Steve Wilks leaving Mizzou to return to the NFL
Steve Wilks' return to college football lasted exactly one season.
The Carolina Panthers announced Wednesday morning that Wilks had been hired by Matt Rhule as the team's secondary coach and passing game coordinator. Wilks, a Charlotte native, spent six years in Carolina as a defensive backs coach and defensive coordinator earlier in his career.
Eli Drinkwitz hired Wilks, an Appalachian State alum, to replace Ryan Walters as Mizzou's DC prior to the 2021 season. The results were mixed at best.
The Tigers spent much of the season with one of the worst defenses in FBS football. By the end of the year, Missouri was 106th in total defense, 124th against the run, 30th against the pass and 113th in points allowed. There are 130 FBS teams.
After spending his first ten seasons in coaching at the college level, Wilks had been in the NFL since 2006 with four different teams. He was the Arizona Cardinals' head coach in 2018 and the Cleveland Browns' defensive coordinator in 2019. He was out of coaching in 2020 before Drinkwitz hired him at Mizzou. Wilks specifically mentioned wanting a job with "longevity" when he spoke to the media for the first time.
"When you look at the last couple of years, you're going back to Arizona, one and done," Wilks said in January of 2021. "You felt like you had a great situation in Cleveland, a lot of talent there, and all of a sudden, again, one and done. So, I didn't really want to put my family in that situation again, so I decided to take a year off and really assess things."
It turns out this, too, was a one and done stop for Wilks. He had one year remaining on his contract at Missouri but is headed back to the pro ranks.
Attention immediately turns to who Drinkwitz will hire to replace him. The most likely candidate is on staff. Last month, Drinkwitz named Blake Baker the safeties coach. Baker has previously been a defensive coordinator at Louisiana Tech and Miami.
“I thought that was an opportunity to add somebody who has coordinating experience at the collegiate level," Drinkwitz said last week. "(Someone) who has seen a lot of different things, been in this SEC, been in the ACC, can be a sounding board for Steve and continue to help us improve and be somebody who can really be a No. 2 in that room.”
Baker may now very well be the No. 1. Regardless, the Tigers have a vacancy on the defensive coaching staff now. Drinkwitz will fill that, marking the seventh hire he's made on the defensive side of the ball alone in a little more than two years.
Stay tuned for PowerMizzou.com for more as this story develops.
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