Staff Update: Mizzou hires three from App State, one from UAB
Eliah Drinkwitz has made his first official hires at Missouri. Charlie Harbison was announced as the new Associate Head Coach on Thursday morning and Erik Link was announced as the special teams coordinator. Harbison will coach defense, but his specific role has not been announced.
Later in the afternoon, PowerMizzou learned that Drinkwitz plans to hire Casey Woods from UAB. Woods has coached tight ends for the Blazers the past three seasons. Pete Thamel of Yahoo Sports also reported that D.J. Smith will join Missouri's staff. Neither hire has officially been announced by the school.
All three of Harbison, Link and Smith were on Drinkwitz's Appalachian State staff last year. Harbison coached cornerbacks for Appalachian State. He joined Drinkwitz's staff after spending 2018 in the NFL as the cornerbacks coach with the Arizona Cardinals. Smith coached outside linebackers last season and has been with the Mountaineers for four years. Link coached special teams under Drinkwitz last year as well.
Woods worked alongside Drinkwitz as a quality control assistant at Auburn in 2010 and 2011 and as an assistant under Gus Malzahn at Arkansas State in 2012. In addition to coaching tight ends for UAB, he is the Blazers' recruiting coordinator.
Harbison has 29 years of experience, including two decades in the ACC and SEC. He has coached at Alabama, Auburn, Clemson, LSU and Mississippi State.
“Charlie brings a wealth of experience with him to the defensive side of the football, having coached at the highest levels including the SEC and the NFL,” Drinkwitz said in a statement. “He’s an outstanding man of character who knows what it means to mentor players both in football and in life.”
“I’m very excited to continue working with Coach Drink and grateful for the opportunity to join the Mizzou family,” Harbison said in the statement. “He is a great coach to work for, he’s outstanding with the x’s and o’s, and he’s even better with the staff and the athletes on a personal level. He has this air about him that makes people want to play for him and coach for him. Coach Drink has been a blessing to me and my family, and I know he’ll be a blessing for Mizzou.”
Link was announced a few hours later on Thursday afternoon. He served in the same role at App State last season.
“Erik is a man of high character with a background in teaching and coaching,” said Drinkwitz. “His special teams units are detailed and very sound, and his guys play hard. They focus on effort, execution and high energy.”
“I couldn’t be more excited to join the Mizzou family,” said Link. “I am humbled at the opportunity to work with the outstanding student-athletes, coaches and staff at the University of Missouri. My family and I are grateful to Coach Drinkwitz and look forward to working every day to attack success and to embracing the Columbia community.”
Under Link's guidance, the Mountaineers blocked seven kicks in 2019, the most in the country. They did not have a kick blocked themselves and ranked in the nation's top 30 in multiple special teams categories. Link has coached at Iowa State, Drake, Auburn and Louisiana Tech among other stops in the past 16 years.
Woods has experience in the SEC as a player, at Tennessee, and as a coach. He played wide receiver for the Volunteers from 2003-2007, then worked as a graduate assistant there in 2008. He then moved to Auburn, where he spent three seasons as a quality control assistant. He got his first opportunity as a full-time assistant coaching wide receivers at Arkansas State in 2012. Malzahn then brought him back to Auburn as the director of player personnel. He moved on to UAB in 2017 and has coached the tight ends for the Blazers each of the past three seasons.
Smith played linebackers at Appalachian State from 2007 to 2010 and was promoted from a defensive analyst to outside linebackers coach by former head coach Scott Satterfield prior to the 2018 season. Drinkwitz kept him in the same role last year. It has not yet been confirmed whether Smith will continue to coach linebackers at Missouri.
Earlier this week, Football Scoop reported that Ryan Walters, Brick Haley and David Gibbs have been offered spots on the staff as holdovers from Barry Odom's staff. It is not yet known which of those coaches will opt to stay, but all three were on the road recruiting for Missouri yesterday. Sources have indicated to PowerMizzou.com that Cornell Ford, Andy Hill, A.J. Ofodile and Austyn Carta-Samuels, at least, will not return.
Drinkwitz has a $5.2 million pool to hire his ten assistant coaches. He indicated at his introductory press conference on Tuesday that those hires would begin to leak out throughout the week. PowerMizzou.com will continue to update Tiger fans as the coaching staff comes together.