Veatch, who was formally introduced as the new head of the black and gold’s athletic department inside Stephens Indoor Facility on Friday. Veatch, who spent five years at Mizzou from 1997-2002, the last three as assistant athletic director for development, as well as another four years from ‘03-’06 as general manager of Mizzou Sports Properties, said his return to the school was a “dream come true.”

“To be clear: there is no transfer portal for the Veatch family,” Veatch said. “We are committed. I don't want any questions about that from here on out.”

Smith said that he was fired up when he got the news of Veatch’s hiring.

“I mean, it's important because, you know, we don't want to be a stepping stone,” Smith said. “You know, I want to be at Missouri. I'm starting my 27th year and he's starting now, technically, like his 11th to be a part of this. So just hearing him say that, I know he means that. Talking with his daughters today, how excited they are and just to be back in Columbia where they were born, this is a special day for Mizzou that we have great leadership coming in. I love that. It's gonna help me win more.”

MU’s other coaches expressed a similar sentiment. During the press conference, Veatch brought up former Tigers head football coach Gary Pinkel, telling those in attendance that he considers Pinkel a legend at Missouri because he won and because he stayed.

It was a message that resonated with Mizzou’s current head football coach, Eli Drinkwitz, who said he hasn’t been shy about his desire to build a championship program at MU. Drinkwitz said he didn’t interact much with the candidates during the search, trusting the committee to make the right decision, but that he’s had several phone calls with Veatch since his hiring and feels confident about the direction that the school is heading in.

“He's got great experience in this profession,” Drinkwitz said. “I think he's got great experience in being a student-athlete, being an administrator, and he's got a vision for what he wants to accomplish here. And I look forward to working together with him. Obviously, we've got a bold dream and a big vision here and I look forward to partnering with him and making that dream come to reality.”

A big part of Veatch’s new job will be to help keep up Mizzou’s efforts to stay competitive when it comes to name, image and likeness finances. Head men’s basketball coach Dennis Gates acknowledged that the business model of college sports is constantly changing and that it’s important to have a leader to guide the school’s programs through that.

Gates, who said he was impressed by the professional tree that Veatch comes from, previously working for former Missouri ADs Joe Castiglione and Mike Alden, believes Veatch’s expertise in the area will be a big benefit.

“He wants to win the right way, he wants to do it here at Mizzou, and the most important thing is that connection of doing it all together,” Gates said. “There's not one person that's not important in this journey. He's an external guy, an external AD, that is into fundraising, which means he's into relationships. Before you can fundraise, you have to friend-raise. And he has done a tremendous job in building relationships with people in this community and every step of his path and his career.”

All three coaches expressed excitement about working with Veatch to continue the momentum that MU’s gained in recent years. Drinkwitz noted that everybody involved, himself included, have to back up their words with their actions.

Veatch now gets the chance to prove he’s the right man for the job in a place he’s long wanted to return to.

“I do think this is a critical time in Mizzou Athletics history,” Drinkwitz said. “I think it's a critical time just because of the announcement that we had with the North End Zone project, NIL and the ever-changing landscape of of college athletics. And so for us to get somebody with a wealth of experience, somebody who wants to be here, somebody who has ties to the University of Missouri, who you can tell has a deep passion and love for the university, I think is the right person at the right time. And I look forward to partnering with him and learning from him and gaining some perspective on what it means to be a Tiger from him.”