The path from Odom to Drinkwitz for Missouri
On Saturday, Nov. 30, Jim Sterk fired Barry Odom as the head football coach at Missouri. Ten days later, Sterk sat in the Show-Me Room in Mizzou's new South End Zone complex with Eliah Drinkwitz, his new coach, plucked from Appalachian State.
The result seemed to please the coach, his new boss, the administration and the donors and fans in attendance. Even if the process wasn't exactly as smooth as it could have been.
"We had some disagreements," Curator Darryl Chatman said. "But I don’t see any problem with that. We are passionate about this University. We want the best and I feel like we got the best."
Sterk said he had an initial list of about 30 candidates. Sterk and other athletic department employees spent Sunday through Tuesday in or near Atlanta interviewing candidates. Throughout the week, Missouri pared that list down. On Wednesday evening, Sterk brought three names back to select members of the administration and donors. Those names, it was reported by PowerMizzou.com and others, were Blake Anderson, Jeff Monken and Skip Holtz.
"I know the media got a hold of some stuff, but I’m not gonna confirm or deny any of that," Chatman said on Tuesday. "I think the process was good because we got a great candidate here, a great person."
"I was supported by the board," Sterk said when asked about the process. "I took input from alumni, the players, it was great last week I got to meet with them and really hear who they wanted to have. Took input from the board and then went out and selected the right guy."
To that point, though, Drinkwitz hadn't heard from anyone at Missouri.
"When the job opened there was a lot of intrigue for me," Drinkwitz said. "I have family that lives close, I have a brother that lives in the state. There was a natural, okay, that’s the SEC, that’s an intriguing job. Didn’t hear from anybody, so focused on the task at hand."
The task at hand was winning the Sun Belt Championship game, which Drinkwitz and Appalachian State did on Saturday, 45-38 over Louisiana. After the game, Drinkwitz celebrated with his team and then received word that Missouri officials were in Wilkesboro, NC, about a 40-minute drive from App State's campus in Boone. But first, Drinkwitz had an obligation. His daughter, one of his four, was performing in the Nutcracker at her school at 7 o'clock. Drinkwitz watched the play, notified ASU athletic director Doug Gillin of his intentions, and drove to meet Mizzou's brass in a Hampton Inn in Wilkesboro.
Sterk, President Mun Choi, Chancellor Alexander Cartwright, Curator Jeff Layman and Deputy Athletic Director Nick Joos were at the meeting. Drinkwitz noted the all-hands-on-deck approach and particularly singled out Choi for his determination in landing the coach.
Missouri left the meeting feeling good, but not positive.
"We felt, as he did, this is the right fit for him and I felt he was the right fit for us and he brought a lot of intangibles to Mizzou," Sterk said. "The folks that met with him, the Chancellor, the President, also were excited."
"I thought we were there." Cartwright said. "Of course, then it’s always negotiation."
Missouri spent two more hours on the phone with Drinkwitz's representation after returning to Columbia around midnight on Saturday. They resumed negotiations before the sun rose on Sunday morning.
Throughout the day on Sunday, reports surfaced that Drinkwitz had offers from both Missouri and Arkansas. No one mentioned the other offer on Tuesday, other than to say the market for coaches is competitive. The deal was finalized at 3:42 Central time on Sunday. News broke at 5:58 p.m. with a tweet from Chris Low of ESPN.
"Whenever all the people started breaking the story, I guess they were at my house," Drinkwitz said. "Some time Sunday it was probably this was what’s going to end up happening."
By the time the deal was done, a plane was in the air carrying Sterk and Curators Chatman, Layman and David Steelman to North Carolina to reinforce their commitment to Drinkwitz.
"Number one, we have a commitment to excellence. And if we’re going to say that, if we’re going to talk the talk, we’ve got to walk the walk," Chatman said. "We’re gonna go all out. I want the people, our fans, the citizens of this state to know that. You have a Board of Curators, you have an administration, we’re all on the same page about a commitment to excellence. We may have some bumps in the road, but we’re going to get there. "
The deal was officially hammered out over the next few hours: Six years, $24 million with another potential $850,000 per year in bonuses. It was approved unanimously by the Board of Curators in an 8 a.m. meeting Tuesday morning.
"I felt comfortable I was taking the job when they voted on me on the Board of Curators this morning," Drinkwitz said.
Two-and-a-half hours later, Drinkwitz was at the podium with Sterk, being introduced to the Missouri faithful as Odom's replacement.
Regardless of the bumps along the way, Missouri presented a united front on Tuesday. Every comment praised Sterk. Sterk praised the board. President Choi noted that "coffee is for closers and Jim Sterk is going to have a lifetime supply of Lakota." For all the noise about the process, Mizzou made sure Tuesday was only about the result.
"We ended up with the best coach for us," Cartwright said. "This is a super hire for us. We always talk about what we’re thinking about and who we’re looking at. We always want input. But I think we actually ended up where we should end up."